On Sunday, May 19, 2024 at the sports hall in Warsaw, 44 Zwycięzców Street, „Turniej Mistrzów” – the International Champions Cup 2024 was held in Budo – a cross-sectional competition in various martial arts, which is held by the European Budo Association every two years. There were also competitions related to karate, jujitsu MMA, kobudo, battodo, tanto-jutsu, sports chanbara and even taekwondo. It was another step on the way to integrating the martial arts taught by soke sogo budo – hanshi Tomasz Piotrkowicz into one Mushin-ryu Bu-jutsu system. 85 athletes from 4 countries (Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Slovakia) competed in the Champions Cup. The main judge was hanshi Tomasz Piotrkowicz 10th dan, and among the judges there was also a karate instructor from India. The best player of the Tournament was renshi Krzysztof Jerzykowski 4th dan battodo, 3rd dan chanbara, 2nd dan kobudo from the Samurai School, and the best player was sensei Małgorzata Szczepańska 2nd dan battodo, 2nd dan chanbara, 1st dan karate training at the Warsaw Karate Center and Samurai School. They both received antique Japanese vases.
During the Champions Cup, hanshi T. Piotrkowicz, as the president of the European Budo Association, presented a special award on the occasion of 33 years of activity in the field of Japanese martial arts budo to shihan Michał Piotrkowicz 6th dan and the medal of the Association for the promotion, outstanding activity and development of budo arts all over the world to O-sensej Paweł Bombolewski 6th dan from Szczecin.
On the occasion of the Champions Cup, the European Budo Association awarded medals for outstanding achievements in budo to the following martial arts masters:
1. Takemasa Okuyama 10th dan karate, world-renowned karate and jujitsu trainer, president of the World Budo Federation,
2. Professor Jan Harasymowicz 4th dan judo, 3rd dan karate, coach of judo, fencing, Unifight, football, advisor to the Ministry of Sports of Mexico, professor and lecturer of physical culture,
3. Robert Sworek 8th dan karate, one of the precursors of karate in Poland, president of the Shotokan World Organization, karate and judo trainer, author of a series of books on karate kata,
4. Paweł Bombolewski 6th dan karate, head coach of the Bushikan Karate Club, multiple karate world champion, representative in Poland of several world martial arts federations,
5. Michał Piotrkowicz 6th dan karate, 6th dan battodo, 6th dan chanbara, multiple world champion in karate, kobudo, spochan, outstanding tameshigiri expert, painter and conservator of works of art and weapons.
The Association’s medal for outstanding achievements in martial arts was also posthumously awarded to hanshi Yoji Yamanaka (1945 – 2020), 8th dan battodo, 8th dan iaido, one of the leaders of Zen Nihon Battodo Renmei, a great friend of the Samurai School and the Piotrkowicz trainers: father and son.
Detailed results and a photo gallery can be found on the Polish website:
