50th All Japan Karate Championships - The Prime Minister's Cup |
| The JKA celebrates the 50th edition of the All Japan Karate Championships on |
| the 7th of July 2007 at the Budokan in Tokyo. The Golden Jubilee event of the |
| World's first Karate Tournament is truly a monument to the late Masatoshi |
| Nakayama Sensei Chief Instructor of the JKA who held the first ever karate |
| tournament in Japan in the year 1957. In 2007, the JKA made the formal |
| announcement at the spring Camp that the Championship would be called |
| the Prime Minister Cup and the Junior championship would be called |
| the Sciene and Education Minister's Cup |
JKA France Camp and Junior Championship |
| JKA France is organizing the Sensei's Trophy, International Children's & Junior |
| Karate-do Championship on the 3rd and 4th November 2007 at the Paul Olombel |
| Sports Hall, 52, Le Touquet France, Members interested in participating in the |
| above may contact Sensei Ratna for details. The last date of entry is |
| 15th September 2007. There will also be a Karate Camp conducted by the |
| France JKA prior to the Championship, which will have Senseis, Sawada, Ohta |
| & Lautier teaching |
Spring
- 2007 International Master's Camp |
| The
JKA Hombu resonated with the cries of over 300 participants of whom nearly |
| 120 were from overseas, including Sensei Anand Ratna the Technical Director of |
| JKA India. The Camp spread
over 4 days was excellent in many ways. For Sensei, |
| it was reunion time as this year, many of Sensei's
Sempais were present including. |
| Yuichi Sato, the Chief Instructor of Monaco Nishitoba Junichiro, Kietsu Sasaki |
| and Katano from Akita Ken. Along with Sensei,
other Chief Instructors from around |
| the globe included Lautier
from France, Pacheco from Portugal, Larsen from |
| Norway, Stadt
from Czech, Hedlund from Sweden, Bura from Denmark, Jim |
| Wood from Scotland,Ota
from England, Naito from Italy, Sawada from Belgium, |
| Saeki from Canada, Stan Schmidt
Sensei from South Africa, Mark Willis from |
| New Zealand and many of
the seniors from these countries. The first session |
| was conducted by Shuseki Shihan Motokuni Suigura which covered etiquette |
| and
kihon application for kata. The katas covered were, the Heians, Jutte, |
| Gankaku, Tekki Nidan and Tekki Sandan. The second session was also |
| about the application of kata
but here the groups were divided into upto yondan, |
| godan and rokudan and nanadan above. Each kata was broken up
into segments |
| and the kihon explained along withthe application. Imura Sensei
taught the 5th &. |
| 6th Dan group Jutte and Tekki Nidan, Ueki
Sensei taught Gankaku. The third |
| session covered Kihon Kumite
in all it's variations. The HQ Instructor cadre |
| demosntrated the techniques which were then practiced by the groups. |
| There was a session
dedicated to Zazen, the Buddhist method of meditation. |
| The 4th
session was devoted to teaching those giving the technical licences |
| exams
of Instructor, Examiner and Judge Licences. There was also a special |
| party given for the senior instructors from Foreign countries.During the party, |
| Sugiura Shuseki shihan spoke about makiwaratraining and how to build a |
| makiwara. During the last session, many of the Chief Instructors from the various |
| countries including Anand Ratna Sensei gave their Examinations for the Technical |
| Licences. Mr. Stadt from the Czech Republic gave the special rights for conducting |
| dan examination and passed Mr. Mark Weatherhouse from Canada now residing |
| in Japan also passed his 6th Dan Grading, Mr. Saeki from Canada & Mr. Naito |
| from Italy passed their 7th Dan Gradings. |
