Should Children be Black Belts…..or more interestingly should anyone?

An ever popular question in Isshinryu discussion and across the internet is the one raised here, should Children be Black Belts. The question is rhetorical because each program actually does whatever they will (as the only true rule about karate is there are no rules).

So we like to hear “We do award children black belts”, or “We don’t award children black belts” or “We give them ‘pretend’ black belts”.

For the record training young people for 30 years now I’ve never awarded a child any rank, I only teach karate-ka, not children, not men, not women, just karate-ka. The content I teach everyone is the same, adjusted for their ability whether they’re 7, 17, 27, 37, 47, 57 or 67. I don’t give the young access to more than two classes a week and the average time for them to reach sho-dan is 7 to 9 years (my son started at 7 and he reached sho-dan at 18). But I have no restrictions and if the student’s merit calls for sho-dan examination they would receive it, just because of what the past has done does not restrict my future.

The two very best sho-dan examinations I’ve ever attended was the day Tom Lewis’ 11 year old son Rob and Dennis Lockwood’s 12 year old daughter Anna took their examination. They had the technical skills, they had literally tons of kumite experience in tournament against their own age groups, and at 13 Anna took first place in black belt weapons at Harold Long’s tournament whooping all of the ‘old’ men competitors.

Young people have the potential and can develop the ability. That they’re normally not pressed into combat situations (in our country) really isn’t a important consideration, for does the 57 year old sho-dan candidate have the ability to be pressed into combat either. It always depends, and in turn is just a dojo objective, not a ‘universal’ operating principle.

One of my friends who teaches a very complex set of Chinese arts about 15 years ago changed his standards for their sho-dan equivalent from 6 years training to 3 years training. I questioned him about that, whether he was weakening his art and his reply was if it motivates more of those people to reach 6 years training (as the course content at 6 years hadn’t changed) he was creating more competent students.

I understand his logic because it hits on the key idea about what a black belt is, IMO.

The entire concept of black belt is fascinating; it is one of the most powerful tools we have in the martial arts, capturing the students mind and is a driving force in its own right. Unfortunately that can be limiting too if the focus is only on the cloth, or the number of strips it can maintain.

If reaching sho-dan drives the student to keep training and push for greater knowledge and ability is it important what the age requirement is?

I guarantee you if you teach young people you will loose almost 100% of them to life as they grow up. Perhaps a few will stay around for a lifetime of training, but statistically I bet they’re a very small % of students. Dangling their own dojo and an income before them is hardly justice because the more important thing is they must keep pushing their own training. But school, military service, work, marriage and all of life’s other offerings are and will be more important for most.

The training you offer them becomes a piece of their lives, and only when they can control their life can they give a lifetime to training. That’s part of the reason I don’t let the young train more frequently because they’re not in control of their lives, their parents are. But if they stick the 7 to 9 years they’ve reached that decision on their own, even if it means shortly after sho-dan they MUST move on.

The entire topic started me thinking and I did a small bit of research through the CyberDojo.

There is no evidence that Kyan awarded anyone a black belt, he never even gave a name to his system of teaching.

It is also well documented that Miyagi would not award anyone a black belt even when his students kept the pressure on to receive them. Even though the Japanese martial establishment had awarded him the highest title of the Okinawan’s teaching in Japan, he didn’t equate that to dan rank. The speculation is that he was against the Japanese meddling with the Okinawan arts.

The development of gi and dan ranking occurred in Japan as Karate transplanted there pre WWII and changed the art structure to match Japanese sensibilities. It does not seem to have had the same penetration back on Okinawa. I imagine the old Okinawan training of people doing sanchin in their undies had much to do with removing their clothes to keep them clean and dry, and not having a gi production infrastructure to provide alternatives.

It appears that after WWII it was Japanese influence that caused the Okinawan groups to start using dan ranking. All of the students of Miyagi appear to have ignored his wishes and Goju developed dan ranking. Likewise group after group did so.

Shimabuku Sensei adopting rank was no different from every other group, but as I don’t believe he belonged to any of the groups, he had no obligation to follow their standards of what rank meant. It meant whatever he felt it meant.

Which takes us back to whether Children can be black belts. In Shimabuku Sensei’s environment children didn’t study karate (where today on Okinawa 75% of the karate-ka are children – previously documented on the CyberDojo too).

So we see things change, they always do. We each felt the importance of reaching sho-dan and how it drove us in part and can use it to effect for our students. Hopefully we work with those same students to understand sho-dan is irrelevant, the true value is that we keep training, studying and working forever.

Long ago I wrote that I always felt the true black belt examination was not the sho-dan test, but whether after 5 years that black belt was still training hard, and after 10 years and after 20.

