Bushi No Te Isshinryu Kyu Supplemental kata studies

I incorporated several supplementary kata from other systems in my students studies at kyu level to better have them understand what others do, ostensibly to make them not be concerned with what they are unfamiliar with. They then had a basic grasp of what other systems did. But this was for all of my students.

Specifically I wanted to slow down the pace youth students learned their kata, but keeping the slower Isshinryu pace interesting. But the adults also studied this curricula, for them the main purpose was to have a visceral understanding of what other did because they did that too in part.

While these kata are supplemental  to the Isshinryu kata, they are still mandatory.

This is the order they were taught:

Kata Sho – the Matsubayshi Ryu Fyugata Sho renamed so youth could not play with the name, I did teach kids for a long time. I did change the techniques to Isshinryu execution, as I used this as the first kata study.  But it was not just for beginners, everyone would work on it together, allowing even beginners to gain from working with brown belts and black belts too. It also was used for many dan studies as a basic platform everyone understood the embusen so well, other things could be focused on.

Kata Ananku – this was from the Shimabuku Ezio Shorin lineage. I chose it as a precursor to the study of Seisan as many of the techniques were there. The original version incorporated both vertical strikes and twisting strikes in the same form. Of course as Ezio was the younger brother of Tatsuo I could see the origin of that. This was later modified by me to use use vertical striking. I learned this version from Carl Long.

Kata Kyozai -  When I saw this form and understood it was created by teachers on Okinawa as a kata study for gym class, not karate class I became intreagued. Then I noticed it was constructed to pay tribute to many Okinawan systems, so I saw the value to sharing it too.

At that point students studied Isshinryu Seisan kata.

Next they were taught:

Kata Saifa -  I wanted my students to have a break with a  shorter form instead of immediately moving to the Isshinryu Seiunchin kata. I originally learned this form from Goju instructor Ed Savage in Ithica, but later learned many other goju versions at many goju dojo, I even attended a clinic with Chinen Sensei and observed his version. As I was not a goju student and had no goju instructor, the version I came up with seems to have been an amaligation of many of the versions I had been shown. This was at a time before youtube. But the Saifa I taught worked for my purposes.

Then the Isshinryu Seuinchin kata.

Then the Isshinryu Naihanchi kata.

Then the Isshinryu Wansu kata.

Then the Isshinryu Chinto kata.

 

Kuen Lung le Kuen (Supple Dragon) – This form came from the Pai Lum system, there it was a green sash form. I acquired this from Ernest Rothrock who at that time was teaching Pai Lum. I learnt it observing him teach it to one of my students. Years later he also taught it to my students in New Hampshire. Of course I had previously taught it, but he adjusted what they knew to his standards.  I realize other Canadian karate groups in Canada also performed their own version of this form.

Kata Nijushiho -  I also wanted my students to have a form from another of my friends, Tristan Sutrisno and his Sutrisno Family Shotokan. When my students were about ready for another challenge I was thinking Bassai Dai. 

But that weekend Tristan was visiting to give a clinic to them. He thought they should learn Nijushiho. A form I believed too advanced in Shotokan for my purposes. But the next day he taught the clinic on Nijushiho and that became that. He also gave his ‘bunkai’ explanations for many of the movements.   

Unfortunately I was working on helping people learn the form, as he had taught me the form 10 years before, and I did not pay close attention. The next week I observed my students doing the from with several changes, so I made corrections because what I originally was shown was my guide. 

I did film the clinic, And because I knew the form I once viewed those video tapes but really did not watch them Roll forward 20 years, when I transferred those video to dvd. What I saw was what he taught my students was not what he taught me. The changes were not gigantic, but I understood then what happened. 

What he taught was the normal kyu version of nijushiho, But what he taught me long ago was the first level bunkai version for nijushiho.

Bunkai was a dan study with Tristan, and when you got the 1^st level bunkai for the form, you also were shown a private bunkai version of the actual kata. That was what I had been shown, but was not explained. Of course it gets involved as to what that means. 

Then I had to go and explain to the instructors I had trained why perhaps they should go back to what they were shown 20 years before. I realize it only make a difference to me.

