HIS Karate-Do

Sometimes I look around and wonder whatever happened to the various JKA masters of the “JKA Golden Age” that we used to look up to. That period from the 60’s through the 70’s marked a time when the Japan Karate Association was the premier karate organization in the world. The masters of that time, in particular, those who helped spread Shotokan around the world, included, Nakayama, Kanazawa, Enoeda, Nishiyama, Kase, Shirai, Ueki, Asai, and Mikami. Today, with the exception of Mikami Sensei, all have gone on to that dojo in the sky. Each waged a lifetime effort to train, gain and maintain their technical skills and knowledge to be able to share the art with others. In the long run, no one wins the battle against diminishing skills and old age. Since Sensei Peter, Wayne and I each turn 75 this year, I was curious if I could find anything in YouTube showing a JKA master still displaying decent technique at the venerable age of seventy-five (not easy to find). I was fortunate to find a video of then 75-year old Master Masaaki Ueki teaching a group of JKA black belts in Japan. In his younger days, Master Ueki was [...]

I sometimes say that among the various skills and abilities one might gain from sincere training in Karate-Do, perhaps the most long-lasting gift is developing a “karate eye” when watching another karate practitioner perform.  After all, watching ice skating competition over the years, I can basically tell when a skater is doing well (or poorly) even though I cannot skate myself.  In the same way, you are developing an eye for karate thanks to your training.  While senior students may be able to identify the practitioner’s style after just a few moves, even those with just several years under their belt can see and appreciate good technique. A while back, I came across a video showing a karate group during an examination.  Unfortunately, I was unable to identify the style, though it appeared to be Japanese.  I was especially intrigued by the group kata performance at the end (fast forward to 2 mins 30 secs) as it was not a kata that I’m familiar with.  I’m not sure if they always practice the kata at the speed or not.  The addition of background music by whomever edited the video did add a humorous flavor to the kata.  Each of you [...]

The practice of Karate-Do has often been described as a metaphorical “walk in life”. The Google AI defines Do as follow, “In Japanese, “do” (道, pronounced “doh”) means “the way” or “the path,” a profound concept referring to a spiritual or philosophical path of discipline, self-improvement, and finding purpose…”. Therefore, we may all be focused on practicing technique, strengthening our bodies, and learning something new about the art, but each of us is also walking an individual journey along a path towards becoming the person we are meant to be. Sounds kind of esoteric eh?…but this is why we are practicing what is termed Karate-Do versus Karate-Jutsu. We’ve all heard of that saying, “Walk the walk vs talk the talk.” Very simply, it means that your actions reflect what you say you’re going to do. In your first or second training lesson, you were taught the basics of the zenkutsu-dachi (forward stance) and how to take your karate “walk”. As you practice it countless times over many years, you are always working towards improving this basic move. More accurately, I’d call it “lunging forward” which is very different from a pedestrian walk. Recently, Sensei Peter’s and my very first instructor, [...]