HIS Karate-Do

You might remember when you had just begun learning the zenkutsu-dachi, I always said that your front foot should have the exterior blade facing straight forward – kind of a pigeon-toed position.  It probably seems like just another of the numerous rules  on position and posture that we ask you follow eh?  You may have thought, “What’s the big deal about my foot blade pointing in the direction I’m facing versus my big toe?”. In this video, Sensei Jessie Enkamp does a great job of describing the value of foot/knee/hip alignment and the reason why centered placement of weight on one’s feet is so important. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNdc3bDnXB8 You might be interested in why our kumite practice is limited to pre-arranged five-step, three-step, and one-step kumite.  This is for your protection and safety, as the free-style kumite that your sensei’s constantly practiced in our younger days resulted in many unavoidable injuries for each of us (safety wasn’t as big a concern for karateka in the 1970s).  Although in the spirit of gambare (Japanese for “Keep fighting!”) we continued practicing while hurt, that’s not really appropriate for the HIS group. To give you an idea of what a JKA style tournament kumite looked [...]

Now here’s a “trivia question”.  Do you recognize the man on this book cover? In  case you don’t, he’s the late karate legend, Master Masatoshi Nakayama.  His eminence in Shotokan Karate-Do is perhaps second only to that of the founder himself, Master Gichin Funakoshi.  As one might expect, he was a good Shotokan Karate-Do technician, but the talents which elevated him were in his long-term vision and organizational/leadership skills that have had a direct and significant influence on most every Shotokan practitioner in the world today.  Master Nakayama was one of the founders and long-time Chief Instructor of the Japan Karate Association (JKA), a global karate organization through which all of your sensei learned so much of what we are able to share with you today.  His book, “Dynamic Karate”, is considered a classic and was published over 60 years ago.  It is so valued by karateka, I see where the price of a used hardcover now starts at $87! (Master Nakayama was kind enough to sign Sensei Peter’s and my hardcover in kanji) Both his father and grandfather were physicians so perhaps it was natural that he would become a professor and Head of the Physical Education Department at [...]

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 [...]