06/06/2026
Over the weekend instructors from Australian Karate Academy - Salisbury travelled up to Cairns for the Kizuna Seminar.
It was a massive weekend of Okinawan karate, kobudo, training, learning, catching up with old friends, and building new relationships with karateka from around Australia and New Zealand.
All up, there were around 125 participants at the seminar, with people travelling in from all over Australia and New Zealand. It was great to be surrounded by so many people who are serious about karate and still hungry to learn.
The seminar was run by our friends from Asato Dojo in Okinawa, along with some fantastic guest instructors.
We trained with James Pankiewicz Sensei, who taught Tomari Passai and applications. James runs Asato Dojo in Naha, Okinawa, and has done a lot of work connecting karateka from around the world back to Okinawa.
Dan Antonsen Sensei taught Sanchin, body conditioning, and Ryukyu Kobudo kihon. He brings a huge amount of experience in Goju-ryu and Ryukyu Kobudo, and there was plenty to take away from the way he explained body structure, conditioning, and basic weapon movement.
Andrea Klementisova Sensei taught Suparinpei and applications. Andrea is originally from Slovakia and now teaches Goju-ryu at Asato Dojo in Okinawa. Her movement, detail, and understanding of kata were fantastic to experience in person.
Toshihiko Tamashiro Sensei taught Naifanchi and applications. This was a great session for us, especially because Naifanchi is such an important kata in our own training. There was a lot of detail around posture, close-range movement, and how the kata connects to practical self-defence.
Tatsuya Tamaki Sensei taught Motobu-Ryu, a very old Okinawan fighting tradition connected to the Motobu family. This was a really interesting look at pre-karate movement, body control, weapons, joint work, throwing, striking, and close-range combative ideas.
Tuari Dawson Sensei from New Zealand taught Tensho and close-quarter drills. Tuari has a deep background in Goju-ryu, Ryukyu Kobudo, and Māori martial arts, and his session had a great mix of structure, flow, pressure, and practical connection.
For us, trips like this are important.
We don’t go away just to collect more techniques. We go to learn, to sharpen our own training, to improve how we teach, and to keep building the depth of knowledge we bring back to the dojo.
It also keeps us connected to Okinawa.
Karate can become very isolated if you only stay inside your own four walls. We have a strong dojo, but part of keeping it strong is making sure we keep learning from good people, keep challenging our own understanding, and keep bringing fresh ideas back to our members.
We came home with plenty to work on, plenty to think about, and plenty to share with you all over the coming weeks and months.