HIS Karate-Do

When my dad and I eat lunch every week, we spend time catching up on whatever happened over the past seven days since we last saw each other. I will often ask, “Anything new happening Dad?” His normal response is, “Nothing much…” Then he’ll go on to describe whatever little changes occurred over the week; a patient at Dialysis receiving a kidney transplant, a fellow resident recovering from pneumonia, the neighbor’s cat giving him a small scratch on the hand, the last batch of Fuji apples I got him were not as crunchy as he liked, and so on. Multiply that by 52 weeks, and you have a year in which “nothing much new happened.” And at 86 years old, that’s not so bad…a decent quality of life, no emergencies, a few small scratches, the old memory’s still holding up, appetite’s good, etc. Then, once in a great while, Dad will wax philosophically and think about the years 1977, 1997 and 2006, in particular. Those years stand out in his mind, as these mark major events in his autumn/winter years: in 1977, Mom unexpectedly passed away; in 1997, he suffered his first stroke; in 2006, he moved out of his [...]

First of all, there’s no training for Saturday, 23 May. That day, the Shotokan Karate International Federation (SKIF) will be holding its yearly karate tournament at the old Manoa gymnasium. Senseis Trisha, Peter and I will be helping out with judging at the event. If any of you are interested in participating in the kata competition, please come see me for application forms…it costs $15 to enter. The SKIF in Hawaii is headed up by my friend Sensei, Victor Takemori. Sensei Vic has been a life-long student under Shotokan great, Kancho Kanazawa (Kancho is a title). As most of you know, Kancho Kanazawa is the founder and leader of the world-wide SKIF, which has hundreds of thousands of members. Many years ago, Kancho (former JKA champion) began his overseas teaching career right here in Hawaii….and Sensei Vic became one of his first students. Both men are not only great and knowledgable karate instructors, but possess fine, humble characters. Sensei Vic is in his late seventies, but still actively sharing the art of karate-do. Ironically, as you know, I never mention tournaments, nor do we do any training that is related to tournaments in our ministry. Personally, I think that tournaments [...]

Well, first of all, let me apologize for not writing in a while, my usual excuse is that I’ve been so busy at work; which, while true, shouldn’t prevent me from sending a short note once a month or so. So here’s a note that I actually started on 16 Jan (yes, nearly two months ago) which is the anniversary of the day I was saved as a christian. It gives some idea as to how our karate ministry started in the first place and why I try to be there every week. “Why Are We Here?” Kind of a strange title eh? Okay, I’m not necessarily talking about that age-old metphysical question about our purpose here in life. I’m talking about what ordinary folks are doing at a dojo or, in our case, at a karate ministry, especially on a Saturday morning, when they could be sleeping in, eating breakfast, watching tv, reading the papers, shopping, etc. My guess is that everyone’s motivation would fall into one or more of the following categories of: self-defense, exercise, conditioning, stretching, the influence of movies, interest in asian tradition, fellowship, having the kids learn some discipline, and so on. If, however, you [...]