1-2-2002
Hello everyone:
Interesting thread on Miyagi's Gekki-sai series. I would just like to add a few points.
I am not sure if everyone is aware of this, but it is worth mentioning as I feel it is pertinent to Miyagi's development of the Gekki-sai series.
On March 28, 1937, the Karate-do Promotion Society (including Yabu Kentsu, Hanashiro Chomo, Kyan Chotoku, Chibana Choshin, Miyagi Chojun, Shiroma Shimpan, Nakasone Genwa and Chitose Tsuyoshi (aka Chinen Gochoku) held a formal discussion on the future development and direction of Karate-do.
The result of this meeting was two fold:
1) That the classical kata of each tradition should be preserved
2) That new kata should be established.
The specifics of these newly established basic karate-do kata included six fundamental points:
1. Young and old, men and women should be able to train in karate-do and to develop at a suitable level. Therefore, specific teaching material should be developed for training.
2. Karate-do should be made easier to acquire.
3. Practice using the basic kata should be easy to remember
4. The movements of the classical kata should be taught correctly and accurately.
5. Karate-do as a form of physical education should train each part of the body in a balanced manner.
6. Physical exercise and development of martial spirit should be combined together.
Within a few short months after the conclusion of this meeting, the group formally established a series of twelve basic kata which were ultimately published in Nakasone Genwa's (Ed.), 1938 "Karate-do Taikan".
Interestingly, these kata were never adopted by mainstream Okinawan karate schools. One can only speculate as to why, the most obvious reason being the interruption of life on Okinawa due to W.W.II. Be that as it may, they seem to have been abandoned to time.
Now, what this shows IMHO, is that Miyagi (and others) in the 1930's were leaning towards developing a new series of Physical Education based kata which could be used across stylistic barriers. Later, Miyagi seems to have revisited this project (albeit to a lesser extent) with Nagamine Shoshin in the 1940's.
I have included the first two sequences (in separate posts) from the first kata (going right to left) to give you an idea of how they went. They were based on an "I" enbusen and focused on very basic karate techniques.
Cheers,
Mario
Ron & Victor:
>
Glad you found the post helpful. I have pretty much finished up the translation of the book and have been editing it here and there. Still waiting to hear back from Tuttle Co. :-)
Thank you Mario,
> This is very helpful. Is it you or Joe who is working on a
translation into english of this work and when is the expected date it will be available? I can't wait to see what else this book contains.
:) It is obvious that it follows the shuri line due to the stances. I
wonder what Miyagi's imput in on this was. IT seems he was trying to cooperate with the idea of the six points, or at least returned to the theme.>
Good question. The kata seem to follow "shuri" style tendencies
compared to "naha" based forms. Who exactly contributed what is unknown as there are no details concerning the contribution of each member. But to take an educated guess, I would bet that the largest contributions and / or final say in the form these kata took (no pun intended :-), would have rested with senior members. Most likely Yabu and Hanashiro who had already been teaching karate in the school system for several decades by then. Junior members, including Miyagi, would have simply gone with the status quo IMHO. That wonderful asian tradition of respecting your seniors.
-Do you think this all originated with Itosu and the Heian
kata and was just a refinement of those for a group means to cross style barriers? and was Miyagi trying to revive this?>
Miyagi's Gekki-sai
I think it was an honest attempt to step across "style" barriers and provide some unity and logical progression in karate pedagogy.
As for Miyagi possibly following in Higashionna's footsteps in trying to introduce Nahate into the school system. I do not think it is that far fetched. Joe Swift related an interesting story told to him by Kinjo Hiroshi sensei. (Correct me if I am wrong Joe-san :-) It appears that one senior offical of the Okinawa prefectural board of education decided that Nahate was "unsuitable" for developing young me after wittnessing Nahate's San Chin and training methods. So, instead of becoming part of the school PE curriculum like Itosu's "Karate", Higashionna's "te" was only able to maintain it's after school club status... Wonder if that was one reason Higashionna went back on the bottle?
<This gives me some dates at least and is very interesting.
You do not happen to know roughly the dates we know of the first introduction of each of the kata Miyagi taught, the 6 not taught by Higashionna. If not the dates then the first references of the students he taught each particular one of the six to do you?
Sorry, can't be of help there. I haven't come across any literature
(English or Japanese) giving specific dates. One thing that is
interesting though, in what little I have come across, Miyagi seems to have emphasized San Chin and Seiunchin when teaching at the High Schools and Police Academy.
<I am interested in the order of introduction and the time
period they seemed to follow.>
Well, if we go my Higaonna Morio, everyone learned a different form. And only An'ichi learned all of them directly from Miyagi :-O
But I honestly don't know in what chronological order that Miyagi introduced the forms.
Cheers,
Mario
One evening right after I had moved to NH, I was down training with Tristan Sutrisno Shotokan school, and he was introducing a Dan balance exercise.
He took the first Taikyouku Kata of Shotokan and began adding
techniques, series after series, making it quite an interesting
balance drill. A great deal of what we did is extremely similar to
Nakasone's book, so much so it continues to give me pause.
[Aside, C.W. Nicole in "Moving Zen" describes somewhat similar training right after he obtained his Sho-Dan in the first class for the new ShoDan students.]
Now I can't independently verify Tris' background, but his skills
were such I don't have a hard time believing it was reasonable.
As I was told his father (who was Indonesian "Achmed Sutrisno" was 'drafted' into the Japanes Navy (I believe the early 30's) and as a Doctor was sent to college (Naval War?) in Japan. There he trained under Funakoshi Sensei, one of Usheiba's students and I don't know what else but he also has quite interesting kobudo kata and sword studies in addition to his Uncle's Indonesian Tjimande, too.
Seeing Nakasone's book, in addition to the kata, Tris's empty hand knife self defenses were eeriely reminiscent of the Jujutsu Knife self defense in that book, too.
All of which could imply 1) the book was part of his father's
training or knowledge (certainly possible) 2) his father's training in Japan paralleled the material in Nakasone 3) it is a great number of unrelated simultaneous experiences 4) some other answer together.
Regardless of historical truth of which I cannot prove, all of these kata resonate within me because of my walk.
It's even more interesting as Joe tells me he doesn't believe they
were incorporated into any 'formal' system, unless their possible
usage within Shotokan is their formal resting place.
Victor
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