A thought about the older source arts such as Ti.

 

 

Seeing Charles Murrays photo of the Shimabuku Tatsuo in Agena back in 1972 and the makiwara there made my mind begin thinking how much we do not know of the arts such as Ti which became the source of Karate.

 

We know the training was restricted to the members of certain families who had roles in Okinawan society that used Ti training. We have heard that they trained, when accepted by the instructor, in very private locations. Either the instructors home or perhaps at more private locations within the Okinawan forests. Exactly the nature of that training is unknown, for only those trained experienced what was taking place.

And at some point in time they began to assume their role in their society. Whether it was graduation or something else no one talks about that.

 

I assume that when they moved into their society role, they no longer trained with their instructor.

 

Then what did they do? There were not dojo. Did they continue training and training maintenance with others they were working alongside? Was there something else? I have seen no discussion on that.

 

Assuming there were makiwara of some type when they began, what might have they used later?

 

The closest I have seen comes from the Mario Mckenna translation of Itoman Seijin (Morinobu’s) book Toudi-jutsu no Kenkyu

There Itoman offers discussion of several different types, from very finished versions to more natural versions such as might be used in a forest, including one mounted on a tree.

 

Drawings from the Itoman book.

 

As to what actually occurred, it remains another mystery.

Lapidary, my new hobby

 Earlier this summer I began a new hobby. I joined the Sun City West Lapidary Club. I underwent the basic training program and then began going several days a week to acquire skill crafting rock.

 

A lapidary is an artist or artisan who forms stone, minerals, or gemstones into decorative items such as cabochons, engraved gems, and faceted designs. A lapidarist uses the lapidary techniques of cutting, grinding, and polishing

 

I am of course only at the beginning levesls. There are many in the club who are true artisans, making incredible jewlry and other items. But everyone has to start somewhere.

 

To show you the process I undergo I will show you what was involved in creating one piece.

 

I took a friends rock he gave me from Montana rock, and was told it was Jasper.

Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or chalcedony and other mineral phases,[1][2] is an opaque,[3] impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to iron(III) inclusions. The mineral aggregate breaks with a smooth surface and is used for ornamentation or as a gemstone. It can be highly polished and is used for items such as vases, seals, and snuff boxes. The specific gravity of jasper is typically 2.5 to 2.9.[4] A green variety with red spots, known as heliotrope (bloodstone), is one of the traditional birthstones for March. Jaspilite is a banded iron formation rock that often has distinctive bands of jasper.

 

 

To begin I had to slab it with an electric saw.

These slabs were the result.

 

 

 

This was the slab I chose to work with.

 

 

I then decided to make two separate pieces from that rock, so I cut the piece of the slab I was going to use and rough ground it. Then I ground it down to the rough shape I wanted to work.

 

 

 

At that point I mounted on a short stick with what is hot wax and I was then able to perform other grinds. Of 80 grit, 220 grit, sanding of 600 grit and finally a fine diamond grind.

Then polishing the rock and waxing the finished rock, this is what I got.

Then I placed in a freezer to remove it from the wax hold it, and I was finished.

 

But there are unlimited things that can be accomplished.

 

By example this is another piece I recently finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Weaponless Warriors by Richard Kim

 

 

A few decades ago I discovered the Weaponless Warriors by Richard Kim and was entranced by the older tales from Okinawa. That is had a footnote mentioning Shimabuku Tatsuo also made me interested even more. I never felt it was a ‘true’ historical record, at the same time then it was the closest I had ever seen to such, This of course was way before the internet..

 

Then in the late 1980s and onward I joined the internet generation. So much so I required my black belt candidates to read it as part of their preparation for better understanding Okinawa.

 

One day. I believe on the CyberDojo. I remember the Weaponless Warriors was being discussed.  Then Patrick McCarthy joined in the discussion. He told us he had been a student for a time of Richard Kim. But that the book was problematical. Apparently Kim had just translated a book by Shimabukuo Ezio and not credited he had done so. Most of his book was actually Ezio’s book.

