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After the successful launch and sell-out of TINO The Father of Australian Karate in 2022, we decided to launch an audiobook version in 2024. This has been well received and is an exciting addition to the ways you can enjoy sharing the adventure of this popular karateka and teacher of martial arts.
Tino Ceberano Hanshi celebrated his 83rd birthday this year. It was not possible for him to narrate over 24 hours of his biography, so we used elements of AI to assist the project.
We cloned his voice from an interview on Channel 9 in 1992 with Bert Newton. This formed the base voice for the AI generated narrative. It is exciting to hear the book told in the younger voice of Tino Hanshi.
See www.tinoceberano.com.au/audiobook. You have a choice of two products. One is a digital download so you can then save it to your folder of choice on your PC, share it to your phone and listen anywhere you choose. I enjoy using the bluetooth player in my car where the sound is crisp and loud.
The other product is a custom designed USB with the cover art of the book printed on it. It’s ideal for posting anywhere locally or in the world so you have a physical product to keep.
After five years of research, interviews, planning and several interruptions due to COVID, the book launch of Tino Ceberano Hanshi’s biography will kick off on Sunday 25th Sept 2002 in Melbourne, the day following his 81st birthday. It is a great celebration of his life, achievements and dedication to the martial arts. Many of his students and peers will attend the official launch and other training workshops.
The book launch website is www.tinoceberano.com.au. Signed books will only be available in 2022 and there is a limited print run. You can register your interest by going to the Contact page and sending your name, email and message. Otherwise email info@tinoceberano.com.au.
The price is AU$49.95 plus freight when being mailed. If you’re in Melbourne we’re more likely to invite you to an event or arrange delivery. Keeping contact with everyone is paramount to keep the martial arts spirit alive and recognise everyone’s history and story who have been connected with Tino Hanshi.
There are a range of training workshops in Victoria and Queensland in Sept/Oct 2022. Come along and meet Tino Ceberano Hanshi to get your signed book. This is a one-off opportunity.
Tino Ceberano Hanshi was invited to the prestigious General Choi Hong Hi Awards, one of the most prestigious ITF Taekwon-Do Hall of Honours in the world, on Nov 28th 2020. ITF is the International Taekwon‑Do Federation.
With formal recognition by the Taekwon-Do community, Tino Hanshi was presented with a certificate for his Outstanding Contribution in the Australian Martial Arts. He accepted his award with a speech to which he received a standing ovation.
The event, held at Moreton Bay Function Room, North Lakes, Queensland, celebrated those with notable achievements in the art and sport of Taekwon-Do. Tino Hanshi was very humbled and grateful for his nomination to the Hall of Honours hosted by President Grandmaster Jamie Moore.
In the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours, prolific Australian recording artist KateCeberano AM was appointed Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts, particularly music, as a singer, songwriter and entertainer, and to charitable organisations.
It would be a rare event for two members of any family to be given such a high level of recognition for eminent service to the community but that is exactly what has happened when Tino Ceberano Hanshi OAM was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia for his contributions to karate in the Queens Birthday Honours on Mon 10th June 2019.
The announcement of The Order of the Medal of Australia award was made on the Queens Birthday Honour list and presented on 30th October 2019 by His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, Governor of Brisbane at Government House in Brisbane.
Tino Hanshi, accompanied by Emma Ceberano, Alan Hesketh Kyoshi and Barry Johnston Shihan, attended the morning Investiture Ceremony when the medal was presented. It is an exciting day when, after 53 years of devotion to the martial arts in this country, Tino Hanshi was officially recognised and awarded by the community for his services.
The OAM was awarded for service to karate as a martial arts practitioner, instructor, consultant and karate school owner, as founding member, life member, national coach and referee for the Australian Karate Federation, and through leadership roles in the World Karate Federation and other international organisations.
tgi is The Garden Island, Kauai’s newspaper since 1901. Caleb Loehrer, Journalist, published his recent interview with Tino Ceberano Hanshi on August 25th 2019. He met with Tino Hanshi during a recent visit to his home island at the newspapers’ office in Lihue, Kauai. The article is reproduced here with all credits to Caleb and The Garden Island.
Caleb Loehrer, Journalist, The Garden Island
Constantino “Tino” Ceberano grew up in the 1940s on the South Side of Kauai, where he learned to scrap with the other boys who lived in the McBryde Sugar Plantation camps.
He went on to become a martial arts master and one of the most influential karate instructors in Australia, where he was recently awarded one of the country’s highest honors — Medal of the Order of Australia — for service to karate. He teaches Japanese gojukai goju-ryu karate, a traditional Okinawan martial arts discipline whose name translates literally to “hard-soft style.”
His martial arts style is complicated, the product of influences drawn from cultures and disciplines spanning countless centuries and a dozen time zones, but the underlying principle is a simple one — “The straighter the line the shorter the distance.”
Ceberano explained that concept during a recent interview at The Garden Island’s office in Lihue. This is how it went.
When were you born?
Before Pearl Harbor was bombed — September of 1941. And now I’m gonna be 78.
