Training with Shinso (Ciso) and the Nukite Strike revised

 

 

Allow me to offer some things my one instructor, Charles Murray, learned on Okinawa back in 1972.

 

He was a new black belt under Tom Lewis, and was an airman who was stationed on Okinawa. While there he trained in Agena at the dojo of Shimabuku Tatsuo as frequently as possible. There were only several other Americans training there at that time, because the Marines had their own dojo on their base.Then the majority of those that trained were Okinawans who came to train on their way home after work.

 

I can only relate this how he explained to me, mainly after reaching my own shodan. He described how Shinso (Ciso) spent time with him, training him in chinkuchi. But my time with Charles was too short after  that to be able to be trained that way myself. And I did not believe I knew enough to train that way myself.

 

Basically the Isshinryu in which I was trained followed a different paradigm, the same one Charles had been originally trained in.

 

When his schedule permitted he spent as much time training at the Agena dojo as possible.

And when he described the dojo he included a specific description of a makiwara for training nukite.

 

It basically consisted of 4 walls with a tire innertube (rubber) stretched across it. The Okinawans training there would strike it with their nukite strikes.

 

Now one evening Charles listening to Shinso describing how he would handle an attacker with his Isshinryu, made claim that his primary weapon would be the nukite. I believe Charles showed some mis-belief at that, saying something he did not see that to be an effective answer.

 

 “Almost in reply to my thoughts, Shinso struck me twice. With his first blow, a nukite (spear-hand thrust), he temporarily paralyzed my arm; with the second blow, my leg”.

 

The manner in which he formed the Nukite strike was different to me. His fingers seemed to be of equal length, allowing them to strike as a single line of fingers.

 

He then explained that I needed to change the way I formed the nukite. As my fingers were longer in the middle, I should bend them so they appeared the same length. They also should be held open to accommodate this structure. This would allow them to strike as if a single unit.

 

It could be possible that was behind the nukite use you have been describing.

 

Believe it on not. Charles trained me and has never give me reason to consider otherwise. I know he maintained his chinkuchi training over the decades.

 

Many years later he found these videos of his training on Okinawa. They are not the best, but  they are what I have.

 

Charles in 1972 practicing chinkuchi with his Seisan kata.

 

Charles in 1972 practicing chinkuchi with his Sunsu kata.

 

In my years I worked out different answers. Different time, different place, different circumstances. I was satisfied with what I did. But that never gave me reason not to believe what he experienced.

  

 

 Other related blog posts:

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2014/06/shinso-cicso-and-nukite-training.html

 

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-different-way-to-consider-nukite.html

 

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2015/07/gamaku-and-nuhchn.html

 

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2012/01/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

 

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2012/07/force-enhancement-supplemental-training.html

 

 

The Tea-Master & the Assassin

 

 

Taiko, a warrior who lived in Japan before the Tokugawa era, studied Cha-no-yu, tea etiquette, with Sen no Rikyu, a teacher of that aesthetical expression of calmness and contentment.

Taiko's attendant warrior Kato interpreted his superior's enthusiasm for tea etiquette as negligence of state affairs, so he decided to kill Sen no Rikyu. He pretended to make a social call upon the tea-master and was invited to drink tea.
...

The master, who was well skilled in his art, saw at a glance the warrior's intention, so he invited Kato to leave his sword outside before entering the room for the ceremony, explaining the Cha-no-yu represents peacefulness itself.

You wouldn't expect a tea-master to offer to clean a sword, since that sounds more like a job for a NYC cleaning service or professional cleaning staff . Such an offer from a teacher to a student should always be accepted graciously.

Kato would not listen to this. "I am a warrior," he said. "I always have my sword with me. Cha-no-yu or no Cha-no-yu, I have my sword."

"Very well. Bring your sword in and have some tea," consented Sen no Rikyu.

The kettle was boiling on the charcoal fire. Suddenly Sen no Rikyu tipped it over. Hissing steam arose, filling the room with smoke and ashes. The startled warrior ran outside.

The tea-master apologized. "It was my mistake. Come back in and have some tea. I have your sword here covered with ashes and will clean it and give it to you."

 

In this predicament the warrior realized he could not very well kill the tea-master, so he gave up the idea.

 

Warrior Down

Just learned an old friend passed away.

Don Gladfelter was a Shotokan stylist

 and will be missed by all he knew him.

 

Most especially me.

 

Go with Grace, Don!

 

The Spin in Chinto Kata.

Now I trained with more than a few people acquiring a great deal about how a variety of systems applied the techniques of their forms. Then I began my own analysis of what kata technique might be. Meeting Sherman Harrill was a real eye opener, experiencing what he worked out over his decades. But the more important lesson was how he worked out the underlying principles and then could use those over and over to work out different answers for different kata techniques.

