RKAGB Summer Gasshuku

This weekend I attended the summer gasshuku of the Ryukyu Kobujutsu Association Great Britian in Nuneaton, with Kisho Inoue Sensei visiting from Japan to provide tuition in the ancient weapon arts of the Ryukyu kingdom as passed on by Shinken Taira.

Inoue sensei was a very humble and friendly person, taking the time to personally introduce himself to every person in attendance at the beginning of the weekend.  Considering there were over 60 people who attended the first day, this small gesture spoke volumes about the sensei’s character.

After bowing to begin the mornings session, and a warm up led by Julian Mead Sensei, we moved onto tai and ashi sabaki methods to wake up our bodies and develop a feeling for the movement required to correctly handle the rokushaku bo.  Methods of entry into attacks, and perception exersices were also covered.  Following this we moved onto the Go,Go,Go basic exersise with the rokushaku Bo.

The group were then split between senior and junior grades, with us juniors learning the kata sakugawa no kon sho with Julian Mead Sensei.  This kata, one of three bojutsu kata bearing his name, is said to have been developed and passed on by the famous Tode Sakugawa Kanga, a well known bushi who is well respected as a martial artist in the old Ryukyu Kingdom.  Nagamine Shoshin sensei wrote in his book ‘Tales of Okinawa’s Great Masters’ about how Bushi Sakugawa engaged multiple opponents with his rokushaku Bo while aboard a ship enroute to China which was attacked by pirates. 

The kata Sakugawa no kon sho introduced many ideas and hand changes which were new to me, and I was glad of the chance to cover this kata in depth.  Within the association, there are also 5 comprehensive bunkai for the Sakugawa group of kata which help reveal the depth of fighting application within these kata.  With Mead Sensei we covered the first 3 bunkai drills, and it brought a smile to my face to be allowed this brief glimpse into the world of Tode Sakugawa.

We then re-grouped with the senior grades and practiced the 10 kihon kumite, and the ju-go kumite.  This was a good chance to practice with practitioners of different sizes, ability, strength and speed, and I was glad to emerge unscathed on this occasion.  I personally love the ju-go kumite drill despite spending most of my time completely terrified whilst performing it!!!

At the end of the first days training there were demonstrations of the rokushaku bo, tonfa, kama, tekko and sai from some of the senior grades, along with bunkai for each weapon.  Following this we were treated to a demonstration from Inoue Sensei where he performed none other than sakugawa no kon sho.  It was great to see this kata performed by such a skillful practitioner, and sensei’s performance appeared very relaxed and almost effortless.  Inoue Sensei then demonstrated the bunkai from sakugawa with Mead Sensei, and boy could you see the change in Inoue Sensei.  With a kiai that can only be described as blood-curdling, Inoue Sensei left us in no doubt as to his intention with the Bo.  With his movement swift and precise, and with each strike stopping just short of its intended target, this was true bujutsu in motion and completely inspiring. 

I returned to my hotel room that evening physically exhausted, but eager to get back into the dojo to try to replicate Inoue Sensei’s assertiveness.

The following day began with a warm up and body movement drills, before once again the group were split between seniors and juniors, with us juniors now moving on to work with the sai and cover the kata Tawada no sai.  Bushi Tawada was a student of the legendary Bushi Sokon Matsumura and was a practitioner of both tode and kobujutsu.  Tawada Sensei according to Motobu Choki Sensei was especially famous for his ashi barai techniques, which can be evidenced by the peculiar hooking motions with the lead leg in both Tawada no sai, and Tawada no Passai. 

Tawada no sai is a particularly enjoyable kata, and I must admit to finding the sai much easier to get to grips with than the rokushaku bo.  I think this may be due to my fondness of Goju Ryu, and keeping in close to an opponent.  Anyway, Tawada no sai introduced some very interesting tactics and ways of setting up an opponent to present openings in their defence, which was revealed in the bunkai for some of the signiture movements of the kata.  It was interesting seeing the close link between both the armed and unarmed kata passed on from the ancient Ryukyu kingdom, and how there was no apparent distinction between the two arts.  Tode and Kobujutsu appear to have been as one for the bushi of Okinawa.

The weekend came and went so quickly, and I wish I could have spent more time in the company of Inoue Sensei and spoke with him a little mroe about his ideas on budo.  Still there’s always next time…..

I’d like to say a big thank you to Julian Mead Sensei for his help and tuition over the weekend, and for organising such an enjoyable gasshuku.  I’m eagerly awaiting the next one!

Having bad days

During training today I felt that my performance of the kata was poor.  My balance wasn’t quite right, my timing was off, I lacked power, I was too tense, and my legs felt very stiff and clumsy.

With each repetition of kata I vowed to myself that I would perform better time, however, by the end of the kata I would be feeling a similar sense of disappointment and failure.

This was quite frustrating for me as it seemed the more I tried, the worse I became!

