Let me Demonstrate: Seritsu's Bunkansai Karate Demo!

Peter here;

On both September 25th and 26th at Richard's junior & senior high school in Akabane, Tokyo, Seiritsu Gakuen had their Bunkansai (cultural fair).

The different clubs ran demonstrations on a large stage to promote themselves, and Richard's Karate club was no exception. I was lucky enough to be asked by Richard to be part of the presentation as his attacker in the showpiece finale, attacking him with not only punches and kicks but also a knife, a baseball bat and then a bokken!

Check out the video below; thanks very much to Richard for editing it superbly.


With only a week to rehearse, the routine went very well (despite my obi coming undone on the Sunday, Richard covered for me by doing some very acrobatic splits while I readjusted myself), and drew lots of nice 'ooooohs' from the crowd on both days.

I also got to do some board breaking for the very first time in my life!

The rest of the demonstration was the Club performing Shite Kata (Jion by the boy's kata team, and Enpi by the girl's kata team, Enpi which is the Shotokan version of Wado's Wanshu), and demonstrating kumite. Both days saw with lots of smiley faces in the spectators looking at the new 'genki' foreigner following Richard about..

Wadokai Technical Seminar: 24-25 July

Peter Here:

Over 70 Wadokai dan grades and instructors attended the Wadokai Technical Seminar on the weekend of 24-25 July, held in the Chiba District of Tokyo. The purpose of the seminar was to maintain the high standard of Wado being taught by those present, and to introduce any changes to the kata or kihon kumite syllabus. The weekend was led by members of the Technical committee, chiefly Takagi Sensei and Hakoishi Sensei.

We were also lucky to have Aina Kobinata (JKFan Deputy Editor) on site as well to run a report on the day for the magazine, and of course talk to Fabian and myself in near-perfect English!



Saturday was a long day, with the course running from 9:00 to 16:00. Unfortunately due to ridiculous traffic Arakawa Sensei, Fabian Sensei and myself arrived at about 9:30, but thankfully the group had only just finished the warm up and were working on the kihon essentials of Juntsuki-no-tsukkomi / Gyakutsuki-no-tsukkomi. Because this was a technical seminar it was a much slower pace to the very driven style of Shirmamizu; the Sensei stop and discuss the movement, the principles behind the movement and show some (sometimes quite funny) examples.

Indeed, the attitude throughout the day was that of thorough analysis and explanation, with only a little emphasis on high performance. That said, as the day was a sweltering 36 degrees, any physical exertion that we did soon took it's toll!



After Kihon, several Kata were analysed: Pinan Godan, Chinto, Seishan, and Naihanchi (Kushanku, Rohai and Jitte were tackled on the Sunday), with bunkai given.

Fabian Sensei and I were noticed, and rather charmingly Hakoishi Sensei started to use English and German in his explanations (even to Arakawa Sensei, who had to remind him that he was Japanese, much to everyone's amusement!).

Regular liquid breaks were taken to help combat the searing heat, which kept everyone on a high morale level. What really impressed me however, is just how happy Hakoishi Sensei is at practising his karate. After so many years of training, he's still playing with it like a new toy. This enthusiasm is definitely infectious!

After the lunch break Kihon Kumite was addressed, running through 1-4 on Saturday and 5-10 on Sunday. The higher Dan grades were lined up as the lower Dan grades (everyone here was at least a shodan, quite possibly I was the youngest and lowest rank there) took turns to practice with them. Each Sensei had a different piece of advice to give and a different way of looking at and correcting my performances, so to get the most out of this session I trained with as many Sensei as possible!

Saturday's session finished at 4:00. There wasn't much time for speaking at the end as Arakawa Sensei had to get back for the evening session (he had thankfully given Fabian Sensei and I the evening off), and then head out for a meal. The reason? It was Arakawa Sensei's Birthday! All of that training on such a day just shows how dedicated he is to karate. Food, laughs and some beers were had (though not too much beer, we were training the next day after all).

Sunday was just as hot as Saturday, so we were thankful for training in just the morning (the afternoon was a dan grading). Kata was first, and unfortunately it was Kushanku first- unfortunately because it's very much my worst kata and it became victim to the scrutiny of the top Wado Practitioners of Japan. Oh my.



We ran through the other Kata, all of which were new to me. Thankfully all the other Sensei were aware of this and helped me through with both basic movements and the more essential details. I would've loved to have spent more time on the kata, but I appreciate it wasn't the time for learning.


Kihon Kumite 5-10 was also done a bit faster than I would have liked, but as we had to finish by 12pm the schedule was tight already. However this does not stop this weekend being an invaluable seminar that has helped improve my understanding of Kata and Kihon Kumite to no end, and maybe I have found a new favourite kata in Jitte!


After the Seminar: mini-post


As it was such a beautiful day, Arakawa Sensei thought it would be a shame to waste it- so he took Fabian Sensei and me to the Umihotaru on the Tokyo Aqua Line. Wikipedia can say much more about it than I can on this page, but the line itself is a very impressive structural achievement.

We all took this opportunity to put our feet up- of course, being karateka we took this a little literally...

Nervous? I am...

(A recent picture of a class at the dojo from Arakawa Sensei's blog.)

It's Lawrence and it's just past midnight. I'm doing some laundry rather late because tonight, we had a visitor from Chiba visit the dojo and I went to dinner with him, Arakawa Sensei, and Kikuchi Sensei. It dawned on me that I haven't written here in a while so I thought I'd throw something out there.

Arakawa Sensei just referred to him as "Y" Sensei.

Our visitor, a 29 year old father of two who looks much younger than his age, runs a sports store in Chiba as well as teaches at his own dojo. He was visiting Shiramizu tonight to get a feel for how the classes are run and how Arakawa Sensei deals with the business aspect of running a full-time dojo.

Over dinner, of course, was much discussion about karate and one topic that came up was competing. Arakawa Sensei said that although he's grown rather comfortable in the kumite ring, he still gets nervous when it comes to kata.

Nerves being such a huge factor in competition performance, I thought about what Arakawa Sensei said and, despite having little competition experience and having competed only a handful of times in Japan, I find I agree with it.

I suppose what it comes down to is that in a kumite match, there are endless number of ways a match can be played out. The entire match is about reacting and adapting to the situation and so there isn't much time to really ponder the small details, let alone ponder anything at all, which reduces the nerves. Thinking back, I do think that the nerves have come down more quickly in terms of kumite than in kata.

With kata, I would practice over and over and be reaching for a specific image of how I want it to look. Any deviation from it in the ring runs the risk of throwing my concentration because it can't be redone. This "point of no return" feeling is what I think keeps my nerves up for kata competition- that I only have one chance at it.

I suppose the solution to both is to practice it all. Which ties very nicely back to what Arakawa Sensei said at the end of tonight's practice.

He was telling the students that it's no good focussing on only one side of karate. Those who excel in kata should strive to improve their kumite and vice versa. However, he said that what one chooses to compete in is a different story. There's no harm in wanting to be a kata champion so long as, during practice, one trains equally hard at both.

Arakawa Sensei said that choosing kata competition over kumite competition because one is afraid of kumite is not a valid reason to be just a kata-only player. But, choosing kata over kumite because you aspire to be an excellent kata player is a fine reason.

We'll see how my nerves play out in my next match I guess... til then.