HIS Karate-Do

Recently, we held one of our periodic belt exams. While students are patiently awaiting the exam results, I thought that I’d share my thoughts on what these exams mean to me. In life, there are all kinds of exams that may vary, depending upon the purpose these serve. I’d like to focus on just two specific types which I’ll call, the Final Exam approach and the Entrance Exam approach. For many folks, passing a belt exam means that “you’ve done it and achieved the rank.” So, whether it’s a yellow belt or attaining the black belt, one may naturally think that he/she is now fully qualified to proudly wear the rank that’s just been awarded. From this perspective, the student treats the test as a Final Exam and has a feeling akin to completing his/her studies and graduating from high school or college. One can now pause and look back on all that has been learned to get to this milestone. From such a perspective, each test seems to be a Final Exam which means they have mastered the previous rank and have graduated to a higher level. I guess that you may be surprised if I say that your [...]

Sadly, we just found out that Kancho Kenneth Funakoshi passed away on July 3. He was known world-wide as the founder and retired leader of the FSKA with many thousands of members from the USA, Mexico, South America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Despite the many articles written about him, videos of his seminars, and honorific titles, he always remained down-to-earth and retained his easy-going, local pidgin. He could be a hard taskmaster in the dojo, but he also had a sense of humor and an excellent memory which was great for story-telling. Whenever he taught, his presence and commanding, piercing voice would fill the dojo and make everyone try even harder. Over the years, your sensei’s have received instruction from and attended seminars of many karate masters. However, that is not the same as consistent training under your primary instructor. Each of us trained under sensei in both regular and advanced classes from the early 1970s until he left for the mainland in 1986. Inevitably, what we learned from him went far beyond mere technique. His teaching style, personal thoughts about the art, even his philosophy of life exerted a strong influence on us. This teacher-student relationship is [...]

There is a boxing phrase, “Leaning into the punch”, which my dad used to say sometimes when I was practicing at home. Now Dad wasn’t a boxer, but when he was a teen, he and his neighborhood friends used regularly box and spar with each other. This was way back in the 1930’s (no video games back then). He had picked up the phrase from an elderly man who lived nearby and would sometimes watch and advise them. He professed to having been a boxer years earlier. Like most teens, I didn’t pay too much attention to my Dad’s old boxing story. Many years later, I watched a karate master demonstrating that very advice with live action. A large group of black belts were gathered at a seminar given by senior JKA instructor, Akiyama Sensei. Sensei Peter and I both remember him looking tall and very fit for an “old man” (probably only in his sixties back then). It was a memorable training session, as he never gave the “Yame” command to allow us to return to the Shizentai (normal rest) position – we were in stance for the entire, rather lengthy class. He walked around us, stick in hand, [...]