CONTENTS

A brief history

Latest tournament

results

From a parent’s

perspective

General news

DECEMBER 2005

A N N I V E R S A R Y

SEIDDDOOO CCCHHHRRRIISSTCHURCH

Christchurch Shibu

welcomes you

a br

ief h

isto

ry...

Seido Canterbury is the biggest and oldest Karate Club in Canterbury.

The Club was founded in 1965 at the rooms of the Canterbury Amateur Judo

Club by Mr D. Holloway, a pioneer of Karate in New Zealand and one of

the fi rst foreigners to train under the legendary Karate Master Mas Oyama

in Japan where he gained his First Dan in 1964.

In 1967 the Club hosted the fi rst N.Z. Kyokushinkai Karate Tournament

at Cowles Stadium. Its members took fi rst place in the Teams Event and

second in the Open Event. In 1969 Mr Holloway and senior students went

to Japan for three months intensive training under Mas Oyama. During their

stay, two members were used as models in Oyama’s best—selling book

“Advanced Karate”. Several of the group trained with former All Japan and

European Champions and were offered contracts to fi ght professionally.

On their return to Christchurch, Mr Renzie Hanham, then a First Dan in

both Judo and Karate took over as Head Instructor; a position he has held

ever since. Mr Hanham (now 7 Dan) had been the head instructor of the

Can Am Ju judo club and the University Judo club and was a former South

Island Open and Middleweight Judo champion, NZ Training College

Champion and was ranked third in his weight division in New Zealand.

In 1970, New Zealand sent a Karate team to Australia and four out of

the fi ve members came from this Club. They won fi rst and third place in

the Open, fi rst and second in the Middleweight, and one of the members

defeated the then highest—ranked Australian in Kyokushinkai Karate in the

Teams Event.

In 1972 the Club purchased its Club Rooms in Barbadoes Street. Hard work

by members over the years has made this one of the leading Karate Dojos in

the country. We were the fi rst Karate Club in N.Z. to own its own premises.

During 1972 also, a Club member, Jes Vilsbeck returned to Denmark where

he won the Danish Karate Championship. He had also been a fi nalist in the

Danish Judo Champs.

During this period the dojo’s members had won the all styles NZ

universities, individual, kata and teams titles.

In 1974 the Club sponsored Mas Oyama’s two top instructors, Shihans

Tadashi Nakamura and Shigeru Oyama to Christchurch to conduct a nation-

wide instructional clinic. At the conclusion of this clinic Mr Hanham and

Mr Barber of Nelson were promoted to Third Dan and awarded Instructor

Certifi cates.

In May 1975 a Branch was started in Timaru. In July of that year the Club sponsored a team of

nine members to New York to train under Shihans T. Nakamura and S. Oyama. The team, led by

Renzie Hanham, trained with members of the American and Japanese Karate teams which were

preparing to compete in the fi rst World Open Tournament hosted by Mas Oyama. Club members

also appeared in a fi lm made of the Tournament. In that year also a club member became the

fi rst woman in Australasia to study Oyama’s style in Japan and K Hanham became the Club’s

fi rst woman Black Belt.

In 1976 the Club hosted the fi rst South Island Kyu Grade (Grades below Black Belt)

Tournament. This was held in the Christchurch Town Hall and featured on an hour long

television programme. Three members travelled to New York to take part in the opening of

kaicho’s newly founded Seido Headquarters. The Club was very privileged to be invited, along

with the Nelson Club to join the Seido style of Karate. The team was headed by Mr Hanham,

who was invited on his last day there to try

for his Fourth Dan. He was successful and

the team returned to pass on their valuable

knowledge to Club members. In 1977 a

Branch was started in Palmerston North.

In 1978 the Club again sponsored Mr

Hanham to New York for seven weeks of

intensive training. During his stay he took

part in a Karate Demonstration in Madison

Square Garden that received worldwide

television coverage.

In 1979 the Club hosted the fi rst N.Z. Seido Tournament in the Christchurch Town Hall. It was a

complete sell—out .

In 1980, the Club sponsored Mr Hanham, Mrs Hanham — a First Dan, and Mr Higgs; a Brown

Belt from Timaru, to New York to train under the Seido head Kaicho T. Nakamura. During their

stay all three were promoted. Mr Higgs to First Dan, Mrs Hanham to Second Dan, and

Mr Hanham to Fifth Dan.

