Sports: karatekas learn and share spirit of the season
- Published on Friday, 09 December 2011 14:46
- Category: Sports
by: ramon dacawi
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LA TRINIDAD, Benguet - Former world traditional karate champion Julian Chees returned to the basics of ritual, tradition, form and movement to draw out the substance of Christmas through a seminar-for-a-cause he conducted for over 40 martial arts practitioners last week-end at the municipal gym here.
“We have to move down instead of up to learn,” the diminutive fifth-dan blackbelt told young white belts after he patiently guided them through the opening ceremony of courtesy and respect.
He then hammered in the proper movements and “bunkai” (application) of the basic kata (formal exercise) heian shodan of the “shotokan” (knife hand/traditional) school and style of the Japan Karate Association and the International Traditional Karate Federation to which they – teacher and students – belong.
Fronting the class were the photos of Master Gichin Funakoshi, the Okinawan master known as the founder of modern karate, and Master Hidetaka Nishiyama, founder of the ITKF that adheres to Funakoshi’s teachings.
Together with the Philippine and Japanese flags, the pictures were installed by the JKA=Philippines Central Headquarters headed by teacher Kunio Sasaki who, in the early 1960s, introduced the traditional martial art in the country as a missionary of JKA-Japan.
It was also back to the basics for over 20 brown and blackbelts who took over the gym early in the afternoon as Chees saw them through repetitious execution and practical application of Sochin (Tranquil Force), an advanced shotokan kata that intersperses slow movements with bursts of speed.
For the older black belts, the seminar-for-a-cause turned into a reunion of the former students of Sasaki and also those who were taught by his former students the likes of the late Arsenio Bawingan Jr. and Edgar Kapawen Jr., now the chief instructor of the JKA-Asia based at the YMCA of Baguio.
Chief instructor Heidel Chumanog came in from Laoag City, as did fourth dan blackbelt Danny Malines of the USKU club. Instructor William Katter brought in three of his students from Tabuk, Kalinga and wore his original blackbelt that was so frayed it revealed the inner white fabric.
“The black belt turning white as the years go by reflects a return to the basics, a reminder of the virtue of humility,” Chees had said.
Davao City branch chief instructor Ruben Dumdum flew in with his wife, not only for the seminar but to arrange a clinic for his students in Mindanao next December, when Chees will be back here.
La Trinidad mayor Greg Abalos Jr. squeezed time from his busy schedule to offer the municipal gym and thank the practitioners for hatching the training for a cause.
At the end of the day, the host chapter led by chief instructor Hermie Pelingan collected P13,125 in registration fees.
The amount will support the treatment of seriously ill patients to be chosen by the JKA Central Headquarters here.
For Chees, the seminar was an attempt to fill the gap in humanitarian support this year from Shoshin Kinderhilfe, a foundation he and his martial arts students in Germany founded.
“Shoshin concentrated its support this year to Fukushima, Japan, which was hit by an earthquake, tsunami and threat of nuclear radiation,” he explained.
Despite what he called a shortfall, Shoshin recently sent P51,000 for patients here, with some of the amount spent for two kidney patients undergoing dialysis, support to a college student undergoing expensive tests to pinpoint his ailment and donation to the family of a boy who recently succumbed to cancer.
Chees, a native of Maligcong, Bontoc, Mt. Province, studied under Kapawen and then took his blackbelt as an in-house student of Sasaki for three years. In 1983, he transferred to Germany where he was eventually drafted as a member of the German national karate team.
Being the shortest in the squad, he concentrated on the kata (formal exercise) ,ruled the event in various international competitions. He took the 1993 World Shotokan Championship in Saarsbrucken, Germany and finished 6th among hundreds in the same event in 1996 in Las Vegas.
He now heads over 50 dojos in southern Germany and is affiliated with JKA-Germany under Shihan Hideo Ochi who promoted him to fifth-dan last year. – Ramon Dacawi.
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