 

Today checking Wikipedia on Richard Kim I found.

 

There has been some controversy surrounding The Weaponless Warriors, published in 1974, as the bulk of the work appears taken, without acknowledgement, directly from Eizo Shimabukuro's 1963 work Old Grandmaster Stories,^[9] which was translated into English for the first time in 2003.

 

When I discovered this I do not support plagiarism for any reason, so I discontinued having my students read the book.

 

The Need for Speed

A different use of speed for defense came from one of my John Kerker which he learned from Sherman Harrill.

 

His concept was that when attacked you should answer the attack exactly with the speed that you practice your kata, but your focus for meeting that attack was where the attack passes through the point in space where the speed of your kata technique places your response.

 

Thus you are attacking the attacking limb when it meets that point and time in space, not changing your speed to let the attacker dictate your response.

 

So you would not increase your speed to meet the attack, instead you attack their limb (for example) when it enters the space your response has practiced to meet never varying the speed of your training.

Hard Men and Nails

The way I heard about this was at one time Tatsuo Shimabuku used to drive nails into boards with his bare hand.

Then at one demo he missed and the nail ripped open the back of his hand, so he just rubbed dirt on the hand and continued his demo.

I remember hearing about it from Mr Mitchum too, but as he told it that is what stopped Tatsuo from ever doing that stunt ever again.

I of course was not there and just repeating what I heard

When I left Derry and Moved to Scranton in 1976 the available training was in Tang Soo Do.

 

The instructor had  a stunt he would also do, I saw him practice it.

He would use the side of his hand to drive a 16 penny nail into a board.

Then take off his obi and lay it across the nail sticking out of the board

Then he would bite the obi covered nail with his teeth and then extract the nail with a bite pull.

 

I described that stunt to my dentist.

His opinion one time it would be the teeth that came out.

For there was no muscle surrounding the teeth 

and in time something had to give.

Ueshiba's use of Atemi in the 1935 Budo movie

O'Sensei said something to the effect that

aikido is largely entering and striking -- irimi/atemi.

Here are all of O'Sensei's atemis in his 1935 movie "Budo."

 

Pre WWII Aikido  taught by Usheiba showed much more atemi than the akido Usheiba taught post WWII. 

When his prewar book on Aikido was translated in the 1970's there were Akido instructors who forbade their students from practicing atemi.

 

 

 

Fake East Go West

 

 A small story

Once a friend who was also a Judo-ka, who lived a few doors down from me in Scranton, invited me to attend a clinic his instructor from New Jersey was having at the Scranton YMCA. The instructor was a long time Judo-ka in his own right.

He explained that his Japanese instructor had waited 20 years to show him this move. It was interesting. In a clinch he pressed down one way and then reversed himself falling to his rear the opposite direction throwing my friend 20 feet the other way. He explained that his instructor choose to teach it at 20 years. Not that that was necessary, as there were plenty of white belts at that clinic and they were working on it too.

Now you can make a point that this wasn’t taught until something was reached. Whatever that was. But he was competently instructing white belts in the technique.

This seems to relate to stories that often non-American instructors (Japanese, Korean and others) did hide material. What you don’t know exists you can’t master. Reminds me of when the American TKD team attended competition in Korea and was whipped out by axe kicks for which they had no defense. Seems their instructors didn’t teach them that kick existed.

Oooops.

We want you to teach us Kobudo!

I never had much experience with individuals approaching me having to learn a specific kata. On the other hand there was this one time…..

Fade back quite a few years there were no videos tapes, no CDs, no YouTube or any internet.

Many karate schools did not teach kobudo.

But what was available were some books and the karate magazines, and they built interest.

Being Isshinryu kobudo was part of my studies. Bo, Sai and Tonfa. And as I began to get around I had many who chose to share what they were doing in part, with me.

At the open tournaments you saw many things. People were creating weapons versions of kata, and the judges accepted those as Kobudo forms.

