🌟 A Truly Special Week at Gold Coast Chito-Ryu Karate! 🌟
We were honoured to welcome the Third Generation Soke of Chito-Ryu Karate to our dojo this week, accompanied by Higuchi Kyoshi. Soke taught across all classes — Little Champions, Karate Kids, Seniors, and Kobujutsu — sharing his incredible knowledge, precision, and passion with every student on the floor.
We were also privileged to have Martin Phillips Renshi from Sunshine Coast Karate and Anthony Horgan Sensei from Brisbane Karate join us for this unforgettable visit.
Opportunities like this remind us how fortunate we are to train with some of the best instructors in the world. Their guidance elevates our skills, deepens our understanding of Chito-Ryu, and inspires the continued growth and confidence of all Gold Coast students — from our youngest Little Champions to our dedicated senior members.
Thank you to everyone who made this visit possible, and to all students who trained with such enthusiasm and spirit.
🥋 We’re already looking forward to welcoming them back for the 2026 Soke Cup! 🥋
It was a pleasure to welcome Martin Phillips Shihan , Sandra Phillips Shihan and members of the Sunshine Coast Chito-Ryu Karate dojo to the Gold Coast for a Brown & Black Belt training seminar. There was lots of great energy and sharing as the senior instructors shared their understandings and experience to help everyone better understand Chito-Ryu Karate technique.
For an outsider looking in it is often the question of what advanced techniques do senior karateka do at these special seminars? But for the serious karateka it is not so much about learning new advanced techniques, but more a matter of developing the basic techniques to an advanced level of understanding so that they can be applied in a broader range of applications.
The session started with kihon with Sandra Philips Sensei leading the way helping students understand how to develop more explosive effective techniques. The repetition building muscle memory and spirit as everyone pushed each other to go further and further. This was followed by a focus on kata and trying to incorporate any insights that had arisen from the kihon practice with the senior instructors observing and passing on advice were required.
The next session was led by Adam Higgins Sensei exploring applying the basic principals of seichusen (centreline) and being able to move to a strong position to attack the opponents centreline without over committing. From this position of strength the next stage was to be in an alert ready state to take advantage of the opponents next movement. The use of training knives was added for a bit more fun.
The final part of the training covered Chito-Ryu bunkai with detailed explanation of Niseishi Bunkai and Henshuho 1-28 by Martin Phillips Shihan. Each technique was expertly demonstrated in the most correct form, then with different size partners and finally some variations where hinted at for future study.
A fantastic day of training that left all attendees with a few more pieces of the karate puzzle to continue to explore. Everyone is looking forward to the next Queensland Brown & Black Belt seminar on the Sunshine Coast on June 6.
** More photos can be found on the QLD Chito-Ryu Karate Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/QLDChitoRyu
On Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 November we were fortunate to host Soke Sensei as part of his annual Australian tour. Soke Sensei was accompanied by one of his senior students and master of kobudo Higuchi Kyoshi. Shihan Martin Phillips from the Sunshine Coast dojo also came down for the 2 days of training.
In a world were there are lots of different martial arts schools of all different flavours (and new flavours being invented every day) we are very fortunate to have access to the real budo arts through our Chito-Ryu family. To see the benefits of training diligently in a style of karate that has many layers to it, and what can be achieved through years of dedicated training is truly inspirational. To have Soke Sensei visit our dojo and share his knowledge is a true honour.
Soke Sensei took the regular classes starting with our Little Champions (4-7yrs) on the Wednesday night.
Little Champions Karate Class with Soke Sensei and Higuchi Sensei
The young kids loved the opportunity to train under Soke Sensei’s guidance and where very eager to show their best. They particularly loved getting to be koalas jumping onto and hanging on the bags.
Little Champions Koala’s with Soke Sensei and Phillips Shihan
The juniors class (8-11yrs) was a good test of spirit with lots of jumping to make the kids work hard.
Soke Sensei had the kids doing lots of jumping.
Soke Sensei overseeing the Juniors karate class
Wednesday Nights Junior Class with Soke Sensei
The final class with the seniors was lots of basics and hard work for the first half and then splitting into groups for the second half. The beginners got to work with Soke Sensei which was a great thrill for them, the intermediate levels did some work on kicking with Martin Phillips Shihan, whilst the seniors spent their time with Higuchi Sensei working on kobudo.
