Kyokushin 極真 revisited (3)

A few weeks ago, we walked pass the Shinto Gate and was pleasantly surprised to see this new mural bull (?) & martial artist. Unfortunately, I was without camera at the time.
Then I read that the European championship is to be held on last Satuday April, 16 and of course I have to be there to post the updated memorial here.

Previous entries about this memorial : here & http://szentesdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2006/11/kyokushin-revisited_22.html

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In memory of a captain

If you don't have a dream, how can you make a dream come true?

- Griff Tedd (1928-2007)

I have not been inspired with new dreams for a long time. Perhaps it is due to the fact that my plans and dreams for the past years have been realising at very slow pace. It is frustrating!
Then on Saturday Dec 8th, we attended a tree planting ceremony in memory of Griff , where Mrs. Griff (Debbie) quoted the above during the ceremony. Thank you Griff for reminding me to keep dreaming and I know slowly but surely my dreams would come true.

It was a lovely ceremony attended by many locals and expatriates of Szentes. The tree was planted within the compound of the town's leisure pools. I think Griff would enjoy being near the river very much. We know Griff was involved in many interesting adventures in his lifetime.. but the most surprising was that we learned that Griff was actually playing the captain (his real profession) on one of ships in the BBC tv series The Onedine Line !

Still unknown

The nice sunny afternoon slowly taken away from us. Oh nevermind, as least I caught this image. As I mentioned before, I still have no info. on the two guys (silhouette). Anyway, I think today they are cheering Boldog névnapot (Happy nameday) to our Zsolt !

Update Apr, 17 2007 . Istvan provided the following info.
I just confirmed it with a high school friend, the two figures are 'pick and shovel men' (kubikusok). I think it is a tribute to these hard working men whose meager income many families relied on in the great plane of Hungary where industrial jobs were non-existent.Among other major construction projects, they built the dike system along the rivers like the Tisza near by, and as my friend, Andras, points out some of them made it to Germany to work on the autobahn system in the early part of the 20th century. It supposedly depicts the class of these pick and shovel men as they just have been 'freed of their chains' at the dawn of communism.

Lomo-fied

You know me, every now and then I like to give my photo a twist. The subject is a part of WWII memorial which I haven't published before. Applying the Lomo effect , with a hint of lights on the faces, i think has deepen the emotions of the statues on my photo.

Tutorial
To those who are interested, to achieve the crumpled paper effect. Firstly, scan a piece of crumpled A4 on your scanner. Next, in PS or Gimp apply multiply and merge your photo with scanned paper. Finally, finished off with lomo effect.

Legacy

am very late with homework!! needed to do some research ;)

I believe he, Lajos Kossuth a freedom fighter, was the most named-after person in Hungary. Initially, I wanted to search for the numbers of streets in his name in Hungary. But at the top of the hits was a link to US web site!! Do you know that his legacy is also widely honoured in the United states? There are about 20 streets/avenues/roads named after him around the US. read here.

Kyokushin 極真 revisited

I was procrastinating to search for the meaning of those 3 chinese characters (汉语) in the background. Finally, I got on to it yesterday...

Kyokushin 極真 is Japanese for "the society for the ultimate truth." In case you're unfamiliar, Kyokushin is a self-defense art. The stones are found at the shinto gate that I posted before. I think we're very good at the sport as in my search I found out that Szentes is the main branch for Hungary in the Int'l karate organisation.

Very dry topic, I know, but it has to be done ..haha. Hopefully tomorrow i'll have something more fun!

11.11.1918

War would end if the dead could return.
-Stanley Baldwin

This post is not to make you sad as I just want to mark an important date in history with this photo. The sad part would be there are still war going on in this world and that many more such monuments will be erected in rememberance of the victims.

Fact
Today in history, the town's population shrunk by 1300 people

enough about war, I wish you an enjoyable weekend!

Time's Man of the year 1956

I know today is national holiday but didn't know what it was exactly about. Well, I certainly didn't plan to do this piece until we unexpectedly saw a small crowd paying their respects at this memorial. It motivated me in reading what happened 50 years ago ...

Time magazine's Man of the year 1956 was honoured to "Hungarian Freedom Fighters" and they certainly deserved it. For that year today, until Nov 10 , set off a chain of events which is now known as the Hungarian revolution. Lives were lost in the cause of freedom. 50 years on, freedom is no longer in question. IMHO, what the country needs is unity, to face the economic challenges ahead for better future.

Read more at Budapest DP and on wiki

Tracing 2

-at the wwII memorial-

My thoughts :-
Could he be searching for lost family/friend? Perhaps he'd wish that he'll never find the person's name in this list? If he does see the name, wouldn't it offer some kind of closure? Or may be I have too much time on hand to be wondering about this?

I have been wanting to photograph this memorial for a LONG time. However, as no one pays attention to it, it will be a plain sight. Last week, I chanced upon this man and "click", i think it adds a deeper emotion to the photo. Anyway, I wish you an enjoyable weekend ahead! :)

Tracing

My knowledge on the town's past is as good as yours. That said, on occasions, when I do write about the history, it gives me a kind of satisfaction when doing the research (googling!!) , understanding things deeper as well as journal it down in DP for those who are interested.

The plaque you see is possibly the only trace of the existence of Jewish community in our town until about 1960. The memorial can be found outside the town's library which was formerly a synagogue.


For my future reference and anyone's who's googling ;-)
chronocology of events
1868-1872 blue print - completion of synagogue by architect, Knábe Ignác
until 1960 - the synagogue become vacant
1967 - town hall acquired the building for 3.6mil Ft
until 1992 - remained vacant until the retoration work to the roof began
1996 - town hall decides to use building for librabry
1998 - a new library was established
total cost of restoration 150mil Ft

Memorial - Shinto Gate

I had some cocktail umbrellas which i used to compose the above image

I was truly amaze to see these oriental style stones in rememberance of Master Sosai Masutatsu Oyama, founder of Kyokushin karate in this little town of ours.

Later, I found out that it's call Shinto Gate, one of the younger memorials in the town. The idea came from former Kyokushin karate European champion and Szentes' born, Sándor Bresovai, when the town had the honour to organise the European championship in 2001.