The Great Arizona Pumpkin Massacre

PUMPKINS WERE EVERYWHERE - But our Martial Arts Samurai bravely fought on!

You probably never read about the Great Arizona Pumpkin Massacre in your history books. It was a very hard-fought battle at the border of Mesa and Gilbert, but in the end our Samurai prevailed!

It’s sad that it had to come to this, but the invasion of Mesa, Arizona by the Satsuma Pumpkin Clan had to be stopped: the battle raged until all pumpkins fell to the blades of the Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai Clan at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate. 

Another pumpkin met its fate at the Arizona School of
Traditional Karate in Mesa and Gilbert, Arizona (photos by
Nemec Photography). 

Warning - If you are squeamish, you may want to look away from the following photos as no pumpkin was left unblemished!

The pumpkins battled honorably, but in the end, our samurai prevailed. 

Samurai Arts Class training with katana
(NemecPhotography)

Our training on that fateful day near Halloween began as usual in our Samurai Arts Class Wednesday evening: basic cuts, blocks, stances, kata - and then the room filled with invaders! Pumpkins everywhere. It had to be stopped and our Samurai proved they were up to the task!

Ryan Nemec was first to defend against the attackers (Nemec Photography)

Ryan Harden tried his hand at pumpkin tameshigiri (Nemec Photography)

Charles Jean defends against pumpkins

Amanda Nemec takes on pumpkin (Nemec Photography)

In the end, our samurai prevailed with Ryan holding his victim by its Topknot
known as chomage. (Nemec Photography)

In the end, our martial arts samurai had a great time using their katana for training in the Mesa Martial Arts Classes, and the exercise provided them with another step in their education of samurai arts. We train our students to enjoy martial arts in the Gilbert Karate Classes. In addition to the Samurai Arts, we also focus on Shorin-Ryu Karate, Okinawan Kobudo and Self-Defense.

Katana used in training are all non-sharpened training swords.