There is no First Strike in Karate – the Training

Karate Ni Sente Nashi is a very famous Okinawan saying, “There is no first strike in Karate”. It has been discussed many times such as at the following .pdf: “Karate Ni Sente Nashi A discussion by Mark J. Tankos “ http://seinenkai.com/articles/tankosich/sentenashi.pdf

I think I’ve hit on something interesting in the 1933 “Karate Kenpo” by Mutsu Mizuho.

(please refer to footnote 1). The last half of this incredible book describes Kumite or the use of karate technique. Mutsu organized the technique studies by type not kata, and I’ve just realized he started with a practical method of using Karate Ni Sente Nashi.

My analysis is solely based on visual inspection of the drawings, with the help of Joe-san Swift’s brief explanations. It might not be what Mutsu intended but I think it has great value.

Mutsu had been a student of Funakoshi Ginchin and Karate Ni Sente Nashi must have been an important concept of Funakoshi Sensei. What I’m now realizing was the order Mutsu described how to use Karate technique is a practical method of training based on the concept.

Joe Swift’s article describes the first section of the Kumite as reactive defense, and the second section of the Kumite as preemptive striking (building on the reactive defense). In both cases the attacker moves first maintaining the principle of Karate No Sente Nashi. (Not that I suggest this is the only or best course of action in an attack, instead it is a method of training that can be used to hold to the principle if that is the choice.)

Here are the technique practices described by Mutsu.

Reactive Defense, or the art of not being there when attacked using 5 training principles.

1. Attacker leads with a left lunge punch to the head and then follows with a right front kick

a. Defender steps back with the right foot, away from the punch.

b. Defender steps back with the left foot, away from the kick.

2. Attacker leads with a left lunge punch to the head and then follows with a right front kick

a. Defender leans slightly back moving the head just beyond the punch.

b. Defender skips slightly back moving the body just beyond the kick.

3. Attacker leads with a left lunge punch to the head

a. Defender steps forward with the left, slipping inside the strike and striking upward into the attacker’s chest with a reverse punch.

4. Attacker leads with a left lunge punch to the head

a. Defender steps forward with the left, slipping inside the strike and striking to the solar plexus with a left lead punch

5. Attacker steps with the right and throws a left reverse punch to the head

a. Defender steps right foot forward slipping the attackers punch to the outside

b. (Alternate) Defender steps left foot forward slipping the attackers punch to the outside.

Preemptive Striking building upon the principles of Reactive Defense or the art of Counter Striking against the attack.

1. Attacker leads with a left lunge punch to the head

a. Step back with your right foot and lean your head away from the strike

b. (Alternate) Step in with your left foot and strike their head with your left hand

2. Attacker steps with their left and throws a right reverse punch to the head

a. Step in with your left, and slightly rotate your body counter-clockwise and slip inside of their punch

b. (Alternate) Step in with your left and slightly rotate your body clockwise and slip inside of their punch and strike their solar plexus with a short left lead punch

c. (Alternate) Step in with your left, and slightly rotate your body counter-clockwise and slip inside of their punch and strike their solar plexus with a right reverse punch

d. (Alternate) Step in with your left and strike their head with a right reverse punch

e. (Alternate- drawing not shown) Step in with your left, and slightly rotate your body clockwise and slip inside of their punch and strike their solar plexus with a right uppercut

3. Attacker steps with their left and throws a right reverse punch to the head

a. Lunge forward with the left foot and left lunge punch their solar plexus

b. Lunge forward with the left foot and right reverse punch their solar plexus

IMO the difference between techniques 2 and 3 is that the 3^rd section is done without slipping

Rotation of the body and though the attacker begins their strike the lunge gets the defender there first.

4. Attacker steps with their left and throws a left lead punch to the head

a. Step forward with the right foot slipping inside of the punch and beginning a right lead punch to the solar plexus

b. (Alternate) Step forward with the right foot slipping inside of the punch and throw a right roundhouse punch under and around the striking arm to hit their head

c. (Alternate) Step forward with the right foot slipping inside of the punch and throw a right uppercut to their solar plexus

5. Attacker steps with their left and throws a left lead punch to the head

a. Step back with your right, rotate your body clockwise and slip their punch on the outside

b. (Alternate) Step back with your right, rotate your body clockwise and slip their punch on the outside as you left uppercut into their armpit

c. (Alternate) Step back with your right, rotate your body clockwise and slip their punch on the outside as you left uppercut into their face on the inside of their strike

d. (Alternate) Step back with your right, rotate your body clockwise and slip their punch on the outside as you left lunge punch into their face on the inside of their strike