I left Kauai, heading out to go to Honolulu, and in 1959 I joined the Marines. I, in fact, was one of the first inductees when Hawaii became a state.
Why did you join the Marines in 1959?
It was an attraction for the uniform. And the thing that I also looked at — I mean, coming from here, right — it’s always been something of an attraction for me, what was beyond the blue sea, what was beyond the blue Pacific there. And you know what? I’ve already traveled to 48 countries in my time.
Were your parents born and raised here also?
No, my parents are Filipinos. My grandparents migrated here back in 1925 — and that was with my mom, who was still a little girl then — and settled in Koloa. Can you imagine that, man? They all worked in the sugar industry.
My mom, she started here in Kauai and never got to high school — just got through the early years of studies, not even getting to secondary. But like, when I was born, and it had been like from just that period of time from the war, et cetera. Things got a little bit hard.
Adrian Labrador Senpai spars with Tino Ceberano Hanshi at Lihue, Kauai
I remember where we had lived in the sugar plantation. We were out in a place called Eleele. You know how when you go down to the Eleele road to Nawiliwili, there’s a bridge that you would cross. That bridge — below the bridge — was Camp 2. It was Camp 2 village of the McBryde Plantation.
Just where the hills just receded back into where this creek would flow — just opposite there was where our house was built. I remember the old plantation-type houses. And they was in a row of plantation houses, built alongside this river. In fact, the bridge there that you can still see from the location of where we lived had this river down at the very bottom — it was a creek, and when it sort of rained and flooded, then it was a river.
But alongside the housing, was this empty area with a big stone — a big boulder like. And I remember, even climbing up on that stone. It was just a favorite thing that I had done. Mama used to always pull me over, not to get dirty or to fall off from the big rock. And I remember those years.
Anyway, getting from there, we moved back to Koloa, where my grandparents were. And then it all got started — went to Koloa School. Then parents wanted to get on — to move on to a better place. We went up to live in Lawai, from Koloa.
As you head off down to Lawai, on the left-hand side there’s a reservoir. Right opposite the reservoir, there was a camp. There was a camp for housing — it was still McBryde Plantation. We occupied that first house, right opposite the reservoir.
And that was where I virtually grew up. From about 11 years old, right on up to when I was 17.
When did you get in your first fight?
Oh OK, now was something of a real interest, because having to leave Koloa and having to go to Lawai, we had to then go to Kalaheo School. I was in the seventh grade then. I think, coming from another school, as a stranger, you get always picked over.
Kapaa Dojo – IGK Hawaii
And, of course, this was something that we’d been brought up with when we were young, especially from the camp. Every one of us used to box before from our parents teaching us how to really get into the scrapping. But we call ‘em “Duke City.”
That’s what you called the camp? Duke City? Put up your dukes?
Yeah, put up your dukes. You remember the old John Wayne movies? So all that, yeah, those were the days.
So you grew up learning how to scrap?
We had to. And then, down in the Lawai Pineapple Cannery — that area just down there — there was also a gym. The Lawai Gym. And in that Lawai Gym, we — the kids from all of that area there, Lawai — used to go down there, and we used to box.
There was a boxing class there that we had, with old guys like the name of Natividad, Bromeo, et cetera. These guys were the boxers of the time here in Kauai from that area, and this is how we got to learn our fisticuffs and kick ass.
So you started boxing first. Were you a good boxer?
Well I could have gotten into the team for Kauai. If I had not — I had an accident that got slivers of glass in my right eye, and that sort of turned off my right side. I got into a car accident in between Lawai and Koloa, and we went down the bloody pineapple gap.
I was trapped under the seat there, and glass that broke from the windscreen — slivers of glass — stuck in and cut the cornea of my right eye. And my face swelled up, et cetera. I just remember myself, like in the hospital — in Koloa Hospital there — where, after about the third day, they had to do X-rays and all that because the face was swollen. I could remember having to undergo this operation that they removed the glass, and then I had to start wearing glasses then.
So I wore glasses all the while, but I still played sport. And I got into judo as well — doing judo up in Kalaheo School. It was Dr. Rex — he was a veterinarian doctor. He was partly paralyzed on one side of his body but a very good judo player.
Sometime in late 1955 or early 1956, when Ceberano was 14 years old, he met a man who returned to Kauai from the Korean War.
He was in the Army. His name was Fred Imperial. He was formerly from Honolulu. And he came and stayed with his cousin in Lawai. And we started off the kenpo then, in training what was called the Old Pine Tree system of kenpo.
What’s that?
Tino Ceberano Hanshi & Adrian Labrador Senpai of IGK Hawaii Kapaa dojo
In Hawaii, from the late ’40s but into the mid ’50s, the local boys from Honolulu — from all the areas of the other islands as well — came and studied under one of the early pioneers of karate here that created what had been kajukenbo. It was something that was a mixture — more than that, like eclectic style of karate judo boxing, et cetera. And they called it kajukenbo.