Also that year the Club’s second husband and wife (Charles & Jenny White) Black Belt team

left for New York to further their knowledge of Karate.

1981 The dojo held a tournament which again was most successful.

The following year R. Hanham, M. Drew plus A. Barber (Nelson) and M. Creighton (Reefton)

travelled to New York for training and also visited a Zen monastery at Mt Tremper.

Also the club helped in organising a Zen retreat conducted by Sasaki Roshi. In 1982 year the

dojo organised Seido’s fi rst Black Belt clinic which was a tremendous success, and were part

of a team of 45 which travelled to Geelong, Australia on a goodwill tour-— the largest team of

martial artists to leave the country. During this visit, Mrs Karen Hanham was promoted to 3rd

Dan, which made her the highest ranked woman outside Seido Headquarters.

Numerous visits to Honbu in New York followed plus visits to the UK, Australia and Italy.

In 1993 Shihans Hanham and Barber were part of a group representing New York city. They

gave demonstrations at the famous Meji shrine, appeared on Prime time television, met the

Governor of Tokyo , appeared in magazines and helped conduct seminars.

In 1996 Seido fi rst world tournament

was held. The dojo placed fi rst in the

lightweight, middleweight & heavyweight

mens division. Placed second in the wom-

en’s lightweight (former dojo member

Meredith Sawyers was fi rst), and fi rst

in the middleweight. Division. Another

member placed fi rst in the Masters divi-

sion. We also placed top 3 in many of the

kata divisions.

Members have also competed in the New

Zealand Kyokushin champs winning on

several occasions and have also competed

overseas with distinction.

Despite our success in tournaments the emphasis is not on competition but on developing

individuals and encouraging them to give of their best. At the moment the club has branches in

New Brighton, Kaiapoi, Dunedin, Timaru, Mt Cook, Temuka, Wellington, Palmerston North,

Te Awamutu and Auckland. Some black belts now teach karate overseas, in Australia, UK and

the United States.

The Club has produced many Black Belts, and caters for training at all levels of experience with

several classes daily. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to our anniversary

weekend and thank you for making the effort to attend and to share with us what will be, we

hope, an inspirational time.

Anniversary TimetableFriday 7.00pm - Informal gathering, Pegasus Arms

Saturday 10 oclock General Class - Town Hall

6.00pm Anniversary Dinner - Town Hall

Sunday 10 oclock - Black Belt Clinic - Dojo

2 oclock Branch Chiefs & Senior meeting - Copthorne

40th Anniversary

Tee-Shirts

New Tee-shirts

celebrating the 40th

Anniversary of the

Christchurch Dojo

will be available in

December. Don’t forget

to order yours - this is a

one time only

opportunity.

Anniversary ‘D’ DayWith one month to go before the big celebrations and no training

under my belt for longer than I can remember, the nervousness and

anticipation grows.

I felt the urge to get in some kind of a respectable shape. Some Do-

nataela Pizza’s later, I found an extra large white belt that I could just

remember how to tie. I shuffl ed into the beginners classes hopefully

unnoticed, no such luck. Not remembering any of the kata

[committing the deadly sin], I kept my head down.

I was surprised after almost 20 years how much fun it was to train

and take some stress out kicking the bags. Encouraged on by all

grades and with superb tuition from the black belts in my obvious

podgy state. When life gets in the way of training, it’s so nice to

come back and be encouraged by such a big Seido family.

Big “OSU” to all for making it all so enjoyable.

Mal.

Temuka training session

with Kyoshi Lance.

A keen group of

Christchurch Seido students

(pictured) recently travelled

to the Temuka Marae for a

training session with Kyoshi

Lance. Kyoshi is hoping

that this will become an

annual tradition where

students from throughout

the South Island can get

together to meet and train.

It is envisaged that this

session will be held at a

different location each year

- any suggestions for

2006 should be forwarded

to Kyoshi Lance.to Kyoshi Lance.

Dojos web site

now on stream.

Go to:

www.seidoshibu.co.nz

Many thanks to

Senpai Matt Ahearn for

the lovely design and

for the many hours

of work. over and

above the call of duty.

