Gasshuku

This past weekend, I hosted the 3rd International Gojuryu Karate Association Pan-American Gasshuku at my Yushikan dojo. I joined the IGKA in 2007 and was appointed USA director, then World Vice President and Pan-American Director. After getting the association up and running in the Western Hemisphere, I set out to start with the Gasshuku's. So far I have hosted 3 (2010, 2011 and 2012). My main goal for hosting the Gasshuku was to bring together instructors and students who mainly have a lineage back to the Jundokan/OGKK or Miyazato Eiichi Sensei, but may be from dojo's of his students and separated from the Jundokan. Basically to bring together the different branches of the same tree. However anyone is and will always be welcomed at the event, regardless of style or affiliation.

2010 Gasshuku

 The first year, I did all of the instruction over two days and the attendees were my students, or students of my students. We went through all of the kata and two person drills up to their ranks and started them all on new material. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and we had a good time training and socializing.

The second year was a little more diverse; I added a third day to the training, we had guests from Indiana, Texas, Illinois, Alabama, Kentucky and this was the first year our group from Canada attended. The first day I did all of the instructing. The second day I started out instructing and then we had a guest instructor, Lloyd Johnson Hanshi 9th Dan, who was a member of the Jundokan for many years.  Johnson Sensei taught sanchin and Hojo Undo for several hours. After a break I resumed teaching and continued with two person drills and kata. On the third day we held the first IGKA Yudansha testing and several people were issued their IGKA International Dan grade certificates. Again we had a great time and made new friends.

This year we again had three days of training. We had attendees from Indiana, Ohio, Texas and Canada.  Not all of my students could make it this year due to family matters, but we still had a great time. We had another guest instructor this year, Col. Tony Willis from Anyu Shinjo Sensei Goyukan dojo. Col. Willis was present for the first two days. On the first day, not everyone had arrived, so it was Col. Willis, Wayne Currie, Jason Thompson and I. We went over several solo drills and compared kata, had dinner and stayed up until after 3 am talking.  Day two started off with a group breakfast and then training at 9am, this year we took a different approach and broke up into groups with Col. Wills, Wayne Currie and myself teaching small groups and then all of us training together at times. Throughout the weekend we trained on almost all of the kata, Gekisai Kumite, several solo and two person drills, as well as, bunkai. Each student had the chance to have all three of us give advice and corrections on their kata. We also compared all of our own kata with each other and even though we all came out of different dojo, I am happy to report that we are 99% the same . On the third day most everyone had to leave for family obligations and no one was testing, so we trained kata and Kobudo and then had a nice lunch. As always, my wife Amber was a gracious host and provided some great food. This year we also had Gasshuku T-shirts. I had a great time and I think everyone else did as well. I think everyone came away learning something and looking forward to next year. I really enjoyed seeing Wayne again and after 5 or 6 years of communicating with each other, Col. Willis and I were finally able to meet and train with each other. Even though the next Gasshuku isn’t until next year, Col. Willis plans to make some visits for training and Wayne and I have some plans to meet up and attend some seminars later in the year.