JNZ 2022 Taupaki Gasshuku

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On August 27th & 28th, members of all ages and grades travelled from the Nelson, Wakefield, and Westport dojos to Jundokan New Zealand's annual gasshuku and dan-grading, held in Taupaki, Auckland.

Saturday saw a review of traditional junbi-undo (preparatory exercises) and hojo-undo (supplementary exercises) before an in-depth look at kata, starting from Gekisai and working up. After lunch, we shared an array of different bunkai ideas for Gekisai and Saifa katas, emphasising the point that there is more than one bunkai for each technique and that we must vary our approach depending on the opponent and situation.

On Sunday, around 15 junior grades joined from the Taupaki dojo to show off their skills in the junior grading.

After lunch, the seniors began their grading, with four members going up for dan grades. After exhibiting their kata and knowledge of bunkai, the following new dan-grades were awarded:

Sho-dan:

  • Amy White

  • Olive Benecki

Ni-Dan:

  • Luke Shirtliff

  • Justin Hart

Every time I come back to NZ I am reminded by our members of the high standard we keep across all dojos at Jundokan New Zealand (and the importance of doing so). I would like to extend my congratulations to the four gradees, as well as to all those who participated in the weekend and made it so great.

In particular, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Taupaki dojo for putting on the weekend, with a special mention to Julia for all her efforts in the background to ensure the weekend was such a success.

As a final note (in addition to what was said during the weekend), I would like to emphasise the journey of karate. Never is that journey over; nor is it a linear path. No matter how long we’ve been training, or the grade we’ve achieved, we must always remember to train and improve our basics as we look to better our knowledge of advanced techniques. Our understanding of higher kata will never get better if we don’t also continue to practice and perfect the basic kata and bunkai too. On the wall of the Jundokan hangs the phrase 究道無限 (kyūdōmugen), meaning “the road of research is never-ending”. In other words, your training is never-ending, and after this weekend, I can honestly say that I’m excited about the prospect of continuing my training with the kind, generous, and hard-working members of Jundokan New Zealand for many years to come.