In a 1993 interview with Centuron Negro Magazine, one of the founders of Kajukenbo, Adriano Emperado, described the fighting style he developed on the streets of Honolulu in the 1940s:
“I got together with four other black belts to train and develop a style of our own. I felt that the Kenpo Jujitsu system that I had learned lacked self defense techniques against multiple attackers or even multiple strikes. We had trained hard and fast to simply block and strike. We were developing the mentality of only facing one strike, and ending the fight with one focused punch. I started to ask myself, what if my attacker throws a number of strikes and kicks at me? What if my one well focused punch doesn’t put him down? This is why we got together.”
You still haven’t told about your first fight.
Going back into something of what I would consider the first fight that I thought that I had to do as best as I could. You remember I told you I moved from Kauai to Honolulu, right? Going to Honolulu, and I lived in a place called A‘ala Park.
A‘ala Park was in the main part of Honolulu, where we had what you would consider the roughies. And surprisingly enough — because it was just the closest place that I could live to where the Dole Pineapple Cannery was located.
Ceberano said he left home when he was “16 going on 17” in order to ease the financial burden on his father, by then a single parent, who “wasn’t having the easiest time earning his income.”
It was then that I had to come to grips with survival. I lived in a room that I rented out — it was about 10 by 10 — and I paid $30 a week, or something like that. And I had to share bath. I had to share kitchen, et cetera. And I worked at the cannery — the Dole Cannery down the road. I was on a dollar and 12 cents an hour, at the time.
Working 40 hours a week at $1.12 an hour would have brought home a weekly salary of $44.80 — the equivalent of about $400 today. Ceberano needed more than two-thirds of that total just to pay rent.
I survived for at least a year, before an uncle said to me that I gotta come and live with then. Then I decided to join the Marines. But in the mean time, I was also into the karate training up the road with Oshiro Sensei or with kenpo first.
Masaichi Oshiro opened a dojo in 1956 called the Te-Ken Jutsu Kai (Hand Fist Technique Club) at the McCully Recreation Center in Honolulu, a few miles from the A‘ala Park neighborhood Ceberano would move to a couple years later, according to the website for Hawaii Karate Seinenkai, an organization established in the 1930s by karate supporters from Hawaii’s Okinawan community.
Even after work you would go and train?
Oh yeah, all the local boys were into some kind of activity, and at that time, karate just really come out strong — really popular with everybody. But this was the era of what had been influenced by the cultural effect of being involved with the martial arts of the different ethnic groups.
Anybody opens up a dojo, people will come and challenge you. So you go and challenge and see if you can best the instructor. I never had to go and challenge. I’d be home, coming home, tired, et cetera — “Hey, where you from?” And I — “Handle your own business.” And boom! It was on!
And I came across one this particular night, just after having dinner before going home to sleep, in the pool room, playing pool. And this guy — loudmouth — was carrying on. And I suppose, I was just looking at him. You know what it was in those days — “Hey what you looking at?” I swear, it’s just a staring kind of thing, it’s offensive.
“You! Hey!” And I used to wear glasses. “Hey bubble eyes!” That sort of thing. And it was on. This guy was pretty big, and I never thought of it. I just kept on playing my pool, et cetera. He came on, and he push on me, and that was it. We just fought, and I tell you what, everybody just watch.
And this was something I’ll never forget, because, you know, in the days of what we call “Duke City” or “Beef,” they come around and they watch, but they never get in. They never jump in. And there was no such thing as, you’re on the ground and they’re kicking you or whatever. It was up, and we really went for each other. And of course I could handle myself pretty well, but this guy could handle himself.
So we really put on a show, I suppose. After that, this big guy comes in, and “Stop! Stop!” and then, “Okay, carry on.”
And then, you know, we became friends. After that even wherever we were, “Ah, come on! Let’s kalakala!” which means everybody put in a dollar to get the old Lucky Lager beer, and whatever it was, sitting down there. It was those days that I’d never regret and look back on.
In July 2019 Tino Ceberano Hanshi returned to the island of Kauai in Hawaii where he was raised. The IGK Hawaii dojo at Kapaa opened in the last year on the island. Luis Soltren Sr Shibu Cho is the head instructor and accompanied by Rodney Woodward Sensei and Adrian Labrador Senpai.
They all share a rich experience in martial arts and goju, some with a history of training under Dallas Watanabe-Grady Shihan. They have been building the student numbers and interest in the traditional ‘art of the empty hand’ we call karate-do.
Caleb Loehrer, Reporter The Garden Island
During his visit Tino Hanshi was interviewed by The Garden Island, Kauai’s local newspaper since 1901, who were intensely interested in the story of the local islander who migrated to Australia in 1966, becoming known as the father of Australian karate over five decades and being awarded the Order of the Medal of Australia for services to karate and several generations of students numbering about 10,000 by estimate.
The history of Chojun Miyagi Sensei visiting Kauai in 1934 is well documented and it was the local Kauai news outlet that sponsored his travels to Hawaii at that time. Miyagi Sensei was the founder of Goju-ryu karate. It is fascinating that this all happened seven years before a young Tino Ceberano was born on the same island.
It was not until Tino was a teenager that he was introduced to Goju Kai karate in Honolulu and in 1966 Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi gave him his blessing and instruction to take the art to Australia and promote it there. All these years later Tino Hanshi has brought the art back to Kauai and the IGK dojo at Kapaa is introducing the art to new and younger generations.