6. Attacker steps with their left and throws a left lead punch to the head

a. Lunge forward with your left as you drop your right knee to drop your center and left lead punch to their solar plexus

b. (Alternate) Lunge forward with your left and throw your right punch to their head sliding the punch on top of their striking arm

c. (Alternate- drawing not shown) Lunge forward with your left as you drop your right knee to drop your center and right reverse punch their solar plexus

7. Attacker steps with their left and throws a left lead punch to the head

a. Lunge forward with your left as you drop your right knee to drop your center slipping inside their strike

b. (Alternate) Step forward with your left foot and strike their head with your left hand

8. Attacker steps with their left and throws a right reverse punch to the head

a. Lunge forward with your left, rotate your upper body clockwise and slip their strike

b. (Alternate) Lunge forward with your left, rotate your upper body clockwise and strike their solar plexus with a left uppercut

9. Attacker steps with their left and throws a right reverse punch to the head

a. Step back with your right and lean your upper body away from their strike

b. (Alternate) Step back with your right and strike their head with a left lead punch

c. (Alternate) Step back with your right and strike their solar plexus with a left reverse punch

10. Attacker steps with their left and throws a left lead punch to the head

a. Step forward with the left foot slipping outside of their strike

b. (Alternate) Slide the right foot over and rotate counter-clockwise, outside of their strike, and throw a right hook punch to the rear of their head

c. (Alternate) Slide the right foot over and rotate counter-clockwise, outside of their strike, and throw a right reverse punch to their back (likely a kidney punch)

11. Attacker steps with their left and throws a right reverse punch to the head

a. Slide the right foot clockwise and rotate your body to slip outside their strike

b. (Alternate) slide your right foot back and strike to their head with a reverse punch

12. Attacker steps with their left and throws a right reverse punch to the head

a. Step forward with you left foot so your head slips outside their strike and execute a left reverse punch to their solar plexus (under their striking arm)

b. (Alternate) Step forward with you left foot so your head slips outside their strike and execute a right reverse punch to their head

c. (Alternate) Step forward with you left foot so your head slips outside their strike and execute a left uppercut to their jaw (under their striking arm)

The reason I feel these technique studies are an example of Karate Ni Sente Nashi is that the first example in each series represents evasion without further response, the option of just evading the attack. Karate was not developed and taught on Okinawa because of a day to day possibility of threatening adversaries, Okinawa was a rather quiet place. There are situations where one is attacked, say at a party where the opponent is worse for wear that do not require destroying the attacker. The moral use of karate is to always be able to respond appropriately.

It behooves us to incorporate those skills, evasion with no response, into our training to give each student the option of doing more than just breaking that attack. Logically I believe this is what Okinawa intended with Karate Ni Sente Nashi.

I hope this introduction study to Mutsu Mizuho’s “Karate Kempo” builds your own appetite for the day this is available in English. I’ve only described the beginning of a technique usage study of great depth and variety. Much more existed than just strike and kick in his 1933 analysis of karate usage.

If anything Mutsu’s efforts show how the logical analysis of karate technique potential may help develop the highest understanding of our arts.

This study is not just related to Mutsu’s Itosu-Funakoshi lineage. It describes the potential of all Okinawan Karate-ka, even with their technique differences. Goju Ryu, Isshin Ryu, Shorin Ryu, Tou’on Ryu, Uechi-Ryu and more all can draw study from his efforts.

I find a special affinity as an Isshinryu stylist because this study directly shows applications to the first four techniques studied by every Isshinryu karate-ka.

Acknowledgement: The friendship and sharing of Charles Joe-san Swift has been instrumental in my developing the appreciation of Mutsu’s “Karate Kempo”. Thanks Joe-san!

Footnotes:

The article “Mutsu Mizuho’s ‘Karate Kenpo’ by Charles Joseph Swift at http://museum.hikari.us/

Lessons on the road to Mastery

As I’m recuperating from surgery I think about the best lesson I learned, that being how unique every day is for us.

I hadn’t been training for much longer than a year when I had to move for work. My last class Lewis Sensei began my instruction of Chinto Kata. Then I was off to another state and city and only the availability of a different art to study. That next summer I returned to Salisbury for vacation and traveled to the main dojo and associated friends dojo and somehow learned the rest of Chinto. Then back to my new home.

