_Immediately what comes to mind is the oriental world of the graceful Crane bird.

As to the spirit world, the Phoenix bird symbolizes immortality and the resurrection of life after death.  Only one Phoenix exists at one time, which would suggest only one Kata.  The Phoenix was usually depicted as the Heron but in classic literature as a Peacock or an Eagle.

The first movement to the side could suggest the Crane bird warding of an attacker, the forward movement could indicate the flapping of the wings in an attack.

The movement at 45° suggests the Heron bird stalking it pray, close to the waters edge and the middle knuckle thrust could be deduced as the beak of the Heron bird piercing it’s pray.

From the low stance, and rising with both hands aloft, this could be the Graceful display of the Peacock bird, signifying detail, precision, colour and beauty.

And the last move is the representation of a Peacock bird, display it’s non-compliance to be approached, the Kiai (the shout for spirit) is quite daunting.

George Andrews

Cambridge Goju Ryu celebrated it's second birthday today with a special three hour open course. Thank you to all those that came to support the club and a special thanks to the guest instructors Sensei George Andrews and Sensei Dave Amber.

After a quick warm up we split into two groups. Whilst the junior grades practiced a variety of self defence techniques with Sensei Dave, the black and brown belts recieved instruction on Sanchin kata from Sensei George. After a brief break Sensei George introduced the junior grades to Sanchin and the senior grades practiced basic techniques with movement and a decent amount of conditioning led by Sensei Martin.

We concluded our training as a group with makiwara training making good use of the crash mats for both punching and kicking.

Thanks again to all the participants for making this course a success.

The OTGKA was invited to demonstrate at two Japanese events in London last year.  The first event was Okinawa Day, held in Spitalfields in June. The two photos below were taken by Stephen Chung (click here for more photos).

This was followed by a demonstration at Japan Matsuri in September.  This photo was taken by Laura Hilton-Smith, winning 3rd prize in the photography awards.