Shotokan Karate Magazine Issue 161
Featuring Sensei, Ricardo Carvalho.
September 2024
Shotokan Karate Magazine Issue 161
September 2024
Contents
Editorial.
SENSEI RICARDO CARVALHO: 35 YEARS IN JAPAN. By Roberto Sant Anna.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE MANY FACES OF SHOTOKAN KARATE. By Paul Mitchell.
A TRIBUTE TO MASTER MASAAKI UEKI 10th Dan JKA. By John Cheetham.
KARATE-DO & SPORT KARATE: SAME ROOTS, DIFFERENT PATHS. By S. Bubalo.
HOW LONG MUST YOU SLEEP? By Mike Clarke.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST: THE KUGB SQUAD TRAINING. By Kevin Healy.
STUDY THE OLD TO UNDERSTAND THE NEW. By Richard Overill.
EDITORIAL By John Cheetham.
We have an interview in this edition with the vastly experienced 70 year old Brazilian Shotokan Karateka, Sensei, Ricardo Carvalho who has spent a total of 35 years training in Japan at the JKA Honbu, Takushoku University (Takudai) and Nakayama Sensei’s Hoitsugan dojo.
This is a fascinating story and a huge thank you to long-time SKM subscriber and contributor, Sensei Roberto Sant Anna for conducting and translating the interview. Ricardo Carvalho Sensei has an amazing pedigree yet comes across as a humble, modest man who experienced something quite unique by absorbing the austere training and huge cultural differences in Japan of the 1970s.
We’ve had many interviews and stories of western karate-ka training in Japan but very rarely someone who spent so many years in the home of Shotokan Karate-do.
Even after his fifty years of training, one thing that stands out is Ricardo’s insistence on remaining at Sandan, which was awarded to him by the late JKA Chief Instructor, Masatoshi Nakayama in 1976.
To me this speaks volumes about this man’s character, by never wanting to seek a higher Dan rank. Nowadays, it seems in vogue for karateka to chase high Dan grades, sometimes even after only 15 years of training! Times have changed and Karate has changed considerably during the last 4/5 decades. But for the better (?)
Kevin Healy’s article was definitely a ‘Blast From the Past’ for many ex-KUGB students from the 1970s, 1980s. That old-style training was not for the faint hearted and wouldn’t be tolerated in today’s safety conscious dojo environment. This is a realistic, nitty, gritty story from former Police Firearms Officer Kevin Healy, an ex-KUGB student and successful competitor.
Like many others, I also trained on the infamous KUGB Squad sessions which Kevin talks about, at the Liverpool Red Triangle dojo before taking the Sandan grading under the astute gaze of the late Enoeda sensei. That was a truly daunting, spirit testing karate experience for all of us.
Mike Clarke’s article, as usual, tells it like it is. We have to accept that the unbelievable ‘cruelty’ of war, from all sides of a conflict, is difficult for most of us to comprehend. Sometimes we need to read articles of this nature, which has Karate training and philosophy clearly at its heart.
We also have two articles by regular contributors, Senseis Paul Mitchell and Slavko Bubalo. Although different in many aspects, we can see by the titles, a similar theme running through both articles.
On July 14th, 2024, The Chief instructor of the JKA, (Japan Karate Association), Ueki Masaaki 10th Dan, who had been undergoing treatment for an illness, sadly passed away. He was 85 years old.
We at SKM and the whole Shotokan family would like to offer our deepest condolences. The funeral was held with only family members present, in accordance with the wishes of the bereaved family. I just had time to prepare a tribute to Masaaki Ueki sensei for this edition. The question is, who will take over as the next Chief Instructor of the JKA?
Good training, Editor.
