Bushido Judo Kwai Senior Members in Japan

October 2007 and five Bushido Judo Kwai senior members arrived in Japan, this was the first time that any of our members had been to the homeland of judo.
Chris Dawson, Barry McSherry, Malcolm Young, Mick Clarke and Brian Batey had received an invitation to train at the dojo of Professor Shunsuke Yamasaki 7th Dan at Konan University, Kobe, Japan.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, Shin Kobe and on our first morning we were met by Kizuki San who guided us around the Japanese rail system to our final destination.
Yamasaki Sensei was pleased to see us and made us very welcome, as did all of his students, what we did'nt know until just a week or two before we left England, was that Shunsuke Yamasaki had attended Newcastle University for about a year, sixteen years priviously, and had lived in Cullercoats, North Tyneside, he was also very good friends with two very well respected local judoka - John Gallon and Charles Oughton, with whom he had trained with when they were in Japan in the sixties.
I first trained with Charles at the Hokojun Judo Club in 1961 and with John at his dojo in the mid seventies, with all of this background we were treated almost like family. Photo, Malclom Young 3rd Dan, Brian Batey 1st Dan, Yamasaki Sensei 7th Dan, Chris Dawson 6th Dan, Barry McSherry 4th Dan and Mick Clark 1st Dan.
Photo, Akitoshi Sogabe 5th Dan and Chris Dawson.
Photo, Konan Judo Squad.
BUSHIDO JUDO KWAI was founded 3rd May 1976