JKA England

JKA England
Abbreviation JKAE
Type Sports federation
Headquarters London
Membership
Japan Karate Association
Official language
English
Chief Instructor
Yoshinobu Ohta
Website www.jka-england.org

JKA England (JKAE)[1] is the official Japan Karate Association (JKA) organisation for Shotokan karate in England and Wales. Every year JKAE holds Spring and Autumn courses inviting instructors from the JKA honbu dojo to teach.

History

JKAE was officially formed in 2003 by several clubs from KUGB. Following the death of Enoeda, formerly chief representative of JKA in the UK and head of KUGB, there was a disagreement between the JKA, the KUGB, Andy Sherry (the next highest ranked instructor) and Yoshinobu Ohta (Enoeda's assistant). The result was that JKAE was formed with Ohta as chief instructor and the KUGB withdrew from the JKA with Andy Sherry as their chief instructor. Some KUGB clubs transferred to JKAE to form the new association, they possibly wanted to remain affiliated to the JKA or perhaps had a stronger sense of loyalty to Ohta. The division had a strong geographic correlation: most northern clubs chose KUGB and most southern clubs chose JKAE.

Instructors

Chief instructor is Yoshinobu Ohta, ranked at 7th Dan. He is a graduate of Takushoku University and attended the JKA instructor's classes at the JKA honbu dojo in Tokyo. Ohta was the assistant of Keinosuke Enoeda for 20 years,[2] from 1982.[3]

Technical Committee Members are Gary Stewart, 6th Dan, Roy Tomlin, 6th Dan and Adel Ismail, 5th Dan.

Competition

JKAE holds an annual national competition. From 2004 to 2008 this was held at Guildford Spectrum sports centre.

The style of kumite competition rules is shobu ippon (one point match).

International course history

Date Guest Instructors
August 2008 Kurasako Kenro, Masaaki Ueki
May 2008 Yoshiharu Osaka, Fujikiyo Omura (JKA Thailand), Nakata
August 2007 Masaaki Ueki,[4] Tomio Imamura[5]
May 2007 Masahiko Tanaka,[6] Kazuaki Kurihara[7]
April 2006 Yoshiharu Osaka,[8] Kobayashi, Osamu Aoki (JKA Spain)
May 2005 Hideo Tomita, Kazuhiro Sawada (JKA Belgium), Yoshiharu Osaka,[9] Takahashi
August 2004 Masaaki Ueki,[10] Tomio Imamura[11]

References