Here is part 2 of the question and answer section from Nakasone Genwa’s “The Story of Karate”. I hope you enjoy it. A: In short, the characters that comprise Toudi are foreign and are blindly worshiped for their convenience. Personally, with respect to the development of Japanese Boxing, the term Karate is more suitable and should be used as it... Read more → ...
While searching the information super highway this morning for a topic I came across this story here. I could not believe what I was reading. I mean men were so threatened by women learning self defense they wanted to take the classes so women could not learn the “secret stuff” and beat them up? […]...
Is bunkai...the magic bullet..? I often used to wonder what the next great 'fashion' in karate would be, and then a few years ago it emerged..."bunkai!" Almost over night you had to be a bunkai expert, and mastery of karate was unthinkable unless you could turn every single nudge and twitch of your body in to a deadly fighting technique...oh boy...here we go again! Bunkai, in some quarters, has become...
A common trend in “martial arts” in North America is the pursuit of practicality. Many teachers will proudly stand before their students and declare a laundry list of adjectives to reinforce this belief such as “real”, “effective”, or “proven”. Many will proudly profess that they perform contact fighting, sparring, iri kumi, or other such methods, stating that you cannot learn... Read more →...
Jon training saifa kata on his recent visit to the Shinseidokan last month When I play the role of teacher in karate, I try to teach by example. The example I am able to provide however, is limited by my experience, so, I won't teach what I don't know. Over thirty years ago I made a choice to stop practising karate the Japanese way. At the time it was a big decision to make but, having experienced...
I apologize ahead of time as I am not the most artistic person, nor am I the most computer literate person either. In the diagram I’ve posted you can see a basic stepping drill used in Tou’on-ryu called “Ten-I-Happo” (転位八方) or roughly translated as “turning to eight directions”. It was a drill purportedly made by Kyoda sensei and one of... Read more → ...
In the Taira lineage of Kobudo that I learned from Minowa sensei and Yoshimura sensei there are several old and technically complex bo kata that are taught including: Chinen Shiki Yanaka no kon (知念志喜屋仲の棍), Choun no kon (趙雲の棍), Chatan Yara no kon (北谷屋良の棍), Tsuken bo (津堅棒), Sesoko no kon (瀬底の棍), and Soeishi no kon (添石の棍). Oddly enough, as was recently... Read more → ...
Artist impression of the Karatedo Kaikan to be built in Tomigusuku Of the 50 million people in the world who like to think of themselves as karateka, how many I wonder look to Okinawa for guidance? I suspect it's a lot less than the number worldwide who look to Japan. I also suspect that the vast majority of the 50 million individuals who climb into a keiko-gi of one sort or another, don't actually...
I rarely buy Karate-do books in English; at least not for a very long time. In fact I’ve sold most of my Karate-do books over the past couple of years and have never regretted the decision. With few exceptions, they were mediocre at best, and at their worst poorly written and researched. I find this both shocking and humorous at... Read more → ...
Boy I about fell off the couch tonight watching this commercial for Autozone’s Duralast Battery. Take a gander to see what I’m talking about. [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.] Now I have a new line, “Trust me… this […]...
This is the final installment of the Tomarite Rohai kata as handed down to Tokashiki Iken (Gohakuakai founder) by his teacher Nakasone Seiyu. In this blog post we’ll look at the remaining applications for the kata. I think you’ll find these basic applications interesting. Click to enlarge...
Busaganishi and the Kempo Haku I turned the final card over and did the last of the push-ups...there were seven of them. Not so many if that's all I had to do, but this was the final card in the deck and I'd been working my way steadily through them all over the past twenty minutes. I tried to "be in the moment" with each exercise but this morning my mind was wondering; I was thinking about the article...
Modern technology, making it easy...to be lazy!!! Information is powerful, people, big business, governments even, are willing to lie, cheat, steal, and even kill for it; so it stands to reason that whoever controls the flow of information also holds great power...but, when you begin to mess with power, then power begins to mess with you! I'm using these images of me, taken from Blitz magazine, only...
In previous posts we saw how the Tomarite Rohai kata (as practiced in Gohakukai) was performed and then broke down the kata in detail (here & here). In today’s post we’ll look at some of it’s basic applications. Originally published in “Okinawa Karatedo Kobudo: A basic investigative report” these applications are demonstrated by Fukuchi Isao (acting as defender) and...
The late Higa Yuchoku sensei of the Kyudokan: testing a student In the photo Higa sensei is testing the form of a student. It's a situation I've been in a great many times myself over the years, especially as a student of Higaonna Morio sensei back in the 1980's. But even when I was making my way home from his dojo through the back-streets of Makishi, my shoulders and thighs burning from the fierce...
This is an exciting time for me although some might not understand my attachment to ninja karate turtles that came from nuclear slime in the sewers. When my boys were young they had the Nintendo Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle video game, We (yes I said we) watch the cartoons, watched the movie and I […]...
In previous poss we looked at a video as well as a pictorial explanation the first half of the Rohai kata. In this post we’ll take a look at the second half of the Rohai kata as handed down from Nakasone Seiyu (1890 – 1980) to Gohakukai founder Tokashiki Iken (b. 1940). I think you will find it interesting. In... Read more → ...
Fight scenes in movies generally are not realistic, I mean my wife hates watching moves with me as I get mad. I tell her anyone who gets hit with a solid punch first should lose the fight but so often the fight goes on for another five minutes. But this post is not about […]...
Hand written poem by Kanazawa sensei In accordance with the changes I'm making in how I engage with karate, I've decided to sell some of the books from my library, starting with those dealing with Japanese karate schools. As Shotokan is by far the most popular form of Japanese karate, I thought I'd begin by offering four books written by Hirokazu Kanazawa sensei, each one containing a different hand...
Nakasone Seiyu (1890 – 1980) was the teacher of Gohakukai founder Tokashiki Iken. He was a master of Tomarite having acquired his skills from Iha Kodatsu. Unfortunately there is very little written about this man or his life in English, so the following article may be of interest to readers. It was written by Toguchi Seikichi and originally was published... Read more → ...