IGK Hawaii dojo at Kapaa
Tino Ceberano Hanshi, founder and Chief Instructor of the IGK was born on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. It is iconic that the IGK Hawaii dojo opened in June 2018 at the All Saints Gym, built in 1929 at the All Saints’ Church at Kapaa on the Kuhio Highway on the island of Kauai.
Tel: Luis Soltren Sr Shibu Cho, 639-4836. Email: lsoltren@hawaii.rr.com
IGK Hawaii train at Kapaa on Kauai
Just before leaving Honolulu, the office of the David Y. Ige, Governor of Hawaii, honoured Tino Hanshi with the award of a Certificate of Special Recognition, dated 7th Aug 2019, congratulating him on his Order of the Medal of Australia.
We’re indebted to Charles C. Godin from Hawaii Karate Seninkai for his in-depth research and archives and Bruce Haines for his book ‘Karate’s History & Traditions’. This post derives in part from an article written by Charles C. Godin published in Dragon Times, Volume 16, 2000.
Chojun Miyagi Sensei (April 25th 1888 – Oct 8th 1953) was an Okinawan martial artist who improved Naha-te and founded the Gōjū-ryū school of karate by blending Okinawan and Chinese influences. The history of Goju-ryu dates back hundreds of years and finds it’s origins in the Shaolin Temples of Southern China.
In 1934 Chinyei Kinjo was the editor of the Yoen Jiho Sha, a Japanese language newspaper located in Koloa on the island of Kauai, Hawaii and the major Okinawan newspaper of the time.
Kinjo invited and sponsored Miyagi Sensei to travel to Hawaii for a period of eight months. Kinjo grew up in Naha in Okinawa and had studied Goju Ryu under Chojun Miyagi Sensei, the Naha-te expert and Goju-Ryu founder.
Many Okinawans had already migrated to the islands and there was already an interest and following of the martial arts developing. As editor of the Yoen Jiho Sha, Chinyei Kinjo used his position to promote the Okinawan art of Goju-Ryu karate in Hawaii.
This visit to Oahu and Kauai is an important historic event when demonstrations and lectures paved the way in part for karate to be developed in the Hawaiian Islands.
Chojun Miyagi’s 1934 visit to Hawaii
The photo displayed here is the only one to be uncovered though others were undoubtedly taken and lost. There is myth about photos and film taken but Charles Godin has researched these paths and found none.
The Garden Island, the English language newspaper on Kauai covered the one month visit to Kauai which included events at Wahiawa, Kapaa, Makaweli Camp, Kalaheo, Koloa, Kekaha and Waimea.
In 1941, Tino Ceberano was born on Kauai. He grew up learning the martial arts of boxing, judo and kempo predominantly influenced by his Filipino father. He later moved to Honolulu training in Goju Kai karate under Anton Navas Senpai and Maisachi Oshiro Sensei, the latterwho had traveled to Japan and trained under Gogen Yamaguchi Sensei and other notable senior Goju Kai instructors Yamamoto Sensei and Takahashi Sensei as well as Meitoku Yagi Sensei in Okinawa, a noted student of Chojun Miyagi Sensei.
In 1966, Oshiro Sensei invited Gogen YamaguchiSensei and his son GoshiYamaguchiSensei to visit Hawaii. This was Yamaguchi’s first visit to the West and the occasion was celebrated with a large tournament where it was noted that Miyagi had also travelled West via Hawaii.
Gogen Yamaguchi Sensei awards Oshiro Sensei the official Shibucho or branch chief of the Hawaii Division of USA Goju Kai karate-do in 1966.
Gogen Sensei, during this visit, graded Tino Ceberano, then a senior student assistant instructor of Oshiro Sensei, to third dan. It was on this trip that Tino Ceberano, following extensive training under Oshiro and Yamaguchi Senseis, departed for Australia to help establish Goju Kai karate in that country.
Tino Sensei later became a key figure in Australian martial arts history having largely introduced and developed Goju Kai karate to Australians and helped foster the growth and rise of karate as a life style.
Tino Ceberano Shihan & Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi in Japan 1988
He enjoyed a close relationship with Gogen Yamaguchi Sensei, hosting him in Australian in 1970 and 1972 as well as visiting and training with him in Japan for many years until Gogen Sensei passed in 1989.
Tino Ceberano Hanshi is popularly known as the father of Australian karate having taught Goju Kai karate-do in many countries for 23 years and later I.G.K. (International Goju Karate) from 1989.
Tino Hanshi’s pedigree in Goju karate has lasted 62 years since his humble beginnings in Honolulu following a short stint training in Kyokushin karate with Bobby Lowe Shihan.
The historical visit of Chojun MiyagiSensei to Hawaii in 1934, introducing Goju-ryu karate was the first to a Western country, preceding Tino Hanshi’s birth in 1941 Kauai by seven years. It is of historic significance that today, the I.G.K. Hawaii dojo is in Kapaa, Kauai where Miyagi Sensei visited in 1934.
