The problem we have with this subject is that everybody loves a fairy tale. Like a child who suddenly realises that santa claus doesn’t exist, its a sad day indeed when we realise the truth behind some of these stories.
The okinawan’s love to grossly exaggerate stories relating to the past masters of karate, and most historical questions are answered beginning the sentance with ‘mukashi’……..a long time ago……..from there it all goes a bit star wars.
The intention behind such stories is good. They are meant to inspire and encourage the practitioner to try that little bit harder in the hope that one day they might be able to match such feats of strength. The fact that you may never be able to perform such feats is irrelevant, the important thing is that you keep trying, keep training and keep searching. This unfortunately is something that many people these days have stopped doing, so maybe such stories are no longer having their intended effect?
These stories only become a problem when they get blown out of all proportion, and people begin to take them as truth. If a human being was capable of kicking through an oil drum with their toe, or crushing a length of bamboo with their grip, why can nobody do this now? And actually……mukashi……….why could every master you seem to read about crush a length of bamboo with their grip? Maybe bamboo is built much stronger these days?
There was ’something’ that was very special about Miyagi Sensei. If video footage existed of him performing, I’m sure his performance would probably be not as visually impressive as say Morio Higaonna, and there would be a lot of disappointed people; but in the tradition that Miyagi Sensei passed on, and his teachings as preserved in the few written peices from him, and the various dojo kun of his students – this is where we can find what was special about him.
Mario Mckenna has been writing a number of entries on his blog lately relating to goju ryu. I must admit that I got completely the wrong impression at first about these articles, and thought that he was just having a bit of a bash at goju ryu. Now, a few articles down the line, I can see and completley support Mr Mckenna’s reasoning.
The time has come to dispell of the myths surrounding the arts and take a good hard look at exactly ‘what‘ we have in our hands today. Get completely rid of all the nonsense relating to sucessors, secret teachings, family styles, lost kata etc. All of this is irrelevant. The sooner we can move beyond such obstacles, the sooner we can begin to start understanding what we actually know to be true about the arts.
I also closely follow Mr. Mckenna´s blog and although I cannot dispute his knowledge and the seriousness of his research,he does take an obvious delight in ¨debunking¨ Goju in particular, which, in my opinion renders his intentions suspect. Nonetheless, he is someone worth reading and whose opinions should raise serious debate.