The Winter Beach Training in Enoshim Beach, Japan

On January 12th, 2020, the Kanto Region of Itosu-kai Japan hosted the 59th annual Winter Beach Training at Enoshima beach, Fujisawa city, Japan. The purpose of the winter training is to strengthen our body and mind by practicing in such a cold season. It is a very popular training way in any traditional martial arts in Japan.

This time, about 200 members gathered in the beach from the Kantro Region (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, Gunma, Yamanashi) for it. The event started from 10:30 am at a beach house with new year’s greeting by Soke Sakagami. After that, we moved to the beach and ran about 2km. Then, we had basic practice, Pinan kata training and also tried Kiba-sen (The Horse Riding Fight). After warming up enough, we got in the water. It is the climax of this event. It was sunny on the day but still very cold to get into the ocean. We got into the water by doing Oi-zuki (moving practice) but some people even swam there! The beach training was over in 2 hours. Some people might feel it was very long but some may not for such an exciting practice.

This year, we had guests from Swedish branch: The chief instructor of Sweden, Sensei Göran Crafoord and his wife Helen. They came all way over to Japan to participate in this event. We’re sure they enjoyed it! We are looking forward to some members from oversea branches joining in this event next year.