HIS Karate-Do

In the midst of our recent promotions, I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to really congratulate two of your sempais who just made shodan, and one who has made made dan several times over. Of course, I’m talking about sempais Doreen, Wes, and James. I think some time back, I wrote about the heart of a black belt, so hopefully you won’t find this repetitive in any way, haha. In my mind, the several years it takes to normally make it to one’s first dan ranking is such a special time in one’s experience with the martial arts. I liken it to learning one’s ABC’s…repetitive, sometimes boring, sometimes frustrating, with emphasis on the “correct way” to form letters while writing, and the confusing way to pronounce a hard or soft “c”, or the “th” sound, or how about the silent “g”? As children, we hang with it and after many, many repetitions and trials, we finally get our ABC’s down. Similarly, when I share the basics of Shotokan with white, blue, green, purple, and brown belts, it is a continuing focus on basics and the most “correct way” to execute techniques. It’s a multi-year journey that only a minority [...]

Pant, pant, boy I’ll have to think twice the next time I ever say, “I’ll write some short bios about the senseis up the line who helped bring karate down to us”. I’m getting close to finishing this term paper, though. When asked who taught them karate, many practitioners have a tendency to cite the names of various famous senseis that they may have gotten a chance to listen and train with at a particular seminar. The real influence, however, is the first line instructor(s) who they trained with week after week, year after year. As you know, I’ve had the chance to train with a great many senseis over the years. The two who influenced and taught me the most are Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi and Sensei Ed Fujiwara. I was lucky enough to train with Funakoshi for about seven years, beginning in the rough old “special training” classes back in the early seventies. I began training under Sensei Fujiwara for a similar length of years beginning in the early eighties. Both share a lifelong love for the art, and yet, are extremely different, as individuals. Funakoshi is a burly, powerful, naturally athletic, extremely charismastic Farrington HS grad, while Fujiwara [...]

I last wrote about the founder, Funakoshi Gichin, who brought Te from Okinawan to Japan in 1922 and redeemed it into a form of budo. Among his senior students, the one who would emerge as the most dynamic, far-thinking and influential among them was Nakayama Masatoshi. Nakayama was born into a family whose men had a tradition of becoming physicians. He stayed close to the traditions of both his karate sensei and his father, becoming the Chief Instructor of the Japan Karate Assn for thirty years as well as a professor and the head of the Physiology Department at Takushoku University. He took over the reins of the JKA after the death of the founder in 1957, a position he held until his own passing in 1987. During his long tenure, he applied his scientific knowledge of the human body and kinetics to the art, helping shape it into the rational and highly developed system it is today. His book, “Dynamic Karate”, written in 1966 is a classic and viewed by many as the premier single book on the subject. Just as importantly, he was a man of exceptional vision and organizational skills who strategized its spread across the world. [...]