A time of no videos or books and only my memory to guide me. I began to realize I really had to learn something very fast. Simple performance while in short term memory isn’t enough. You had to find a way to transfer that knowledge to long term memory.

Then I returned to Scranton and regular Tang Soo Do training and then further full time training in Isshinryu when Charles Murray moved to town. Especially in Isshinryu I was having kata shoved into me, but continual repeated practice made it work. Then my instruction ended and I was on my own.

In time I began training with friends I met at local karate tournaments and was being exposed to a wide range of additional studies. I further realized it was my burden to retain what I could as I wasn’t their student.

Several years later my formal Isshinryu instruction ended and as I began to train with many friends in many arts I realized as I wasn’t there student every class was unique. The burden was that I had to remember what I learned and that perhaps I’d never see that lesson again.

So I started to make notes the day following each training session. I figured if I remembered it over night I had at least some idea of what I was shown. I have all those notes to this day.

If a new kata was being shown I worked out a method to learn it immediately. [Note: of course this knowledge was superficial but it was better than forgetting the initial learning.]

I began this practice in 1980 and it continues to this day, class by class, exploring the continual new and expanding my understanding.

From Agena in 1972

My instructor, Charles Murray, was a new Sho-Dan in Isshinryu when he was stationed on Okinawa in 1972 and was able to train at the Shimabuku Tatsuo Dojo in Agena. At that time most of the students were Okinawan and the Marines were being trained on base.

With his permission I'm sharing several photographs of the dojo for Isshinryu interest. Based on the colours I bet they were painted by the Marines.

This is a list of the Isshinryu Upper and Lower Body Combinations.

This is a list of the Isshinryu Kata

Treasured Memory from 1996

Charles Murray, Victor Michael and Me in 1996

A Step out of the Past

When I began my journey to understand how Isshinryu kata techniques could be applied I developed a tool in using one aspect of kata for investigation. Specifically I began to look into the use of stepping and turning in our kata.

In the mid 90’s, meeting Charles Joseph (Joe-san) Swift through the internet, we found that our personal investigations shared many of the same interests. Describing what I was doing with stepping he recalled an article he had read in “Gekkan Hiden” and in turn translated part of it for my use.

The article by Ikeda Hoshu on Joshinmon Karate was most appropriate because Joshinmon Karate was a descendent of Kyan Chotoku as was Isshinryu. I felt that their sharing the same kata origins lead to similar application potential.

Reading what Joe-san had translated mostly re-enforced my own researches, and I saved the article and set it aside.

This is common for me as it normally takes me a minimum of 5 years to understand how new material fit into my own understandings.

If anything the article also shows how much information is being shared in Japanese that most of us have no access to.

The other day going through my library I picked up my archive from Joe-san and re-read the article. As time passed it seems I’ve learned a little more and now there is so much there I didn’t fully understand before.

The lessons it contains are ones I’ve already learned, but now I see one’s that others are building their arts on too.

To show what I mean allow me to share a part of that article, with Joe-san’s permission.

From a partial translation prepared by Charles Joseph Swift of the article “Koryu Nana-kata and their Secrets” by Ikeda Hoshu in the July 1997 edition of the monthly journal ‘Gekkan Hiden’.

The article section The Importance of the Koryu Nana-kata in Joshinmon. Joshinmon is a system derived from the teachings of Kyan Chotoku and the Koryu Nana-kata are the 7 ancient kata from Kyan Sensei. Those kata being: ananku, wanshu, seisan, chinto, passai (dai), useishi and kusanku (dai).

“… In Okinawa there is an old saying: ‘Even if you teach kata, do not teach te.’ Te means the multitude of hidden and secret techniques within the kata. The reason that kata are performed as solo exercises is that if one were to teach all of the bunkai kumite there would be an infinite number of techniques from just one kata. The usage of the techniques will vary depending upon one’s physical traits and the demands of a real confrontation. “

The article goes into some of the special characteristics of ananku, wanshu, seisan and chinto kata. I will focus on Seisan.

“ Seisan utilizes the seisan-dachi (see attached Japanese page, 18). One can see techniques in this kata where one blocks and punches while utilizing the unique zig-zag footwork. At this time, one slams the heel down from its “floating” position. The application of this is to step in the zig-zag pattern to evade the attack and immediately step inside the opponent’s stance, hooking behind his foot, and then pushing with both palms as you slam the heel down, thus effecting a takedown. This technique can be seen in Southern Shaolin Quanfa, but is rarely addressed in karate.”

