From Ti to
Karate to Karate and Beyond a Speculation
Starting with
whatever one assumes Ti was on Okinawa, Change was the one thing I believe we
can agree on that kept occurring. (see below two different explaination of
older practices) No question the training, and the thrust of the training,
depended on the conditions of those times.
When Te became
Karate and then continued to change and become Karate.
The idea a type
of Karate could be shared with school children took hold. Other instructors
followed the idea, teaching youth themselves. Instructors choose to change how
they were teaching, first for what was deemed acceptable for school students,
and very different needs. Then those changes entered their own dojo/group
training. Logically to make things similar.
And to address
even in the group it was a very different student who was being trained, requiring
less of the older Ti tradition and more of newer traditions for newer
conditions.
Different
curricula were followed by some instructors between school and private
training.
(Consciously not
considering what was happening in Japan) Just consider the post WWII years.
Making their Karate available to foreign students, many of them in foreign
militarist. Regular adult students had to fit karate into lives where they were
increasingly working under Japanese standards (likely greater hours). The rise
of ‘youth’ karate as a social function of training.
Then the
recognition that karate in Okinawa had to co-exist with Karate in Japan (more
of a government function.) Recognizing
the onslaught of karate-ka coming from outside in the world, and the need of
the income they represented. (In the end it is all about the money). And of
course the need to keep Okinawan control of what karate would be for Okinawa,
too.
Let me shift
gears a bit.
Take a look at
this from a different perspective.
I am nobody
special, but in my time I acquired a bit of knowledge. Some from instructors
who shared with me, some from my own efforts to better understand my art.
I quickly came
to realize I could not share everything I studied. No one had that much
personal time to try and get everything I saw. It was daunting to realize it
was not up to me, I was just the custodian of what knowledge I acquired.
But what I could
do was give my students enough to engage them for their lifetime. That became
my new mission, one I still am working on.
When I think of
those instructors from those varied Okinawan traditions, over 100 years ago,
was it really so different for them. Then did not just have a distinct
tradition they were preserving, but the accumulated a lifetime of knowledge,
and the most they could do is share enough of that knowledge to allow their
students to focus themselves.
To different times,
different needs, different solutions are found, the arts kept evolving.
These
are but several examples of what record
exists of prior training.
from
THE
TECHNIQUE AND INNER TEACHINGS OF MOTOBU UDUNDI, " Mouidi SECRET MARTIAL
ART OF THE RYUKYU KINGDOM ROYAL FAMILY
Motobu
Udundi Training
My
training period Between the ages of twelve and twenty-two, I practiced alone
with Choyu Sensei. We trained three times a day, morning, afternoon, and
evening. The training was unimaginably exacting. Choyu Sensei schooled me not
only in bujutsu techniques, but also in the warrior approach to all aspects of
everyday life-everything from how to take meals to the proper way to tie my
headband. It would be impossible for me to relate to you all of the many, many
things I was taught, but I will mention some of the main ones.
Walking training
I
practiced walking quickly forward and backward while up on my toes, placing my
weight at the base of my big toes and keeping my knees straight. I had to walk
while keeping my chest out and my body upright like a pole, using my hara, or
abdomen, as a center around which to move my entire body. I bound pieces of
wood to the backs of my knees with strips of cloth to get in the habit of
walking with my legs straight.
Striking training
I
began practicing how to strike by punching at my teacher's stomach with a
seiken fist. Striking a makiwara (practice target made of a board wrapped with
straw and/or rope) was not permitted, since striking an inanimate objects does
not train you to strike at a moving person. In actual combat we use nukite, or
spearhand strikes. The spearhand strike we use in Motobu Udundi is slightly
unique in that we keep our thumb straight, parallel to the rest of the fingers,
rather than bending it. To strengthen my spearhand, I practiced thrusting it
into the sand on the beach Eventually it was strong enough to split a
three-centimeter-thick plank of cedar.
