Good point Joe-san,
I’m not surprised you’re teaching in Japanese.
In fact the fact that you are ties into why I started asking the
question.
Perhaps this isn’t
directly about Isshinryu, perhaps it is, I’ll let everyone decide for
themselves.
Mr. Lewis never made the use of Japanese part of the
Isshinryu curricula when I studied there, except for a few words, which I
suspect is common for most Isshinryu in the states. What I remember of his
description of training on Okinawa, when you began some of the American Seniors
would run new beginner training. After
that you pretty much trained as much or little as you wished. He described how
Shimabuku Sensei would be sitting in his chair drinking tea observing and if he
saw somebody working better he might go over and show them the next piece of
his kata. He only gave them 3 tries, and if they didn’t get it he would walk
back to his chair muttering something.
The few comments I
recall was Shimabuku Sensei didn’t know or use much English. Charlie trained over
there in 1971 but he never taught me either but in English.
This last day Dan
Smith (Seibukan – descended from Kyan Sensei’s teachings) has been commenting
on the use of language on Okinawa on the Cyber Dojo. If you’re a CD member its
worth you taking the time to check out his direct posts.
The jist of his discussion was how the use of Japanese to
teach karate came into being, as opposed to Uchinanguchi (the Okinawan
language). Uchinanguchi reportedly is a derivative of Japanese, but one the
mainlanders would not recognize to any degree.
[Perhaps Joe-san can
comment more, but the use of the term Hogan is more the use of a term of a
dialect, and there are other Japanese Hogan than what exists on Okinawa, as I
understand it.]
When transplanting the Okinawan practices into Japan, many
of the early students had heavy Japanese MA backgrounds, and were used to an
extensive technical vocabulary. Part of the reason for developing a Japanese
lexicon and using it was to give them something to which they were expecting.
Dan also suggested that the Uchinanguchi vocabulary was really inadequate for
sharing a large body of knowledge.
Okinawan training really was tactical not verbal
training. You were shown directly with a minimum of discussion. For large group
instruction (like in the schools or as developed in Japan), this is not as
practical, and while it can be done, when in another country it is likely best
to use their language. [I have read in
other styles how Japanese instructors who come over to the USA, often they do
use English, more so as time passed than in the earlier days.]
Dan also explores that part of the real difference between
the development of Japanese Karate changing from Okinawa was because some terms
did not translate into Japanese. He examples ‘muchimi’ and ‘chinkuchi’ as
training that really need to be experienced versus described, and not having a
way to say it likely prevented it from being transmitted. I would context this as perhaps things
weren’t shared not from intentional hiding material but rather because there
was no way to describe it, and perhaps the large groups didn’t lend themselves
to go back to the hands on personal training to make the points involved.
Currently Dan describes how many instructors on Okinawa
are exploring returning to Uchinanguchi, and eventually working down to
Uchinanguchi to English dictionaries to bolster their efforts. Sounds like they really are seeing a benefit
to taking back the language of their origins for their arts.
I’m not sure where
Isshinryu will ever come into some of these efforts.
On the other hand I
think some of the strength of Isshinryu was how it passed ‘hands on’ and at
least in our dojo, remains the path.
For the record in our
group I believe the future is English. I don’t see us working to train in Japan
or building towards international competition where Japanese is a standard.
Fine for those who see things that way, but in our case it’s not our path.
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