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GALLERY — NOVEMBER 2005. ONAGA KAICHŌ'S FIRST VISIT TO LATVIA & EUROPE
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November 11, 2005, Morning Class — Eriks Annuskas hosted Onaga Kaichō and his delegation visited at his Dōjō: Club Neguss located in the town of Jurmala.
Standing from left to right : Eriks Annuskans, Jimmy Mora, Onaga Yoshimitsu Kaichō, Onaga Michiko Sensei & Miyahira Tōru.
Sitting from left to right : Viktors Radcenko, ...
Our visit to Club Neguss offered us a glimpse into the Soviet Era, when martial artists in Latvia had to practice and learn their art underground. At the time, only members of the military, police, or other government agencies received formal training on hand-to-hand combat. Club Neguss is located in a Soviet Era building, with some of the "old equipment" still in plain view.
For many years, members of Club Neguss heard about Machiwara boards and tried to build one using Soviet principles: "Big, Inflexible and Rugged". Since the Machiwara is one of the most misunderstood training tools in Okinawan Karate, Onaga Sensei spent several hours explaining the principles on the construction of a Machiwara Board, as well as how to propperly train with it.
Based on the principles of Ti, the Machiwara that was built by the guys at Club Neguss was too big and too rigid. However, regardless of this setback, Michiko Sensei agreed to demonstrate a few of her moves...
November 11, 2005, Afternoon Class — Onaga Kaichō continued teaching the rest of the afternoon, presenting multiple principles of his Karate.
One of the most interesting tools in Okinawan Karate is the "chishi". During the seminar, some of our Russian guests brought their own Chishi. Unfortunately, their chishi design was not correct: it was too heavy, and the handle was too narrow. But Onaga Kaicho still presented some ideas on how to use the chishi.
This was the end of several days of training sessions with a smaller class of adults and teenagers.
At the end of the class, Onaga Kaichō tested my student Artis Pabriks for his Sho Dan and me for my Yon Dan. Michiko Sensei started running us through some of the basic Katas: Dai Ichi Kihon Gata, Dai Ni Kihon Gata, Naifuanchi Sho Dan, etc.
Afterwards, we finished reviewing all the Naifuachi and Pinan Katas.
It was an intense experience for Artis and I to finish our test in fornt of Onaga Kaichō and everyone else who was watching.
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