Okinawden Bubishi by Otsuka Tadahiko

Found from a Japanese book site.

 

An article on Sunsu Kata

I have saved a bit of Isshinryu History with this article on Sunsu Kata.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering Dennis Lockwood

Dennis Lockwood was my senior 

and my primary instructor under Lewis Sensei.

I am saving these photos in his memory.

 

Once Upon a Time in Okinawa

 

 

Pattern Recognition

'Looking beyond specific systems we can find there are patterns of movement and applications that cross the boundries. I offer these examples.

 

 

 

When trying to understand a historical work like the Bubishi, it is important to consider how many times the work has been redrawn, and in turn whether those re-drawings have varied from the original. Today each book on the Bubishi used different drawings along with different translations. Let me share several and then show applications from different systems which might resemble the theme.     

 

                               “Bubishi” by Roland Habsetzer translation by Victor Smith

 

 

II.  The Principal Teachings Of The Bubushi

     Commentary of the 48 Figures of Close Combat of the Bubishi

Figure 13 (page 78)

When the opponent feints a hand to mask a strike from the opposite fist, specially a blow carried from the bottom up [specially a rising strike],  you (become to) frustrate the feint, entering into the attack and trapping the blow of the fist all while seizing to the throat with the hand and ‘mouth of the snake(333: to the right, and photo 42).  Commentary page 169.

 

Commentary

Figure 13

The drawing illustrates a suggestion of the counterattack.

This figure introduces the notion of feinting a fight, which is frustrated when [by] entering in the. The counter-attack is a blow carried from the end of fingers or of the ‘fork of the hand’ (arch constituted by the angle of ‘index and thumb opening) for crushing the larynx (33 and photo 42).

Then the scan of this drawing preserved by Mabuni Kenwa

Northern Eagle Claw Principle No.3

 

other scans

 



 

 

Chopin and Karate – a parallel?

 

I find I have many passionate interests in life I try to follow a bit.

 

One of them is to try and understand classical music better. I enjoy an extremely wide range of music but my musical education has always been extremely limited.

 

Over the years I discovered BBC Music, a British magazine dedicated to classical music that also includes CD’s with complete works (unlike other classical music magazines that have CD’s with pieces to try and get you to buy those CD’s).  I find it very interesting to gain some more knowledge about things I enjoy.

 

The May 2004 issue has an article “the Final Score – can a score ever tell us exactly what the composer intended us to hear” by John Rink that I feel incredibly parallels many issues in the transmission of Karate, especially on the question about a kata’s original

composer. 

 

Consider how exacting music has been transcribed for hundreds of years.  Exact notation in infinite detail, much more than the shape of kata. Yet the article suggests other issues worth considering.  From page 30.

 

“Performers often say their goal is to realize ‘the composer’s intentions’.  On the face it seems noble enough, but can such an  ambition ever be achieved, and if so to what avail?  And which composer’s intentions’ do they mean: those at the time of the music’s

conception, or when the first manuscript was finished, or when proof sheets of the first edition were corrected, or at the first performance, or after years of performances and if so corrected by whom?  What if those intentions conflict – and what if the composer’s

view of the music was less fixed than our own might be, whether as listeners or performers.”

 

“These questions are difficult to answer, and they challenge any  simple truths we might choose to hold about how music “should” sound.  The fact of the matter is that when it comes to composer’s intentions, we believe what we want to believe – and our beliefs are inevitably based on knowledge that is less than complete. Taking hold of someone else’s music, whether in words or in performance, requires educated guesswork on the one hand and our own creativity on the other.  That partly explains why no account of the music could ever conform to what the composer intended: we as interpreters and co-creators get in the way. And for all the convictions we might have about how composers X and Y wanted their music performed, no one has the requisite insight or authority that some have proclaimed over the years…..”

 

“Chopin offers a particularly interesting case study of how ‘composer’s intenteions’ can change over time. His artistic convictions were more or less immutable and passionately, if quietly, held, and with few exceptions, he dismissed those performances of his works violated the aesthetic principles that he professed.  But he was far from rigid when performing his own music. ……we know from Alfred Hipkins… that Chopin never played his own compositions twice alike, but varied each according to the mood of the moment.’…..”

“…his creative genius was irrepressible and forever engaged.  To that extent he continually modified his compositions on paper as well as in performance….. Chopin reveled in the music’s creative potential by indulging in all manner of variants, whether in a given piece or at successive stages of the compositional process.”

 

“… So which reflects of the two extant manuscripts best reflects Chopin’s intentions: the earlier of the two, prepared when he was most alert and his ideas freshest, or the later one, copied out more of less mechanically but with the opportunity to refine initial thoughts and introduce new ones?”

 

Think how this parallels so many questions we hold about the origins of the Okinawan arts?  What was the right version of Seisan kata? The original created one?  Or later versions on the theme?

 

I think that a link such as karate to Chopin’s music may suggest the study of the kata may never have been a fixed shape as much as a theme to work with.

 

If the originator of a kata could return today? Would they be distressed that kata drift occurs, or would they be thrilled their original theme continues with new life generation after generation?

 

Environmental Karate Training

Karate is not a thing of uniforms and special training halls. It happens anywhere people gather to train.

 

I have practiced in the ocean, on camp grounds anywhere, at Disneyworld, innumerable locations.

 

In gi’s. in shorts. Winter gear, fall gear, whatever. Barefoot of boots and walking shoes.

 

I have taught Naifachi kata standing atop three sections, of cut tree trunk, taught Chinto Kata on narrow paths, and on a narrow bridge, I have also taught Kusanku Kata at Night, in the rain and at mid-night. With my 18 month old son at my side asleep in the rain in his bassinet. I have taught Tai Chi outside for over 18 years, in minus 20 degrees f. and at 115 degrees f. During blizzards, all sort of snow storms and on ice sheets on the ground. Hillsides, at night, in fog, whatever the weather. I even studied kama in the rain.

 

You only learn the adjustments required doing it wild.

 

In the not too distant past, geologically speaking, surviving in a low light environment was definitely a focus of training.  I imagine in those times there weren’t street lights, just lighting from homes along the way. When the karate of legend was taught in an instructors back yard or in the woods privately after dark.

 

Back around 2000 one weekend Tristan Sutrisno was visiting and he held a workout for my students in the back yard. During that afternoon a sumer storm came up. We moved the group for a while to my garage in the basement, then when the rain passed returned to the back yard and continued there.

  

Where people are, Karate is.  This is in memory of all those times.

 

For the summer class is in my backyard on the grass.

 

I practice outside every chance I get.