Tradition on Display
By JORDAN IKEDA
RAFU CONTRIBUTOR
Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007

The Nisei Week Karate Tournament draws a full house to Caltech in Pasadena.

MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS/Rafu Shimpo
Medalists at the 2007 Nisei Week Karate Exhibition and Tournament, held last Saturday at Caltech, include, from left, Brigette Callahan, Kathy Stewart, Lars Hanson, Sam Diaz III and Richard Matsushita.

MARTINE JANAH
Tram Pham of the Cal State Long Beach Dojo squares off with Brigette
Callahan from the Garden Grove Dojo.

Shotokan Karate of America held its 51st Annual Nisei Week Karate Exhibition and Tournament on Aug. 11, on the campus of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. A capacity crowd filled Brown Gymnasium for competition in men’s, women’s and team divisions.

SKA’s Nisei Week Karate Exhibition and Tournament is the oldest karate demonstration in the United States. Fighters and participants traveled to Los Angeles from dojos nationwide and abroad to compete and to give individual and group demonstrations.

“I was very fortunate to have won an individual first place medal and first place in the team competition,” said Richard Matsushita, who took gold in the men’s division. He added that his parents were unable to attend and would look forward to reading about it in the Rafu Shimpo.

This year’s winners are as follows:

MEN’S TOURNAMENT
1. Richard Matsushita
2. Sam Diaz III
3. Lars Hanson
4. Joey Abadilla (injured)

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
1. Kathy Stewart
2. Sarah Oliver
3. Brigette Callahan

TEAM TOURNAMENT
1. West Coast
Joel Blakely
Brigette Callahan
Richard Matsushita
2. Cal State Long Beach team

The Nisei Week Exhibition and Tournament started in 1957 when
Tsutomu Ohshima gave the first official demonstration of karate to the
American public. Ohshima was invited to participate in the Nisei Week
Judo Exhibition at Koyasan Buddhist Temple in the center of Little Tokyo by Tatsuo Inouye, the leader of the local judo federation.

Because he was the only black belt, Ohshima performed much of the demonstration. No black belts had graduated yet to conduct a tournament.

That first 15-minute exhibition included 15 to 20 original SKA members, including George Murakami, Roe Su zuki, Fred Suzuki, Frank Kawana, Mas
Norihiro, Takaaki Endo, Mike Shibano, and Akimasa Futami. Stan Tashiro, also an original member, provided commentary. Several of these students would later become the first American karate black belts.

Among the spectators at the first exhibition were Peter and Caylor
Adkins. The brothers enrolled in Ohshima’s classes and Caylor would later become part of that first group of black belts. Caylor, now a godan (fifth degree black belt), continues to be a significant influence within Shotokan
Karate.

Ohshima is a direct student of Master Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of modern day karate who brought karate from Okinawa to mainland Japan.

For more than 50 years, SKA, under Ohshima’s leadership and guidance, has spread the teachings of Master Funakoshi and traditional karate-do. Ohshima travels throughout the world teaching karate to thousands of students and is currently the head instructor of karate organizations in fifteen countries, including Shotokan Karate of America, France Shotokan, Israel Shotokan, Canada Shotokan, Swiss Shotokan, Spain Shotokan, Belgium Shotokan and Morocco Shotokan.

Shotokan Karate of America is a nationwide, non-profit organization dedicated to the teaching of traditional karate-do since 1955. SKA’s emphasis upon development of strength in mind and character through traditional and rigorous training has led to its tructor, Tsutomu Ohshima, is one of the most highly regarded karate instructors in the world.

For additional information contact: SKA (213) 437-0988 or visit
www.ska.org