Tomiyama ends week-long visit

NELSON DIRENG
Correspondent | Monday August 30, 2010 00:00

Tomiyama has been coming to Botswana since 1991, a year after the Botswana Kofukan Federation (BKF) was established and has promised to keep visiting Botswana as long as he is fit.

Speaking to Monitor Sport, Tomiyama said his visits to Botswana would now be structured differently as he will no longer conduct training sessions and grading for juniors but will instead concentrate on higher levels. 'Botswana has well-groomed athletes fit to conduct training and grading for lower levels and it is unnecessary for me to do that now,' he said.

The 60-year-old seventh dan Kofukan chief instructor said Botswana karate has developed tremendously over the years, producing some of the best athletes in the southern African region. 'At the moment Botswana boasts of having the best karate team in Southern Africa something that I view as a great achievement,' he said.

Tomiyama however said for Batswana karatekas to attain world-class standards they need to have international exposure. Commenting on Botswana's recent performance at the Africa Karate Championships held in South Africa, Tomiyama said that Botswana's only disadvantage against dominating North African teams is that they have inadequate international exposure. He said that most karatekas in the North are better off as they regularly compete in international tournaments that improve their standards. He however acknowledged that the problem Botswana is facing couldn't be blamed on anyone but lack of funds. 'It is less costly for North African teams to send their athletes to Europe than it is for Southern African teams because they are closer to Europe,' he said.Europe is considered a karate powerhouse.

Tomiyama was born in Osaka, Japan, on March 5, 1950. He started doing karate when he was 17 years old. Before then he aspired to be a boxer but after his cousin who was training as a karateka beat him in a fight he resolved that if 'you can't beat them join them'.

'My cousin and I had been arguing about which of us was better and after he proved me wrong I decided to join karate, two years down the line, I beat him in a fight,' he said.  Tomiyama's days as an instructor however started when he was just 22 years-old after completing his university. From then he moved to Europe where he conducted training sessions as an assistant trainer in different countries before returning to Japan in 1982 because his father suffered a stroke. 'I moved back home to help my father run the family business, but I moved back to Europe in 1985 where I continued as an instructor,' he said. Tomiyama's relationship with the BKF however started back in 1990 when he decided to expand the sports boundaries to countries outside Europe. One of his students Ken Johnson was an instructor in Zimbabwe and because some Botswana athletes had heard about Johnson's visit, they decided to attend the training sessions and in 1991 requested Tomiyama to visit Botswana. Tomiyama's training programmes in Botswana attracted people from different places in South Africa and that influenced the birth of the Shito-Ryu style in Botswana.

Tomiyama visits about 30 countries annually from more than three continents. In Africa, Tomiyama visits South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.