Back Issues

EDITORIAL.

EDITORIAL By John Cheetham.

Aidan Trimble sensei 8th Dan the Chief Instructor of FSK (Federation of Shotokan Karate) has been a stalwart of British Shotokan Karate for many years. He was featured in SKM many times in the early years of the magazine. So, I’m more than happy to have the opportunity to interview Aidan after all this time and find out what he has learned and experienced from a lifetime of training and teaching Shotokan Karate-do.

This new interview with Aidan for SKM has a special significance after the passing of Shiro Asano Hanshi who was Aidan’s former Sensei. I’ve been planning to do an interview with Aidan Trimble sensei for many years but now seems like the perfect time. He has such vast experience in Shotokan Karate and he’s also worked in the Security industry where he had to put his karate to the test on many occasions.

Aidan Trimble sensei had a prodigious competition career and even took on the Japanese on their own turf by winning the SKI World Kumite title in Tokyo, Japan in 1983. If you have never seen him in action during his competition years, take a look at some of the old footage on YouTube.

Aidan was one of the most dynamic Shotokan fighters of the late 1970s and 1980s with amazing kicking techniques and ashi-barai being amongst his specialties.

Aidan’s ‘The Dojo’ is situated in Beeston, Nottingham where he holds daily classes for both children and adults. Purpose-built, ‘The Dojo’ has been in operation since 2005.

The second feature in this edition of SKM is a tribute to Shiro Asano Hanshi who sadly passed away in January this year. Asano Hanshi had resided in England since 1970 and formed SKI-GB in 1974.

As I stated in the last issue, Asano sensei never sought publicity, he quietly carried on teaching his brand of Traditional Shotokan Karate-do with dignity, huge experience and honesty. Much Respect.

There’s a lot of historical Shotokan information in two different articles in this edition. The first is a piece by Slavko Bubalo, a Serbian karateka who is based in Croatia and features the story of the famous Yoshitaka Funakoshi who was regarded as an innovator, a Karate Genius. Yoshitaka Funakoshi (also known as Gigo Funakoshi), was the son of Shotokan karate founder Master Gichin Funakoshi. Yoshitaka passed away on November 24th 1945, at the young age of 39 due to tuberculosis, having significantly influenced the development of modern karate. We can only guess at what would have developed if he had survived. Yet, he still has followers of his ‘way’ all over the world to this day. The late Taiji Kase sensei was one of his early students who championed his methods.

The second historical story is Graham Noble’s Part-Two from the last edition with the focus on the foundation of Shotokan Karate after the 2nd World War. It was pioneering the way people like Nishiyama and Nakayama organised and developed Shotokan in the late 1940s early 1950s.

My own article focuses on Traditional Karate-do and what we perceive it to be. I think the photo of the old guy opposite speaks volumes in this regard: Plain white dogi, wooden floor, mirrors, makiwara, the signature Shotokan gyaku zuki, plus 3Ks training are all part of the Karate-do ethos.

Good Health, Good Training, Editor.