IMO, if promoting young people to sho-dan helps their growth in the art, then it’s a good idea for those programs.

A more interesting question for anyone with a long term program is of your adult students what is the average time they keep training after acquiring sho-dan?

My program is small so this may not be fair, but currently the average adult reaching sho-dan has stayed training over 15 additional years. They still leave, but they’ve had a fair run.

Silent Night Holy Toledo...........

Silence is gone starting this Christmas Eve, my internet access has been restored. It's been a very challenging two weeks, in the mildest of natural disasters here in New Hampshire.

Not a fun time, but helps give pause to how we survive when things are falling apart.

May everyone enjoy the Holidays and once I've had a chance to reenter the internet I have more to chat about.

Here is a photo from the local newspaper of my home street the morning after the ice storm struck.

On Ice

Right now the Ice Storm that hit New Hampshire 7 days ago has left me without power, heat and of course internet access the entire time.

Still unsure when any of the above will be restored.

As the season is on us, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas (or substitute the holiday of your choice as needed) and best wishes for a Happy New Year.

I will return! Victor

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving Day (a holiday in the United States) is a good time to stop the normal movement through life and spend time with family and friends. They are the center of our lives.

I think today of decades of enjoyment practicing my arts with so many friends, being able to share with so many students as each found their own voice in life.

From that first Bruce Tegner paperback on Karate, to Rich Durich my college roomate and his own studies in Shotokan with Okasaki Sensei at Temple, to starting Isshinryu under Tom Lewis, Dennis Lockwood, Al Bailey, Marvin Jones, Reese Rigby and all the rest in the Salisbury, Md. area.

To Frank Traojanowicz and his Scranton Karate School and their Tang Soo Do studies.

To Charles Murray and his personal instruction to my Sho-Dan in Isshinryu.

To my Pennsylvania years, training with David Brojack (Kempo Goju), Carl Long (Shorin ryu Honda Katsu in those days), many times many fellow tournament competitors.

To my beginning path in Yang Tai Chi Chaun with Ernest Rothrock, and then his continuing studies in many Chinese arts and our lifetime friendship. Words cannot express how he shaped my existence.

To my studies in Shotokan, Aikido, Kobudo and Timande with Tristan Sutrisno, the friendship he displayed sharing so much of his arts over the years, profoundly influencing my own studies.

To my friends in New Hampshire: Bill Johnson (Tae Kwon Do), Richard Bernard (Goju and Shorin Ryu) and Garry Gerossie (Isshinryu).

To uncountable students (both past and of course current) through the Providence Full Gospel Tabernacle, the Scranton Boys Club and the Derry Boys Club. Sharing with them was never just about karate, but showing how they can learn and grow by their efforts. Karate was just the way we spend our time togegher.

To those individuals who went a little bit further into dan studies with me:

Roy Blackwell, Mike Toomey, Maureen Smith (foremost wife and educator extradionare), Cindy Robinson, Young Lee, Mike Cassidy, Dennis Driscoll, Andrew Ware, Tom Chan, Jed Kukowski, Luke Hodgkins, Paul Thorington, Chirine Abi-Aad, Paul Harper, Claudette Macomber, John Dinger, Victor Michael Smith, Rabih Abi-Aad. Their studies have always enriched my life. (and yes it may be that Marc Fryberg is pushing on that door too)

Then there are those friends who've reached out over the internet

Joe Swift who has more hats than I can begin to mention, friend, husband, meteorologist, tranlsator, and of course martial artist supreme! Instructor of the Mushikan Tokyo Dojo, author and tranlsator of many martial texts working extremely hard to allow the world to see beyond language barriers.

Kevin Matthews, a real fluffy bunny who's infrequent phone converstaions keep us chatting way too long.

Chrisopher Caille (creator and owner of FightingArts.com), who had the vision and the will.

Patrick McCarthy translation collaborations and fast martial fellow (someday may we meet).

And Mario McKenna (Canada), and Fernando Camara (Brasil), and Fred Loese (Cambridge, Ma), and Rommney Taylor (Buffalo, NY), and Steve Wilson (Colorado), and George Donahue (someplace) and then so many, many, many, many others from Bunkai Unlimited, Pleasant Isshinryu, the Original Isshinryu List, the Cyber Dojo, Isshinryu4U, Koshi-people, Prisshin, Sabaki, FightingArts.com forums, eBudo forums, Uechi Ryu forums and of course more.

Paul Williams, the real funkydragon who created my original website.

BTW I havn't forgotten anyone, though I may be too choked with emotion at this instant to be able to pull the appropriate names forth (How's that for covering any omissions!).