Forms like Empi kata versions of Sai and Tonfa, in fact almost any weapon possible was done with Empi kata. And there were many others, as well as forms created for the weapon. In time a lot of this went away once media of what there was became more modern.

But at the time I was competing, and just teaching youth at the Scranton Boys Club (about 1981), one evening three guy’s I did not know came into the club looking for me. I never was charging anyone for instruction.

Apparently they were black belts from some system, and knew of me from tournaments. I had no idea who they were.

Before class they came up to me and questioned me: “Smith, We know you do kobudo? We want you to teach us some kobudo kata!”

Just like that no introduction or anything.

I started with “Guy’s I don’t know you, nor am in teaching karate to adults here.”

“We don’t care, we just want you to teach us."

So I responded, “Well while I am not teaching adults I can make an exception for you. However I only teach anyone in the exact order I was taught. So you would first start with empty hand kata, and once you got through them in 4 or 5 years, it you are ready I might be able to share some kobudo. But I only teach in one order for everyone.”

They just turned and left. Guess they didn’t really want to learn kobudo.

At different times and different places I did share some things with friends. 

 

 But those are different stories.

Okinawan School Karate - the Schools

 

 

I actually read all the martial arts books I have collected and not just placed them on a shelf. I was going through the “Timeline of Karate History - Pre-History to 2000” by Hokama Tetsuhiro translated by Charles Joseph Swift, and had a thought.

 

Now this might be trivia, but I saw the schools listed where karate was taught on Okinawa and thought that might make an interesting list. Everyone knows karate was taught there, but how many schools did that mean. Not that this list is complete, just mentioned in that book.

 

Itosu Anko began teaching in April 1900 at the Shuri Jingo Primary School.

Around 1905 he formulated the Pinan kata.

He is also known for teaching a modified version of Naifanchi at the Teacher’ College and the First Middle School.,

In October 1908,  he submitted his 10 Articles of Karate to the Board of Education, showing how karate instruction I schools could help students become productive members of the Japanese military society.

 

Hanashiro  Chomo was a physical education teacher at the First Middle School.

 

Yabiku Moden taught at the Okinawa Prefectural Teacher’s College

 

Go Kenki taught at the First Middle School and the Teacher’s College

 

Koydo Juhatsu taught at the Prefectural Second Middle School

 

Matsumura Sokon taught at the First Middle School.

 

Shinzato Jinan taught at the Okinawa Prefectural Technical High School

 

1902Yabu Kentsu was contracted to teach at the Okinawa Prefectural Teachers’ College.

 

1904 Itosu Anko began teaching karate an the Okinawa Prefectural First Middle School.

 

1905 Karate began to be taught as part of the physical education program at the Teachers’ College and the First Middle School. The old Toudi was now pronounced karate.

A karate club was formed at the Naha Commercial School.

 

1907 Mr. Maeshiro demonctrated karate at the Nishihara Primary School

So when I started reading Hokama’s book today what stood out to me was the names of the Okinawan schools. So many talk about how the Okinawan art was adulterated for the schools, it made me realize how little we know about the Okinawan schools themselves.

 

I remember Funakoshi Ginchin talking about how to be a student he had to cut off his topknot, and the trouble that caused him at home (from his autobiography). That had to be about the time Japan took over Okinawa and the Okinawan’s had to follow the changes to schools that were occurring across Japan. And Funakoshi himself  became a teacher, teaching a group toude separately at his home.

 

Which got me to thinking further. Okinawa is not a large place. I realized I did not know how many schools were there, nor how deep the new karate made it into those schools.

 

So seeing these names it occurred to me that it would be interesting to see what names there were there, so I compiled this list. Of course it raises more questions than I have answers too. But what’s new about that.

 

And it is clear that the Teachers College was training future phys educators too.

 

It is what it is, just a list. But the questions about how far the ‘gymnastic karate’ went into those schools remains.