The Story of Shozen Sunabe - part 1

 

The Story of Shozen Sunabe

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.

 

 

By the time  Sunabe became a student of Kyan Sensei, he “made his living by teaching Karate at the Agricultural School and the Kadena Police Station (which was just across the Hijagawa Bridge). He had no other job. He called his art “Shiru-Ryu” rather than Karate.”

Kyan taught two forms of Karate: a public version was taught at the Agricultural School and the Police Station, where classes were generally open to the public. The private version was taught in home to his  private students.

 

In accordance with tradition, Kyan Sensei would only teach one or two private students at a time.

 

He made his living teaching Karate and thus was financially depandant on having public students, but he did not have the long term personal contact with them that he had with his private students nor could he be as strict or physically demanding on them. This is the reason why he taught two forms of Karate, a private (complete) version and a public (simplified) version.  It might have looked like he was teaching the same thing, but the content and depth differed greatly.

 

I will give you an example. In a short time I can teach a student the movements of Naihanchi Shodan kata. That does not mean he truly understands the kata – just the outer form. If I then spend many years, I may then be able to teach the student the body mechanics of each movement of the kata, the relationship of each movement to the others, and the bunkai or applications applicable to each movement and combination of each movement and combinations of movements. Now the student is beginning to learn the inner meaning of the kata. The inner meaning of the kata, once grasped, unlocks the kata. Until then the student is just going through the motions.

 

…….

 

I should add that Sunabe Sensei said that Kyan Sensei might teach the same kata differently to different students. This might explain why students who all learned from Kyan Sensei might perform the same kata differently.

 

 

There is another point about the private and public forms of Karate, Soken Matsumura the teacher of both Anky Itosu and Chotoku Kyan, among others, only taught privately. He did not have a large school or dojo…Students were selected by Matsumura Sensei, based on their references, character and rank or status in the Ryukyu Kingdom.

…

…the private students who learned the complete range of movement in the kata, including the grappling, joint manipulation, kyusho (vulnerable) points and breaking and tearing techniques which are generally known as “Ti.”  The secondary school students learned only the outer form, with limited meaning and applications….

 

This is why Karate became known as a system of punches, blocks, strikes and kicks, a tremendous reduction and simplification of the complete art taught by Matsumura Sensei and his predecessors.

 

… Anko Itosu’s “public school” form of Karate spread throughout Okinawa, and generally formed the basis of the Karate that became popular on mainland Japan in the 1920’ and 1930’s.

 

…However, Kyan Sensei, despite teaching adults at the Agricultural School an the Kadena Police Station, still felt the need to simplify his kata both in form and application, including the elimination or de-emphasis of the Ti applications.

 

 

From the section – Sunabe Learns Seisan

 

 

Sunabe Sensei learned Shuri-Ryu (Kyan did not call the art “Karate” at that time) by learnin kata, and according to him, the most important kata to Kyan Sensei was Seisan… Seisan was the key to understanding all other kata and techniques. It does not appear that Sunabe Sensei was taught an introductory set of basics (punches,strikes, blocks, kicks, etc.) Instead his first three and a half years consisted entirely of learning and practicing Seisan Kata.

 

…As soon as he had learned and could perform the entire kata, Kyan Sensei handed him a set of stone dumbbells.... For the next year of his training, Sunabe Sensei performed the Seisan kata holding a stone dumbbell in each hand grasping each dumbbell horizontally by the shaft.

 

The second year of his training, Sunabe performed the kata while grasping each dumbbell from the top (holding  it hanging down vertically). The third year, the dumbbells were replaced by stone jars (kame) with a smooth lip, making them very hard to grip. Sunabe Sensei would have to perform the kata while grasping the jars. To make it even harder, Kyan Sensei would periodically add sand to the jars.

 

Thus it was that Sunabe Sensei spent his first three and a half years with Kyan Sensei learning and practicing Seisan Kata with stone dunbells and stone jars. I have often heard the expression :”one kata, three years.” and asked Sunbe Sensei if he learned any other kata, and if so, how long he spent on each one. As it turned out the “one kata three years” expression only applied to9 the first kata (Seisan). After that he learned the other kata in Kyan Sensei’s curriculum very quickly……

 

…

In addition to the kata Sunabe Sensei learned bo, sai and nunchaku from Kyan Sensei.  Two kata were taught for the bo, but none were taught for sai and nunchaku. For sai and nunchaku Kyan Sensei taught him arious striking and blocking techniques. Kyab Sensei did not teach weapons at the Agricultural School of the Kadena Police Station. Weapons were only taught in his home…

 

____  Using Weapons _____

 

 

When it came to weapons, Sunabe Sensei sais that the traditional one such as bo, sai and nunchaku were impractical in Okinawa at the time he learned. Instead, the best weapon was a simple cloth, the kind that young men often work on their heads to absorb sweat. According to Sunabe Sensei, Okinawa was very rich in one thing, rocks. People were usually barefoot and there were rocks everywhere. It was very easy to hold the two ends of the cloth and slip a rock into the center. Then the cloth, with the rock, could be spun and used almost like a nunchaku. He added that a wet cloth worked better. If the authorities came, the rock could easily be dropped and the cloth would no be incriminating.

 

End of Part 1 of my notes.