The Story of Shozen Sunabe - Part 3

 The Story of Shozen Sunabe

Part 3

by Charles C. Goodin Hawaii Karate Museum

 

This article was published in Classical Fighting Arts and is extremely good. I made some notes that interested me at the time I read it.

 

Shozen Sunabe was a student of Chotoku Kyan and in this article he describes what that training was like.

 

I saved parts of the article in these notes.

 

n  Applications and Meanings

 

Kyan Sensei used to say “You should practice like you are going to fight, but not fight.”  Sunabe Sensei’s exact words were “Kyan Sensei always teaching fight kine (kind) and then no fight.”

 

I asked Sunabe Sensei how he learned the applications or meanings of the movements in the kata. His answer was very direct: “Kyan Sensei demonstrated them on him all the time. That was part of each day’s training. Kyan Sensei would identify a certain movement or technique and have Sunabe Sensei attack and demonstrate various applications.  Sunabe Sensei was very clear about one point: every single technique ended up with him on the ground.  Kyan Sensei would remain standing but Sunabe Sensei would be laid out on the ground.

 

……It did not appear that Kyan Sensei Used standard type Judo throws.  Instead, his takedowns were destructive; he slammed the attacker on the ground, a rock, wall, etc. He also demonstrated joint manipulations, seizing and tearing techniques, and techniques designed to inflict extreme pain. Such techniques would be applied prior to or in connection with the takedown. In other words, Sunabe Sensei whould be hypothetically injured before he hit the ground.

 

,,,,,

 

Sunabe Sensei said that Kyan Sensei had a unique way of ”catching.” By this I understood that he would catch or receive a punch or strike in a unique way. I asked Sunabe Sensei if he ever saw Kyan Sensei in a fight or challenge match. He indicated that he had done so.  Whenever someone attacked Kyan Sensei… Kyan Sensei would catch the attacker’s arm with his hands and that was it, the attacker would scream for mercy. Kyan Sensei’s hands and fingers were incredibly strone, and he apparently knew which kyusho, or pressure points, to attack.

 

In addition…when Kyan Sensei grabbed someone with his two hands, he could kick him in the throat of face with a piercing and devastating toe kick!   In fact, Kyan Sensei could interlace his fingers and kick through his arms. Thus it was almost as if Kyan Sensei’s legs were like additional arms.   He was also adept at jumping – somewhat like fighting a chicken with his kicking leg tucked close to his stomach/chest. After seizing the attacker, a flurry of kicks was always ready.

 

Kyan Sensei’s defense strategy thus appears to have been to catch or seize the attacking arms, control them, and inflict incredible pain, and then kick if necessary!

 

 

 

n  Night

 

According to Sunabe Sensei, during his youth on Okinawa it was exceptionally dart at night! There were no streetlights and generally no electricity. Except for the light provided by the moon and start, it was jet black.  Fighting had to account for this. That is why so many of Kyan Sensei’s kata (and Tomari kata in general) have searching movements with hands and feet,  In a night fight you, hand to be very quiet, locate the attacker, strike, and move. For the feet, the type of searching would differ depending on the terrain. On a smooth surface, the foot could slide on the ground, but on a rough or rocky terrain, the foot would have to be lifted while it searched.

 

Some kata have movements that were used to shield the eyes from the moonlight and better identify the attacker.   There were also some movements in which the defender dropped to the ground to silhouette the attacker from the sky.

 

 

… breathing is important in all Karate techniques, but especially when they are executed at night. He said at times when he would have to fight for thirty minutes straight at night.  I did not learn, however, how breathing differed during the day and night.

 

 

 

n  Martial Awareness

 

Kyan Sensei did not just teach the techniques of Karate, He also taught martial awareness to an extreme extent.  Sunabe Sensei told me that Kyan Sensei’s nickname “Chan Migwa” or small eyed Kyan, was not  quite correct. He said that Kian Sensei, who always wore glasses, had only one eye. Many years ago Kyan Sensei was sitting and drinking sake with a friend next to a hibachi (charcoal burner),  The friend was stirring the coals with a hihachi (a long chopstick).  Foe some unknown reason, and without warning, the friend poked Kyan Sensei in the eye with the hot end of the jihachi. Beside affecting his vision, this event seems to have also made Kyan Sensei very cautious and suspicious. He felt he had to always be ready to defend himself.

 

For example, when someone handed him a cup of tea, Kyan Sensei would always make sure to receive the cup with one thumb pressed firmly against it. This was to prevent the person from being able to throw the hot tea into Kyan Sensei’s face.

 

When eating with chopsticks, Kyan Sensei would hold them sideways, never pointing toward his mouth. It the chopsticks pointed toward his mouth, an attacker could hit their ends and stab them into Kyan Sensei’s throat.

 

When sitting cross legged on the floor, Kyan Sensei would always make sure that he could stand up quickly. One of his feet would be pre-positioned on the floor for this purpose.

 

Doorways and corners were always treated as places where an attacker could be lurking.

 

,,, Sunabe Sensei told his son that Kyan Sensei could um backwards into his house and brace himself in the corner of the ceiling, like a ninja..

 

There were two movements in kata that showed practical applications based on items used in the Ryukyu Kingdom. There is a movement in Kyan Sensei’s Yara Kusanku kata in which a left open hand block is made over the head, and ending behind the head (the right hand executes a shuto with the palm up).  It is said that this catching and riding type of block was done by Kyan Sensei because he was so short.    Sunabe Sensei said that the hand brushed over the head in order to gram a jiffa (hairpin).  Jiffa were more by all men above the commoner class in the Ryukyu Kingdom. With the jiffa in hand, the next movement in the kata is a stab into the lower side of the attacker.

 

There is a movement at the beginning of the Tomari Chinto kata in which the two open hands are together at the wrists at about chest height.  They then rotate clock-wise, the right hand catches a punch, and the left hand punches…. This technique was used when the hands were bound, The ropes used in Okinawa were fibrous. By twisting the hands and wrists together, the rope could be loosened and the hands could escape.

As previously mentioned, many movements in kata reflected the fact that self defense techniques would often have to be executed in pitch blackness. This can be seen in many searching and catching techniques with the hands, and searching techniques with the feet (as in Tomari Passai). Once the attacker was located, a limb would be seized and a quick punch of strike would be executed.

 

As it was important to be quiet at night so as to not give away one’s location. Thus stepping was done quietly, unless the intention was a stomp. Todays, students ofter make a stomping sound when stepping even if a stomp is not intended.

 

 

n  Fist Variations

 

…”in Karate, we use many forms of fists”. During that brief sentence, he placed his fist on various locations on my head and in each one used a different form of fist: two knuckles, one knuckle, the first joint of the indes finger, the first joints of the four fingers, the side of the index knuckle… It happened to fast that I could not even think. He explained that a specific form of fist or hand position was to be used for each target.

 

 

This concludes my notes.

I only have these notes. I disposed of all my copies of CFA many years ato.