All posts tagged: okinawan

Okinawa Yambaru DMO

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Starting in April 2026, I have a new client, the Okinawa Yambaru DMO, for whom I will be working as their official photographer. The Okinawa Yambaru DMO has been created with the goals of promoting tourism in the Yambaru region, enhancing its appeal, and promoting sustainable community development.The DMO will collaborate with businesses, local government, and residents so that it benefits both visitors to the Yambaru and the people who live there. The Yambaru region is made up of the 12 municipalities of northern Okinawa Prefecture: Kunigami, Ogimi, Higashi, Motobu, Nakijin, Nago, Onna, Ginoza, Kin, Ie, Iheya, and Izena. I’ll be documenting cafes and restaurants. The endemic Yambaru wildlife both on land, and underwater. The local festivals and the farming community. Marine sports whether you surf, or stand-up-paddle. And the many other activities such as visting botanical gardens, studying with karate masters, or simply cruising around the island. This is a great opportunity to share my love of northern Okinawa with the world 🙂

Sensei – Masters of Okinawan Karate Episode 1 Preview

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The karate interview series is back! Watch a 6 minute preview of Episode 1, then I give some updates on Series 3. Huge thank you to those who’ve already made donations as sponsors or supporters for Series 3. SERIES THREE  SPONSORS Martin Pinto – Essex Goju Ryu Karate Series Three – Supporters Artur Carballo Justin Sheehy Olaf Steinbrecher  Masaru Hoshi K.R. Ruiz Click here to learn more about the documentary series, and how you can help!

Ryoichi Onaga 1948 – 2024

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RIP Ryoichi Onaga 1948 – 2024 A student of Eichi Miyazato, Ryoichi Onaga taught Okinawa Goju-ryu karate for half a century in Murcia, Spain. A 10th-dan Hanshi, Onaga Sensei was also Vice Chairman of the Okinawa Goju-ryu Karatedo Kyokai. Through an introduction from Norihiko Masuda Sensei I was able to photograph Onaga Sensei on August 20th 2021. Condolences to his family, friends and students around the world.

Kenichi Yamashiro – World Ryukyu Kobudo Championships

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On Sunday December 3rd 2023 the World Ryukyu Kobudo Championships were held at the Karate Kaikan in Okinawa. It was particularly good to see Kenichi Yamashiro competing with so much power and technique at 76 years old. Yamashiro Sensei didn’t win, but his student Hiroshi Kawakami took 1st place in both sai and bo, so I’m sure he was pleased overall. I photographed Yamashiro Sensei for the Karate Masters Portrait Project back in 2019 so I was pleased to be able to say hello. Kenichi Yamashiro was one of the key student of Matayoshi Shimpo Sensei. I’d love to interview Yamashiro Sensei in the future. Another key student of Matayoshi Shimpo was Hidetada Ishiki who I’ve also photographed and we interviewed for Series Two of Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate.

Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate S2#3 Yoshimasa Matsuda

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I’m very happy to announce that the full-length interview with Okinawan karate master Yoshimasa Matsuda is now available on YouTube, and also ad-free on Bujin.tv The episodes are taking longer to create than in the previous series, mainly as we are asking more questions and delving deeper into the experiences of the teachers. Matsuda Sensei used a mixture of Japanese and Uchinaguchi (the Okinawan language) in the interview so as well as being important from a karate perspective, I think the interview is also a good recording of an Okinawan switching naturally between the two languages. When you watch the episodes on YouTube please click the like button, subscribe to the channel, and make a comment about what you enjoyed most about the video. These things will all indicate to the YouTube algorithm that the video is worth sharing with others. You can learn more about the video series here: https://travel67.com/the-karate-masters-portrait-project/sensei-documentary/ I’d like to say a huge thank all those who are sponsoring and supporting this second series. SERIES TWO SPONSORS Martin Pinto – Essex …

Andrea Klementisová – Gojuryu Karate

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A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to photograph a karate world champion, Andrea Klementisová. After winning numerous karate championships around the globe Andrea moved from Slovakia to Okinawa. She has assisted Okinawa prefecture with the promotion of karate overseas, and helped with the organization of tournaments. She is now also teaching classes at the Asato Dojo in Naha, City. Meeting Andrea also gave me the opportunity to start a new series of portraits, Sensei: The Next Generation. Unlike the original series of portraits which are all shot with a single key light, my thought is that these will also be lit with a rim light from behind. Shooting with a single light against a black background worked well with the oldest karate masters as they usually had either white hair, or were bald. If you photograph a person with black hair against a dark background, they can sometime melt into the darkness. Adding a rim light or hair light helps the subject stand out. James and I also recorded an interview with …

Dragon boats are back!

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After a four-year hiatus, the dragon boats are once again racing during the Golden Week holidays. Friday afternoon had the finals of the regular races with the boats crews made up of both locals and Americans. The sky was overcast, but luckily it was not raining on the day. After these races the special dragon boat race took place, which the crews in traditional costume, along with flag bearers and karateka. I’m not sure of the names of the sensei performing with the black-robed crew, or the blue-robed crew, but the white-robed crew was led by Onaga Sensei, a karate master I’ll be photographing in the coming weeks. Checking back through my archives I found a pic from 2011 when I actually managed to get in one of the boats for a race. Can’t believe I was shooting with a medium format digital camera, in the rain, on a boat that might sink! After going further back in the archvies, I found images shot with the Pentax 67ii medium format film camera around 20 years …

Morinobu Maeshiro, 真栄城 守信 10th dan Shorin-Ryu Karate

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Morinobu Maeshiro, 真栄城 守信 is 10th dan in Shorin-ryu Karate, and an Intangible Cultural Asset Holder in the Field of Okinawan Karate and Martial Arts with Weaponry. I photographed him for the first time at the Budokan in 2014, but I was pleased to be able to photograph him again in 2021, this time at his dojo in Naha City. After taking some new portraits, we set up the cameras and recorded a 45-minute interview with him discussing his life spent studying karate, his teachers, and his own philosophies. This will become Episode 1 of Series Two of Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate. After the interview, we then streamed an online seminar which was watched live by his students around the world. The seminar was also recorded and will be available on Bujin.TV from mid-December. You can learn more about the portrait project and the documentary series by clicking on the “Karate” tab on this blog, or by following this link. Thank you so much to Maeshiro Sensei for his time, and to Nicolás Pérez …

KARATE NEWS!

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We have a couple of big announcements regarding karate in Okinawa. Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate SERIES TWO coming in 2022 After the extremely positive feedback we got about the first series of our documentary about Okinawan karate, we are going to make a second series that will be released in 2022. You can read all the details about series one, our future plans, and fundraising here: Sensei Documentary The next big news is that we are going to be offering a streaming service for karate seminars in Okinawa. This will be organized, hosted, and interpreted by James Pankiewicz of Bujin.tv with the filming and streaming provided by Chris Willson and Yuki Willson of TRAVEL67.com. We’ve created a great way to help reconnect Okinawan karate masters with their students around the world. Our experience with videography allows us to provide audio and visual quality far superior than a simple webcam. You can read all the details about this service here: Karate Streaming Of course we’re still continuing to document Okinawa’s martial arts sensei for the …