Also of historic interest is that both Tino Ceberano Hanshi and his first teacher Oshiro Sensei trained with Meitoku Yagi Sensei at one time, a noted student of Chojun Miyagi Sensei. When Tino Hanshi was graded for his 7th Dan in Okinawa, Meitoku Yagi Sensei was on the grading panel of Okinawan seniors.
Kauai remains deep in Tino Hanshi’s heart and soul. “I was a Kauai boy,” Ceberano said. “Lawai and Koloa. I used to live in the house by the reservoir in Lawai where my father used to help the reservoir caretaker. We moved to Koloa later.”
The I.G.K. Hawaii dojo opened on 13th June 2018 in the All Saints Gym, built in 1929 at the All Saints’ Church at Kapaa on the Kuhio Highway on the island of Kauai.
Luis Soltren Sr Shibu Cho is the head instructor and he is accompanied by Rodney Woodward Sensei and Adrian Labrador Senpai. They all share a rich experience in martial arts and goju, some with a history of training under Dallas Watanabe-Grady Shihan.
Karate king Tino Ceberano and his daughter Kate have always shared a strong bond- but now they also share the distinction of having received Queen’s Birthday honours.
Adapted from interview withDanielle Buckley, Albert & Logan News, June 10th 2019 – rights attributed to the Logan Albert News.
FATHER of Australian karate Tino Ceberano Hanshi says he is on “cloud nine” after joining his famous singer daughter in earning Queen’s Birthday honours.
Ceberano, 77, has pioneered the martial art in Australia and taught more than 10,000 students over the past 53 years. Yesterday he received the Medal of the Order of Australia.
While many would know his famous songstress daughter Kate Ceberano — who received Member of the Order of Australia in 2016 — not many would know how to pronounce the family name. In their native Filipino Portuguese tongue, it is said with four syllables — Ce-ber-an-o.
Ceberano grew up on the Hawaiian garden isle of Kauai. The eldest of three children, Ceberano’s migrant father was an amateur boxer who taught him Filipino stick fighting, judo and how to box.
While there were no martial arts organisations in Hawaii, Ceberano said people learned the arts by “watching someone fight or by getting into a fight themselves”.
He moved to Honolulu when he was 15 to learn karate and trained under Sensei Masaichi Oshiro.
At the time karate was relatively unknown in Australia. “There was judo, a very much combative art as well as boxing, but nothing much of karate,” Tino Ceberano said.
At 17, he joined the US Marines and, after a tour with his squad to Australia, relocated his family to Melbourne in 1966 and started teaching Goju Kai karate under the direction of the Japanese grand-master Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi. It was not long before he opened his first club or dojo in Canterbury, then Nth. Balwyn.
He was a founding member of FAKO which later became the Australian Karate Federation. He helped trained police officers and security workers and made regular appearances on radio and the Roy Hampson Show.
Today the Daisy Hill resident, who holds the nine dan rank, teaches classes around the world as Chief Instructor of International Goju Karate(I.G.K.) and works with disengaged students.
This morning, Tino Ceberano was still buzzing at the honour of receiving the medal for his services to karate.
“I am very, very much on cloud nine,” he said. “This is something I never thought would ever happen.”
Rebecca Levingston caught up with Tino Ceberano Hanshi on 7th June 2019 at the ABC Radio Brisbane studios, a few days before the Queens Birthday Honours were announced.
As it happened, Kate Ceberano had been on the programme one week before and mentioned she had a famous Dad who was a well known martial artist. ABC Brisbane decided to chase up the story and interviewed Tino Ceberano Hanshi about his life and karate.
It was a still a few days before the Queen’s Birthday and the honours list was unreleased so Tino Hanshi was unable to say a word about the imminent news. Here is the interview from Friday 7th June 2019.
Tino Ceberano Hanshi & Kate Ceberano
The I.G.K. was proud to announce on Mon 10th June 2019 that Tino Ceberano Hanshi was awarded the Order of the Medal of Australia for services to karate, reflecting the 53 years of teaching and sharing the art since his arrival here in 1966 from Hawaii.
ABC Radio Brisbane got wind that their recent guest was the recipient of the award three days after he’d been in their studios so they called him on Tues 11th June 2019 and interviewed him for a second time.
Rebecca Levingston, Mornings Presenter, with Tino & Emma Ceberano
All rights for these recorded interviews are attributed to ABC Radio Brisbane. Our thanks for sharing with I.G.K.
In the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours, prolific Australian recording artist KateCeberano AM was appointed Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts, particularly music, as a singer, songwriter and entertainer, and to charitable organisations.
It would be a rare event for two members of any family to be given such a high level of recognition for eminent service to the community but that is exactly what has happened when Tino Ceberano Hanshi OAM was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia for his contributions to karate in the Queens Birthday Honours on Mon 10th June 2019.
Kate & Tino Ceberano, Recipients of Queen’s Birthday Honours Awards
Tino Ceberano Sensei at Goju Kai Canterbury Dojo – late 1960s
In the 1960s an energetic, young visitor from Hawaii arrived on our shores who understood the benefits of physical activity for mind and body and lived the lifestyle, “walking the talk” as they say.
