I suppose that my greatest past-time for enjoyment, based upon the number of hours I spend doing it each week is…reading.\u00c2\u00a0 A form of relaxation\/development that I’m sure is shared with many in our group.\u00c2\u00a0 I do have a bad habit of reading, perhaps, a half-dozen books simultaneously.\u00c2\u00a0 No, I don’t have multiple books open, reading them together, like those chess masters who play multiple game boards with multiple opponents, haha.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more like watching various TV series in a given night or week.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll pick up one book and read a score of pages one night, and the next night, I’ll do the same with one or two others.\u00c2\u00a0 I think that many folks have a hard time keeping up with what’s going on in any particular book if they put it down for a week or two.\u00c2\u00a0 Like I said, for me, it’s no different than watching a continuing episode of Hawaii 5-0, then switching to Last Man Standing and finishing up with the news.<\/p>\n
Anyways, my usual areas of interest are: history, science, social science, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 About the only fiction I read is the type that got me started on reading back when I was about 10 years old….good old science fiction!\u00c2\u00a0 Or, as they call it nowadays, sci-fi.\u00c2\u00a0 I think that the reason I find sci-fi (also called speculative fiction) appealing\u00c2\u00a0is that it\u00c2\u00a0kind of combines\u00c2\u00a0the areas of interest I mentioned: history, science and social science – who knows?\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Back in the early sixties,\u00c2\u00a0I used to read\u00c2\u00a0all of the old favorites;\u00c2\u00a0Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Van\u00c2\u00a0Vogt, Bova, Dick, Heinlein, Leinster, Blish, Niven, Herbert,\u00c2\u00a0etc.\u00c2\u00a0 These authors and others wrote many classic\u00c2\u00a0sci-fi novels from the “Golden Age” of\u00c2\u00a0sci-fi in the 40’s and 50’s.\u00c2\u00a0 However,\u00c2\u00a0I can only recall\u00c2\u00a0literally staying up all night to\u00c2\u00a0read a sci-fi book (it was a school night) when\u00c2\u00a0I was around 12 years old.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Not sure why this story was so rivitting to me at the time.\u00c2\u00a0 It was written way back in the 30’s by two authors I had\u00c2\u00a0never read before nor since – Wylie and Balmer – and was entitled, “When Worlds Collide”.\u00c2\u00a0 In retrospect, it wasn’t that fantastic – though it was solid sci-fi for its time.\u00c2\u00a0 Today,\u00c2\u00a0while it’s hard to find good sci-fi authors, my favorites are: Neal Stephenson, Iain Banks, Greg Bear, Greg Benford, David Brin\u00c2\u00a0and Dan Simmons (just in case you ever want to start a new hobby, haha).\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I only mention the story for its nostalgic value\u00c2\u00a0(to me;) and…for its title…because\u00c2\u00a0I wanted to talk about something more mundane, like; When Cultures Collide.<\/p>\n
I really do see the karate dojo in America\u00c2\u00a0as a place where\u00c2\u00a0cultures meet – not collide, haha.\u00c2\u00a0 Even the most eclectic of\u00c2\u00a0systems keeps a lot of the mannerisms and trappings that were a part of the parent\u00c2\u00a0karate system or style.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The original cultural influence, of course, being Japanese\/Okinawan\/Chinese.\u00c2\u00a0 Some are obvious and found in every dojo, from New York to Honolulu, and elsewhere around the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Every Shotokan student\u00c2\u00a0wears a white gi, uses the color belt system, line up, bow, have senseis and sempais, train in barefeet, and so on.\u00c2\u00a0 And watching students go through the various kihon, kata, kumite movements, one would be hard-pressed to figure which state or country one is in.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember Sensei Peter telling me, that on a trip to Arizona a few years ago, he visited a Shotokan dojo and was very impressed with the Caucasian\u00c2\u00a0sensei.\u00c2\u00a0 He said that the instructor\u00c2\u00a0was very competent, strict, and seemed\u00c2\u00a0“…more\u00c2\u00a0JKA, he’s more Japanese than us!”\u00c2\u00a0 Haha.\u00c2\u00a0 And I have found this same phenomenon elsewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember helping teach\u00c2\u00a0in a\u00c2\u00a0California dojo, where the sensei was\u00c2\u00a0“channeling”\u00c2\u00a0Japanese…in other words, if I blurred my vision a little,\u00c2\u00a0and watched\/listened to him, I’d swear that he was from\u00c2\u00a0Japan (only 5’3”, he was actually from Guam – of\u00c2\u00a0Chamorran\/Caucasian extraction). \u00c2\u00a0Especially in\u00c2\u00a0dojos where the originating instructors\u00c2\u00a0were Japan nationals, long-time students strive to preserve much of what their instructors taught them…intentionally and unintentionally preserving and passing on their teachers’ knowledge, culture, and quirks too, haha.