Wednesday Nights Senior Class with Soke Sensei
Thursday night saw some good numbers of keen kids in the first class which was a combination of the Little Champions and the Juniors. Once again the kids were keen to impress Soke Sensei with their attitude and karate.
Soke Sensei working with the Juniors
Thursdays combined Little Champions and Juniors Karate Class with Soke Sensei
The second class was a special kobudo class for 1st kyu and above with Higuchi Sensei. Higuchi Sensei has a great way of teaching where he is very encouraging and adds layers to your technique as your confidence grows. His enthusiasm is contagious and the 50 minute session went very quickly.
Bo training under the watchful eye of Higuchi Sensei.
The final session was again another good hard workout with lots of basics finishing with a run through all the kata up to Sanchin. For many of the students it was the first time they had seen some of these kata and the first time they had seen a karateka of Higuchi Sensei’s level perform kata. After speaking to some of the students afterwards they said it was a very impressive sight. The other observation from some of the senior students was how they could see the clear progression in technique from Sensei Adam to Phillips Shihan to Higuchi Kyoshi. Once again the depth of knowledge in Chito-Ryu Karate and the benefits of years of dedicated training was evident. Interestingly when some of the senior students remarked to Higuchi Sensei how impressed they were with his technique, Higuchi Sensei just shook his head and pointed to Soke Sensei indicating that he has some ways to go to reach Soke Sensei’s level.
The second half of the final session had Sensei Martin, Sensei Adam, Senpai Monica and Kazumi continue to work on weapons, this time with the sai. The remainder of the group continued to work very hard with lots of jumping kicks and kumite drills. There were some very sweaty bodies by the time the class ended.
An enjoyable dinner with our special guests to finish their trip to the Gold Coast. Soke Sensei discussed a little about the different paths of karate being sports karate and real karate. He discussed the secrets contained within kata and how when the student is ready to seriously study kata and real karate they will move away from the sports karate side of things (thanks Kazumi for helping translate). I felt we only scrapped the surface of the conversation and it is one I would like to continue at a future date.
The end of enjoyable few days of training leaving us all with lots to think about and work on, plus lots of inspiration to continue our studies of Chito-Ryu Karate-Do.
Thank you to the GC Chito-Ryu Karate Club Inc. who financed Soke Sensei’s visit to the dojo. As always it is a great investment in to the future of Chito-Ryu Karate-Do on the Gold Coast.
It was great for Gold Coast karateka to get an opportunity to train with Soke Sensei, the head of Chito-Ryu Karate-do on the Sunshine Coast this weekend. Soke Sensei was visiting the Sunshine Coast as the first part of his 2017 Australian Tour. Accompanying Soke Sensei was Higuchi Kyoshi, and Minowa Renshi.
Sam Lenton and Kazumi Tominaga were fortunate enough to attend both Saturday and Sunday with Sensei Adam joining them on the Sunday. Training on the Sunday consisted of lots of basics with Soke Sensei, a little bit of kumite drills with Higuchi Sensei and then Soke Sensei took the lower ranks through lots of kicking whilst Higuchi Sensei took the senior group through Ryukyu Kobudo with Bo, Sai and Nunchaku. A great day of training shared with the Sunshine Coast crew.
It is the Gold Coasts turn on Wednesday and Thursday as we host the second leg of the Australian Tour. The class schedule is the same as normal with the exception of the Thursday Family class which has been replaced with a special Kobudo class for 1st kyu and above.
Wednesday 29 November
4:00-4:40 Little Champions
4:50-5:45 Juniors
6:00-8:00 Seniors & Intermediate Juniors
Thursday 30 November
4:00-4:50 Little Champions & Juniors
5:00-5:50 Kobudo (1st Kyu and above)
6:00-8:00 Seniors & Intermediate Juniors
Don’t forget to check in to the classes using your Zenplanner app!
Attendees of the Soke Sensei Seminar at the Sunshine Coast Chito-Ryu Dojo with Soke Sensei, Higuchi Kyoshi, Minowa Renshi, Martin Phillips Shihan, Sandra Phillips Shihan, Adam Higgins Sensei
