Craigieburn Martial Arts Centre

Congratulations Daniel Minero on passing your 4kyu iaido exam.

Leanne and Kevin travelled to South Australia last weekend to teach Jujutsu, Iaido and Jodo to our friends at Kiai JuJitsu Kan. Big thank you to Anthony Johnson and his team for their wonderful hospitality.

Kevin & Leanne drove a 3,871km round trip to Brisbane to attend an Iaido and Jodo seminar with Takizawa Sensei and Kozuka Sensei from Japan.
Even though it was an extremely long drive, it was a great seminar and worth the effort.
It was our longest drive in the Tesla with a total cost of $286.09 from the Tesla Superchargers. The car was usually ready in about 15 minutes, but I needed extra time to stretch and relax, so I charged it more than required. Leanne purchased a mini fridge for the car, which kept my supply of energy drinks icy cold, from Jacar for only $149.
So, including keeping our drinks icy cold, the trip cost us only 7.4 cents/km (plus 4 days of driving 🤣)

On the 20th April 2025, Kevin & Leanne and our students, Jan & Elena (along with her family), went to Japan for 3 weeks. The main reason for the trip was to participate in an event held by the "Dai Nippon Butoku Kai" at the birthplace of modern Japanese martial arts, the "Butokuden" in Kyoto, which was built in 1895. Unfortunatly, we are not allowed to share photos of the event, but we also did a lot of sightseeing.
The Japanese Princess Aikiko was a special guest at the opening ceremony and dinner. Kevin and Leanne demonstrated Jujutsu at Ise Jingu. This is the shrine of the Japanese Emperor, and holds one of the three Japanese national treasures. It is reputed to be the first Shinto Shrine built in Japan. At the Butokuden, the Australian team demonstrated jujutsu, iaido and jodo.
The event was held over 7 days with 250 participants from 20 countries.
Kevin received the President of Dai Nippon Butoku Kai Award for Excellence in preserving and transmitting Japanese culture.
All members received awards for their outstanding demonstrations.
It was an amazing experience that was transformative and will remain a lifelong memory.
Two of the coolest places we visited was: the site of Miyamoto Musashi's famous battle in Kyoto and the shrine Miyamoto Musashi visited before the battle.
At the shrine are the remains of the original tree (600 years old), which was the meeting place for the battle. The shrine shaves off small slivers of the tree and makes "Victory Amulets" for purchase. Needless to say, we all have one attached to our sword bags 🥰.

We have plenty of photos to share of our sightseeing experience, but they are in no particular order.

Hanshi Kevin and Kyoshi Leanne have been invited by the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai to demonstrate Jujutsu at Japan’s oldest and most revered shrine, Ise Jingu shrine.

It’s an amazing honour to be selected from the huge pool of talented martial artists attending the DNBK “World Butoku Sai” event in Kyoto.

This is great recognition of the standards achieved at Craigieburn Martial Arts Centre.

This will occur on 26th April 2025

Ise Jingu Ise Jingu(Ise Shrine) is the shinto shrine that the Japanese adore as "Soul of Japan". Located in Ise city, Mie Prefecture, Japan.

In March CMAC hosted the first Rensei Taikai in Australia for the International Division of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai. Which is one of the Premier martial arts organisations in Japan.

It was a great day with participants from as far away as Queensland and South Australia. I have created a 6-minute slideshow.

Rensei Taikai Melbourne 2024 This is "Rensei Taikai Melbourne 2024" by Kevin Walsh CMAC on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.