All of this was quite the opposite of how I felt during training the previous day when everything went well.

As I began to start feeling sorry for myself I suddenly realised how lucky I was to be having an ‘off-day’.  The good thing about opportunities like this is that you are confronted with a challenge which you must overcome if you are to grow as a martial artist and a person.

When things go well and according to plan, we naturally feel happy and continue on about our business.  However, when things begin to go wrong, it is our natural reaction to want to hide away from the problems and avoid facing them, hoping that things will go back to normal without us having to take positive action.  The good thing about budo is that we learn to forge the strength of character to meet our problems face to face, and do our best to conquer them, taking the initiative.

As I lapsed into self pity during my training session and began thinking about finishing early I wondered to myself whether I would also give up if I was faced with a difficult problem in everyday life? 

With this thought in mind I turned once again to face myself inside the dojo…..

Ancient transmission of technique

 

Perhaps the oldest resource we practitioners of Okinawan karatedo have availible to us is the Bubishi document. 

 

Within this text there are a number of defences against common methods of attack demonstrated through way of drawings and abstract descriptions of the techniques. 

 

 

I have always been interested in this section of the bubishi, and have often wondered about the actual application of the techniques shown. 

Luckily if we look toward older Chinese texts, and modern day interpretations of the bubishi, we can see how these techniques might have been used and gain ideas for our own practice.

 

From the above photographs we can see how this particular technique has been preserved and re-interpreted over time as shown in the bubishi, the 1936 Chinese text Chin Na Fa, and the 1998 text on the bubishi by Ohtsuka Tadahiko Sensei.

It is also interesting to note that this same technique is also now taught as part of the officer safety instruction recieved by police officers in London’s Metropolitan Police.

While modern day self defence systems may market their arts to be the latest and most effective in modern self defence, and ply their trade to the security services as such; it is interesting to note that many of the same effective techniques have always been a part of the classical martial arts traditions of China and Okinawa. 

 

 

What’s right with Goju Ryu?

This is in response to Mr Mario McKenna’s latest post ‘what’s wrong with goju ryu?’ on his excellent blog found here http://okinawakarateblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/whats-wrong-with-goju-ryu.html

Whilst not particularly qualified to speak about Goju Ryu in depth, I offer these comments and observations based on my experiences from training with my group under Richard Barrett Sensei, and at the Jundokan dojo in Naha.

It is difficult to tell what would have become of Miyagi Sensei’s method had WW2 never happened.  According to Morio Higaonna in ‘the history of karate goju ryu’ Miyagi Sensei’s research and collection of books were destroyed during the intense bombing of Naha.  It is unknown what written records Miyagi may have had regarding the evolution of his art, or whether indeed there were any in the first place.  All we have are the sometimes conflicting oral accounts from various students of Miyagi Sensei.  This must be very frustrating for martial arts historians.

I find the comment ‘this is the result of both external factors beyond Miyagi’s control, but also his own personality which limited his ability to (re)formulate them’ quite odd, and it is possible that I may have interpreted this the wrong way?

It is of absolute importance when reflecting on any shortcomings in Miyagi Sensei’s character to remember the hardship that he had to endure as a result of WW2.  Miyagi Sensei lost his home, and numerous students and friends including, his top student Jin’an Shinzato.  Miyagi Sensei was also tragically to lose his third son, and two daughters.  How any person was able to pick themselves up from this and resume teaching karate is beyond admirable.  Miyazato Eiichi Sensei said that after the war Miyagi Sensei’s enthusiasm for teaching was not the same, and everybody in Okinawa was more concerned with surviving and re-building their lives than training.   It is not suprising that Miyagi Sensei was unable to re-formulate his ideas at this time, and I think it would be extremely harsh to put this down to Miyagi Sensei’s personality. 

The fact is, Miyagi Sensei’s Goju Ryu remains one of the most comprehensive karate systems still around today.  I find it admirable that Miyagi Sensei was able to pass on this art fairly intact despite such harsh circumstances.

Regarding the lack of two-person sets and application;

I must admit, this was a source of frustration for me too when I was trying to discover the original applications for the techniques from kata.  Everybody I asked would have a different interpretation, most of which were JKA karate vs karate type applications.  Despite this, I am extremely thankful for this as it forced me to look toward my own kata and find answers for myself.  I value these answers much more as I have had to work hard to get them. 

Miyazato Eiichi Sensei tells the following story about a chicken he once had.  Miyazato Sensei had this chicken, and he discovered that if you fed it by hand everyday, it would grow very quickly to become twice the size of all the other chickens.  Despite this, the chicken became a burden because it got so used to being fed by hand that it was unable and too lazy to feed itself.  Because of this Miyazato Sensei had problems when going away on business trips or holidays.  Deciding enough was enough, Miyazato Sensei decided to leave the chicken to its own devices, and after battling with starvation for a few days, the chicken learnt to feed on its own and become self reliant.

