I often mention how fortunate we all are these days, as we can access all kinds of videos with regards to Karate-Do on Youtube. Recently, I was reading an article on the legendary teacher, Asai Sensei, which then linked me to a video of him demonstrating some of his amazing techniques and drills. Anyways, while perusing Youtube, I happened upon a video of a half hour interview from 1986 with our old teacher, Kenneth Funakoshi, recorded shortly before he moved to the mainland. Of course, I had seen this interview before and if you have good eyes, you can even find me somewhere in several of the short clips interspersed in the interview (no glasses and much longer hair back then 🙂 . However, since my own personal VHS copies of the 10 Tape series had actually disintegrated many years ago, I believe that this was the first time I’d seen the interview in perhaps 25 years. Oh, the magic of the internet!

Here is the video:

Instead of reviewing a boring lecture on technique or kata, it’s very easy to hear him just talking story at the beach – wearing his karate gi 🙂 Sensei was still pretty young back then (48 years old) and I was surprised at how refreshing and familiar his voice and local speech pattern were to me. I wonder if the world-wide karate viewers (the tapes have been purchased by many Shotokan practitioners over the last three decades) could actually follow his mild pidgin, without the help of subtitles, haha. When you think about it, Sensei Wayne, Peter and myself must have listened to, and followed his instruction for many hundreds of hours, as impressionable young karateka. In it, you learn a great deal about Shotokan, his personality, how he came to spend his life in Shotokan, about his own instructors and mentors, and his thoughts on Karate-Do. Sensei was always a humble and forthright man, yet exuded tremendous charisma and confidence. I was struck by how, over the years, his outlook on the Art has come to mirror my own…er, I guess – how my outlook on the Art has come to mirror his 😉

Anyways, if you take a look, I’m sure that you’ll gain a little more appreciation and learn a lesson or two about Shotokan – without even having to put on your gi or work up a sweat.

Blessings, Wes