Partnering Senpai Tess Maley by Katherine RouchOsu! Being a partner to a karateka who is training for their shodan is, in a way, rather like

bungee jumping. You’ve seen people do it, and they make it look relatively easy. And it’s kind

of the same process as well: A friend asks you to come bungee jumping with them, and you ac-

cept. Before the car journey up to the bungee location, one prepares themselves mentally for what

they are about to do. However, during the journey, there are many points where you could just

turn back, or decide that you’ll let your brother go instead, but you don’t, and you arrive at your

location nervous as hell, but excited at the prospect of jumping off a bridge. Then you make the

jump, it’s exhilarating, terrifying, but completely satisfying, and after you’ve been hauled back

up onto solid ground and have ceased shaking, your friend thanks you for coming with them and

you both drive home.

This is rather like the process of training for a black belt with a partner. The candidates for the

shodan grading are chosen, and in the back of your mind you have a little question “Is someone

going to ask me to be their partner…?”. Which of course, they do. This having been my second

time partnering a shodan-to-be, I knew what was going to be involved, but of course, every lead

up is different. So, when (Senpai) Tess asked me to be her partner, I naturally accepted. Without

going into too much detail, we trained twice a week from when (Senpai) Tess was asked to the

days before her actual grading. We had many self defences and ippons to create, and that took

the longest time. This was like the car journey, because there were so many times when it seemed

as if there couldn’t possibly be anything we had missed - but of course, there was. Our favourite

thing to do when suffering Creator’s Block was for me to simply attack (Senpai) Tess with a jo or

other such weapon and she would do the fi rst thing that came into her head - therefore inventing

another self defence. Then, at the end of our training, there was the night of the grading itself.

We thought it was a good idea to arrive half an hour earlier to run over our drill again, as to rid

ourselves of any pre-grading jitters. Well, the time to start the grading was fast approaching, -

and so much for our theory. After many hugs, words of wisdom, and wishes of good fortune, the

grading got under way. All participants in the grading were performing beautifully, as per usual.

Everything was fi ne and dandy in the partner camp until the call was made for the partners to start

warming up. Oh goodie. Of course, warm-up routines are easier to complete without trembling

hands, creased foreheads, and a whole colony of butterfl ies dancing around the knots in your

stomach. But it was time for us partners to get to work, remembering to fall spectacularly at every

blow dealt to us by the candidates. After many brilliant self defences by (Senpai) Tess, it was time

for the partners to move off, and attend to another duty: Watering our friends. Having fi nished

watering them, we resumed our positions as Supporter of Friend. Nevertheless, soon the grading

was over and we were allowed to hug our tired, bruised, yet happy Senpai friends. Partnering is

exhilarating, terrifying and completely satisfying.

Several Seido karate-ka have competed in tournaments recently.

2005 NZ Full Contact Open Karate championship. Seido Juku was

represented by two competitors in the Christchurch 2005 Full Contact Karate

Open Championship this year.

In the women’s division, it was out own Lisa Lilley who took top honours. Fewer

competitors than previous years meant there was just one women’s division.

This meant that Lisa had to fi ght karate-ka heavier than herself. Her dedicated

training and smart game-plan paid off, as she went through to win the overall

women’s division. Her performance was an inspiration to those watching -

congratulations Lisa.

Lisa says .....

“I would like to thank everyone for their words of

encouragement and advice during what seemed like endless weeks of training

for both the Kyokyoshon

Timaru Tournament and the NZ Full Contact

Tournament. I really appreciated those who were able to come along and give

their vocal support on the day,

it truly made a difference. Special thanks to Senpai Erin and Senpai Kim who

coached me for Timaru and Senpai Kim and Sensei Lee who coached me for

the Nationals. Also to Senpai Tony and Senpai Paul who took me for the ever

popular sand dune training

sessions. It’s been a privilege training with these people. Thanks to Michelle

Webster sho gave up her time to hold the pad for me so I could do my routines.

Lastly, my sincere gratitude to my husband and three sons who put up with all

the disruptions around the house - I know they were trying times.”

Osu

Lisa.

tour

nam

ent n

ews

tour

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Senpai Tony joseph also won the 1995 Kyokushin middleweight title and faught with distinction in the recent Australian champs.

Congratulations also to Senpai Michael Baldwin for his brave effort in the

men’s middle weight division. Once again, fewer competitors meant only

two weight divisions were represented in 2005. Consequently, Senpai found

himself matched against fi ghters somewhat heavier than expected. This was

Senpai Mike’s fi rst full contact tournament and he is to be congratulated on

his performance, especially given he is just 16 years old. Watch out in years

to come ....

Australian Kyokushin National Championship.

