Nisei Week Karate Exhibition and Tournament at Caltech

PASADENA, Calif.—As part of Little Tokyo's annual Nisei Week celebrations, the 47th Annual Nisei Week Karate Exhibition and Tournament will be held on August 14, at 5 p.m., at the California Institute of Technology's Brown Gymnasium, located at 1200 E. California Boulevard in Pasadena. The event is free and open to the public. The event will be hosted by Shotokan Karate of America (SKA), the oldest karate organization in America, established in 1956, and the Caltech Shotokan Karate Club.

The Caltech Shotokan Karate Club is the oldest university karate club in the United States. It was founded in 1957 by Tsutomu Ohshima, and is renowned for its direct connection to Master Gichin Funakoshi, the recognized father of modern karate. In 1955, two years before Master Funakoshi died, Ohshima, one of Funakoshi's last and most gifted students, left Japan to teach karate in the United States. Ohshima was the chief instructor, or sensei, of the Caltech Shotokan Karate Club until his retirement in 1994.

The Caltech Shotokan Karate Club's current instructor is Randy McClure, a fifth-degree black belt who has trained in Shotokan Karate for more than 30 years. Caltech's assistant instructor is Pam Logan, a fourth-degree black belt who has trained for over 20 years, and also holds a PhD in engineering. The Caltech Shotokan Karate Club will participate in this year's exhibition, presenting a synchronized kata, "Heian Yodan."

For more information on the Nisei Week Karate Exhibition and Tournament, contact Kei Teramoto at (213) 437-0988. For more information on Nisei Week Japanese Festival activities, contact the website: www.niseiweek.org.

###

Media Contact: Deborah Williams-Hedges (626) 395-3227 [email protected]

Visit the Caltech Media Relations Web site at: http://pr.caltech.edu/media