An interesting aspect to the transition of Japanese martial arts into world-wide activities has been the challenge of transmitting the various techniques and philosophies through the barrier of different languages.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve mentioned before, that among the early American karateka who studied under the first Japanese sensei’s, there were some who were fluent in Japanese.\u00c2\u00a0 This presented a distinct advantage in being able to understand what the sensei was trying to impart, beyond just the basics.\u00c2\u00a0 The first Japanese instructors, having a limited command of the English language, often had to rely on\u00c2\u00a0 exhortations like “Fastah!”, “Deepah stancu!”, “Moru Hipu!”, and…well, you get the idea.\u00c2\u00a0 At least, if the student had some fluency in the Japanese language, the sensei could comfortably explain the techniques in more detail and since a number of the early students were kibei (Japanese Americans who had been sent to Japan as children to truly learn the language and culture), even deeper, more nuanced explanations were possible.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, language could be a real challenge.\u00c2\u00a0 In spite of this, lessons will usually involve a sensei demonstrating skillful technique which students strive to emulate over many thousands of repetitions.\u00c2\u00a0 Practice, practice, practice is always the best teacher.<\/p>\n
Recently, I heard an amusing story about one of my old dojo friends, the late Sensei Stan Okano.\u00c2\u00a0 Back in the 1960’s, when he was training under legendary Shotokan master, Hirokazu Kanazawa, he had a question about stances.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, there are the Zenkutsu-Dachi, Kokutsu-Dachi, Kiba-Dachi, Sanchin-Dachi, Fudo-Dachi, etc…actually over a dozen different stances.\u00c2\u00a0 Over time, he\u00c2\u00a0wasn’t able to understand what one particular stance referred to.\u00c2\u00a0 In the old days, students were even more reluctant to ask questions of the sensei than today.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, he couldn’t stand it\u00c2\u00a0anymore and sheepishly asked, “Sensei, what is the fu-ranto stance?”\u00c2\u00a0 He was both amazed and a little embarrassed to discover that\u00c2\u00a0 Sensei was referring to…the front stance.😊\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed, the language barrier can\u00c2\u00a0work both ways.<\/p>\n
In a similar vein, I remember my old Aikido sensei, “Koa” Kimura, watching us execute a technique using too much muscle strength and not enough Ki.\u00c2\u00a0 He would then exclaim, “Chikara No Good!”\u00c2\u00a0 At least, I thought that’s what he said.\u00c2\u00a0 I understood him to be saying that relying on muscle strength alone was not good.\u00c2\u00a0 I just found out that he was really saying, “Chikara wo nuku!”…properly releasing power or\u00c2\u00a0tension when one meets an opponent’s resistance.\u00c2\u00a0 Although I had gotten the basic idea, I missed out on the nuance and deeper meaning of his short exclamation.\u00c2\u00a0 At least I finally\u00c2\u00a0received Sensei’s lesson….fifty-five years later<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Hopefully you folks don’t have as many such challenges, seeing as how we all speak English eh?\u00c2\u00a0 So – if you ever have a question, please don’t hesitate to ask us.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ll give you the answer, if we know it.😉<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An interesting aspect to the transition of Japanese martial arts into world-wide activities has been the challenge of transmitting the various techniques and philosophies through the barrier of different languages.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve mentioned before, that among the early American karateka who studied under the first Japanese sensei’s, there were some who were fluent in Japanese.\u00c2\u00a0 This presented a distinct advantage in being able to understand what the sensei was trying to impart, beyond just the basics.\u00c2\u00a0 The first Japanese instructors, having a limited command of the English language, often had to rely on\u00c2\u00a0 exhortations like “Fastah!”, “Deepah stancu!”, “Moru Hipu!”, and…well, you get the idea.\u00c2\u00a0 At least, if the student had some fluency in the Japanese language, the sensei could comfortably explain the techniques in more detail and since a number of the early students were kibei (Japanese Americans who had been sent to Japan as children to truly learn the language and culture), even deeper, more nuanced explanations were possible.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, language could be a real challenge.\u00c2\u00a0 In spite of this, lessons will usually involve a sensei demonstrating skillful technique which students strive to emulate over many thousands of repetitions.\u00c2\u00a0 Practice, practice, practice is always the best teacher. Recently, I [...]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2489,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488\/revisions\/2489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}