By Jokokan Federation
The year 2003 will be remembered as a landmark year in Jokokan's history, as such landmark events and upheavals took place in this year. Fortunately, it turned out in favor of the Jokokan Federation.
Two new Jokokan schools saw the light of day. After a lovely summer, Jokokan Ballerup Karate School opened its doors in new premises, where 200-300 people, led by the mayors of the cities of Prague and Ballerup, attended a great Jokokan display (Read: Inauguration of the new Måløvhal and Øresund-arena in Måløv). The school now has almost 50 members. The following month, Jokokan opened the Amager Karate School with a really old "American" at the head. After a soft start, this school now also has wind in its sails.
The winter camp in Greve with 46 participants despite the flu epidemic was a great success, especially since this training camp also accommodated two new black belt graduations after a hard, long but nice piece of work (Read: New black belt graduations). How such a process can be and is experienced is described in detail in three articles. (Read: You reap as you sow 1, You reap as you sow 2 and You reap as you sow 3).
The autumn camp in Skælskør with 70 participants was an event with a high atmosphere, pace and very well organized (Read: 70 registered Jokokaners at autumn camp), which was followed by this year's Christmas training in Korsør, where the number of participants increased to 80 happy and festive Jokokaners, who got to rise in Storebæltshallen, where this biggest Jokokan event to date was held (Read: Christmas training 2003 – the biggest event ever). The autumn camp also featured a black belt graduation of a Chief Instructor (Read: The Chief Instructor passed), who also took the opportunity to look back on the history of his Jokokan school. (Read: From small independent club to large active member of a forward-looking association.)
The main event of the year was a well-prepared "Soke Sensei Tonegawa 2003 training camp" with Jokokan's supreme Grandmaster (Read: Soke Sensei Tonegawa comes to Denmark again and Jokokan's Soke Sensei Tonegawa camp July 1 - 6, 2003). The preparations for this camp had been extensive; Kenjutsu 1 course, Hsingi 1 (Read: Yakami-ryu Hsingi course 1 round the clock), special training camp for 8-5.kyu (Read: Special training camp for 8.-5.kyu.), Instructor camp (Read: Jokokan's I-Camp June 22-23, 2003) and intensive training in the respective Jokokan schools. 45 highly motivated Jokokaners divided into 3 teams absorbed the enormous and wide-ranging knowledge and insight possessed by the supreme Grandmaster of Yakami-ryu's Taijutsu. It was an incredibly successful training camp, which we can rightly say put the "crown on the cake", and marked the end of the Jokokan association's long and hard cultural and organizational change process, where the transformation from a less very elitist organization to a democratic association, where there is room for everyone – both the elite and the exerciser. A process that has been carried out with such great success that the number of members in the association has increased over 400 % through the three hard years of the change phase to now 250 members (Read: 250 members, sponsors and website success).
The Soke Sensei Tonegawa training camp also marked the beginning of Japanese budokas coming to Denmark to train and be taught Yakami-ryu Karate-do and Yakami-ryu Taijutsu, and at the same time experience the Danish hospitality, straightforwardness, humor and the beautiful sights (Read : The Japanese come to Denmark) we can offer with pleasure.
2003 was also the year when Jokokan got its first sponsors, who signed up unsolicited as supporters of Jokokan's association work and value-based management style, where volunteers work unpaid to make a difference for other people.
Jokokan's website also experienced a colossal development, with now 20,000 visitors per month, who spend a total of over 2 days on the website with over 100 pages of news and information, which underlines Jokokan's open communication policy and Yakami-ryu philosophy, that knowledge and insight are available to anyone who is interested in this.
On behalf of Soke Sensei Tonegawa and the Jokokan association, I would like to say thank you and Happy New Year to all our faithful and new readers, Jokokaners all over the world, friends, sympathizers, family and sponsors, who have made the year 2003 a great, significant one and memorable year in Jokokan's history. Without your support, active support and help, this significant task and the success we have experienced would have been an impossible task - but it has succeeded thanks to the strength of the community, belief in something bigger and better, and the light at the end of the tunnel, which just got bigger and bigger.
