Congratulations to Shihan on receiving his Kudan (9 Dan) from the AAU Karate Program at the San Diego Super Regional, May 29^th, 2022. Thank you Ophira Bergman Sensei for organizing this very unexpected recognition happen. Thank you also to Joe Mirza, Chief Instructor of the AAU Karate Program, and to Arashiro Shihan and Gomez Sensei.

Japan has a long history of importing, synthesizing and recreating aspects of other cultures, a practice that continues to this day. The primary source of such cultural borrowing in Japan’s early history was China, whose civilization existed for centuries at a high level hardly seen in other parts of Asia. 

A young man of Western descent is said to have asked a Japanese Zen master the meaning of Zen, and the possibility of teaching him the concept. The master smiled as he poured the young man some tea. As the cup filled, the master continued to pour until the cup’s contents overflowed into the saucer and onto the table. When the young man inquired as to what the master was doing, the master replied, “You, like the cup, are too filled with your own preconceived notions, prejudices, and close-mindedness to begin to understand the concept of Zen.”