HIS Karate-Do

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 [...]

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 [...]