HIS Karate-Do

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, [...]

You all know that you practice Shotokan Karate-Do, but how many of you have ever heard of its close cousin, Shotokai Karate-Do? A Bit of History Master Gichin Funakoshi introduced what would become the Shotokan Karate-Do system into Japan in 1922. As with most things in the world, the passage of a century inevitably brought changes, and Karate-Do was no exception. In 1934, one of his main disciples, Hironori Otsuka (who was also an expert in jujitsu) left to establish his own style, known today as Wado-Ryu. In the 1940s, Mas Oyama would study Shotokan as well as Goju-Ryu and go on to create his own system in the 1950s, known today as Kyokushin. Both styles are popular and practiced around the world. For a long time, the Japanese Karate Association (JKA), established in 1949, was the premier organization representing the Shotokan-Ryu. Although other large Shotokan organizations have splintered off and grown in recent decades, the style remains so consistent that you could probably enter and train in a dojo from any of these groups without having to make too many adjustments. Shotokan continues to be identified with long and low stances, explosive speed and power, and emphasis on long-distance [...]