István András Juhász

Obedience is an integral part of the hierarchy in any martial arts. Viki was appointed by the examiners to be the leader of the group of dan graders. This was a hidden "task" for the men: obey a woman in any case.

During the week a lot of practicing was involved together with higher ranked instructors who were helping them to refine their knowledge. Sometimes inches make the difference.

The group had to stay and move and act together all the time. There are many reasons behind this but first of all this forces them to act more as a team that can count on their members, bringing comradeship in the foreground and leaving individualis

Respect and helping of others is of vital importance in any martial arts. by showing kids that even a high ranked dan grader (regarded as a half god amongst them) helps little fellows in situations makes them to be more careing towards others.

In "free" time the dan graders were resting and working on their thesis for the grand exam.

The dan graders have to be alert all the time. Night challenges are common. Here they had to find a missing child from the camp. They get very little sleep daily and this leads to fatigue and stress.

On behalf of the chief examiners Peter, one of the dan graders got attacked by other participants of the Kempo camp in order to steal his belt. The belt not only holds the Karate Gi (dress) together but symbolises one's achievement and strength. Wer

A crucial part of the dan exam is the high physical demanding during the whole week with only one purpose: at the end only those can make it who are strong enough psychologically.

Viki is trying to heal a fellow graders thigh muscle by forcing old blood to flow out of his veins. This is quite a painful act but generates the muscle to regain its power faster.

Looking for some leftovers in the canteen.

In the final act Viki had to break concrete blocks. High concetration is required to shatter concrete with a doughy mortal hand.

Relief. The road to acquire a black belt is long. It's a great challenge for the body, mind and soul.

Unity is Strength

Zen Bu Kan Kempo Karate is a martial art best known for the brutality it has. It is a mixture of many different kind of ancient martial arts such as karate, aikido, judo, jitsu and boxing making it one of the most effective martial art for self defence. Having practiced myself this for 5 years I got to learn many aspects of it. The most important I learned that martial art is a solo combat mostly with yourself. With your ego. In order to achieve something extraordinary one has to go to the wall and beyond. For this mental strength is required like in many other endurance sports eg long distance running. Meanwhile I also learnt that I will never reach the black belt degree as my interests were more on photography and other things and after a certain level if you want to keep on growing most of your time you will be spending on karate as it becomes a lifestyle. However the magic of getting there always fascinated me. I heard loads of rumours how extraordinary a dan grader exams can be and i still wanted to experience this. I got lucky and after long negotiations I was allowed to join. This is the story of a one week long exam from July 2018. The dan exam took place in a remote camp near Felsőtárkány in Hungary. Among the 14 dan graders there was only one girl. The exam went on for a whole week and was part of the annual summer camp organized by the Hungarian Association. This is their story.

István András Juhász

István András Juhász is a freelance photographer currently based in Budapest, Hungary. He has an MSc in economics, studied sociology and photojournalism and recently finished his MA in Photography. His work focuses on the everyday life of ordinary people. Interested in their personal stories, their microcosmos, their way of living and reflection on their environment in order to give a different perspective on and hopefully a better understanding of the world we live in.