The Messenger 03.26.08

The first female world champion of karate-do (World Games 1981), Suzuko Hamasaki, will give a lecture and several demonstrations from 5:30-7 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
Scheduled in Watkins Auditorium, the lecture is titled “What Is The Way of Japanese Karate-Do?”
The event is sponsored by the Department of Modern Foreign Languages, the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the Division of Student Affairs, the Center for Global Studies and International Education and the Japanese Karate Dojo (student club). It is free and open to the public.
The presentation will be followed by a reception.
Hamasaki has practiced karate-do continuously for almost half a century. Beginning in Japan when she was six years old, under the tutelage of her father, Mitsuyasu Okamura, Hamasaki was one of the few women to engage in karate, a martial art dominated by men. As a young adult, she entered major competitions, most notably placing first in the Fifth World Karate Championships in Madrid, Spain (1980), the First World Games in Santa Clara, Calif., and the 35th All Japan Sports Championships in Shiga, Japan (1981).
Since arriving in the United States in the early 1980s, Hamasaki has taught karate, lectured and published throughout the world on the subject. She currently sits on the board of directors of the Academy of Karate-Do in Japan. Her background and the experience of having been involved in karate-do as a student, competitor, teacher, lecturer and writer have given her insight into the way in which the martial arts of Japan, and karate-do in particular, is transmitted to and received by the public.
For more information, contact Dr. Charles Hammond, UT Martin assistant professor of German, at (731) 881-7423.