JKA to hold national black belt tourney in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines- The Japan Karate Association Junior will hold the first ever JKA Junior Black Belt National Tournament on September 21 at University the San Carlos-North Campus gym.

The one-day joust will be attended by the organization's best players all over the country. JKA Philippine Chapter founder Shihan Masanori Takahashi will also be gracing the event.

The tournament aims to promote karate as a physical art, which facilitates self-growth, self-respect, and self-confidence as well as foster camaraderie, friendship, and brotherhood. It will showcase the art of karate-do as a sport that will characterized the discipline its members and players have practiced all over the years.

For this very reason, the event  will be open to the public.

The tournament is hosted by JKA Junior Black Belts, a sub-group of the JKA Asia Pilipinas, Inc. JKA Philippine Chapter is an organization of karate enthusiasts, which was formed by JKA representative Shihan Masanori Takahashi. Takahashi came to the Philippines in early 1968 and established in Cebu the most stable JKA dojo in the country.

With membership that has grown to over 10,000 since it was formed, JKA is considered the most respected organization when it comes to training and producing properly-skilled and well-trained black belts. Takahashi has brought with him from Japan the discipline that he himself has been trained for.

JKA’s philosophy is based on Bushido: The Way of the Samurai. In true karate, the body, mind and spirit—the whole person—must be developed simultaneously. Through kihon, kumite and kata, we learn to control our movements. But more importantly, one learns to give up control too.One can also perform the techniques without thinking about them, and remain focused without having to concentrate on any one thing.

In essence, the body remembers how to move and the mind remembers how to be still. The result of true karate is natural, effortless action, and the confidence, humility, openness and peace only possible through perfect unity of mind and body. This is the core teaching of Zen, the basis of Bushido, and one of JKA’s philosophy that makes it the keeper of karate's highest tradition. (PR) (FREEMAN)