He promoted physical culture to us in the way he knew how, using judo and boxing clubs to attract his audiences and leading the way with his unique brand of Goju Kai karate-do, the “art of the empty hand.”
Tino Ceberano Sensei had experience both in traditional Japanese karate and he had served in the U.S Marines so he understood something about self-discipline and pushing an individual beyond their self-imposed beliefs and restraints, using exercise and the martial arts to do so.
Tino Ceberano Sensei with a flying side kick at Goju Kai Canterbury dojo – late 1960s
He was a student of physical culture with a thirst for knowledge. He quickly became an ambassador for the martial arts in Melbourne and an educator for self-defence bridging communication between varied martial arts clubs with his enthusiasm where tradition, politics and languages sometimes did get in the way of progress.
Tino Ceberano Sensei had a passion to teach and he entered a Physical Education degree at Melbourne University leading to positions as an intern physical education instructor at Balwyn High School and at Wattle Park High School.
With an easy-going nature and warm personality, people quickly warmed to Tino Ceberano Sensei. He was invited to perform demonstrations at community events, speak for local charity functions, appear at Pentridge Gaol to do a workshop with high security life serving prisoners and to appear on radio and TV which he did regularly for 10 years with a regular spot on the Roy Hampson Show on Channel 0.
Tino Ceberano, Phys Ed Intern Instructor, Wattle Park High School 1969
Tino Ceberano Shihan at Goju Kai Honbu Dojo
The young Ceberano family
The Education Department had its own internal conflicts with his regular television appearances on Channel O.
It did not approve of his growing public media profile while he was teaching and he was quietly asked to stand down from the course denying him the formal qualification he desired to gain his desired tertiary credentials.
Tino Sensei’s karate schools were growing as a direct result of his TV appearances and he was faced with choosing between his business or his desire to become a fully qualified Physical Education teacher.
He wished to complete his tertiary education but it was not to be and the growth of his karate clubs around Melbourne demanded of his time.
He stepped down quietly as requested (or subtlely demanded) and never revisited the idea of completing his tertiary studies. As he says, he was ‘just too busy’ working and teaching. For better or worse, his path as a full-time karate instructor was chosen and the name Tino Ceberano and ‘karate’ became entwined.
The teachers union did not take it so lightly and made a stand on his behalf. They went on strike and mounted a large protest at Dallas Brooks Hall in East Melbourne being the first ever teachers’ public protest in this city.
Within the first few years, word spread of this charismatic character with a big heart who went out of his way to help those who needed to improve their self-esteem, confidence and move ahead with life.
It is the nature of the martial arts that those who need it most come seeking guidance and Tino Ceberano Sensei was a patient man with time for all and he certainly devoted himself to the art, often not charging fees and giving way more than he took.
Tom Curtis Senpai & Tino Ceberano Shihan at Nth Balwyn Dojo
His students
worked hard and as they graded to high ranks, they took on teaching positions
allowing Tino to open more clubs in the suburbs and country areas.
Many of these clubs grew to host large numbers of students and over many years, there were several generations of students becoming instructors and helping more and more people. It is inevitable that some went their own way choosing their own paths and this really only served to multiply the numbers of clubs and new styles with each generation. Notable exponents of the art like Bob Jones and Richard Norton were early students of Tino Sensei and went on to develop large, successful organisations.
Tino Ceberano Shihan of Goju Kai Karate-do, Chief Instructor of Australia.
In an almost exponential fashion, the way of the martial arts was spread with leadership from the front and the Tino Ceberano home brand giving so much to so many in the only way he knew…out front doing it!
This paved the way to Australians partaking in local, national and international competition with students at a higher level often travelling to compete overseas and study with the famed grand-masters in Japan.
Tino Ceberano Shihan & Goshi Yamaguchi Shihan of Goju Kai Karate-do
Many of today’s martial arts leaders have Tino Ceberano to thank for his mentoring, friendship, influence and vision and many built entire careers and businesses due to his help and vision.
In an era when martial arts were becoming of age with lack of regulation, government control and adherence to standards, it was Tino Ceberano who formed, drove and helped fashion the new federations and sporting councils to drive the growth of karate in a safe, controlled environment so that anyone of any size or gender could train and reap the benefits.
Tino Ceberano Shihan leaps above a sweeping sword blade
Regulation in this industry and sport has been slow to evolve and mature and after 50 years, he is still tirelessly submitting to government and regulatory bodies to ensure the public have safety and reliability from the schools and clubs they attend. He remains as concerned today about the public image of the martial arts and the claims of many instructors, their teaching abilities and safety for students seeking instruction.
Over decades, Tino Ceberano met with local police, government ministers and made countless submissions to address the issues concerned with the cottage industry, home-grown martial arts clubs and schools.
Tino Ceberano Shihan with hook kick at Nth. Balwyn Goju Kai Honbu dojo
It is no coincidence that the late Don Cameron MP became a good friends and the first President of the Australian Karate Federation (AKF), an organisation that Tino Ceberano was key in founding and directing.
