The year 2023 in review

The end of the year 2023 shall be marked by the successful organization of 44 seminars, which is just one short of the record holding year of 2018, during which we managed to organize 45 seminars. With this result, it is almost a certainty that we still deserve to be epithetized as the “most dynamic ninjutsu dojo” in the world.

Let us start this review with our international seminars. During this year the leader of Bujinkan Macedonia – Igor Dovezenski taught at four international events. The first one was held in Macedonia, where, together with his friend from Turkey (Erjan Sharbat), he taught at the now well known BuYuKai. After this followed his appearance at BuYuKai Serbia, that was held in Novi Becej, then came the guest visit to Istanbul where the teacher Dovezenski shared his knowledge with the members of Bujinkan Turkey. The international events were rounded out with a teaching visit to Dojo Satori in Novi Sad (Serbia) where he taught Daito ryu Aikijujutsu. It is of note, that the BuYuKai seminars are always completely booked, a good example of this is BuYuKai V, which, all thought attendance was capped at 40 participants, we had to “overbook” so that we can accommodate two more people at the behest of some close and dear friends of the Dojo.

The key event of the year was that the teacher Igor Dovezenski took his son Petar to accompany him on his regular self-improvement trip to Japan, allowing him to train in the presence of and experience the aura of the Japanese ninjutsu teachers. The two week long visit and the accomplishments that were achieved at the Hombu Dojo in Noda (Japan) are impossible to describe in this short report, so it is better that we tell those stories during some of our seminars in nature.

During the summer, we held our legendary Ninja Summer Camps, both of them, the one dedicated to children and the one dedicated to adults. We would like to mention that during the fifteenth iteration of the camp for adults, a new attendance record was set with the participation of 25 trainees, and so, to accommodate this rise in popularity, in 2024 the number of available open spots shall rise to 33.

Other events of note in 2023 were: in January the new Takamatsu manga, created by Dovezenski and Gakovski and titled “The mission to Xilinhot”, was promoted to the wider public, in February (Сечко – its traditional Macedonia name, which can be roughly translated to: the Month of Piercing Cold) the “Female self-defense Workshop” took place, there were a record breaking 23 participants during our traditional seminar “Strength of the Yari”, there are three new bearers of the “Genin” bronze medal (Kosara Dovezenska, Ksenija Dovezenska and Kristijan Mitevski), a company team building event was organized (TTG – MK) and a new name was added to the NafudaKake at the Hombu (Marko Petrusevski).

So, to best sum up our results during 2023, we shall take a look at the numbers: 7 ninjutsu seminars at the Skopje Dojo, 21 seminars at the Hombu Dojo of Bujinkan Macedonia, 4 international seminars, two summer camps, a two week long visit of Japan and nine Daito ryu Aikijujutsu seminars at the Hombu Dojo, Skopje Dojo and abroad.

Last but not least, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all the members of Bujinkan Macedonia, Daito ryu Macedonia and the Organisation “Taiyou e no Michi”, who through their tireless work managed to grant us the chance to spend another year enjoying the incredible world of the traditional Japanese martial traditions. We can’t promise you that next year shall be as successful as this one, but what we can promise is that, as long as we are breathing this Macedonian air, our love for the classical martial arts that we have inherited from previous generations of warriors shall never waver.