To all who share (Past, Present and future) this is but the beginning.

To YouTube and the over 10,000 martial video's I've watched to date (beats sleeping) sharing a world of experience and sweat equity.

To the authors of the 500 books and thousands of magazines I've read over the years.

No matter how hard I try I can't mention everyone and everything personally.

Today as I give thanks, you're all included.

God Bless you all!

Furthering the ‘Bubishi’ Section 4

Another vision

The Okinawan arts are much more than just a practiced set of techniques. The kata which preserve the techniques and show some of the methods to connect their use to movement don’t define the Okinawan arts either. In my opinion it is something less noticed, less frequently discussed, the concept of strategy and tactics behind the arts usage.

With this small collection of articles the Okinawan seniors saw another art documented in ways the Okinawan’s didn’t use. I don’t doubt senior students were instructed in their instructors strategy and tactics about using their art. Okinawan karate, however, was using a not-literate verbal form of transmission. That they could possess, share and even discuss these outside theories likely opened some of the new doors karate was to take.

For one thing the Bubishi paved the way for the Karate text.

[Note Hokama Tetsuhiro in his ‘Timeline of KarateHistory’ lists Okinawan articles published about Karate prior to Funakoshi Ginchin’s first book. I haven’t read them but it would seem they were discussing the Okinawan arts with an Okinawan population who had some idea of Karate’s existence. I’m using his timeline as a source for some of the following information and dates.]

Funakoshi Ginchin took the lead in 1922 with his ‘Ryukyu Karate Jutsu’ (republished in 1925 as ‘Rentan Goshin Karate Jutsu’. He did more than prepare a text for his students, he openly shared a portion of his Karate with the world (in those eyes Japan). He also included sections from the Bubishi: “Eight Important Phrases of Karate”, “Treatise on the Ancient Law of Great Strength” and “Methods of Escape” and left them in their original Chinese without offering translation.

Then Mobobu Chokoi published ‘Okinawa Kempo Karate-jutsu’ in 1926.

In 1930 Kyan Chotoku wrote an essay on training.

In 1934 Miyagi Chojun wrote ‘Karate-do Gaisetsu’. It was a very good year for Mabuni Kenwas published two books ‘Goshin Karate Kempo’ and ‘Seipai No Kenkyu’. The Seipai book includes a number of articles in Chinese from Itosu Anko’s copy of the Bubishi, including 28 of the 48 self defense techniques from the Bubishi. There is no question the cat is out of the bag about the Bubishi’s secret existence.

The publishing floodgate was open.

In 1935 Motobu Chokoi published ‘Watashi no Karate-Jutsu’.

That same year Funakoshi Ginchin published his ‘Karate-do Koyan’, an expansion of his earlier works, still including his Bubishi sections in Chinese, an interesting contrast with his support of re-naming Karate from Chinese fist to Empty Hand kanjin.

In Patrick McCarthy’s recent edition of the Bubishi he goes into some detail about how other portions of that work were incorporated into the Karate-do Koyan too.

I think it may be fairly claimed the existence of the collection of articles on an obscure Chinese art may have spawned Okinawan karate-ka to do the same with their arts.

But more than just the books, specific articles by Motobu Chokoi, by Kyan Chotoku and others on strategy and tactics in using karate most definitely are links to similar articles in the Bubishi.

When Karate moves beyond exercise, when Karate moves beyond Do, when Karate moves beyond Jutsu and into the force of one’s life, are how we consider it’s use with our personal strategy and tactical thinking not the way?

To go from the unknown author of the Bubishi, “If an adversary bites you, attack his throat right away”, to Kyan’s “When facing an opponent, take care not to play into his strategy. Some use their feet while punching, or pretend to grab a hand. Others use fists while pretending to throw a foot attack. React according to voice and noise. Never relax”, back to the Bubishi “The ears listen well in all directions” to Motobu, “One must develop the ablity to read, ‘at a single glance’ how much striking power any one person has.” To an instructor who had been a Marine, “When you’re knocked down by surprise when you get up, take them apart and then run before the Shore Patrol arrives.”

This is where I think I can see the effect of the Bubishi moving to Okinawa had on part of the development of Okinawan Karate.


I write this surrounded by many texts. If this was an article I’d footnote everything to make it easier for those interested. But I have no obligation in this forum to do so. I’ve drawn on the following books to prepare this.

