Now, I’ve often said that karate training is not just the physical exercise that we get to do together, there’s cultivation of the mind, body and spirit, knowledge of bunkai and body movement, gaining patience and learning perseverance, and…gaining an appreciation of the cultural value of this art along with some knowledge of the history of the karate that we’re privileged to practice.  Below is a local video of a talk on  Karate in the Ryukyu Kingdom that was given by sensei’s Goodin and Nakata several years ago at UH.  If you have a few minutes, you might take a look – it’s chock full of little-known information about the history of the kingdom that was to become Okinawa Prefecture in 1879.  Although I already knew most of this, I must admit that I learned a few things from watching…and just for you all, I actually did watch the entire video – all one hour and forty-three minutes! …just so I would be familiar with what I was sharing with you, haha.

It’s a small world – one of the two speakers, the late Sensei Pat Nakata was a very close friend of Sensei Fujiwara – they practiced together in Shorin-Ryu Karate  before Sensei Ed began studying Shotokan.  I met with and spoke with Sensei Goodin several times many years ago, when I was studying Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu kobudo and also when he was doing some of his continuous research into the history of the art.  One of the old photos he shows is of my friend’s father, a pioneer of karate in the islands, while another is of a famous local wrestler and martial artist from the 1930’s who was the uncle of another friend.

Remember that although we practice Shotokan Karate-Do, a Japanese style – the founder, Gichin Funakoshi was from Okinawa where the roots of our art lie. In fact, one of the closer Okinawan cousins to the Shotokan style would be the Shorin-Ryu these men are experts in.  Early on, Sensei Goodin dispels the common myth about karate being devised by desperate Okinawan peasants to protect themselves from Satsuma samurai.  The reality is that we practice an art passed down by the privileged class of the Ryukyu Kingdom that was acquired from China during the centuries of close association between the two countries.  If you do watch the video, you won’t be able to miss the true love and dedication these two sensei’s have for an ancient art, whose history and values they share with others and strive to preserve for future generations.