\u00c2\u00a0 Inevitably, the instructors (and students) infuse their training with large portions of their own native culture.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, here in the islands, we shed our “slippahs” to enter the dojo – in most of the American mainland, they slip off their shoes.\u00c2\u00a0 We have a relatively casual entry to\u00c2\u00a0our dojo, which I’ve encouraged -\u00c2\u00a0most of us wearing the gi pants and placing the top and belts after we arrive.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember in the old KAH dojo, footwear was neatly lined up, the gi was brought to the dojo, neatly folded, and we always changed in the changing room.\u00c2\u00a0 We never wore any part of the gi outside of the dojo.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas our dojo is full of the Aloha spirit, there are many dojos where a fierce, serious\u00c2\u00a0martial attitude is continuously maintained.\u00c2\u00a0 We commence training with a short prayer -\u00c2\u00a0HIS Karate began\u00c2\u00a0as a church ministry in a church office 11 years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 The Japanese culture did not encourage questions asked of the instructor, and in the old dojos, the instructor barked out commands or criticisms, and\u00c2\u00a0students tried again, and again, and again.\u00c2\u00a0 On the contrary, our dojo encourages questions and the senseis do their best to\u00c2\u00a0answer.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Most JKA Shotokan style dojos will begin and end\u00c2\u00a0in the seiza position, with the Mokuso, followed by\u00c2\u00a0repeating of\u00c2\u00a0the Dojo Kun at the end of class – we don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dojo Kun, by the way, is a pass-down of 5 Chinese precepts (there are scores of these philosophical\/ethical sayings)\u00c2\u00a0that the old Okinawan Te masters believed in.\u00c2\u00a0 As I mentioned, each dojo is a blending of the style origins, the larger organization it belongs to, the instructor’s personality, and the home culture where training takes place – usually, a blend of various influences.<\/p>\n
Here’s a funny memory.\u00c2\u00a0 About 30 years ago, a group of visiting JKA instructors from\u00c2\u00a0the Japan Hombu arrived at our dojo to train\/teach with us.\u00c2\u00a0 They had stopped in Hawaii,\u00c2\u00a0enroute to other\u00c2\u00a0cities throughout the US.\u00c2\u00a0 As you know, we call out the commands and counts in Japanese, as was required by our organization.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t speak any more Japanese than what we say in the dojo – and I’ve had a couple of my Japanese speaking friends laugh and tell me how i’m butchering the language, haha.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyways, during the first half, we local black belts would yell out the count in Japanese (“Ich!…Ni!…San!…and so on).\u00c2\u00a0 When it was the visiting instructors’ turn, they proceeded to count – “Huwon!..Tsu!…Tsurhee!..Fouah!…and so on).\u00c2\u00a0 I believe that they were trying to be courteous in a foreign country, by counting in english.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I can see where both groups of black belts were earnestly counting, and butchering each other’s native language, haha.\u00c2\u00a0 If we had both stuck to our own language, both groups would have had perfect counts!\u00c2\u00a0 I found this ironic…until a tiny thought crept into my head…What if they were subtly demonstrating what we always sounded like to them? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
For the first 9 years, members of the Karate Association of Hawaii (KAH) were under the continuous\u00c2\u00a0guidance and instruction of\u00c2\u00a0three of the top JKA instructors – two were former All-JKA champions and graduates of the elite and prestigious JKA instructors program.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Each\u00c2\u00a0was a fine gentleman and master technician, however – none\u00c2\u00a0were particularly articulate in the english language, especially during their first years in America.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Much of what was learned occurred through the\u00c2\u00a0“me do – you copy” method.\u00c2\u00a0 JKA culture,\u00c2\u00a0in particular, the university club culture; dominated the early\u00c2\u00a0years of training in Hawaii.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The JKA instructors would tend to take a promising student under their wing, and pour out their knowledge,\u00c2\u00a0especially if they could\u00c2\u00a0understand and speak fluent Japanese.