 

Then Isshinryu Kusanku kata

 

Then Isshinryu SunNuSu kata

 

Then Isshinryu Sanchin kata.

 

Those are the kyu kata curricula I adopted then taught over my career. That there were other kata taught at dan level is another story.

 

Sho    

     

Kyozai  

  

 

Annaku

  

                 

 

Saifa 

   

 

Lung Lek Kuen 

 

Nijushiho 

 

 

 

A lesson, or rather a single technique, from Tristan Sutrisno back in 1987

One technique taught by Triatan Sutriso in 1987 at a clinic he was giving for my students in New Hampshire.

 

1.It begins with a left back hand parry against a punch, then the right hand reaches over and grabs the attacker’s hand and rotates their arm clockwise to begin to drop their arm.

 

 

 

2. You then drop to your right knee pulling their arm down parallel to the floor. 

 

 

3. You then rise and deliver a front instep kick into their face.

 

 

4. You then pull the kicking foot back slightly.

 

 

 

5. Then swing the kicking foot over their head.

 

 

7. To drop that foot down toward the head.

 

 

7. You conclude by dropping your heel into their head.

 

 

In practice you can slice the foot down in front of their place instead of striking their head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some speculation of Toudi

Let’s have some fun and engage in a bit of logical speculation, back before there was karate. The term might have been Toudi or something else. That is not so important so I will keep to Toudi. There is not a great deal written about that time, I am going to refer to the book “The Secret Royal Martial Arts of Ryukyu” by Matsuo as my source for most of this speculation.

 

What we do know is that it was not called karate. The practitioners did not wear specific uniforms. There was not rank and for certain none of us was qualified to study those arts.

 

The arts being referred to were only for qualified members of specific Okinawan bushi families. They were not learning karate to make a living teaching it. Their sole reason for the study was their family function required use of that training, part of the time in their family function. Not the art for the art, rather the art to allow them to do their role.The instructor was old having successfully survived in that role himself and then undertook the family obligation to prepare other generations of the family.

 

Each family knew the instructor, having worked with him for decades, and that meant they trusted his ability to prepare the new generations of the family.

 

As Okinawa was a very small place, those who became instructors likely knew and even shared with each other on occasion, but their primary focus was to prepare each new generation for their role.

 

We man never know exactly what those lessons were but I believe we can make some shrews assumptions.

 

For one thing everyone knew exactly what they were training for. They learned that from their fathers, what their role would entail. Already understanding what they needed to become, they had added incentive to  learn.  Then their father would not be training them, it is pretty clear that the families understood that their toudi lessons were better taught by someone else, and that someone was a trusted family member who had done the job for decades already.  A proven expert, who was also bound by the same family ties.

 

Of course they began lessons having to prove their worth, by performing menial tasks for a long time. But they also understood that their father had done the same and  worked to prove they were just as focused. And that was the idea, getting the students attention.

 

We may never understand the exact training they received. Kata certainly, but I suspect kata to train the body never kata as a quiz to unlock. I see their training after their body was developed with kata practice as being specific training for their actual roles. It was not theoretical training after all, it was reality that they were thrust in the middle of.  When sufficiently trained, they would assume their role alongside others in their family who would shepard/guide them forward.

 

And what where those roles, I got a glimpse of them in the book “The Secret Martial Arts of Ryukyu”. This is what I found.

 

“ The martial artists (bushi) of the Ryukyu can be divided into five distinct groups.

First of all, the Shuri bushi, who were in charge of protecting Shuri Castle.
Next, the Tomari bushi, who were in charge of domestic law enforcement.
Third ,the Naha bushi, who were in chages of protecting the Chineese envoys (Suppushi) as well as the tribute ships sent from Ryukyu to China.
Next were the Udun bushi, who were involved in the politics of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Finally, the bushi of Naha’s Kume Village, who were in the service of Chinese imigrants.”

 

While all would require some of the same skills, each family would also have to address different issues in their use of Toudi too. It would be logical to assume each version of their toudi would be tuned toward their different responsibilities. And they were locked in their roles, they could not expect to change their roll either.

 

So logically their arts would be focused on different responsibilities.