 

Several years after his passing what I found more important were the principles Sherman revealed, and how that would influence me going forward. I never saw everything he worked out.

 

Then one day, when I was working out so many different answers I decided to work on another technique series on my own. A use for the section of Chinto kata that contains the spin.

 

I had seen various answers from other Okinawan schools, but they did not satisfy me.

 

I began looking at the Principles I held regarding Chinto kata, and related knowledge.

 

1.      One principle I held was that one of the secrets of Chinto kata were the ability to use the turns from the kata as a complete weapon system in their own right. The spin of Chinto fit that to a T.

2.      From my tai chi instructor I learned a great deal how the correct body alignment in a technique could increase the power and usage of the technique. That proved to be critical to understand how to make the most of the movement used.

3.      Use could be made for the full utilization of the kata section under consideration.

4.      This was nothing close to the whole answer, just an effective one in its own right.

 

Start with someone grabbing toward your back, or grabbing your collar from the year.

 

You are facing the front and first you step into a horse stance to the side, frustrating their grab attempt, As you do that you simultaneously form a left high block and a right low block. The purpose it to deflect their grabbing arm away from you, the nature of the simultaneous Ho/Low block is to better align your body to increase the power of that right parry block.

 

Then your left leg places your foot behind your right knee and you spin counter-clockwise on the right leg. This is done in increase the momentum of the spin with the left leg moving into your centerline. At the same time the right hand chambers with a slashing right fist across the right ribs on the side of their body. Also at the same time the left hand crosses in front of the face to high chamber along slid the left side of the face. These 3 movements, left foot behind the knee, right hand slashing back to chamber and left hand moving along side the face, all better align the body to increase the speed of the turn. The strike to the ribs also makes the opponents mind shift to the area being struck, weakening their ability to respond.

 

As the spin concludes that left leg comes out ( slides out, slices out) to place your left foot cutting forward behind their knee (no matter whether their right knee or their left knee). This causes them to drop.

 

The conclusion of your spin uses their knee to force them to fall. Finished with your spin the left foot steps down on their bent and downed leg (or more correctly on their calf) and at the conclusion you perform a downward strike into the downed opponent.

 

It is wordy but descriptive of what I found.

 

Of course this is just one option. But it works for me.

 

 

The first set of photos are of Young Lee performing Chinto back in 1990. Closer to the version described in this application analysis.

 

The second set of photos are also of Young Lee performing Chinto with a bit of different focus on his mind. It is important to realize that there are variations of performance each having slightly different application potential. IMO this is not a consideration of right or wrong, just as aspect of different focus on what you are using the form for. It does not preclude using application potential from either version as the situation offers.

That gets into the larger purpose of kata application study to move toward the day when you can fit any technique into the space of any attack and conclude that attack. No form, no specific function, Just potentially using any it as you chose.

Just one memory from 800 memories

I am far from an expert on what Sherman Harrill knew, but in our brief time together I recorded 800 applications for the Isshinryu kata, only a portion of what he did.

 

One time at a Clinic with Sherman Harrill he did this technique. 

Seiunchin Kata – Break Bear Hug from the Rear

 Though this was quite a few years ago I remember this as if it was yesterday.

The key is how he used the movements of this section to touch to top of the grabbing arms and lead the opponents mind away from their grasping movement, allowing the elbow strike to be more effective.

 

  

Seiunchin Kata – Break Bear Hug from the Rear

 

1.      Attacker grabs from rear in Bear Hug

a.      First attack their left elbow, then roll into the defense

b.      Your left arm raises the attackers elbow to the side

c.       RFB into cat stance between their legs

d.      Roll into Right Rear Elbow Strike with a left forward elbow strike

 

By breaking their focus, raising their arm to the side you create an opening for the rolling strikes.

 

Refer to the principles, here various touches can be used to lead the mind, making the escape easier.

Acquiring Martial Knowledge as in learning forms

 

 

There are vast differences between how martial knowledge such as learning kata occurs.

Let me give a few examples from what I have experienced.

 

1, There is continual instruction from one’s instructors (best when it occurs over decades) involving continual adjustments to one’s kata as one’s ability changes. This also occurs with a few years initial instruction the thereafter continually learning in the role of being an instructor.

 

2. When friends share forms, and then make adjustments as well as observing their students progress on those forms over the years.

 

3. When you are able to learn forms very quickly, you really only have your impression what the form really is. That can be useful with work, but it is never really the original either. Your own work on that form over the decades make you find your own worth to the study. But in no case is it the original.

 

4. When you are able to learn forms very quickly, you really only have your impression of what the form really is. But with work that can prove useful as for attacks to work against.

 

This is not a complete survey of what can happen, just useful.

 

For without constant continual instruction you can not say you really got the form.

