The Japanese Language

 

 

 

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.