 

“For example, the Shuri bushi, who worked under the scribes, and treasurers, and justice officers, also worked as castle guards, tax collectors, finance officers, or agricultural and forestry officers and studied a martial art which was characterized by the horse riding stance, and light, fast techniques. This area was called Shuri-di.

 

The Tomari bushi, who worked in domestic law enforcement. Public welfare, construction as well as guarding the Chinese Sappushi, Satusuma envoys and Satusuma Admistrative office in Ryukyu, studied an art that stressed the ability to stand on the boats that traveled the two rivers (Asato River and Kumochi River) that spanned between Shuri Castle, Naha Port and Tomari Port. This art was called Tomari-di.”

… The guards on the ships traveling to China….”These guards were the Naha bushi and in order to deliver an effective technique on a rocking boat, their training stressed such methods as Sanchin stance and heavy movements. Their art was known as Naha-di.”

 

…….“Expecially Naha-di was influenced by the Chinese Arts, and more specifically Fuijan boxing styles, and was just called Toudi (Chinese Hand).”

 

No uniforms for training, no rank just their role responsibility. And perhaps a few of them would become instructors for their families.

 

I can imagine those seniors would also form friendships with other seniors from other families. At times sharing some aspect of their own arts. And after a lifetime most likely continuing their own study into what their karate would be. At the same time most unlikely that such uses would be passed along to their students who were preparing for their own family roles.

 

Then in 1870 Japan upset the applecart, taking over in Okinawa. Removing the king, then ending the stipend for those bushi families.

 

New uses to be found for toudi, not to teach it to outsiders, but to preserve a sense of family fellowship.

 

Then one day Itosu had a different idea and something new was born.

 

Some of my other blog posts which are relevant: 

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2019/02/ryukyu-oke-hiden-bujutsu.html

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2017/11/from-ryuku-oke-hiden-bujutsr-karate.html

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-closer-look-at-what-is-often-not.html

 

The secret of “Bu No Mai” the Okinawan dance, is the secret of his art.
The dance can be done with empty or hands,
Or the same movements can be done with weapons.

“Bu No Mai” contains punches, kicks, throws, grappling and weaponry.

The point of origin of this secret technique is Tuidijutsu.
Tuidijutsu techniques compound on one another,
Making the possibilities virtually endless.
The structure of his art is as follows:

If the art of not injuring somebody is tuidijutsu,

Then there is that of tuidi-gaeshi (tuidi reversals)
And even higher is ura-gaeshi (reversal techniques).
Still higher ist the pinnacle, is Ajikata Nu Mekata,
Or the dance of the feudal lords.

“In other words, fully developed martial arts

Do not have corners or rough edges,
And look even smooth or weak to the eye.
But for those who have experience with Udondi,
There are frighteningly effective techniques,
that one’s hair stands on end.

The Rule of 10

One does learn things, the longer one stays at it.

In my case the longer I taught, both kids and adults I began to see things I had never thought about previously.

And then you give those things you see names to allow you to focus on them later.

One really valuable lesson I came to call the Rule of 10.

A note about how at 10 years effort, training in anything such as a kata, the body begins to relax in the technique series. The muscles of the body begin to work together more effectively,  that allows the body center of balance to drop as a result, and then as the center dropping causes the power to increase.

 

It does not mean 10 years into training, rather 10 years effort on anything. For example a form learned as a black belt will not reach that fluidity for another 10 years, or how kicking practice changes. 

Note the number 10 is just a mnemonic device not a practical time limit.

This means it becomes a new layer of training then begins to harness that newly discovered power.

That does not mean solid exact performance cannot occur before that. But no matter how solid that performance is there will be further development later.

 This partially explains what can often be observed in brown belts. Where their years of correct study allows part of this to occur and as a result the brown belts power increases because they are beginning to be more relaxed in their technique. And too many times, not understanding what has begun to occur, the brown belt may not realize what that change means when they are working with newer students. This can lead to unintentional injury.

 At all levels of training the individual requires sensitivity training so they can understand better how to work with others appropriately.

Of course the Rule of 10 does not mean this is the end, rather the start of more interesting training as the coming decades will show.

