Further reflection on kata changes.

 

When I was a student and my first kata was Seisan as taught by my Senior Dennis Lockwood.  However in time, Dennis changed the kata progressed after each 180 degree turn the line of the kata shifted slightly over and the centerline of the kata shifted as a result.

 

Here is Sensei Lewis performing a version very similar to what I was originally shown. I never saw this until many years later

 

Then one day when I knew the kata as I had been shown my senior Dennis Lockwood showed me how to adjust my stance when I did Seisan to keep the kata on the same N-W line when I performed it. That became my kata from that point.

 

Then I learned Seiunchin kata  from Dennis Lockwood. However almost immediately after I learned it, I was on a Yellow Belt team to perform the kata working with Sensei Lewis. He made changes to our execution and drilled us very rigorously. This became the standard I followed for the rest of my life.

 

Many years later I saw this video of Sensei Lewis performing Seiunchin back in the 60s. It was not the version I was drilled on.  Seiunchin

 

This is me and my son Victor Michael performing Seiunchin as I was taught the form by Lewis Sensei. 

Nihanchi and Wansu kata were taught to me by Seneri Lockwood.

 

At that time I also began traveling to the Princess Anne Dojo, the Laurel Dojo and the Dover Dojo. I found they were doing slightly different variation of the kata I knew.

 

When visiting Dover, Riggy sensei always had me perform the kata I know. Explaining that over the years many of the instructors had learned different versions of the same kata. He wanted to stay aware of what Lewis Sensei was teaching at that time. He also explained Lewis Sensei never criticized that their version was not the same as he was teaching at that time, he only wanted excellent execution of what they were doing.

 

My last night in the dojo before I had to leave for work, I was promoted to Green Belt by Lewis Sensei. He also taught me the opening section for Chinto kata.

 

Then living far away, having to study Tang Soo Do Mood  Dun Kwan as that was all that was availabie. I continued to work on the section of Chinto I was shows. A year later  I returned to Salisbury for my vacation and learnt a little more Chinto from Lewis Sensei. As a bank employee in Pa. had to take a mandatory 2 week vacation. I also visited the Princess Anne Dojo and the Dover Dojo, run by other instructors under Lewis Sensei. Each of those instructors gave me more and more of the kata, till I finally had the whole thing. That Thursday I returned to Salisbury and Lewis Sensei worked with me further.  The form I had used various versions of Chinto, each of those instructors had been taught their version by Lewis Sensei.

 

Years later I saw this version of Lewis Sensei, closest to what I was shown.  Chinto

 

This is Young Lee performing Chinto as I taught it in 1988. 

 

One of his very close friends was Karl Hover of Virginia. Here is his version.  Karl Hovey Chinto

When I was a yellow belt I remember Karl’s performance version at the 1975 Sunnyside Gardens tournament. Then his jumping kicks were extremely high and explosive.

Then to just throw this in the mix here is the version Charles was doing in 1982 when in West Germany. It was slightly different from what he taught me in 1977. 

Then when I began training in Isshinryu again, with Charles Murray. The first thing he did was have me perform the kata I knew. Once I finished Charles did the same kata that I had performed.

 

They were much the same, but each of them was different too.

Charles told me that I would continue to perform Seisan, Seiunchin, Naifanchi, Wansu and Chinto as I had learned them in Salisbury. But from that point on I would learn the other kata as he did them, and that is what happened.

 

Sometime later I asked Charles why there were different versions.He said that is how sensei taught his students.  He worked out part of the answer  1.) Shimabuku Tatsuo was known for teaching different individuals the same kata in different ways/ (This is of course oral history but  one time Sherman Harrill remarked the same to me.)

 

And I was trained by Charles one on one. He would rapidly teach me a kata, Then ½ of our classes were each of us doing kata after kata,, over and over. (aside- the other ½ of our classes involved constant kumite, meaning he would work me over and over)

 

The other this was Charles observed when he was a student every time his friend Don Bohan met returning Marines who had trained on Okinawa he arranged to have them demonstrate what they were learning form Shimabuku on Okinawa. Tom was present for many of those performances. So Charles observed Lewis Sensei would teach those versions to those students at that time. He felt Sensei was attempting to follow Shimabuku Tausuo current teachings.

 

Thus at different times different versions of the kata were taught. Again what Lewis Sensei cared about was not the ‘correct’ version rather how much you could put into the performance you did.

 

Now in those days there was no internet, few videos, etc. So what Isshinryu was or could be depended on what your instructor taught you. There was no other clear cut reference. Some Isshinryu did meet at some tournaments and others at other tournaments,still others did not go to tournaments.

 

 

Training with Charles I was rapidly put through Kusanku,Sunsu, Sanchin the Tokumine no Kon.

 

Many years later I saw this video of Lewis Sensei. Tokumine No Kon

It was very, very close to how I learned the form.