“The stances and footwork in kata are actually techniques. They also represent combative engagement distance or maai. Without this understanding, there comes the error of mistaken kata interpretation.”

Page 18. Seisan text

“The unique footwork of seisan. Stomp the heel down. This can also be found in Useishi (Gojushiho).

You can view the Joshinmon Seisan kata at the following Youtube location.

Seisan Kata from the Joshinmon Dojo of Joen Nakazato a direct student of Chotoku Kyan.

 

 

A lesson from the past

Thirty some years ago when I began studying with Tristan Sutrisno in his Shotokan program I had a chance to also study Aikido with him. His training came from his fathers studies in Japan in the 1930's. Their beginning approach to Aikido was a series of defensive techniques against striking attacks. I studied the first 10 drills in their studies and teach them to this day. While those drills are done against lunging punch attacks, one of my group Michael Cassidy, worked out the logic behind the movements against Japanese style knife thrusts. Where using them against a lunge punch is a training tool, their use against someone trying to thrust a blade into you made their use more apparent. Then in the late 90's a friend Joe Swift helped me purchase a copy of Nakasone Genwa's "Karate-Do Taikan" and I was very surprised to see the section of Dagger disarming techniques presented by Otsuka Hironori, creator of Wado-ryu. This is the same text recently translated by Mario McKenna (titled An Overview of Karate-do). Mario provides a great translation of the techniques, but I'm not sharing to encourage you to obtain your own copy. On the other hand this is a variation on the Sutrisno family Aikido drill 09, from my copy. 11 22

The Lesson from Jion

Chomo Hanshiro

This morning I was thinking about what older kata performance may have looked like and then I remembered the article “An Outline of Kata Jion” by Chomo Hanshiro (b 1859 d 1945) from the 1938 “Karate-Do Taikan” of Nakasone Genwa. (Translated into English by Mario McKenna). Nakasone’s book contains actual photographs of Hanshiro performing many of the kata techniques, a detailed description of the kata movement and a section describing some of the kata movement’s application potential.

Hanshiro’s Jion includes many unique features such as containing defensive stances leaning away from the attack and more importantly all of the strikes are to the head.

Those strikes to the head are what made me think of Jion. Where most kata use striking to the center of the opponent’s body the fact Hanshiro’s Jion went to the head seems to make a statement about the more important target for Jion’s creator.

The current versions of Jion closest to Hanshiro’s description are those done by the Kyudokan.

Here are several you tube versions especially at different angles to more fully show the technique movement.

Kyudokan Jion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMwlmc9L9nI

Kyudokan jion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emhlHiEgQ-Q

Kyudokan Jion http://www.okinawabbtv.com/international/karate/movie_page/i04022315_karate_jion.html

Then to allow you to see how the kata changed in Japan you can look at the Japanese Karate Association (Shotokan) and Shito Ryu versions. Note how the strikes dropped to the center of the opponents body.

Old JKA Jion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jpC4jyHOFY

Shito Ryu Jion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k__BYm__yqA

Of course those changes don’t make the newer versions less valuable, just ones with different application potential.

I like the idea that some of the older kata were to strike to the face. Then again all of the other strikes to the midsection of the body don’t preclude their use to the face either.

The most telling comment by Hanshiro Sensei comes at the end of his article.

“This concludes the basic explanation of the kata Jion. Budo is a living thing; naturally there are thousands of different applications and variations for each technique. However, for the sake of brevity I have limited my introduction of the kata Jion to a simple explanation of how to perform the kata and the meaning behind the technique it contains.”

It’s safe to say the elders of karate didn’t just have technique, but they had a true belief in the scope of their art too.

Note if you want to get the full article you need to get a copy of Mario McKenna’s translation. You can find information about it at Translations by Mario McKenna http://stores.lulu.com/bechurinatgmaildotcom The book I’ve been using is “An Overview of Karate”

This is the first English translation of Genwa Nakasone's 1938 Karate-do Taikan. It is one of the most comprehensive books published during the golden age of Karate-do. The book contains chapters of a veritable who's who of Karate-do luminaries including: Shiroma Shimpan, Hanashiro Chomo, Mabuni Kenwa, Otsuka Hironori, and Taira Shinken. The book is richly illustrated and goes into detail about Karate-do history, philosophy, techniques and kata.