Tokyo visit (July’24)

During the summer break, I had the opportunity to go to Japan to visit my family and (of course) train a little bit.

After some days close the Mount Fuji with the family, I went to different dojos in Tokyo (東京), Shizuoka (静岡) and Kanagawa (神奈川) and every visit was a fantastic experience.

Today I would like to share my visit in Koenji (Tokyo) in the Muribushikan Dojo (群星館道場).

The Muribushikan Dojo

The Muribishikan Dojo is part of Uechi-Ryu Tokyo association – Tokyo representative for Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do Kyokai (上地流空手道協会); the Organisation I am teaching in France (URKDE) and the organisation which made George Mattson Grandmaster.
Even if George’s teacher (Ryuko Tomoyose) left uechi family organization and founded Okikukai with some former students of Kanei sensei; Mattson sensei decided to stay within the organization as he promised to Kanei sensei when he got his black belt in Okinawa.
He continues to teach Kanei sensei old forms and old way of doing with his advanced students.

Finding the Dojo

The Muribishikan is located at the third floor of a building close to the Koenji station.

You need to get the address if you do not want to miss it, indeed the Dojo is located in the 3rd floor of a small Building.

The only outside sign on the building is the presence of the Shisa (mythical lion-headed animal, symbol of protection and very popular in Okinawa) on the terrace.

In the street, a small wooden sign is indicating the Dojo (Okinawa Karate Uechi-Ryu).

To access the dojo, you need to cross the Restaurant corridor (located on the ground floor) and climb to the Dojo.

In Europe, we tend to have common dojo with Judo group so people are mainly used to train on Judo mats; nevertheless in Japan and in traditional Dojo in US we are training on the wooden floor.
I was welcome by the Karate group headed by Kantaro Takahashi (5th degree black bet).

Inside the Muribushikan

The session was a typical traditional Uechi-Ryu session starting by traditional japanese bow followed by the Junbi Undo (準備運動) finished by the Shinkokyu – Deep breathing (深呼吸 ) that we tend to forget in Europe (mainly by lack of time).
After the traditional Warm Up we jumped to the Hojo Undo and it was interesting to share the slight differences between European / American & Japanese way of doing.

We continued to work together on the complete sets of Uechi-Ryu Kata with Bunkai.
So as reminder :

• Sanchin (三戦)
• Kanshiwa (完子和)
• Kanshū (完周)
• Seichin (十戦)
• Seisan (十三)
• Seiryū (十六)
• Kanchin (完戦)
• Sanseiryū (三十六)

Each kata was the opportunity for each practitioner to demonstrate his own understanding of the main techniques.
It was super interesting to share and check once more the small differences in the way of executing Kata or techniques (fist, elbow angles, …)

We finished the session with a demonstration of the different katas.
As we were discussing with the sensei and his sempai the old form and the Old Way, I have been asked to perform Sanseiryu kata with the Old Template (from the 60’s).
To pay tribute to the Muribushikan, I have added the Kiai to the kata and perform it for competition but with the old template.

It was a very good afternoon with a great group.
I will visit them regularly in the future thank you so much !

戻ってくると約束します。

群星館道場、本当にありがとう。

Lionel
莉雄念