My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
André De Rijck is a friend and partner of the first hour in the Wado-Ryu Karate in Leuven ( Belgium ).
André De Rijck studied Slavic and Eastern Philology at KU Leuven in the early 1970s and began his Karate career there just as Kamigaito Sensei was coming to teach there. He became a spirited friend and early supporter of Wado-Ryu Karate. After studying law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Moscow Institute of Economics, Politics and Law, he has been attached to the Belgian Embassy in Moscow since 1990 as the economic representative of Flanders. Although he retired, he still lived there and was active as a consultant.
André has made an important contribution to Wado-Ryu Karate in Belgium and Russia:
– co-coach with Peter Keijers at Tshinto Karate club of Leuven
– co-founder of the association VZW Wado Kamigaito Belgium ASBL in November 1979
– founder Tshinto Karate club Aarschot
– Dré got his 5th Dan in Japan and met the founder of Wado-Ryu, Master Hironori Ohtsuka
– founder of the Wado Karate club Moscow!!!
– Dré also produced a Russian translation of Kamigaito Sensei’s books Kihon-Volume 2 and Pin-An Katas-Volume 3
See an extract here….
– In the 1970s, Dré conducted a very interesting interview of the, at the time, young Master Kamigaito
Dré was a jovial partner of Karaté and a bon vivant.
From his first marriage in Belgium he had a daughter, Sofie De Rijck and three grandchildren.
Dré had also integrated well in Russia. He was remarried to Nadezhda Gerasimenko with whom he had a daughter. In Moscow, all his Russian friends and Karatekas friends from his club in Moscow will certainly regret him.
Dré will remain in our hearts
Fly in peace to the stars,
Stage Wado-Ryu with Kamigaito Sensei in Korbeek-Lo 1979
Stage Wado-Ryu with Kamigaito Sensei in Korbeek-Lo 1980
Wado-Ryu stage with Kamigaito Sensei and Naboru Suzuki Sensei in Leuven 1985
André De Rijck at Japon with Karate Wado-Ryu founder Master Hironori Ohtsuka and Master Kamigaito
Different pictures with André De Rijck
Stage at André De Rijck’s club in Moscow with Jean-Maurice, Peter and Xavier
Training at André De Rijck’s club in Moscow with the Tshinto Karatekas Leuven: Pieter, Ludwig, Luc and Peter
‘wodoru-movie’, as a promotion made by Klaas for the Wado-ryu karate Club Moskow
See here the video on YouTube….
Visit of Russian karateka friends with André De Rijck at Tshinto karate club Leuven-Aarschot in 2013
Training at Tshinto Aarschot-Leuven in September 2014
If you would like to reread André De Rijck’s interview with Master Kamigaito in 1979, follow the link below…