Nick Adamou
My brother, Pauline Bhindra (nee Laville) and I were told by Kanazawa Sensei that we should attempt our Shodan at the Blackfriars dojo in December 1967. We were all successful in achieving this and what was especially nice was that Pauline was the first woman to achieve the grade of black belt in the UK. That evening, after the grading, Kanazawa sensei took the three of us out to London for an expensive meal to celebrate our success.

S.A.
When did Kanazawa sensei finally leave the UK? How did this affect you and what happened after he left?

N.A.
After his three year stay in the UK, Kanazawa sensei left England for Dusseldorf (Germany) where Nagai sensei was based. Although I was lucky to be taught by three other brilliant Japanese instructors at the Blackfriars dojo, namely Sensei's Enoeda, Takahashi and Sumi, there could be no one to replace my 'Master' who I had trained under for nearly five days a week for practically every week of his stay in the UK. He had made such a deep impression on my life and the lives of my fellow karate-ka, Mick (Michael) Randall and my brother Chris. Whilst we continued to train under sensei's Enoeda, Takahashi and Sumi, we also trained very hard on our own, in lessons that were 'carbon copies' of those that we had trained in under Kanazawa sensei. Eventually we opened up our own dojo at the Ross Wylde Hall in Walthamstow and a short time after this, the Winchmore Hill dojo was opened in 1968. It was in that same year that I reached the finals of the KUGB kata competition but had to withdraw due to an injury which I had sustained in the kumite. The three of us were incredibly close, brought together by the joyous and sometimes, heartbreaking journey of this beautiful art form called Karate-do. How right our 'Master' had been when he used to say that Karate is fight with yourself. As time went on, Mick Randall and my brother started up there own company producing and selling Makiwara and in 1969 all three of us travelled to Dusseldorf so that Kanazawa sensei could test the Makiwara. It was so good that he immediately endorsed the product. Whilst in Dusseldorf we were invited to train at Nagai sensei's dojo with Kanazawa sensei instructing and had to do free style with Nagai sensei's students.

S.A.
It must have been great to meet your master again. Were you keen to invite him to the UK to teach now that you, Chris and Mick had your own dojo?

N.A.
Yes. Definitely! Kanazawa sensei was invited to the UK from Germany whilst he was resident there and then later on, from Japan to instruct on two or three day courses that we organised. This was no easy task, and we couldn't do this on our own as he was in such high demand world wide and throughout the whole of the year

S.A.
How does Shiro Asano fit into the story Nick?

N.A.
The very first time that I heard about Asano sensei, as far as I can remember, was when I was a 3rd Kyu. Kanazawa sensei was explaining Asano sensei's favourite free-style technique which was Mae/Mawashi-Geri, a technique which consisted of changing a chudan (stomach height), Mae-geri (front kick) into a jodan (head height), Mawashi-Geri (roundhouse kick) at the very last moment. He could do this with incredible speed and the final kick was very hard to block.

The first time that I ever trained under Asano sensei was when he visited the Blackfriars honbu dojo and again, as far as I can remember I was a 2nd Kyu. On this occasion, he invited any student to pair up with him for Gohon-Kumite. At the time, Asano sensei was a 4th Dan and each of his Oi-Zuki's (stepping punch) was so fast that it just couldn't be blocked and he therefore pulled each punch just a few centimetres short of the target. Those that paired up with him were so shocked after the first attack, that Asano sensei needed only to blow at them in a friendly and joking manner to cause the student to over react and convulse backward, almost falling over in the process. Although he was a truly brilliant karate-ka, instructor and exponent of freestyle, he was a very friendly and approachable person. Eventually, he settled in Nottingham with a large following of very loyal students.

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