If you do jiu jitsu, you’ve probably seen crazy animal prints on rash guards. They tend to have a certain style to them, and often if you look closely at these attractive and vibrant prints, you’ll see a specific set of Chinese characters and “Meerkatsu” in the design.
Seymour Yang AKA Meerkatsu is one of the foremost producers of jiu-jitsu related art, and has consistently gone above and beyond to help raise money to combat violence against women.
Back in 2013 in light of a certain New Years Eve incident, Meerkatsu put together a tee-shirt in conjunction with jiu-jitsu daily deal titan BJJHQ and super popular gear company Tatami Fightwear releasing the beautiful Heavenly Foot lock shirt to donate to RAINN and Rape Crisis. Since then, Yang has offered up large high quality lithographs that have been auctioned on EBay for an annual event called the Grapplethon.
Ending this Friday, Meerkatsu has a print on eBay that is poised to collect the largest sum of money raised by a charity auction for a single item in the BJJ community. Currently the bid is at 1280 pounds, and there are still 2 days left for the auction!
If you want to bid on this amazing item check it out here:
An avid jiujiteiro, Seymour is a BJJ black belt based in London and is the instructor at Borehamwood BJJ. I had an opportunity to speak briefly with him about this wildly successful auction, that will raise money for a good cause and this is what he had to say:
“My fundraising auctions are a great way to give back to the community and to those who are not always as fortunate as others. The BJJ community is a diverse mix of people, they reflect society as a whole, and, yes, sometimes the nastier stuff gets the headlines news, but I know that the vast majority of folk are good people – the response to my fundraisers have always been amazing, I’m lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful, generous and kind hearted people.
The print auction this year is exceeding all expectations. As part of the 2017 Bristol Grapplethon Team, we’re raising funds for the Somerset & Avon Sexual Abuse Support (sarsas.org.uk) who do important work helping survivors of rape and sexual assault in the local region.
I love contributing to the Bristol Grapplethons – I’ve been to each one since the first one five years ago! And Can Sonmez, who organises them, is a great friend of mine and the major force behind this charity movement in BJJ, it’s a real pleasure to be a part of this set up.”
If you want to support this cause, you can donate directly at https://mydonate.bt.com/teams/grapplethon2017
