HIS Karate-Do

Gee, what a strange title for this karate note eh? Actually, there’s a jingle from an old 1960s commercial that often plays in my head – “There are Smiles”, sung by the Dutch Masters singers. Dutch Masters was the name of a cigar company in the old days. It was a marketing tool – their symbol was a painting by Rembrandt of a group representing the old Dutch master painters from centuries ago. Anyways, they had a series of popular commercials with what must have been a barbershop sextet (6 men) singing the catchy song that was in my head, extolling the potentially different meanings behind a smile. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1645197482410899. So long ago that it was in black and white but as a kid, I always enjoyed their singing about what could be behind a simple smile. I actually used to join in and sing along with them, haha. Which brings me as to how this relates to karate and the drills that you practice in every class. As you must realize by now, Sensei Peter, Wayne, and I, each has our own particular flavor of drills that we teach. Sensei Wayne tends to run drills that are practical and are [...]

I’ve spent most of my 55 years in Shotokan Karate-Do training and teaching right here in the islands. The exception was the several years I spent on active duty with the Air Force in California. While there, I was fortunate to discover a sensei with several Shotokan dojos in the area. I joined immediately and was able to continue practice and help teach amongst my new dojo mates. Eventually, I became friends with the head senpai there. George was a tall, lanky, and quiet man who was several years my senior. We often trained together outside of the dojo, exchanging ideas about the art. He had achieved his black belt in two karate styles but eventually settled on Shotokan as his preferred art. After a couple of years, I was forced to cut back on my karate time – I had become a new father and was also attending graduate courses at night (no computers or online classes back in the 1970s). The last time I saw George, he dropped by my home to say farewell. He and his family were leaving for their next Air Force assignment. I later heard that he’d retired from the service and settled with [...]

Today, I’m attaching a short pdf (see link below) about something that we do all the time at practice but rarely discuss – the benefits of a strong kiai. This article is from Senpai Merle’s vast martial arts library. In it, I was surprised to learn that the incorporation of kiai into karate was not from ancient times. The Founder (Gichin Funakoshi) would focus most of his classes on practicing kata – in silence. This is the way katas were practiced in Okinawa in the past. Apparently, early Shotokan students at the university would hear kiais coming from the adjacent kendo/judo classes. Moreover, many of the karate students already had previous kendo/judo backgrounds. The Founder’s son (Gigo), who had a hand in modifying Shotokan into its modern form, had also practiced kendo. In fact, Nakayama Sensei (Chief Instructor of the JKA for thirty years) was likely also familiar with the kendo kiai. Nakayama had wandered into his first karate class by happenstance, while looking for the kendo class at Takushoku University – both his father and grandfather had been kendo instructors. So in time, the kiai was adopted into katas and general practice. Other aspects of modern-day karate that we [...]