Tino Ceberano Sensei in his drive and passion to teach his skills ended up unwittingly creating a public health program of sorts, not envisioned by local government, not previously run out in another state, not read about in the archives…he led from the front and created something previously non-existent on our shores. In his deep, resounding voice that shook the dojo walls, he yelled commands and the crowds followed and kept on coming.
Tino Ceberano Shihan at the Japanese Gardens, Hobart
The average person entering the martial arts does so for the health benefits of regular exercise, flexibility, endurance, core strength and learning to drive themselves beyond their self-imposed mental limitations.
It is said that karate is a ‘fight against yourself‘ before anyone else. Tino Ceberano says “You should know thy enemy – the first enemy is yourself.”
Many have no interest in fighting or sparring but end up learning to defend themselves nonetheless with the huge positive vision, improved self-esteem and energy that comes with regular physical training when so inspired to do so. It takes a patient teacher who can generate the trust and safety required to develop these skills in almost anyone.
The powerful punch of Tino Ceberano Shihan
People came from afar and travelled for hours for a taste of this energetic young man from Hawaii that they heard about. The crowds that attended varied expos and exhibitions when he brought out international masters and instructors are legendary often pushing our smaller Melbourne sporting and local council venues to the limit in those years.
Many martial arts exponents from overseas came to teach and present at seminars in Melbourne only because Tino Ceberano Sensei had developed affiliation and networking relationships with so many other martial arts instructors and masters in each country with purely a desire to share.
Many of his
students were professionals including many in the health professions. They
would recommend their patients to get involved and help themselves. Like a
massive health promotion program, this exploded with one man at the helm and
always leading from the front.
Tino Ceberano Shihan at Nth. Balwyn Goju Kai Honbu dojo with Goshi Yamaguchi Shihan
Five decades later those early students speak of Tino Ceberano Hanshi with fondness and affection, grateful for his mentorship and time, appreciative of his big heart and the example he led that we can all be far bigger than we ever envisioned ourselves to be, to develop an iron will, a strong body and have strength of spirit and mind.
It’s a rare thing to find a man like Tino Ceberano Hanshi who inspired entire communities to be their own doctor and trainer many decades before personal trainers and Pilates classes existed. In fact if you watched his early classes you might have wondered if he had a hand in developing aerobics and Tae Bo concepts combining exercise to music.
Tino Ceberano is a national treasure. When he passes on we will suffer a big loss because he led us for so many years in the growth and education of martial arts. Not all great teachers are great leaders – he has been both.
Tino Ceberano Shihan with tonfa at Nth. Balwyn Goju Kai honbu dojo
He is known as the Father of Australian Karate for good reason. His desire to help, to share and his ability to care means his vision of the average man or woman gaining martial arts skills with all the tremendous health benefits became feasible. From the early 1970s he encouraged women to join classes with men and Cherie Ceberano Sensei played a part in this.
Despite not completing his tertiary school qualification due to unusual circumstances he has spent 53 years in Australia teaching the martial arts, giving himself selflessly for the improvement of others, teaching people about themselves, how to strengthen their bodies, minds and spirits.
He has
informally kept up to date with sports science, had affiliations with the
Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra and studied with most of the famed martial
arts educators around the world since the early 1970s, many of whom have
already passed on.
Tino Ceberano Shihan kicks sokuto geri
He has contributed to many newspaper and magazine interviews, television segments, radio programs and community events in the name of advancement of the martial arts. His CV reads like an archive of the history of martial arts growth for over five decades.
His many years and expenses of international travel sitting on boards, council and committees were to formulate rules of play in the sport and help it achieve the global international standard it enjoys today while networking and communicating with his international peers and gaining his own qualifications becoming an international referee in karate.
Perhaps the only thing that Tino Ceberano Hanshi has not achieved in a lifetime of dedication to sports, community and public health is his own formal tertiary, educational qualification. It has never stopped him.
Dan Inosanto Grandmaster & Tino Ceberano Shihan in Melbourne
It was something he always aspired to do yet spent a busy life forging his own path and opening communications between martial arts styles so that more could enjoy and partake.
As it happened, he ended up instructing people for well over 50 years across many countries in a multitude of languages developing his own progressive training methods as he went, tertiary educated or not.
His legacy today speaks for itself and his CV is detailed and lengthy in the councils, committees, groups, schools and associations he served on in his own time and on his own dime.
Steve Colangelo Sensei flies across the dojo at Tino Shihan
Tino became the first westerner to grade to 6th Dan within the Goju Kai karate-do organisation in Japan before a panel of Japan’s grand masters and his own teacher Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi in 1977. He was also Chief Instructor of Goju Kai Karate-do for Australia from 1966 up to 1989.
Tino Ceberano Hanshi‘s name today is synonymous with karate and so many proudly relate how they trained with the great man. He has given much to communities, urban and regional, in many Australian states and in an era prior to email, the internet and freeways, tapping away on his typewriter and sending letters around the globe for decades.
Over the many decades Tino CeberanoHanshi was instrumental in bringing many noted martial artists to Melbourne to instruct and network so everyone could learn and share their art. The list is long and varied including well known names like Tadashi Yamashita Sensei, Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace, Bobby Taboada Sensei, Prof Wally Jay as well as noted Goju Kai karate-do seniors Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi, Goshi & Wakako Yamaguchi Shihans, Kihei Sakamoto Shihan and Ingo de JongShihan.