On reflection this was way before my time, probably about 15 years into his own study. I would see this as consistent for 15 years of study. When I saw Sensei compete with this form in the 80's his performance was magical, the bo seemed to float in his hands. I will never forger how magical his Tokumini was, way beyond me. IMO he was the best bo technician I have ever seen.

 

Before long Charles taught me Urashie No Bo.

 

Then one day he returned from a visit to his parents in Deleware.. He also had trained in Salisbury with Lewis Sensei. There he was shown Shi Shi No Kon No Dai. Mr. Lewis also permitted Charles to borrow his copy of the 1966 Shimabku Super 8 movies. At that time those movies were kept close, (Long before the advent of YouTube)

 

Charles worked on Shi Shi… then one day he gave me the films and a movie editor where I could view the movie frame by frame, by turning the editor crank, He challenged me to learn the form Chia Fa on the movie.  And then when I had it I was going to teach it to him.

 

At that time on one else in Lewis Sensei’s group knew that form, as it was not part of Lewis Sensei’s studies in Agena.

 

In those days few of my seniors in Mr Lewis’s group studies all of the weapons. Charles was very interested as when he trained with Shimabuku Sensei in Agena for a year in 1972 he had learned Urashie No Bo there.

 

So I began my appointed task of learning the form on the movie called Chia Fa on the movie. Over and over I advanced the movie editor. At times cell by cell, at times faster viewing. I went crazy watching the movie cell by cell and attempting to learn that form.  .

 

Eventually I got something and was at the point that for decades I could not watch that form.

 

Several weeks later after much effort I did teach the form to Charles, And before long he was doing it better than I. Part of the key is that it is the grip of the palm that controls the spins of the tonfa.

 

When I underwent my black belt examination at a clinic that was also being held with Mitchum Sensei, Charles had me demonstrate the form for all present. Mitchum Sejnsei also stated that he did not know the form for it was not studied in his time on Okinawa.

 

To shortly after I received my black belt Charles was returning to the USMC for his career. Before that he had just begun teaching me Shi Sho No Kon No Dai, but I only had the opening section.     The day he was finishing packing up his home, I began teaching me the rest of the form.

 

It was outside in his back yard, and the day had waves of dark clouds moving over us.

 

Suddenly it began to thunderstorm with all that fury. Charles went inside and continued to pack. I remained standing in his back yark, working on what I had been shown. It poured, the winds howled and lighting was in the sky, but I remained working on the form. Wet gi and wet be in that storm.

 

When the storm passed Charles looked up and saw be working on what I had. He came back out and showed me some more until the rain began again. He went back inside to pack, I remained outside in the storm working on my form.

 

This repeated for several more cycles. Somehow I got the form,

 

At that point Charles and I said goodbye and I left to go home. (where of course I continued to work on the form.

 

Of course that was a sad day, for it would be a year before I saw Charles again. There was no documentation that I had. The burden of working on the complete Isshinryu system that I had been shown was solely on me. Technically that was all the Isshinryu form instruction that I would receive.

 

About a year after I received my black belt I was at an IKC shiai down in Deleware and at the black belt meeting before things began, Lewis Sensei announced a change we should make to our Wansu kata.

 

Apparently after seeing an article of Angi Uzen showing Wansu Kata, one section of the kata (before the side kick section) was different from what we were doing. In that section was followed by stepping out with the left foot and delivering a right hooking strike followed by a left hooking strike. (then to step back with the before the left side kick)

 

What Angi showed in that article was stepping out with the left first and then stepping out with the right.  And after both sections were completed just throwing the left side kick.

 

That section just flipped the movements to that. The change technically did not change the potential of Wansu kata in any way.

 

But I made the change, and taught it that way thereafter.

 

 

[Aside back in 1997 one Isshinryu senior watched one of  my black belts warming up for a demonstration using Wansu as I taught it. He came rushing to me to tell me that my student did the kata incorrectly. Now the purpose of that day was a clinic on Wansu kata applications from Sherman Harrill. Mr. Lewis had come to Derry to be with his friend Sherman too. After listening to that senior’s concerns, I responded “That was how my instructor Lewis Sensei taught me to do the form. I understand your concerns, and as Sensei is sitting over there with Sherman, please correct him and instruct him to change what I do. For I would always do what my Sensei instructs me…..” Silence followed.”

 

Time passed and about a decade after I had received my black belt I was working very hard at how kata technique could be applied. So much so I found that when I found a potential application I believe in and  that application was slightly different from the manner in which I was taught the kata, I started altering what I taught to match that application.

 

Then one day I realized what I was doing. I then realized I did not need to change the kata to work that application to then slowly change what I was teaching back to the original version. All of which took much thought. I believe it also explains why kata changes occurred with different instructors over time.

 

This is a complex issue after all.

 

For me there is no problem. I have only wanted to do my kata as Tom and Charles taught me. Theirs were to be the only standard I needed. Except of course when I did not, I am only human after all.