Knockout Pressure Point Chart

 

 

Diagram of the most vital striking points around the head and neck

Bundled Bamboo for Spear Hand practice.

 

Bundled Bamboo for Spear Hand practice. 

Miyagi Sensei looks on as students practice. 

I’ve only seen this at one Dojo. 

Smaller bundles used for forearm conditioning. 

It was at Carbone Sensei Dojo.

Odds and Isshinryu Ends

  

 

Too many say that Shimabuku Tatsuo Sensei always placed the bo under his armpit when thrusting. Not in this flim clip.

 

1959,during a Demonstration in Okinawa Master Shimabuku Tatsuo had Kikuyama and Sensei Harold Mitchum fight with full Bogu Equipment.

 

 

 

Master Tsuyoshi Uechi Okinawan Isshinryu Karate 一心流沖縄伝統空手道協会

Seisan kata in Misato Dojo.....

 

 

From the archives of Tokumura Sensei. Training in the early 60'ies.

 

One of Shimabuku Tatsuo’s students Tokumura

 

Map of school distribution and diffusion of karate (outside the capital of Naha)

 

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Andreas Quast

  

1900-10-25: At the inauguration ceremony of the Aguni Elementary School, residents performed “staff dance” (bō-odori) (Ryūkyū Shinpō, November 9, 1900).

 

1905-01-04: A victory celebration party for the surrender of Port Arthur was held at Heianza Higher Elementary School, and karate and bō demonstrations were performed. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, January 15, 1905)

1905-11: At the Yaeyama Congratulations Meeting held at Yaeyama Higher Elementary School, a “staff striking competition” (bō uchi no shiai) is held. (Ryūkyū Kyōiku, No. 114, January 20, 1906)

 

1906-12-26: Karate performances were held at the Nakagami District Teachers’ Athletic Meet held at Futenma Elementary School. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, December 28, 1906)

1907-02-14: Karate is practiced as one of the activities of the young men’s association (seinenkai) of Kume Island. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, January 14, 1907)

1907-03-26: At the ceremony for the start of telegraph use of the Yuntanza Post Office held at Furugen Elementary School in Yuntanza Village, residents of Chatan Village Nozato performed karate and bō. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, March 29, 1907)

1907-11-22: At the athletic meet (undōkai) of Nishihara Elementary School, children demonstrated karate and sai under the leadership of Maeshiro Chōryō.

 

1908-03-14: At the school arts festival (gakugeikai) of Motobu Higher Elementary School, children demonstrated karate and teachers gave lectures on karate. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, March 20, 1908)

 

1908-03-22: Children performed karate at the graduation ceremony of Ginowan Higher Elementary School. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, March 25, 1908)

1908-03-29: Karate demonstrations were performed by children at the Educational Affairs Promotion Meet in Nago Umusa. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, April 2, 1908)

1908-06-01: At the opening ceremony held at the Takae branch school of the Kawada Elementary School, karate and bō were performed by residents. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, June 15, 1908)

1908-06-13: At the foundation ceremony of the night school of Onna Nanfū Yadori village held at Onna Higher Elementary School, Maeshiro Chōryū performed karate. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, June 16, 1908)

1908-09-04: In addition to staff dances (bō-odori) with the three-foot staff (sanshakubō) and the six-foot staff (rokushakubō), Hentona youths performed karate in Hentona. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, September 21, 1908)

 

1908-10-30: Karate demonstrations performed at the Athletic Meet in Commemoration of the Bestowal of the Imperial Rescript on Education held at Kin Elementary School. (Ryūkyū Shinpō, November 08, 1908)

1929-03: By this time, karate was taken up as one of the practices promoted at Shimoji Higher Elementary School. (Okinawa Kyōiku, No. 174, March 30, 1929)

1929-03: Until this time, karate and bō were encouraged as one of the extracurricular activities at the Second Tomigusuku Elementary School. (Okinawa Kyōiku, No. 174, March 30, 1929)

1929-03: Until this time, karate was practiced within the physical education course (taisō-ka) at Haneji Higher Elementary School. (Okinawa Kyōiku, No. 174, March 30, 1929)

 

Around 1900-1901: Around this time, there is a record of a tinbē (shield) introduced during class at Yokatsu Higher Elementary School. (Okinawa Kyōiku, No. 281, January 10, 1940)

 

 

Open map here.

 

 

Map of school distribution and karate diffusion
(right click and open in new tab to view HD image)

 

Biblio:

Okinawa, the birthplace of karate. The Okinawa Karate Exhibition. Okinawa Karate and Education, Part 1. To pass down, to spread karate! Karate teachers after the Meiji period. Okinawa Karate Kaikan, 2019-12-09 to 2020-03-24. Courtesy of Olli Ho.