Paul Ceberano Sensei & Tino Ceberano Shihan – The Art of Karate-Do
The summer and winter camps he created and led for many years are legend in themselves with many interstate students making their annual pilgrimage to Victoria for a taste of the Tino Ceberano style and energy.
His passion today is to reduce bullying, give youth some strong principles and values and offer hope for those without direction. He believes that the troubled youth can still benefit from the influence he brought to this country and he is helping to lead programs where instructors receive the right formal qualifications to enable them to teach within schools and reach those that need it most.
Mike Wheeler & Tino Ceberano Kyoshi in Hawaii
In summary, there are multitudes of martial arts, schools and clubs today in Australia. Many can trace their roots back to a young Hawaiian who came here to strange shores with only Pidgin English to help him along but a bigger heart than most of us will ever see.
It is timely after all these years that the community formally recognises his efforts and achievements. For a man who never completed tertiary education, he certainly has achieved more than most will ever in their lifetimes. Ask him about his goals and he’ll tell you he’s not finished yet.
Tino Ceberano Shihan & Masaichi Oshiro Sensei from Goju Kai Hawaii
Karate Victoria held an annual dinner on 25th May 2019 and presented an award of Special Recognition each to Tino Ceberano Hanshi and Sal Ebanez Hanshi, his close friend and training partner from Honolulu in the early 1960s engraved “The founding father of Goju Karate in Victoria. An inspiration to the many that have followed.”
They trained together under their instructor Masaichi Oshiro Sensei and travelled together to Japan to obtain their 4th Dan grades together under the supervision of Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi, head of Goju Kai worldwide.
It was an auspicious occasion in that Tino Hanshi was a founding member of FAKO (Federation of Karate Organisations), later named AKF (Australian Karate Federation) of which Karate Victoria is a branch. The Australian Karate Federation is the national governing body of karate in Australia recognised and endorsed by the federal government.
Karate Victoria President John Frazetto presents Special Recognition awards to Tino Ceberano Hanshi & Sal Ebanez Hanshi for their inspiration to so many.Tino Ceberano Sensei, Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi & Sal Ebanez Sensei in Japan
Tino Ceberano Hanshi is a blessed man. Each of his children have carved individual careers reaching prominence in their chosen path. Both his sons Paul and Phil have trained in karate following their father’s tradition and further exploring the arts with their own progressive adaptations and investigations. His grandson Louis has also become an accomplished karateka and has taught with his father Paul who continues to teach Goju karate-do with his own passion and flavour.
Phil Ceberano is one of Australia’s most talented musicians and is best known for his many successful years as Kate Ceberano’s band leader, creative partner, lead guitarist, vocalist and co-producer. He is extremely respected within the music industry which enables him to bring together Australia’s most elite musicians for his many and varied music projects.
Kate Ceberano is truly an Australian household name as an award winning singer and songwriter. With her soulful voice and charismatic nature, she has become a legendary Australian icon over the past 35 years, writing and performing both jazz and pop music – with seven Platinum and seven Gold albums to her name. Kate is widely respected not only by the music industry, but also for her ability to juggle an abundance of other roles.
Three generations of the Ceberano familyKate, Tino, Phil & Paul CeberanoTino Ceberano Hanshi with Paul Ceberano Kyoshi at National All Styles Victoria 2019Kate Ceberano & Tino Ceberano
ABC Brisbane Radio journalist Rebecca Levingston interviewed Tino Ceberano Hanshi on 7th June 2019 to ask him about his life work and endeavours and to congratulate him on being the recipient of the award of the Medal of the Order of Australia for his contributions to karate in the Queens Birthday Honours2019. What a coincidence that Kate Ceberano was interviewed by Rebecca Levingston only one week ago on ABC Brisbane Radio!
ABC Brisbane Mornings presenter Rebecca Levingston with Tino Ceberano Hanshi
ABC Brisbane Mornings presenter Rebecca Levingston with Tino & Emma Ceberano 9th June 2019
Tino Ceberano Hanshi is currently writing his life story and hopes to release the book by the end of this year. It is a compilation of childhood memories growing up on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, his teenage years training karate in Honolulu and his arrival in Australia when he grew his unique brand of karate into a local brand and household name. He tells his tales of travels to Japan and beyond where he became an international referee and an ambassador for the art of Goju karate-do.
More information will be published on this website about the book when it is released and how to obtain a copy.
Tino Ceberano Hanshi continues to actively teach and travel in his endeavour to share what he has learned with others.
He will celebrate his 78th birthday later this year and says that there is so much more to come with an awakening dawn in his martial arts career.
Two months after being granted the award the office of David Y. Ige, Governor of Hawaii, honoured Tino Hanshi with the award of a Certificate of Special Recognition, dated 7th Aug 2019, congratulating him on his Order of the Medal of Australia. It was a special honour for Tino Hanshi who grew up as an islander without graduating from high school or tertiary education, to be acknowledged for his services to the community.