 

Once upon a time I used to attend a Summer Camp for a variety of martial training for a decade. I learnt many things, and likely did not learn as many too.

 

At that first summer camp, Tristan Sutrisno decided to instruct the black belts there in a form of his Nijushiho. He really did not explain the form so much, just taught it. And me being me, I  remembered what was shown.

 

Then I began to practice the form..Several years later, no longer competing, I thought it would be interesting once again to compete, and to do so with the Nijushiho I had learned.

Never asked Tristan, just did it. That was what it was, Came, Did then Done.

 

Then I moved to Derry and in a while began my youth and adult programs. Tristan used to come up and put on clinics for my students, but mostly for me, because He knew I would retain what was shown. The material was not really used for my student’s studies. Perhaps some of it at a later date.

 

Then around 1989 I decided to include a subsidiary kata for my students, to honor Tristan’s contributions to m art. When he was visiting, to also compete for fun at a local karate tournament, I told him of my idea, thinking the kata would be Bassai Dai.

 

Instead Tristan suggested Nijushiho and then taught it to them at a clinic, including his bunkai for the form. Because I ‘knew’ the form, I spent my time assisting everyone to learn the form. I also did not pay a great deal of attention to what was being taught. I did use the club’s new video camera to record it (later glancing at the tapes once, then setting it aside as I ‘knew’ the form.

 

The next week when the adults practiced, I saw there were mistakes made in their form, and as I ‘knew’ the form I corrected them to what I had been shown.

 

That remained the way the next 20 years we did the form, Over the years Tristan and I went our separate ways, for a variety of reasons, but he had contributed greatly to my knowledge and I always wanted my students to share in that experience a bit.

 

Then about 20 years later I finally watched those tapes, discovering that the version he showed my students, and that which they initially did, was not the version I was originally shown. Close but not the same thing. And because I ’knew’ the form I did not look at what was actually happening that day they were shown the form.

 

I am not an adept in his art, I just know that I was shown, But from that knowledge I can guess what happened.

 

When I was first shown the form, I believe  as he thought no one would remember, he shared  a more advanced variant version of Nijushiho. Call it Nijushiho(2). And what he showed my students was version Nijushiho(1). 

In his system after black belt, when the study of his bunkai begins, when you acquire the bunkai you are also shown a variant version of the kata, A variant to help you remember those bunkai, not bunkai as the term has come to be used.

Rather each movement point  of the form as a unique set of applications to be learned. The variant version of the form to be a mnemonic to remember them

 

Then as dan study increased, at Ni Dan different bunkai were studied for each form, and a new variant version of the form would be learned for the same reason. Thus a Nijushiho(3) etc for all 5 dan levels in his system. Encompassing a very large study of extremely effective technique.

  

At that time I was generally aware of this, but had not pieced this together.

 

When I realized what was reality, I suggested to the other instructors that they might want to return to the version they were originally taught.

 

Perhaps you would say, it really doesn’t matter, as they are just subsidiary studies. And perhaps it does not  As most students never really get that far, and those that do most likely (the adults) go much further into dan studies.

 

But is a caution about what you really know when you do not spend years with an instructor (which becomes something unique in itself).

 

 

 

Now the rest of the story.

 

The two versions shown of Nijushiho in the Sutrisno system would be NIjushiho(1) amd (2).

 

The version Nijushiho(2) is not shown. The differences are slight, more useful as a mnemonic to retain the ‘bunkai’ of that system.

 

Additionally in the Sutrisno family Shotokan, there are 3 Gojushiho kata. Gojushiho,, Gojushiho Dai and Gojushiho Sho. The later 2 versions are what is more commonly associated with Shotokan. He teaches his students all of the versions, each with separate ‘bunkai’.

 

What can be discerned is a bit of what I am talking about. The Sutrisno version is a bit different than my student  Young Lee’s Gojushiho version. Even after decades of work,  work reinforces by many studies of that system, it shows an Isshinryu cast to the performance. Because we were not really his students.

 

The point being when learning a form just from a clinic. You are less likely to get ‘it’ and more likely to make what you have your own version. Not that is bad, just reality.

 

As this was a subsidiary study, knowledge of the ‘bunkai’ we were shown was not a practice we focused on. The application potential and application realization of Isshinry was always our focus.

 

But being a subsidiary form, does not mean we did not put intense practice on it.

 

A Zen Koan Right & Wrong

 

When Bankei held his seclusion-weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of Japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.
 

Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again Bankei disregarded the matter. this angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they would leave in a body.
 

When Bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him.

"You are wise brothers," he told them. "You know what is right and what is not right. You may somewhere else to study if you wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave."

 

A torrent of tears cleansed the face of the brother who had stolen. All desire to steal had vanished.