\u00c2\u00a0 When you think about it, that’s only natural, since they could then articulate their explanations on technique, share their philosophy on karate-do, and just\u00c2\u00a0plain, “talk story” with these few.\u00c2\u00a0 In California, Sensei Trish would travel some 50 miles to train with\u00c2\u00a0Yabe Sensei in Gardena.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Yabe Sensei was one of the early\u00c2\u00a0All American Karate Federation (AAKF) champions and a long-time\u00c2\u00a0personal student of\u00c2\u00a0Nishiyama Sensei…a terrific technician, he was also a\u00c2\u00a0very nice man and so courteous and friendly to\u00c2\u00a0me when Trish introduced me to him.\u00c2\u00a0 Upon meeting him, I was surprised that he\u00c2\u00a0spoke with a slight Japanese accent – he had arrived in America as a teenager; and his native tongue was Japanese.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Similarly, here in\u00c2\u00a0Hawaii, Sensei Victor\u00c2\u00a0was one of the early, senior sempais of the KAH and\u00c2\u00a0still maintains a close relationship to his instructor, Kanazawa Sensei.\u00c2\u00a0 Sensei Vic is a kibei, meaning that he was born in Hawaii, but as a child,\u00c2\u00a0was sent by his parents back to\u00c2\u00a0Japan, coming back to Hawaii when he was 21.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s a local boy, but\u00c2\u00a0also speaks and understands perfect Japanese.\u00c2\u00a0 He is an 8th dan in the SKIF today.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Both men\u00c2\u00a0have a\u00c2\u00a0long-time affiliation with and deep understanding of\u00c2\u00a0karate-do.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00c2\u00a0were both personal students of\u00c2\u00a0two of the earliest Japanese masters to bring\u00c2\u00a0Shotokan to our shores.\u00c2\u00a0 Their great advantage was that, in addition to undergoing hard physical training\u00c2\u00a0– they could easily converse and understand what these foreign instructors were saying, as well as the culture that karate-do came from.<\/p>\n
In turn, as instructors,\u00c2\u00a0men such as James Yabe and Victor Takemori, serve as cultural bridges – having a foot in one culture and the other foot in another.\u00c2\u00a0 By the time most American students enter the dojo to train (your senseis included), most of the heavy lifting has been done.\u00c2\u00a0 The tedious, sometimes frustrating task of learning a new martial art, and the necessary cultural assimilation within the dojo, and adjustments made to create something comfortable\/palatable for Americans was carried out by the first generation of trainees in America.\u00c2\u00a0 Looking at it another way,\u00c2\u00a0Senseis Wayne, Peter and me\u00c2\u00a0could be considered sansei (third generation) in relation to the first instructors who made their way here; just as we are sansei in relation to our immigrant grandparents.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Sensei Trisha\u00c2\u00a0is a yonsei – in more ways than one.\u00c2\u00a0 Each of us is an American and life-long kamaina…comfortable in the only island home we’ve known.\u00c2\u00a0 It should also feel comfortable in our dojo – after all, it is what we make of it.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I hope you never forget that\u00c2\u00a0we are merely\u00c2\u00a0the easy receipients of a body of knowledge and a syllabus that works well in our culture and society….I hope that we never take for granted, the sacrifices, perserverence \u00c2\u00a0and hours of sweat that made this possible for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I suppose that my greatest past-time for enjoyment, based upon the number of hours I spend doing it each week is…reading.\u00c2\u00a0 A form of relaxation\/development that I’m sure is shared with many in our group.\u00c2\u00a0 I do have a bad habit of reading, perhaps, a half-dozen books simultaneously.\u00c2\u00a0 No, I don’t have multiple books open, reading them together, like those chess masters who play multiple game boards with multiple opponents, haha.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more like watching various TV series in a given night or week.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll pick up one book and read a score of pages one night, and the next night, I’ll do the same with one or two others.\u00c2\u00a0 I think that many folks have a hard time keeping up with what’s going on in any particular book if they put it down for a week or two.\u00c2\u00a0 Like I said, for me, it’s no different than watching a continuing episode of Hawaii 5-0, then switching to Last Man Standing and finishing up with the news. Anyways, my usual areas of interest are: history, science, social science, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 About the only fiction I read is the type that got me started on reading back when I was about 10 [...]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}