Karate Day is celebrated every year on 25 October on Okinawa, the birthplace of karate. This year Karate Day was celebrated worldwide by more than 5000 karateka who participated in the “100 Kata for Karate Day 2014” event.
The event was a kata demonstration open to all styles and all dojos worldwide where each participant, regardless of age, rank or skill level, had to complete 100 repetitions of a chosen kata from their own style, all at the same time. It was inspired by the classical karate phrase “Train hard 100 times” and started at 6am (Japan time) on 25 October 2014. On Okinawa the event took place at Zakimi Castle, a World Heritage Site.
In South Africa the corresponding time was 11pm on Friday, 24 October and students from Shorin-Ryu Butokukan Newcastle decided to accept the challenge and to be a part of this historic event.
Students arrived at Garden Dojo, Sensei Frik Willemse’s private home dojo, at around 10h30pm on Friday evening in preparation for the event. At 11pm the event commenced with a formal opening ceremony where after the students started the kata demonstration.
“I’m proud to say that all the Newcastle Butokukan students who participated managed to complete all 100 repetitions of their chosen kata. We did it as a group from the first till the last kata. By the time we reached 90 repetitions we were all exhausted but to be honest the last 10 repetitions felt the best! This was not only a great event to be a part of, but it was also a great workout and great team building exercise for the students. We’ll do it again next year” said Frik Willemse, chief instructor at Newcastle Butokukan.
The Newcastle Butokukan students participated in two separate groups. The one group consisted of Alisha Ramsaroop, Zarina Khan and Damiksha Annathan. They completed the challenge a bit earlier due to family responsibilities.
The second group consisted of Frik Willemse, Girard Oberholzer, John-Day Filmalter, Ronald Filmalter, Emile Janse van Rensburg and Davy Chuang.
Members of the Shorin-Ryu Butokukan Hombu dojo in Pretoria also participated in the event.
“We practice traditional Okinawan karate, not modern commercial karate. It was a great feeling to know we were celebrating Okinawan martial arts with thousands of other karateka worldwide at the exact same time. It was very inspiring” said sensei Frik.
Anyone interested in learning authentic traditional Okinawan karate and kobudo (weapons) can contact Frik Willemse on 079 585 1181.
