Welcome to the Nelson Shotokan home page

The Nelson Dojo is a part of Canada Shotokan Karate (CSK), and an affiliate of Shotokan Karate of America (SKA). We follow the teachings of Tsutomu Ohshima, chief instructor or shihan of SKA and a direct student of Master Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate.

What is Karate?

The ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the characters of its participants.
Gichin Funakoshi

The word karate is a combination of two Japanese characters: kara, meaning "empty," and te, meaning "hand;" thus, karate means empty hand. Adding the suffix -do (pronounced "doe"), meaning "way," i.e., karate-do, implies karate as a total way of life that goes well beyond the self-defense applications. In traditional karate-do, we always keep in mind that the true opponent is oneself.

About the Nelson BC Dojo

             The Nelson BC Dojo was founded in 1994 by Mike Panian (sandan). Practicing karate since 1974 he always maintained an open mind to understand and polish his techniques and pass it on to his students. In the year 2000 he was promoted yodan and in 2004 Mike moved away from Nelson to take on a new job.
             Len Butler (nidan) took over the Dojo, he was one of Mike's first Nelson students. He continued leading the Karate group with strong focus on "making the techniques work", a principle that Mike always made a priority.
             In 2011 Len got a new work assignment and had to leave Nelson. A small but dedicated group of 10 members are now practicing with Klaus Plaumann (shodan) as Dojo leader.
             We always welcome new members, just drop in for a class and find out if you like our practice.