Bubishi
Bubishi – The Classical Manual of Combat – translated by McCarthy Patrick
Bubishi – Martial Art Spirit – Translated by Penland Kenneth
Funakoshi Gichin
Karate Jutsu – translated by Teramoto John
Karate-do Koyan – translated by Ohshima Tsutomu
Hokama Tetsuhiro
Timeline of Karate History – translated by Swift Joseph
Motobu Chokoi
Karate My Art – translated by McCarthy Patrick and McCarthy Yuriko
Collection of Sayings by Motobu Chokoi – translated by Swift Joseph
Shotokan Karte
A Precise History by Harry Cook
Kyan’s ideas on training and actual fighting from Miki Nisaburo’s
“Kempo Gaisetsu”

Furthering the ‘Bubishi’ Section 3

Looking at the structure

So we start with a collection of articles about some Chinese system of training that at some indeterminate time in the past came into the hands of several Okinawan karate instructors.

Articles that are indistinct because unless one was trained the same way as the author, they can only lead to conjecture to their meaning and use in that art. On top of that they are written in Chinese with terminology that was localized to a specific set of trainings.

What impact did they have on the continuing development of Okinawan karate?

I believe that is an important question to consider. Whether we can interpret the modern translations to useful studies in our contemporary arts is one thing, but did their existence actually shape the development of Okinawan karate, and if so how?

The Bubishi text contains history, sections on injury and wellness treatment, information on strategy and tactics, codified instructions on how to specifically attack and destroy an opponent from several different methodologies and an analysis of attacks and defensive strategies in the Chinese arts.

There is not enough information contained there in to hand to someone and then have them teach themselves the arts involved. At best the information may be a guideline into study, if we no longer posses the original training behind these notes.

As far as I know, the sad truth is how the Bubishi was used on Okinawa remains closed to most of us. In fact I hope my thoughts will help inspire others to discuss these topics more fully.

What I do know is that the modern translations into Japanese, French and English have led directly to analysis of the martial implications of the 48 self defense technique drawings. This is of course natural and this line of study should be encouraged, if only for the analytic development it spawns to those who undertake that journey.

When looking at the Bubishi, we’re drawn to the illustrations which seem less daunting than the accompanying text. Surely those who possessed this text on Okinawa would have been done the same.

I approached a friend and instructor, Ernest Rothrock from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, about the nature of the techniques shown. He took the time to show how they compromised the basics of many different Chinese systems. It was very interesting to see them from that perspective too. As his focus is on the Northern Chinese system of Fann Tzi Ying Jow Pai (Northern Eagle Claw) it became clear that this was more than just a Southern Chinese system training document. Many systems contain the same basic studies which are overlaid with their specific systems doctrine. That these techniques are found in Northern Chinese systems and most likely Southern Chinese system, shows their portability. Thereby it is just as logical they would fit within the Okinawan systems movement potential too.

What seems more important to me, today, is that we not look at just the pieces that fit our interests, but at the entire body of knowledge the Bubishi presents.

Yes the author involved kept notes on the history of his art, but Bubishi also contains a great deal of information about Chinese medicine and the use of Herbs in treating medical conditions, It contains information on Striking the Vital point (where not to strike, where and when to strike, vital points by the hour, and the delayed death touch by the hour. It also contains descriptions of the results of fighting by technique analysis, and of course more not simply catalogued.

We have no information if this material came from one author or it was material gathered from numerous sources. That said it is simpler for logical analysis to consider the Bubishi having one author.

Much of the Bubishi is focused on medical treatment, a listing of the herbs being used without the instructions about when to administer them, how to prepare them in detail. It seems to indicate that the author had deep enough training that the how and where wasn’t needed for the notes. Many of those treatments were for very serious attacks described elsewhere in the Bubishi.

It does seem inconsistent that the purpose of the Bubishi was to be used to destroy when there is so much information about how to heal, from that day’s medical knowledge. Does it make sense that one would spend so much time to learn how to heal and at the same time train to destroy?

I suspect the articles on where not to strike, the vital points during 12 hour intervals and the delayed death touch at 12 hour intervals may have been common martial studies across many systems. Their inclusion may have been for medical purposes, the theory that one must know what was done in order to develop a specific remedy.

In fact if you extend that concept of knowledge for defensive medical treatment, if those techniques were common trainings in other systems, that knowledge could form the basis of defensive theory in the martial art too.

Say you understand someone will strike under your right arm between 1am to 3am, knowing what they’re focusing on allows you to construct pre-emptive defensive techniques first. All in all you’re always better if you know before hand what someone else is planning to do.

I am of course skeptical that things were ever this easy, but it may represent a consistent way to look at all of the Bubishi.

For the articles on fighting techniques, such as Grappling and Escapes and of course the 48 Self Defense Diagrams also lend themselves to a text of defensive strategy and techniques, medically and martially.

It is from this analysis that I can suggest an impact on the Okinawan arts.

From the Mabuni Kenwa book 'Seipai No Kata' published in 1934.