Karate students are a lot like chickens! 

If you give a student everything, they will never learn to look for themselves and will become completely reliant upon their teacher.  This is a good thing for commercial dojo who rely on brainwashing their students, but something to be avoided by practitioners of budo.

Miyazato Sensei spent a lot of time standing in his teachers shadow, and I firmly believe that a lot of Miyagi Sensei’s character was reflected in the personality of Miyazato Sensei and his teaching methods.  Miyagi Sensei, through not teaching a structured set application for each technique has left us the gift of being able to feed oursleves.  The individual way he taught each student according to their own particular physical circumstances shows us that Goju Ryu must be something that is individual and unique to ourselves.  

The kata, the junbi undo, and the hojo undo are set and there is an exact method to their performance; this is the budo and the never ending search for perfection. 

The application regarding these practices are not set and open to individual interpretation; this is the bujutsu and the martial skill of Goju Ryu and self protection.

The theory of Goju Ryu’s martial application lies in the kata.  There is no need for any further theory as it is all set out and passed on intact through these original kata, and the kata later created by Miyagi Sensei to preserve his own ideas and theories.

Regarding Junbi Undo, I personally do not believe that these exersices are contradicted by modern sports science.  The vast majority of these exercises are still in common use amongst practitioners of various sports, and a lot of them bear a striking similarity to various yoga exercises which are considered benificial to your health.  In fact, my wife has been practicing a modern form of exercise which has recently become in vogue called body balance.  This claims to use various yoga, qigong and taichi exercises, blended with more modern exercise methods to promote toning, physical fitness and the overall health of the practitioner.  I’m always struck by how many of these exercises are included in the junbi undo of Goju Ryu, and I personally believe that these exercises are just as relevant now.  Stretching the muscles, moving the joints, raising the heart rate, breathing deeply; it’s all good stuff as far as I can tell.

Finally regarding Sanchin Shime and its over-emphasis in Goju Ryu.  Speaking from personal experience, I have never been subjected to frequent severe Shime.  I have certainly never been punched or kicked during shime.  Many of the observations on shime and the possible long term damage to the health of the practitioner are based on public demonstrations where the teacher and practitioner invariably try to ’show off’ the effectiveness of their school, and the toughness of its followers.  A much more accurate way of judging shime, but not one that is always so easily available to people is to watch how a school conducts shime within its regular lessons.  Speaking from my own experience shime should be just enough to allow the student to see where theire technique is weak, so that they can feel it for themsleves and work to correct that area.  On infrequent occasions it is necessary to conduct shime harder, but this is for the purpose of helping the student to face themselves and become familiar with battling their own personal fears.  This helps the student to develop character, build mental strength, and toughen their martial spirit.  I stress that this should be done on rare occasions and is not the ‘norm’ with regards to conducting shime.

I’m aware that many accounts from direct students of Miyagi Sensei relate to the severity of the training and the harsh shime, but I wonder what effect the passage of time has on such accounts.  Reading through a martial arts magazine this morning I see an interview with a guy who began training in the 80’s, and states how much harder the training was then, than it is now.  It appears that every person remembers this about their training, and there is something sentimental about remembering such harsh times. 

I’ve no doubt that training under Miyagi Sensei was indeed hard, and that the shime was severe on occasions, but what accounts are there regarding the regularity of such training, and also, what gives the listener a more impressive story, one of severity and harshness, or one of regularity and normal day to day training?

Anyway, this ends my response.  It is my sincere hope that this article doesn’t read too harsh or defensive, as I respect Mr McKenna’s work very much and have learnt a lot about the history of our art from his blog.  His latest article at least got me, one of Mr McKenna’s regular readers, thinking about any shortcomings in Goju Ryu, and I’m sure that this was his intent anyway.

Enjoy your training!

Intent

Something that my sensei mentioned quite a few years ago when I first began training with him was ‘when you watch the kata of a good practitioner, you should be looking at his opponent’.

This statement may seem a little confusing at first as the kata represent the solo re-enactment of a number of self defence techniques linked together in a continuous sequence.  The key word here is solo.

If then the kata are a solo exercise, how can we see the opponent?

What makes the kata come alive for both the performer and the person watching is the intent of the practitioner.  This is what seperates the random sequence of movements able to be performed by any half-decent dancer or gymnast, from the movements of a skilled practitioner of karatedo.

With every strike being delivered, the practitioner must be 100% committed to defeating his opponent with that strike.  When required to move fast, the practitioner moves swiftly; when forced to hold his ground, the practitioner becomes rooted to the floor.  With every punch the practitioner should be visualising his opponent, choosing his target, and striking fiercely as if to destroy the enemy with that one blow.

When practiced with this martial intent the kata become a living sequence of combat suspended in time, to be repeated many, many times, but never with any two performances being quite the same.