In late August three members of Toronto Branch flew out to Vancouver to attend the 2012 WSKO North American Regional Instructors' Study Session and the 3rd North American Taikai. These events coincided with the 30th anniversary of the founding of Vancouver Branch.
President Yuuki So of the WSKO was in attendance along with instructors Sato sensei (Fukuoka) and Kawashima sensei (Hombu).
The Study Session consisted of kihon, in-depth technical study of various technique families and philosophy lectures.
Kawashima sensei taught many variations on techniques and stressed that the key thing is to understand the basic principle of each technique and learn to apply it in various circumstances.
At the end of the first day of training all delegates attended a fun dinner party at a local Chinese restaurant. It was wonderful to have the chance to socialize with many friends from all across North America and neighboring branches from the Greater Toronto Area.
During the course of the Study Session, US and Canadian Branch Masters studied many aspects of the operating procedures for branches to help strengthen and unify our efforts. As part of these efforts we hope that a Canadian Shorinji Kempo Federation will soon emerge.
The 3rd North American Shorinji Kempo Taikai was held on the final day. Events included tandoku embu (single form), kumi embu (pair form), dantai embu (group) and unyoho (sparring).
Tony and Christian from Toronto Branch took part in the events and brought back a total of two gold medals and one bronze medal. In addition, kenshi from nearby Yorkville Branch were also successful in the taikai and were awarded three gold medals. Together this represented the best performance of Toronto area kenshi in a taikai to date.
We wish to thank the members of Vancouver Branch, BC Tozenji Branch and UBC Branch for their huge efforts in making the Study Session and Taikai such a great success.
Gassho