Wonderful engagement shoot yesterday with Beau and Lindsay who are visiting Okinawa for a few days. We shot at various locations around the beautiful Motobu Peninsula before watching the sunset from the beach with Ie Island on the horizon. Congratulations on your engagement Beau and Lindsay it was great to meet you both! For more information on sessions in Okinawa for families, couples, or seniors click on the Sessions tab above.
On October 23rd 2016 the Okinawan karate community attempted to break the record for the most people performing a kata. The record had been set in India in 2013 with 809 people. The Okinawan attempt on the record was a resounding success with 3793 confirmed participants. There was also a one of the biggest congregations of karate masters. I have photographed most of them for the Karate Masters Portrait Project so it was great to be able to say hello to so many of them. 2017 will have the opening of the Okinawa Karate Kaikan (training center), and with karate a demonstration sport at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, I expect that a mass kata performance may even become an annual event. If so, hopefully next year will be even bigger!
A couple of pics of Yuki wearing a dress by the Okinawan fashion brand Majun. Shot with the Pentax 645Z and the 90mm lens. Lit with the Profoto D2 with a 3×4′ softbox, background illuminated by two Profoto proheads to give pure white.
This week, Japan Post released a set of postage stamps to commemorate Karate Day in Okinawa. The series of eight stamps is made up of Okinawan karate masters of different styles. The bottom right image is of Yoshitaka Taira, 10th dan World Matsubayashi-ryu (Shorin-ryu) and is one of the photographs I shot for the Karate Masters Portrait Project. Pleasingly, this is the second time one of my images has been used on a Japanese stamp. The first was around 12 years ago when they chose my photograph of Kabira Bay to represent one of Okinawa’s beautiful landmarks. In all that time the price of a postage stamp has only gone up two yen!
100 Kata for Karate Day is an endurance event created by James Pankiewicz of the Dojo Bar in Naha. Participants complete 100 kata (set forms) over a period of around 2 hours. This year the event took place at Churasun Beach, and was opened by the Mayor of Tomigusku. Arakaki Toshimitsu , 10th dan master of Matsubayashiryu karate (and James’ sensei) gave a welcome speech and watched over the event. Participants performed 80 kata on the grass before moving down to the sand. Although it’s October, Okinawa is still hot and humid. A cool breeze provided a little relief, but it was still a real test of grit and determination. Congratulations to all who took part.
Bashofu is a textile made out of banana fibre. The only place still producing bashofu is a small workshop in Ogimi Village, Okinawa. It’s survival as a craft and art form is due to Toshiko Taira who is recognized as a Japanese Living National Treasure. A real honor to photograph one of Okinawa’s icons.
Why did the water buffalo cross the road? A) She thought she was a chicken. B) She thought she was a zebra. C) She thought she was a Beatle.
Big banana spider in the garden so thought I’d check out trying to maximize the depth of field when shooting macro with the K-1 and a 50mm macro lens. F32 gives the deepest aperture, but requires a lot of extra light. I used a B1 strobe on full power to get enough light on the subject to give the correct exposure. 1/200 f32 ISO 100 K-1 with Pentax-D FA 50mm F2.8 Macro Very pleased to have spiders in the garden, as hopefully they’ll stay busy eating mosquitoes. UPDATE: After finding another spider in the garden I notice there have variations in the color of the pedipalps. (Orange in the pic above, yellow in the pic below.) And yes I had to google arachnid anatomy to find out what they are called.
Chondara are clowns that encourage the performers, and entertain the crowds during Okinawa’s summer eisa dance performances. They can be young or old, but you see very few women chondara. Usually they wear a straw conical hat and a short striped basa kimono. The makeup is nearly always white with designs drawn on to the face. The designs on the face vary between the chondara, but more surprisingly, unlike western “whiteface” clowns, a chondara doesn’t always stick with the same face. Below we can see the same chondara at Ryukyu Mura with four different faces. Send in the clowns!
On Monday evening I photographed Shintoku Takara, 10th dan Okinawa Uechi-ryu Karatedo Kyokai. At 86 years old Takara sensei is one of the elder statesmen of Okinawa karate. We met at the family dojo in Kitanakagusku, but on finding out we live in Motobu he was excited to tell us how their family was from Bise Village just a couple of kilometers from our home. One interesting bit of trivia about Takara sensei is that he was one of the Uechi-ryu masters who taught F1 champion Nigel Mansell in Okinawa . Mansell received his shodan certificate in 1994 (1st dan black belt). We photographed Takara sensei along with his son Kazuya Shintoku, and his grandson Uechi Takenori. This is the first time for us to photograph three generations of karateka together.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 