This year’s edition of the JKA Nederland memorial gasshuku was very special. JKA Nederland invited 6 JKA Headquarters instructors to the Netherlands.

Naka Shihan, Hirayama Shihan, Okuma Shihan, Nemoto sensei, Shimizu sensei and Kurihara sensei arrived in the Netherlands on 24 and 25 November.

Because there were so many instructors JKA Nederland organized some special masterclasses in the days before gasshuku.

On Wednesday 26/11 Kurihara sensei  gave a training session from one hour.  Wonderful how basics can be so special! The limited group enjoyed his class.

Thursday morning 27/11 Nemoto sensei met our group of people with disabilities. He took on the challenge of giving them a karate lesson. The special needs group is a difficult group to teach. With his knowledge and skills, and especially his calm presence, he gave a great training. The participants felt very proud that they were able to haven a karate class from a Japanese master too. It was wonderful to see how the atmosphere and participants got together in this 45 minutes during class.

In the evening Okuma Shihan and Hirayama Shihan were teaching the special master classes. Two hours of training in a small group with the some of the best JKA HQ instructors: it was great!

The memorial gasshuku started from 28 November and from this moment the small village Beek was filled with a lot of  karate people. Saturday morning there were 527 participants joining the classes! The atmosphere was great and the goal of getting together with all JKA karateka was successful.

There were 6 classes during the weekend and JKA Nederland divided the group in 6 groups; so all participants could follow a lesson from the JKA HQ instructor.  From young kids to highly ranked karateka from 21 countries: there was class for everyone and for everyone’s level.

JKA Nederland also invited a special guest: Dr. Ippei Kamae; he was working very hard in translating during training. He also became a member of the organization crew and was very welcome!

This weekend, many beautiful milestones took place. Ramon Wewengkang sensei received his 7th dan diploma from Naka shihan, more than 400 people sang happy birthday to Tamara sensei, and Laurie said farewell to karate. Laurie has Down syndrome and after 17 years of karate, she retired. She ended with a beautiful demonstration of Bassai Dai.

JKA Netherlands is grateful for the support from JKA HQ, for the support of all the volunteers, and of course grateful for all the participants. Next year we look forward to seeing everyone again on November 20-21-22, 2026

Pictures are taken by mr. Erwin Penners

Oss,

Tamara Wewengkang
JKA NEDERLAND