Tetsuo Otake

 Exactly forty years ago I came in Greece to continue

 the work of sensei Nishimura.

I have been actively engaged in karate in Greece since the establishment of its federation. Up until today, we have produced many athletes who have achieved success in European or world championships. From the sports' aspect so far, we have manifested good results so, we can say that we have been operational in the development of karate as a sport, in Greece. Nevertheless, I feel karate has been transformed in the wrong way, both in technique and in spirit. 

At present, my club is characterized by two things:

Firstly, as you know, the Greek economy is in crisis. Fortunately, despite the crisis, my club is not affected to a great degree. The number of members slightly increased in the past three or four years. This happened only in my club.

Secondly, we have a big percentage of parents and children training together. We even have whole families co-training. This is a unique phenomenon to my club. Although unemployment has reached very high levels and the atmosphere is depressed, parents, children and families continue to start karate lessons, one after the other. When I see this, I feel that Greece has the strength to recover still.

I, myself, until now, have been obliged to act within both the traditional framework and that of a sports' karate organisation, and I have been tormented by conflict about this. Now, eventually, at the latter part of my life, I manifest the marvel of parents and children doing karate together and I am very excited about this revelation. As for the future, I don't know how long I can continue to teach but, still, there are many things left to be done. Many and varied ideas are passing through my mind.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to state my thoughts, feelings and insights.