Just a brief addendum, the Rule of 10 is not the same as the time in your art. For example when you learn a new form as a black belt, it does not mean good performance, the rule of 10 means you will really start to get that form in roughly  10 years. There are no shortcuts. learning really never ceases.

I came up with this  observation as my adult program, though kept small, those who reached black belt with me continued training for an average of +17 years, with others continuously training up to 40 years with me. Thus I could observe the effects of continuous long term training.

 

In a similar way I observed the effects of +20 years training in our Kobudo kata becoming a force enhancer to both increase capability in karate and using those force enhancers to offset the reality of the onset of aging in the practitioner.

 

Frankly this cannot really be explained to the short time students. They really will not understand the purpose of correct training is because of the benefits decades down the road.   I am not suggesting it can’t be shared, but the reality is they will really not understand until those years of training have passed and they can experience those benefits themselves.

 

 

 

One perspective on tournaments

 

 

I have never been a tournament school for the kids I taught.

 

But I did see value in some exposure to what others were doing.

 

When in Scranton after observing how young competitors were lost at being able to be seen amidst the larger adults I sponsored 3 youth only tournaments, and had solid attendance from competitors across the state. As I really did not take the youth I was training to tournaments I would spend 3 months to prepare them for competition. To know how they should act, to hone their skills and to allow them to be prepared. They all had fun, everyone who attended. Some won. Some lost. There were even divisions where my students didn’t compete because those areas were not taught in my program.

 

After the first tournament a group of parents approached me why their kids were not entered in the weapons kata division. I explained to them for a 2 night a week program, there were things I did not feel appropriate for young people to study. I never believed in child weight weapons and maintained that young people simply were not old enough, strong enough for kobudo study. Of course they were always free to join another program that offered such training. Perhaps that I was teaching for free and offering a tournament for $5.00 a competitor made them consider I might know what I was talking about.

 

When I moved to New Hampshire I was less interested in tournaments for my students, still we attended several one a year. Then one year a student, a yellow belt, won his kata division at such a tournament. Then because he won he wanted to be promoted to blue belt. I had always explained that tournaments were not part of the class program. And truthfully he was not ready for promotion as he still had more to learn to qualify as a blue belt. My standards did not change in any case, they remained consistent.

 

Long story short, he discontinued training.

 

Now students come and go at their own desire. When it is time for them to move on that is what they do, and never has anyone discussed with me why they made that choice. I never expected otherwise. But I am sure his not gaining a promotion after that win had something to do with his decision.

 

Several years later I came to the decision to discontinue tournament attendance for my students. I moved the program into other possibilities. There are infinite ways to study karate after-all. And I certainly had more than enough to keep them busy. If fact no longer going to tournaments made no difference in my student population.

 

I never forbade them or their parents choosing to go to tournaments. That of course was their business. It just never came up in class.

 

So many students start, most about 2 or 3 years into their training, then other things in their lives become more important to them. Of course that is what is right for them. We always want to encourage youth to learn how to make choices. Most of them choose not to spend the 7 to 9 years to shodan. And of course those that do so, still will leave as adults they don’t choose often to spend their futures in their home towns.

 

One time I had 3 brothers that all received brown belts (which happened a few times). One pushed forward eventually reaching black belt. The others choose to move on to other things (and that has happened more than a few times too. Then the brother who reached shodan left to go to college and later into the Navy.

 

But years later one of the brothers who left as a brown belt came to visit me. He was the only one of all my students who chose to move on, who ever did that.

 

And he took the time to thank me for spending my time for him.

 

That was the only thanks I have ever gotten. That was more than enough.

At the beginning of School Karate Gymnastics

 

 

The year is 1904, and whatever Japan proper thought of Okinawans, Japan was an ordered society.

Okinawan schools, as a part of the Japanese school system, were controlled by the Japanese Misistry of Education. Local autonomy by the local school boards was not an option. , the martial arts were deemed inappropriate to teach in the school's Department of Education over twice, "the Gymnastics Report" (1884), "The School Hygiene Advisory Council Report" (1896). At that time, the Ministry of Education regarded the martial arts inferior from the physiological viewpoint compared with the gymnastics by irrational.  A part of the "Ordinance for enforcement of the Junior high School Decree" was granted by the Ministry of Education Ordinance No. 26 of Meiji 44 (1911), "gymnastics ha bashing (the military practice) and gymnastics.

