Daphne Leister

I was born in Plymouth, Devon in August 1956 and spent virtually the first 11 years of my life living abroad, as my parents loved to travel. We lived in Aden in the Middle East and Gibraltar and we visited Africa, Egypt, Spain and Italy on our journeys. I guess ‘wander-lust’ was therefore stitched into my soul from a very early age.

We settled back in Plymouth for my high school years and when I left school I joined the National Health Service (NHS) as a student nurse. I remained in the NHS for the next 30 years, in various roles - in latter years, up to 2005, I was a Senior Manager in Infomatics, specialising in interfacing and project management. My final role involved working with a team of specialists who were leading the government’s latest initiative to install a common IT system to all hospitals in England. I was leading the technical stream for one of the first hospitals designated to receive this system.

In January 1981 I left Plymouth to live in Camberley, Surrey and by 1982 I had three children, Melanie, Daniel and James. I first came in to contact with Karate in 1986 when I was working in the Accident and Emergency Department and was sent on a self-defence course – and A/E was a pussycat in those days!! The tutor was a karate instructor and following a very enjoyable course, he persuaded me to join his club, as he felt that I had a natural aptitude for self defence (it was definitely all that work in A/E). I also have my dear brother to thank for using me as a sparring partner every time he saw a sporting technique on TV that appealed to him, when we were children.

The rest is history really – I joined Sensei William Cuzzocrea’s Goju-Ryu club and loved it from day one. He was a fit and able instructor, who also taught the army guys who were stationed just up the road in Sandhurst. As my early sparring partners were all healthy army men I simply had to get aerobically fit quickly to survive. The club folded a few years later when I was a 5th Kyu and I immediately joined Sensei Leonard Sim in Wokingham, who was, at the time, a member of the I.O.G.K.F. which was founded by Sensei Morio Higaonna and Sensei James Rousseau in 1979. I have been with Sensei Len ever since. A split occurred in the I.O.G.K.F. in 1993 and my sensei chose to leave and go with our chief instructor Sensei James Rousseau - and so Goju-Ryu Karate-Do International (GKI) was formed. Sensei Len is the Chairman of this Association and to date he has over 40 years experience in Goju-Ryu. I attained San Dan status in 2001 and since then my interest has also been leaning towards Kobudo, with a view to enhancing my karate.

I have attended many Gashukus over my 20 years, both in England and in South Africa and Sweden and whenever a weapons course arose I could also be spotted in the crowd.

I had known Andre for many years, but in 2004 love blossomed between us and we became a couple. We married a year later in February 2005 and then, being of like minds and interests, we decided to quit the ‘rat race’ and take off for a year travelling to investigate and study Kobudo and karate. It was a fantastic year, of which nearly 5 months were spent in Okinawa. I have been fortunate to have trained under so many skilled and dedicated masters, who have many, many, years experience under their belts in karate. People like: Senseis Morio Hiagonna, James Rousseau, Leonard Sim, William Cuzzocrea, George Andrews, Ernie Molyneaux, Linda Marchent, Gary Webber, Kevin Nason, Paul Coleman, Braams Peens, Tony de Beer, Arnold de Beer, Chuck Merriman, Michael Mancusio, Kancho Uehara Ko, Kamimura, Nakamoto and Tedanoski Yasuda spring to mind.

I am now pulling together all the knowledge I have gained from these great people over my 20 years of dedicated study and am moving forward with my husband, to running our own dojo. It is another new venture for us and we have termed it ‘Karate for Kids’.

Graded with the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinko Kai, at Sensei Akamine Dojo in Kobudo and was honoured to represent and demonstrate Sakugawa no Kon Sho a Bo Kata for the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinko Kai on 1st November 2005.

Was honoured to demonstrate Shisochin for the Jundokan at Eiichi Miyazato Sensei 7th Memorial, at the Budokan, Okinawa.

While in Okinawa during 2005 we found our home for Kobudo at the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinko Kai and a fantastic teacher and grandmaster in its President, Hiroshi Akamine Kaicho. We have now spread the word of Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinko Kai in the form of opening our own Doko Kai, under the tutelage of Akamine Sensei and we are also touring different Dojo’s to pass on our experience.