Zendokai and the Japanese legends

Zendokai Karate is a non-profit association founded in 1965 by Sensei Roy Andersson in Oskarström. The club is the country’s oldest in the Shotokan style and is located right next to Halmstad Arena. Sixten Lindquist, 6th Dan, is the head instructor and leads the training together with the club’s other instructors. The proportion of members with a black belt is large and indicates a great deal of experience. The training takes place in accordance with JKA’s guidelines. In March 2016, the Swedish Karate Association named Zendokai the association of the year. The business receives good support from Halmstad municipality, which understands the value of the association’s activities. The members are very committed and try to develop the business together.

The Shotokan style is one of the four main schools of karate and was developed from various martial arts by Funakoshi Gichin and his son Funakoshi Gigō. The style is today the most popular karate style and the Japan Karate Association has over fifteen million members. Sensei Ted Hedlund took JKA to Sweden in 1970 and the Swedish phalanx was formed two years later and today has about 48 clubs across the country. During this year’s event of International Camp organized by Zendokai, three well-reputed Japanese instructors will be present.

Naka Tatsuya

Residence: Tokyo, Japan
Rank: 7th Dan, JKA HQ
School: Takushoku University
Started Karate: 1st year of junior high school

Naka is one of the JKA’s most popular instructors and has become one of the modern faces of JKA Shotokan. He leads a new generation of younger JKA instructors. Having a very open mind he is known for his technique and teaching style. He was born May 29 1964 in Tokyo. Growing up he attended Meguro High School. While at high school Naka began practicing Wado-Ryu Karate under Sensei Takagi at the school’s karate club. His younger brother had already been practicing karate and Naka liked the look of it and decided to practice it as well. In 82 Naka enrolled at Takushoku University to study Economics and Political Sciences. By this time he had been practicing Wado-Ryu for several years. He joined the University’s Shotokan karate club, training under Katsunori Tsuyama. Training at the Takushoku karate club was hard. There were two training sessions a day and it took Naka around a year to fully convert from Wado-Ryu to Shotokan. He would sometimes return to his old Wado-Ryu dojo to train. Naka graduated from Takushoku University in 86. He was encouraged to enroll in the JKA Instructors Course. Always looking at ways to improve himself and his karate, Naka began practicing Aikido around 87. Initially, he had wanted to practice judo or jujitsu to improve his kumite. However, he could not find a suitable dojo. In 89 Naka graduated from the JKA Instructors Course. He began teaching at the JKA Hombu.

In 2004 Naka retired from actively competing. Apart from teaching at the JKA Hombu, he was a coach of the Japanese National Team. It was also around this time that he started to refine his Karate through extensive research. Currently a full-time instructor at the JKA Hombu, Naka is frequently invited to teach courses, seminars, and gasshukus around the world. Tatsuya Naka is worried that karate has an over-emphasis on sport. With an emphasis on competition Karate, he feels we may lose the individual characteristics different styles of karate have to offer. Through his documentary series, Kuro-Obi World, Naka has had the opportunity to train with many, Japanese, Okinawan, and Chinese masters from various styles. During his research, he has managed to explore the roots of karate. Naka has continued his study of aikido, which is he’s been practicing for over 25 years. He has found that it provides a complimentary art to his karate practice. Apart from teaching at the JKA Hombu, Naka teaches at the Taishi-juku dojo in Tokyo, which has become a favorite place to train for many foreign students. Away from karate, Naka lives in Tokyo with his wife and two daughters. He has also starred in the movies Kuro Obi, High Kick Girl and Karate Girl. His motto in life is ”karate makes true friends”.

Major Tournament Wins

43rd JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2000)
3rd Place Kumite
4th Shoto World Cup Karate Championship Tournament (Tokyo, 1992)
3rd Place Kumite
35th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1992)
1st Place Kumite

Hirayama Yuko

Teacher: Masatoshi Nakayama
Rank: 7th Dan, JKA HQ
School: Tokyo Women’s P.E. Junior College
Started Karate: 2nd year of elementary school

Hirayama was born June 18 1969 in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture and started karate at 8 years old. Her parents signed her up for karate classes to try and combat her shyness and thought a martial art would help to give her confidence. She initially started training in the Shindo Jinen-Ryu style of karate in Yokohama. Once she moved to Tokyo to attend university she started training at the JKA Honbu Dojo.

