3 December 2007

On 21 June 2007 Kancho Soeno, the founder of Shidokan Karate and one of Mas Oyama's top students, arrived in London at the invitation of Branch president Shihan Burnel 6 dan.

The purpose of his visit was to attend a grading for members of the Shidokan in England and to give a seminar for both kyu grades and dan grades.

Also in attendance were Shihan Leo Katsouras with four members of Shidokan Greece and Sensei Attila Kiss and a fellow member from Shidokan Hungary.

Three members from Shidokan Japan, including our old friend Makoto Seshime, arrived also since they were going to accompany Kancho to a tournament in Germany in which one of the party, Shingo Yokoyama, this year's All Japan lightweight champion, was competing.

On Friday 22 June Kancho was interviewed for Traditional Karate magazine during the afternoon (the interview appeared in the September issue in UK).

The training session began at London Honbu dojo at 7pm. Several blackbelts were in attendance. The grading was for kyu grades.

A hard kihon session was followed by kumite and kata tests. Kancho was pleased with the standards of Shidokan members in the UK. The session ended at 9.30pm.

Saturday 23 June was a day of sightseeing for our guests from overseas. Members of London dojo took the guests to Parliament and the London eye before having dinner.

Sunday 24 June was the day set for the Blackbelt seminar. Several kyu grades attended also. After 3 hours Kancho declared the gassuku completed.

Blackbelts in attendance:
Shihan Leo Katsouras (Gr)
Chris Karageorgos (Gr)
Fichialos Stathis (Gr)
Attila Kiss (H)
Makoto Seshime (Jpn)
Shingo Yokoyama (Jpn)
Shihan JJ Burnel (GB)
Sensei D Clift (GB)
Steve Fenwick (GB)
Peter Mortlock (GB)
Kevin Hone (GB)
Dennis Austin (GB)
Kirsty Henderson (GB)
Adam Everest (GB)
Jon Lovett (GB)

Kancho Soeno promoted the following blackbelts:
Steve Fenwick 3 dan
Adam Everest 2 dan
Dennis Austin 2 dan
Peter Mortlock 2 dan

On the Sunday night a Sayonara party was held in a Lebanese restaurant in Kensington. Many students attended and were given their belts by Kancho himself. The party itself lasted 4 hours.

Kancho has said that he will come to England more often which is the best news for all Shidokan students in Europe.

Special thanks go to Yoshi Ota of London dojo for the onerous task of translating for the whole time that Kancho was in London.