First let me explain I am not an expert in Chinkuchi,
nor
did I teach Chinkuchi. I believe in Isshinryu without Chinkuchi, for that was
how I was trained.
I believe in Isshinryu Chinkuchi, for one of my instructors,
Charles Murray explained how Shimabuku Shinso
trained him to develop Chinkuchi, and with all
of his
kata.
I believe and practiced Isshinryu without Chinkuchi, can whoop Isshinryu with Chinkuchi,
for
I believe in the training I was given and then learned how to
practice.
Let me tell my tale and then you can believe it or not.
Simply
put
the training I
received under the guidance of Tom Lewis
did not include Chinkuchi
with our Isshinryu studies. Then when I trained as an advanced kyu with
Charles Murray,
the versions of kata
I was
taught were as he then did them, but Chinkuchi
was not a part of my
training.
Then I
made black belt and nothing
of Chinkuchi
was
part
of my
testing.
When I started training with Charles he explained as
a new
black belt serving in the Air Force,
he
was stationed for a year in Okinawa. When there he trained at Agena
as much as his
schedule permitted.
He described that training,
the Marines
were not training there,
for they
had
their own dojo on their base.
Except for a
few Americans
who
had
gone to Okinawa, the main part of the students were Okinawan and they
would train after work.
He explained Shimabuku Shinso took an interest in him, and trained hin in Chinkuchi.
While I was training
toward my
black belt test,
he
did not go into the details
of that training.
After black belt we were only
together a few short months,
before he re-entered the USAF. During
that time he explained what that Chinkuchi training consisted of and showed me his
training the kata
with Chinkuchi. But there was not time to train me that way,
and
after he left me, I choose not to
attempt to
try and train myself, I did not know
enough.
I was quite content with my Isshinryu as it was. I
started competing because there was
no Isshinryu in my area,
and I competed not to win trophies, but to keep pushing myself against the best competition I could find.
I did travel
to train in Dover and Salisbury when possible, but that was a 6 hour drive and it was
not
possible to do that often.
Those IKC
clubs
of Mr.
Lewis’ students did a great deal
of open tournament competition
in their area.
Open tournament competition being what was
most found in Maryland and surrounding
states.
So one day after several years I was
competing in an IKI
Shiai
in that area
(I believe this was
about 1983,
when I was
4 years into my
own
dan). During
the shiai Mr.
Lewis called
for a black belt meeting. I remember him addressing up,
“In
the tournaments
we
have been attending,
it seems the judges want to see more power in our strikes, I suggest you have your students
for
competition start sticking
their
techniques to receive fairer scores
from those judges.”
That was
all he said,
that was all I needed to
hear, After all
it was
from Sensei.
Now I did not change the Isshinryu that my
students were studying. And at that time I was
studying many things,
outside Isshinryu,
so I decided it would be a personal study that was for me. The next several months I practiced doing
Seisan kata,
just that way sticking hard every punch and kick.
It
was doing Seisan with a different dynamics for the kata.
So privately I practiced what I was going
to do.
The day
of the tournament arrived,
it was
one
hosted by George Iberl in Southern
Pennsylvania.
Many
of the contestants and judges
were from So.
Pa. or New Jersey Isshinryu. Some I
knew slightly, but I
had
on real relationship with any
of them. On the other hand I knew many
of the competitors, regularly
competing with them in
Pennsylvania.
So I warmed up waiting for my
division to begin.
As much as
I can remember all
of the judged for that division were from Isshinryu (of
course different as it
was an open tournament, but it did happen).
None of them ones
I knew. Then in time it became my
turn.
I did Seisan kata,
exactly
as I had trained, sticking every punch,
sticking every kick. In time I
finished.
I then stood before the judges
awaiting
my score. What next occurred was something I had
never seen.
The
judges moved together and began a
conference,
with several
of them glancing
at me. What was
discussed I do not know,
I just remained standing. Then after a while they all returned to
their seats
and
announced my score.
It
was in the mid-range of
the black belt scores
that day.
I really didn’t attend tournaments
for
any of the judges
opinions. The only opinion I
was ever interested was
that of my instructor.
I was doing it just to push myself,
and
in this case
could I
do
what Lewis Sensei
suggested.
When I then left the ring all the other competitors
came up to me. The individuals who
saw my efforts
on a regular basis.
All of them were of the opinion, that was the strongest kata
they had ever see me do.
That was nice to
hear that from them,
of course I did not do it for their opinions
either.
Driving
home from that tournament it occurred to
me
that Mr. Lewis
was not suggesting the kata
be
done that way
for
Isshinryu judges. Instead for the Open tournament judges in that area they
were competing (such as Baltimore). I decided I did not need to do
it that was again, for I
knew I could do
it that way anytime I
chose.
Now at that time I
was instructing
youth, it was a
time I was
studying a lot of other things
mostly for my
own
knowledge.
Those studies would have eventual
impact on my
art, but not at that time. At that time I
was not working on kata application potential
or other possible Isshinryu potentials.
So for my students
and
for myself I
returned to the way
I was originally
shown Isshinryu. Time passes,
and
eventually
I began to
explore how Isshinryu technique could be used.
Also
remembering
that tournament version I
began exploring other potentials within Isshinryu, and those studies
became intertwined.
Charles and I kept in touch, while he returned to the USAF in 1979 for a career, becoming
an officer,
etc. We would see each other every few years
for
a few moments. Each time it was
as if he never left.
We might spar or do
kata.
Then he travels went further and further away. Visits
became less.
Decades later I remember when he went to Okinawa
on a
TDY for a week. He
trained with Angi,
visited with Shinso and Mrs. Shimabuku.
He remained
involved with training no
matter where he was stationed.
He also informed me he was
continuing with his
chinkuchi
training.
More time passed,
then Charles was
stationed in Rhode Island,
closer to where I lived. I was
able
to have him attend a
clinic with Sherman Harrill
there, and later another one I
hosted in Derry. Then one day he retired from the USAF,
and
began a job with a
company that had him roughly in my area, and I began to see him more frequently. He
began training
with us.
I was past the time to change my
art
as it had evolved over the years,
but
I often had Charles cover details
of chinkuchi for my
records,
to make available for my students.
One day Charles
came to
me
with a gift.
He had located an old movie of him taken while he
was training in Agena. And,
the kata he was doing,
Sunsu and Seisan were being
done with
Chinkuchi
as Shinso had been instructing him. Everything
on that film was priceless to
me. But more years
would pass before I
realized how priceless it
would be to me.
One day I was watching this youngster Charles Murray
performing
Seisan outside of the base
he was staying.
Just a performance of his then Seisan.
Something clicked,
and
I suddenly remembered that Seisan Kata I had done decades before in that tournament long, long
ago.
There were no movies, nothing but my memory.
Charles had not trained me in this
version. But as best as
my
memory recalls
I was doing the same thing
when I did that kata.
So the question remains, did I
accidently
do Chinkuchi,
or not? Believe it or not. That is your business.
I believe in Isshinryu without Chinkuchi, for that was how I was
trained. I believe in Isshinryu with Chinkuchi.
|
Other material on
this topic:
http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2012/01/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x- none.html
http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2014/06/shinso-cicso-and-nukite-training.html
http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2015/07/chinkuchi-and-naraasun.html http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2017/01/what-knowledge-of-one-movement- looks.html
http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2012/05/borrowed-from-2004-on-power.html
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