© 2020, Andreas Quast. All rights reserved.

Victor Donald Smith

Wow, it really shows the distribution of teaching karate in those Okinawan schools. Any idea who all the instructors were?

 

Andreas Quast

Ordinary elementary school teachers most of the time.

 

Victor Donald Smith

 Thanks, did they receive training at the Teachers College.

 

Andreas Quast

Maeshiro Choryo mentioned in two of the entries is this guy, back row, second from left

 

Victor Donald Smith

Totally unexpected but loved, now who where the karate instructors involved in all those programs, likewist where did they receive their training.

 

Andreas Quast

 They were Elementary school teachers. This is how karate was spread: Introduce aspiring teachers at the Normal School and after graduation they would take up a job as teachers at some elementary school in Okinawa and boom everyone does karate.

 

Andreas Quast

This is also true for karate. Not solely true, but also true.

 

Arnold Rosenstock

In the pure sense, certainly. But then there's the history of Japan, its culture, mindset, hopes and aspirations between 1890-1945. What was Kano's thinking in those matters and how might it have been manifested in his work?

 

Andreas Quast

Judo and Kendo (gekken) were part of it as well. There is a simple reason why karate entered earlier: judo (because of throws) and kendo (because of men-uchi) were considered dangerous. But school karate had no contact. It is that simple. It was gymnastics. And kendo and judo clubs were all over Okinawa; even at the Shihan gakko. Actually, the first judo dojo in Okinawa was opened in 1899, before any proper karate dojo. Karate is not different than judo or kendo. It is just not specifically Japanese in the sense that it continued the exotism Ryukyu had enjoyed already since 1609, which is something that served the "innocent Okinawans" well and still does - namely the narrative of being not really Japanese, but something special independent on their own, all while they gathered intel and worked for Japan for 100s of years lol.

 

While I have seen it well documented that students of Itosu started teaching in the Okinawan schools after Itosu made a case to the Japanese school board that karate training would be beneficial to the Youth in the Okinawan schools,

 

The Japanese had been considering adding Judo and Kendo in the schools prior to this. But they considered the inclusion of karate gymnastics as an experiment on Okinawa. It worked and then Japan went forward with their own plans.

 

The thing that is new except for the one school originally mentioned and the inclusion of the program at the Teachers College, no one described further what happened. I have seen various instructors mentioned as having taught school programs based on their own karate, but never had an idea how wide this spread.

 

Now from Andre’s article above we see it was taught across Okinawa and on their islands in the elementary schools. And for the most part the instructors were not karate instructors but elementary school teachers who had be taught the program when they attended the teachers college.

 

That puts a very different spin on things.

 

When Funakoshi then Mabuni and others exported Karate Instruction to Japan proper, they took it into the Japanese University systems for the most part. Those programs were 4 year clubs for University students.  Surely, at a far different level from Okinawa’s elementary programs.

Too Very True

 

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 intentions’ 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 Hopkins… 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.

Happy Chinese New Year

 

Chinese New Year started on January 29th and runs for 15 days. Happy Chinese New Year (gong hei fat choy ) in Cantonese (Congratulations and be Prosperous). It is the Year of the Dragon.
 

This is a year for reflection, planning, and searching for answers. It is also a good time for shrewd dealings and political affairs. People will be more likely to scheme and ponder matters before acting on them. The snake likes to resolve his differences one way or another. If he fails and things cannot be peacefully settled, then he will declare war.

Looking back through history, we find that the Year of the Snake has never been tranquil. This may be because it is the strongest negative force in the cycle and follows the Dragon year, which is the strongest positive one.

Tread lightly and be more cautious this year. Gambling and speculation are strictly taboo. The consequences will be overwhelming. The Snake is not merciful.

Philosopher, theologian, political wizard, and wily financier, the Snake is the most profound thinker and enigma of the Chinese cycle. He is endowed with an inborn wisdom and a mystic in his own right. Graceful and soft-spoken, he loves good books, food, music, and the theater and will gravitate toward all the finer things in life. The most beautiful women and powerful men tend to be born under this sign.

By nature, the Snake is skeptical, but unlike the Tiger, he keeps his suspicions to himself. He treasures his privacy and will have many dark secrets locked up within him.

Elegant in speech, dress, and manners, the Snake person does not like indulging in useless small talk or frivolities. He can be pretty generous with money but is known to be ruthless when he wants to attain an important objective. He has no qualms about eliminating anyone who stands in his way.

 

 

2-2-2025 

Groundhog Day