HIS Karate-Do

When I first started training in Shotokan many years ago, it was conducted in an old wooden building next to the Otto Klum Gym. Located in the hot University of Hawaii quarry. I was surrounded by the newest batch of white belts. The group was all UH students, mostly males in their late teens/early twenties. Six months later, there were only a dozen left, and I think three of us made it to shodan out of our class. The training was really pretty grueling for us novices. I remember one particularly tough practice session when at least six beginners either fainted or had to be pulled out of line. Mostly, I think they were trying to test our perseverance and conditioning. Many of you are familiar with the quarry. Back when I first started at UH in the late sixties, it contained the gym, some basic track/field facilities, various portables, and some old buildings like our old dojo. Most of the huge area was dusty, white and devoted to parking for thousands of students’ cars. The quarry was significant to me for just three reasons: karate, parking, and the place where my Air Force ROTC classes were conducted. Knowing my [...]

I know that the title is an odd one, considering that tomorrow is Mother’s Day. However, I was just thinking about why I originally got into the martial arts, and as you would expect, there were a bunch of reasons. However, as it turns out, my initial foray into the arts (aikido) wasn’t really due to any initiative on my part. I remember that it was my dad who was the actual impetus. One day, after he had come home from work, relaxing at the dining room table with the newspaper and a cold beer (he favored Primo and Lucky Larger back then), he told me, “Wes, I’m going to take you someplace tonight.” Since this was a rare and unusual statement from him…actually, those days, any statement from him was rare, I looked up from the book I was reading and asked, “Where?” He said we were going to the local Hongwanji dojo where his friend from work practiced aikido. And that was the beginning… Looking back, I suppose dad’s unprecedented interest in getting me into a weekly activity was heavily due to dad’s interest in the martial arts, though his only experience was some judo as a kid [...]

Whenever I watch the program, Antique Roadshow on the tv, I wonder about the true meaning of value. I get shocked, like everybody else, when the experts examine some dusty old figurine or a small wooden table or some (ugly, to my eye) landscape painting, and triumphantly declare that the item is worth a small fortune. Other times, the anxious owner smiles weakly and nods, when their obviously valuable family heirloom (or so they thought) is priced at under a hundred dollars. The ugly old painting that was wrapped in paper and stored in grandma’s closet, forgotten and valueless, except as something to be thrown or given away…this same painting, properly cleaned/framed in an art museum with a million dollar price tag, may be thought to be a magnificent, priceless work of art. The lesson learned here is, things are only worth whatever value one places upon them. A long time ago, one of my senseis told me, “Wes, the day you have a dojo of your own, don’t teach for free… Even if the place is rent-free, charge the student at least $1.” Since I was hoping to teach for free, I asked him why. He went on to [...]