Natsuko Mineghishi (b.1972) began Karate while she was studying B Sci/Engineering at UWA, at University Karate Club (UKC) with Sensei Kyoshin Kayo in 1993. Sensei Kayo is from Osaka and he teaches Shobukan style. She liked all the samurai movies so she always wanted to begin something similar but she never thought women can join dojo until she came to Australia. So she had a vague curiosity towards martial arts. Her room mate recommended her to join UKC saying, "I think you will enjoy it. The Sensei is Japanese and you are flexible. I quit because I am not supple enough to kick properly. It was too painful. If you start, you can have my Karate uniform." That is how she began! When Natsuko started Karate, she was not a sportive person, always bad at any physical activities. When she took Karate lessons, her motivation was simply to lose some weight and get little fitter. By all means, she adored all the martial arts movies but she never could have imagined herself going very far with it. If she trained once a week, that was a great deal of effort back then. But she really liked the movements and structural studies of Karate.
When Natsuko began her studies in Classical Singing, she resigned from Karate for a while. She feared the risks of injury and bruises which may affect her singing studies. She tried different exercises such as squash, gym or aerobics but none really worked for her. She got rather depressed without Karate and eventually got back to the Dojo. The risks of bruises were far better choices than depression which demolishes the desire to sing itself! That is when she began to seriously desire to be a black belt. She was a green belt so she had a long way to go. In 1997, Natsuko moved to Melbourne to study music at University of Melbourne. There was no Shobukan style in Victoria so she needed to find a new style. It was difficult to change style when you were already comfortable with one so her pilgrimage lasted for 12 months to find what she wanted. During this period, she tried many Dojos of different styles. In 1998, she finally settled with the World Shotokan Karate with Sensei John Haitidis in Coburg. Going back to white belt again, she began to train regularly. by the time she became a 1 kyu brown belt, she trained at least 8 hours a week, sometimes 12 hours with Sensei.
Natsuko then moved back to Japan for 10 months and joined Shotokan Karate International. She was so impressed by Sensei Kanazawa's personal charisma. His impression was big enough for her to even change her country of dwelling! She joined the trainings at the SKI head quarter. In 2002, after 8 years of Karate practice, she finally obtained her long wished black belt in front of Sensei Kanawzawa. She then moved to the Netherlands to further study Classical music at the Amsterdam Conservatorium. She joined SKI-Holland and trained with Sensei Biagio Ridolfo for three years there. She also attended many competitions and seminars held within Europe. In 2004, at the European Championship in Ukraine, she came 4th in the Women Individual Kata category.
After completion of her musical studies in the Netherlands, Natsuko moved back to Melbourne in 2006. She asked Sensei Kanazawa if she could compete in the 9th SKI World Championship in Tokyo as a Holland competitor. The selection for the international team in generally done in the the previous year therefore she was chosen in Holland. Although she had to move the country, Sensei Kanazawa approved her request and she competed as a Dutch athlete in November 2006. As a result, she came 5th of the world in the Women Individual Kata category.
In recent years, Natsuko has attended many seminars or gasshuku (camp). To list a few, she participated trainings with Kancho Hirokazu Kanazawa - Japan (many occasions), France (1992), Holland (2004), Belgium (2003), Australia (2001, 2006) Shihan Masaru Miura - Holland (2003, 2005), Italy (2003), Japan (2006) Sensei Akira Nagai - Germany (2004) Sensei Biagio Ridolfo - Holland and Belgium (many occasions since 2002) Sensei Stephane Castrique - Belgium and Holland (many occasions since 2002) Natsuko also joins other martial arts trainings whenever she is traveling overseas/interstates. She believes that Karate keeps her mentally healthy and helps to maintain her youthful appearance. More importantly, Karate takes an important role to be in touch with her own culture wherever she is. She made countless numbers of friends through Karate who share the same belief of "Endeavor to be a better person through the practice of Karate-Do."
For further information of Natsuko as a singer, please go to www.sopranonatsuko.com