Kicking training
To
practice kicking I tied a piece of cloth to a bamboo pole at about face-height
and kicked at it using the straight-legged kicks characteristic of Motobu
Udundi. These kicks involve keeping both the kicking leg and the pivot leg
straight, making contact with the toes when extending the kick, and with the
heel when withdrawing it. At the next stage, I practiced straight-legged
crescent kicks. I held my arms outstretched, parallel to the ground, with rocks
wrapped in towels held in both hands. If my upper body wavered in reaction to
the kick, the rocks in the towels would also waver and knock against my legs.
Thus, I learned to keep my upper body still when kicking. I started with rocks
weighing about 600 grams and gradually increased the weight to about 1800
grams. Later I practiced standing and kicking with straight-legged kicks
diagonally over my opposite shoulder to split a board positioned there. Then I
practiced the same type of movement to split a board positioned behind my head.
I also practiced leaping up to kick down small tree branches, and jumping from
stone walls and other high places, kicking with one foot and striking with both
hands on the way down, then kicking and striking rapidly again when I hit the
ground.
Leaping training
I
practiced leaping from a standing position without bending my knees, using only
my ankles as springs. I started doing that when I was twelve and by the time I
was seventeen I was able to use only the power of my ankles and one arm to hoist
myself over stone walls about the height of my raised arm.
Pole-vaulting training
As a
means of escaping when surrounded by enemies, I practiced using a bamboo pole
to jump from one stone wall to another and onto tiled roofs and other high
places.
Midwinter training in the sea
From
the time I was eighteen, about every three days during the mid-winter months,
Sensei and I would face each other (he facing the shore, I the water) and walk
up to our necks in the sea, wearing nothing but our undergarments, singing
loudly together all the while.
Training with earthenware jars
I
practiced lifting unglazed earthenware jars by placing my fingers inside and
expanding them outward to keep the jars from slipping off. Each jar was about
thirty centimeters high with an opening fifteen centimeters in diameter. As I
got stronger, I added weight by filling them with sand. I used the same jars to
support my neck and ankles while I held my body straight as a rod above the
floor, arms straight at my sides. Later I practiced holding that position while
Sensei pressed and shook my abdomen. Eventually I was able to hold the position
without flinching or bending, even when he climbed up and stood bouncing on my
stomach.
Bird-catching training
I
practiced capturing wild birds using a thin bamboo pole with a glob of very
sticky nice paste on the end of it. The instant a bird took off from a branch,
I used the sticky paste on the end of the pole to entangle its feet in such a
way that I could capture it without harming it or damaging its feathers. I did
this to develop a steady hand and so that I would be able to catch the rhythm
of an opponent's breathing (kokyu) and attack my chosen target.
Equestrian training
First
I learned how to ride bareback and how to mount a running horse. After that, I
practiced using various weapons such as long sword (tachi), spear (yari),
glaive (naginata) and so on while riding a horse.
Training matches
Back
then it was essential that I conceal my martial arts training as much as
possible in order to avoid the challenges that would come from people hoping to
prove their skills. If it was known that I was practicing bujutsu, I might be
ambushed or caught up in kakedameshi, which was the practice of picking fights
to test one's ability and gain practical fighting experience. Back then many
young people still lost their lives through kakedameshi. Choyu Sensei was
strictly opposed to such useless conflicts and naturally forbade kakedameshi.
However, there were times when I played the role of sparring partner to martial
artists who came to learn from Sensei and I also participated in practice
matches when I accompanied Sensei to meet other shihans. In practice matches
back then, the higher-ranking person would cover their palms with black soot
from the bottom of cooking pots, while the lower-ranking person would use wheat
flour. The winner of the match would be decided afterwards by the position and
number of white and black marks each had managed to put on the other. It was
considered a breach of etiquette to soil the clothing of a higher-ranking
person with difficult-to-remove soot, so the lower-ranking person used light
colored wheat flour instead.
And of course
prior training would have addressed possible threat of Okinawan tradition,
Okinawan Sumo.
No comments:
Post a Comment