The month of May marked a special training by a group of black-belt karateka in the St Monica’s Catholic church hall in Robertson, hosted by the Robertson Kushido Karate School.
The training session was in honour of the late Hanshi Hugh St John Thomson, co-founder of Kushido international, who died in 2022. Also honoured was Mary-San St John Thomson, his late ex-wife and co-founder, who died in 1997.
The pair founded Karate-Do in 1963 and later changed the name to Kushido (Karate-Do’s Universal System for Human Individual Development and Order).
After Hanshi Hugh’s death the students of Kushido Robertson wished to commemorate him and decided on a training day.
Several karateka from all systems were invited to participate in practising kata to, and black-belt-graded students especially.
Karateka from Bonnievale, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Worcester and, of course, Robertson were present.
A total of 16 black-belt karate practitioners were present.
