Kensho Dojo

Rakesh Prabhakaran Chenchery, 3^rd Dan

Rakesh started the 'Kensho Dojo', formerly known as 'The Henley Tigers' Karate club in Henley-on-Thames in September 1999 with the help of few enthusiasts from AIT Plc. This long confusing name is because he is known as Rakesh Prabhakaran by many and as Rakesh Chenchery by the others.

Rakesh had a great passion for martial arts as a young boy, but was never given an opportunity to pursue it. So when he joined the Sathya Sai college in Puttaparthy, India, in 1989,  the first thing he did was join the Karate club, taught by an armed forces personnel. An athletes body, strong will and daily regular training helped him improve his skills. With the help of his training partner Ajnish Rai, they left no stone unturned to further their understanding and knowledge of martial arts.

In 1991 Rakesh and Ajnish went to the Sathya Sai Institute for Higher Learning in Bangalore. There they met the person who would change their lives, Georgio Marras(6th Dan) from Italy, student of Sensei Hiroshi Shirai (9th Dan). His excellence in Karate and Tai Chi, and his application of spirituality in martial arts inspired them to take up a path of intense training. Daily training became the norm, two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, sometimes waking up at 3 a.m. to train with Sensei Georgio, to make the most of his visit to India. Georgio introduced them to Fabio Van Axel Castelli (5th Dan) Karate, and black belt in Aikido, Judo, Ju-jutsu, Kendo, and an expert in Tai Chi. Fabio's personality has inspired Rakesh till this day.

Such intense training with the best teachers culminated in Rakesh and Ajnish receiving their Black belt from Georgio after seeking permission from Sensei Shirai in November 1992. During their stay in the university they taught many students and gave wonderful demonstrations at the Annual Sports Day of the University in 1989, 1992 & 1993.

When Rakesh came to the UK with his job, he trained on his own for a while,
occasionally visiting Italy to train with Georgio and Fabio. There he got the opportunity to train with Sensei Shirai(9th Dan) who introduced him to Sensei Masao Kawasoe(8th Dan) from London. In 1999 when Rakesh moved to the South of England, he started training regularly under Sensei Kawasoe. During one of his trip to Italy Georgio introduced Rakesh to Master Yang Lin Sheng, the great mast of Yiquan and Tai Chi. Since then Master Yang has visited England to give seminar on Yiquan and Tai Chi. The art of Aikido has helped Rakesh enhance his training of Karate. Regularly training with Sensei Simon Thackeray (4th Dan) has given him a new dimesnion to martial arts

Rakesh along with his training of Karate and Chen Tai Chi, got interested in
kyosho-jitsu, and had the opportunity to train with world renowned masters of pressure points like Prof. Rick Clark,  Bruce Miller, Terry Wingrove, Prof. Rick Moneymaker & Tom Muncy. He also had the opportunity to attend Karate workshops with some of the best instructors like Sensei Shirai, Sensei Naito, and Sensei Nishiyama. 

Currently teaching and learning Karate, learning Aikido and Tai Chi, he is actively
involved in understanding the true essence of martial arts.

Rakesh's Teachers

Sensei Georgio Marras, 6^th Dan (F.I.K.T.A)
Sensei Fabio Van Axel Castelli, 5^th Dan
Sensei Masao Kawasoe, 8^th Dan (E.T.K.F)
Master Yang Lin Sheng (A.S.K.T)
Sensei Simon Thackeray 4^th Dan (I.A)