After completing the JKA Instructors Course in 98 she became a resident instructor at the JKA Honbu Dojo – her regular class is Wednesday 7.30 pm. Her classes are fun, challenging and inspiring. She brings her bubbly personality and great sense of humour into the dojo which creates memorable classes. She teaches a good mixture of kata and kumite and will single individual students out in class to correct points and improve technique. Her kumite classes are filled with drills to improve the timing of attacks and reaction to your partner while her kata classes will break down a kata into sections or individual moves to work through before bringing the entire kata together. Her years of experience as a competitor and a judge show through as she often references small details that will be picked up on by senior judges and examiners that you may never have thought of.

During her competitive years she competed well at the JKA All Japan Karate Championship in both the kata and kumite events. Her most memorable competition was the 45th JKA All Japan Championship in 2002 where she won the kumite event and placed 2nd in the kata event. She also competed internationally for Japan, finishing 4th in kata at the 10th Funakoshi Gichin Cup World Karate-do Championship in 2006 which was held in Sydney. Her favourite katas for competition were Bassai Sho and Sochin. Her motto is ”seize the moment”.

Major Tournament Wins

50th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2007)
3rd Place Kata
48th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2005)
2nd Place Kata
47th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2004)
3rd Place Kata
45th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2002)
1st Place Women’s Kumite; 2nd Place Women’s Kata
44th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2001)
2nd Place Women’s Kata

Kobayashi Kunio

Rank: 7th Dan, JKA HQ
School: Komazawa University
Started Karate: 1st year of junior high school

Kobayashi was born July 5 1967 in Tokyo. He has been a disciple of the Shotokan school of karate for over 40 years, having been introduced to it at the age of 10. While his obi belt, the same one given to him when he was ordained a JKA instructor 26 years ago, has greyed with age, the sensei is still going strong and serves as an international ambassador to karate in addition to running the Houkukan Dojo. When asked about karate’s upcoming induction into the olympic programme at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, Kobayashi Sensei said that ”there are two sides to it”. ”On the one hand, the games will provide more visibility for the martial art, which will lead to more people taking an interest. However, the downside is that karate might gradually be detached from its rootedness in Japanese culture and tradition, where it is celebrated not just as a sport but also as a way of life, whose practitioners strive towards mental and physical self-improvement. Karate is not always about beating an opponent, but also realising that the real opponent is within.” Like a true sage, the sensei resorted to allegory in illustrating his point: ”The path of karate is not one but many, and some people may progress differently than others. The tortoise was much slower than the hare but persevered at his own pace and outran his opponent.” Besides his love of karate he is also a big fan or motorcycles. His motto is ”Dojo-Kun”.

Major Tournament Wins

51st JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2008)
1st Place Kata
10th Funakoshi Gichin Cup World Karate-do Championship Tournament (Sydney,2006)
2nd Place Kata
49th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2006)
2nd Place Kata
48th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2005)
1st Place Kata
9th Shoto World Cup Karate Championship Tournament (Tokyo, 2004)
3rd Place Kata
47th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2004)
1st Place Kumite; 2nd Place Kata
46th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2003)
2nd Place Kata; 3rd Place Kumite
45th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (2002)
1st Place Kumite; 3rd Place Kata
42nd JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1999)
1st Place Kumite
41st JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1998)
3rd Place Kumite
40th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1997)
3rd Place Kumite
6th Shoto World Cup Karate Championship Tournament (Osaka, 1996)
3rd Place Kumite
39th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1996)
3rd Place Kumite
4th Shoto World Cup Karate Championship Tournament (Tokyo, 1992)
3rd Place Kumite
34th JKA All Japan Karate Championship (1991)
3rd Place Kumite