This year, IOGKF received one of the best gifts it could ever wish for: a new home in Brazil. Our Honbu Dojo (headquarters dojo) has moved from the small town of Guriri-ES to the state capital, Vitória.
Kominka, the name chosen by the couple Zé Mário Sensei (IOGKF Brazil Chief Instructor) and Rosi Sensei for our new Dojo, is the term for traditional Okinawan houses, primarily constructed from wood before World War II.
It was with wood and their own hands that the Monteiro family built as if accepting a challenge, the IOGKF Brazil Honbu Dojo. But what was the motivation behind this endeavor?
I will try to explain:
Our Chief Instructor had the opportunity to live in Okinawa, Japan, for over a month along with a Brazilian delegation (which also included Rosi Sensei and Carol Sensei), as a scholarship recipient of a program for the promotion of traditional Okinawan karate as an intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO, sponsored by the Japanese government. It was during this cultural immersion in Okinawa that he was touched by the beauty of the simplicity of a Kominka when visiting the Naha City Museum, the capital of Okinawa Island, the point of being etched, in high relief, in the Sensei's memory. Kominka.
It was as an act of gratitude for the "kindness, affection and receptivity" they received from the people of Okinawa that the couple Zé Mário and Rosi decided to leave Guriri where they had an established life, and move to Vitória. Their main goal with the challenging move was to "disseminate traditional Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate" and also to transmit to the Brazilian public "all the beauty of Okinawa Island, its people, and its wonderful culture." The construction of the new headquarters dojo was the result of this desire.
All this energy resulted in what I believe to be a watershed moment in the history of IOGKF Brazil. Allow me, will be repetitive: Kominka Dojo is the honbu dojo (headquarters) of IOGKF in Brazil. It is the representation of IOGKF - International Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate-do Federation, the largest worldwide organization of Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate.
The building is the result of an act of courage and nobility that will surely be rewarded with the freshness of good winds and good fortune.
Being an old house does not make Kominka sound obsolete, old, or outdated. On the contrary, if the old house, after going through so many storms, is still standing, it is a force of perseverance, it is a shelter and a welcome that resists the effects of time. 温故知新 [Onkochishin]
"Sometimes it is necessary to jump into the emptiness."
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