Senpai Tony Joseph recently travelled to Sydney, Australia to compete in the

Australian Kyokushin National Championship. With over 120

competitors, it was the largest knockdown tournament ever staged in

Australia. Few people were probably aware that Senpai was training for a

tournament, as he quietly went about his preparation. While he felt he had

done enough to win his fi rst round fi ght, the judges did not see it the same

way on the day.

However, Senpai is to be congratulated for his efforts. Competing away

The Seido ‘Shop’

Seido Christchurch

now stock a number

of items for sale.

These include

gi’s, belts, Seido

patches, plus books

and a number of

novelty items. They

have a great Gi

starter kit, including

gi and white belt, for

just $85-00.

Call in and have a

look at the offi ce.

Seido karate would

like to say a big

thanks to the ‘Mad

Butcher’ in Colombo

Street for their

generous support.

Next time you’re

looking for sausages

for that mid-winter

barbeque, head on

over to the Mad

Butcher and see

what they have in

stock.

fromhome means far less noise and immediate support from friends and

fellow karate-ka. However, Senpai Max and Senpai Mark Fazackerley,

along with Senpai Tina from the Sydney dojo, were on the spot to show

their support. Senpai Tony said ‘I had fantastic support from fellow karete-

ka on the day before, with heaps of well wishes by text, about one text every

hour which was awesome, next best thing to having them there with me’.

Well done Senpai Tony.

Seido 30th Anniversary Saiten(celebration)To ease the fi nancial burden of travelling to New York in 2006, the Christchurch dojo has established a special bank account to help you save for this trip. The idea is that you put a little aside towards the cost of the trip each month between now and then. Please see Shane at the offi ce if you would like to take advantage of this. Note that registration must be in by March, 2006.

SNIPPETSNewsletter articles:

If you have any items of interest (articles, photo’s, cartoons, etc) that

you think other Seido karata-ka might be interested in, then you can:

1. Email them to sfoster@jadeworld.com

2. Leave a copy with Shane at the Offi ce.

3. Pass a copy to Senpai Steve Foster.

Likewise, if there are items of interest that you’d like to see included in

the newsletter then please let us know.

FRO

M T

HE

ARCHIVES

Shihan Lee and Betty Zimmer with Shusekis

Renzie, Andy and Sensei Murray Creighton.

you have to watch your children under take the test for a Shodan Grading.

With in the last four months I have had my three children sit their Shodan Grading.During their lead up and preparation, I have had many mixed emotions. Moreo-ver, to be perfectly frank I would not like to go through it again.Are they preparing hard enough? Are they mentally ready? Do they know the syl-labus? What has been missed out? Many questions you ask yourself, because I know what it is like having been through know what it is like having been through

That moment of time, when as a Parent and a Black Belt

it myself.Well I do not think you can ever prepare to the desired amount because I know how you are taken to a fi nal point during your grading, and then pushed past that again.I have watched them train; I have given them help with methods of defence. Moreover, I have wondered how much should I teach to them or whether they develop the skill themselves. However, in the end the parent comes through and always gives the Black Belt help.There is pain and sometimes injury, There is pain and sometimes injury,

always some hard knocks. As a parent, you want to protect you children from harm. So here am I watching them go though a grading, which I would rather, they not do.If they were nervous before their grading, I can assure you I was twice as nervous, and that was for at least a week beforehand.It would seem that if you know what it is like, then why be worried. You just are.In the back of your mind you don’t want to be there during their grading, but then as a parent, I just had to be there, to give my love and support and to share the joy of achieving a goal and a dream which they set so many years ago.

Senpai Barry Flewellen

Seido Shibu seeks to provide a safe, supportive and disciplined environment.

Through the practise of Karate-Do, students are encouraged to extend themselves in a way that develops spirit, awareness and

respect for oneself and others.

DOJO’s 40thANNIVERSARYDOJO’s 40

ANNIVERSARYDOJO’s 40

December 2, 3, 4th 2005

Welcome to this special celebration of all the people who have trained on this fl oor. Special guest will be Kaicho Nakamura , Shuseki Shihan Charles Martin and Ada, Shuseki Shihan Andy Barber and Kyoshi Jane, Kyoshi Akira, Kyoshi Ino and Kyoshi Toshi, Sensei Holloway - the founder of the dojo and his wife Margaret plus other distinguished guests from the UK, Australia and throughout New Zealand.