HIS Karate-Do

As you know, Halloween (Oct 31) will be here in a week and a half.  Since it falls on a Monday evening, there’s no karate training that day.  Our younger members will be eagerly walking in their neighborhoods, bag in hand;, while our older members will be passing out candies from their front doors.  Anyways, the only karate gi’s that might appear at Momilani Community Center that evening would be trick-or-treaters in costume. BTW, each year, PCF holds a large celebration there that is fun and safe to attend, if you’re so inclined. Events like these sometimes make me reminisce  – as fading memories of scores of past Halloweens pop up in my mind.  The earliest I can recall was around 1956 and the one thing that I can clearly remember was that the folks at one house actually gave me my first candied apple!  I mean, a whole apple on a stick, covered in caramel, upside down on a paper plate.  Fortunately, I was only a couple of houses away from home, so I hurried back and took two or three bites of the tasty but gooey and messy treat; washed my hands/mouth and rushed back out to rejoin my [...]

Holy Smoke!  Two notes from me in a single week!  Actually, since you don’t have class this coming Saturday (Sept 24), I figured you might want to watch some very short videos of Kancho Kenneth Funakoshi teaching classes.  As you all know, he taught Sensei Peter, Wayne, and me for many years (even Sensei Trish began as a 6 year old white belt under Kancho). I’ve mentioned the strong, lasting influence he had on those of us fortunate enough to have trained directly under him, particularly as brown and black belts so many decades ago.  Beyond teaching technique and sharing his philosophy on Karate-Do, I know that he had a great influence on the personal teaching styles and methods that Sensei Peter, Wayne, and I have developed in our turn. Recently on YouTube, I came across a series of short videos (a couple of minutes each) from the FSKA website and thought that you might enjoy getting a glimpse into what his teaching was like.  When he was training us, he was in his late thirties; young and still strong, fast, and powerful. Most of us were in our twenties, and Special Training was focused on conditioning and sparring.  The [...]

We are very pleased with the attitude and progress being made by all of our members, especially the beginner white and blue belts who started over the past year – our “post-pandemic” generation of trainees.  The intent of HISKF, is to offer a weekly serving of karate-do that, over time, allows busy families in our community pick up a decent understanding of Shotokan Karate-Do, its values, traditions, techniques, and culture while improving their strength, flexibility and balance.  I liken it to drinking several glasses of water a day to keep hydrated and stay healthy.  This low-key regimen can be very beneficial when practiced over a period of years.  By contrast, when your senseis were young, I’d say our training regimen was more like “drinking water out of a firehose”, haha.  Typically, we’d be training at the University Karate Kai several times a week, and we might also be found at the Pearl City Dojo, the Main Dojo, and as brown/black belts, at the late-night Special Training Unit.  Sure, we were crazy for karate – but we were also on a compressed timetable and knew that we’d be leaving the university for our professional careers in just several years.  Sensei Wayne [...]