Okinawa lives in Spain

A sturdy man hitting a huge block of hard wood in a Spanish beach, again and again. But he was not your typical show-off freak so common on social media. There was technique, control, rhythm, and lots and lots of power.

We started following all their posts, videos and pictures of hardcore serious traditional training.

Then there was the dojo. 
The place looks like straight out of a movie, with a size and style that very few dojos even in Japan can achieve.

Destiny put a family trip to Spain in the horizon, and with Walking The Path still on the drawing board, we decided to contact the dojo and ask for an interview.

The Shubukan dojo is located in the outskirts of Madrid, in the middle of an industrial center, surrounded by grey and souless warehouses and wasteland…the perfect preface to a great surprise. 

Spaniards take their summer holidays very seriously, that’s why it was so surprising to find so many people gathered to welcome us in the middle of August. Everyone was very polite and disciplined, but friendly and welcoming at the same time.

Cifuentes Sensei meets all the legendary requirements for a martial arts master.> Small in size, but solid as a rock. Soft spoken and smiling when outside the dojo but after putting his Gi on and tying his Obi, a spark appeared in his eyes and the whole atmosphere changed.

After a formal introduction, we started a small tour, starting with the reception and a photo gallery of masters and visitors, stopping in front of two big red wooden doors that without warning were open to our amazed eyes. The visual impact of the Shubukan dojo comes together with an amazing strike of wooden aroma as 90% of the enormous dojo is made of the best quality wood.

The class started with calm and discipline,  and that was the the norm for almost 2 hours, but the sweat, the blood and a general intensity grew more and more, as Cifuentes Sensei, like any other passionate martial arts practitioner kept sharing techniques, insights and amazing stories.

We connected with him immediately, our katas may be different, the names of some techniques may differ, but the passion that keeps you sharing and talking to someone you just met happens just in the martial arts world.

In a world that seems to revere blindly anything modern and technological, the Shubukan appears as an oddity. Here, the teacher and his students, young and old, male and female insist in following the old ways of a distant Japanese island, by using the traditional techniques and tools of training, sometimes painful, sometimes boring, sometimes repetitive.  You know, the way Budo is suppose to be.

Stay tuned as we release our first episode of Walking the Path: Okinawa in Spain.