 

To get the new idea of public karate instruction into the Okinawan schools some slight of hand was employed.

There already was a full time instructor who taught the soldier type Gymnastics (later bashing) and the physical education.

 

A kind of military training was done by the flexible gymnastics of the military type gymnastics, and it was a type of the army in the normal school though it was a core. At that time, there seemed to be a problem of the re-employment of the sergeants after it discharged, and sending them who discharged it to each school and having done military training was a stone in respect of the re-employment of the rich country soldier and soldiers. (2) There was no place in the current proscribed curriculum for any thing like karate. The order of Tatrei, REI, preparatory gymnastics, basic operation (foot, reversal, thrust, kick), form exercise, assembly manual exercise, adjustment gymnastics, seat REI, dissolution, in the method learned in the former army Ministry teacher (2)

 

By 1905 Iteshima Yasuyasu was the advisor at the Okinawa Prefecture Normal School, apparently instrumental in developing the curriculum of what appears to have been karate gymnastics. The concerns of the local group that sponsored the idea were that many of the more martial practices would be removed, to make sure what was being offered would not be seen as other than promoting health and well being.

 

“Then, why was the (karate?) adopted? This is the author's guess. Perhaps Dr. Yasuhisa Itoshima, etc., would have contacted the Okinawa Prefectural Academic Affairs Section about the possibility of adopting the shoshu of the Tang hand. At that time, the Academic affairs section, "because there is a national policy, Tang is impossible to employ as a martial art, but it is possible as a gymnastics," I think there was an answer.

 

“This does not violate the policy of the Ministry of Education. There is a form to practice by one person named "type" Fortunately, and it is a kind of Deconstructo law act. If it is "gymnastics", it is possible to make excuses even if it is found in the country if it is strong. However, there is an excuse that it is not truly a martial art when there are a lot of attack techniques such as thrust kick. It is also difficult for students to be used to fight outside the school by promoting their struggle. If it becomes a newspaper, the head of the Student Affairs Section staff might fly.

 

“So, in accordance with the request of the Academic Affairs section, I think that Mr. Iteshima did the creation modification of Pinann and existing type so as to dilute the aggression as much as possible.

 

“If such a change was temporary, and the Chinese hand was formally adopted as a martial art, Mr. Iteshima might have intended to return it to the original type. The reason is that "it is not necessary to save as it is and to add the moist color" to "Itasu ten lesson" because there is a wording.

 “However, before the policy of the Ministry of Education changed, Mr. Iteshima lay on the sickbed, and died before long. On the other hand, it did not teach these types in the normal school after Mr. Iteshima was deceased because it was not interested in Pinann and the alteration type from the beginning. It might have been thought that it was likely to disappear naturally before long even if it left it. However, students who were taught the modified type from Mr. Iteshima, without knowing the circumstances that have been modified, and then spread the modified type, largely replaced by the existing type, the circumstances that have been altered before long I have forgotten.

 

So the original thoughts were what survived and other instructors carried forward, and likely made changes as well. New experiences would suggest changes to something that was so new an idea.

 

It time what was brought into the Okinawan Schools influenced other instructors. Karate came to be offered to the population of Okinawa. Some instructors adopted the Pinan kata to teach their new students.

  

But it was the fact the Okinawan’s pulled some wool over the Japanese Ministry of Educations eyes that made so much that followed possible.

 

In 1908, Itosu wrote the influential “Ten Precepts (Tode Jukun) of Karate,” to draw the attention of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of War in Japan, reaching beyond Okinawa to Japan.”(1)

 

I am indebted to these sites which I have used to draw information from for this article.

 

(1)     http://marubashidojo.com/karate/anko-itosu/

(2)     https://ameblo.jp/motoburyu/entry-12456243455.html

(3)     https://ameblo.jp/motoburyu/entry-12457844431.htm

 

I take full responsibility for any incorrect assumptions

on my part.