November 17 & 18, 2007
2007 WSKO Western North-American Regional Instructors' Study Session
2007 WSKO Western North-American Regional Instructors' Study Session was held at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, California, for two days of November 17th and 18th, 2007, attended by 111 kenshi from Canada, U.S.A., and Japan, taught by three WSKO Instructors Yoshiaki Kato, Kazuhiro Kawashima, and Hiroyuki Mukada.
From 17:00pm on the 16th, the day before the event, there was an informal practice for mostly branch masters and senior members at the dojo for the South Bay Branch (Branch Master Tetsuyasu Uekuma), which hosted the whole event for this time.
On 17th, the first day of the event, the opening ceremony started at 9:00am. Then the participants were divided into groups of the branch masters and the others to review basic techniques and have a lecture on the origin of Shorinji Kempo. In the afternoon, the participants were grouped by the rank for techniques. A lecture was given to all the attendees. The participants made groups of 6 people for group discussion. At each group members introduced themselves to each other talking about how they started practicing Shorinji Kempo and future activities. After the program of the day was over, the participants went out to a restaurant for a friendship party. Shorinji Kempo as a tool of communication was fully successful here, giving them a lot to talk about.
On 18th, the second day, a lecture was given about how to judge and practice un'yo-ho, application method, in the morning after Chinkon-gyo. In the afternoon, the members had kihon practice, and then un'yo-ho of goho and juho. After the Q & A session, Mr. Kato gave the participants a lecture on seiho and appo. After the closing ceremony, all the participants worked together to clean up the hall. This two-day event was very successful thanks to the South Bay Branch members who carefully arranged things for the instructors and participants with warm hospitality.
Reported by Hiroyuki Mukada
(Pictures were contributed by the South Bay Branch)
