The master is still a student

KOCHI: He took to karate at age nine and six decades later, Zenpo Shimabukuros interest in the martial art has not gone down one bit.

The 67-year-old Japanese Master holds the worlds highest-ranking 10 {+t} {+h} Dan Red Belt but Shimabukuro says he is a student all the time.

�You keep learning forever, in fact, every time you teach, you keep learning new things, he said at a city hotel on Friday. He has come to Kochi to open The Budo Academy, a modern martial arts centre at Kakkanad.

There is a big campaign to include karate in the Olympics but Mr. Shimabukuro feels that such a move could kill the martial art. The Budo Academy will have special weekend hours for schoolchildren and evening sessions for working people