HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s hard to believe, but here’s 2008! Here’s to greater accomplishments, deeper understanding, and true enlightenment. May our feet never leave the path with heart, and may we never lose sight of the Lord’s Grace.

ERRATUM: I apologize for misspelling Jackie Chan’s name in the last issue of the Journal when I mentioned his movie, Who Am I?. It should be Jackie instead of Jacky. Mea Culpa!

WHAT HAPPENED LAST OCTOBER:

OSHIRO SENSEI’S YAMANNI-RYU SEMINAR IN YONKERS, OCT 6, 2007:

This seminar, organized by sensei Cleve Baxter at the Royal Regency Hotel in Yonkers, was on the iffy side because this week-end was reserved for the RBKD’s second annual international Yamanni-ryu tournament, to be organized by the Czech contingent in their Republic. However, the event failed to materialize and so, Oshiro sensei was freed up and so were we, attending his seminar in the basement of the Regency Hotel on Tuckahoe Rd.

We gathered at the AAC by 8:00 a.m. on this foggy morning, Alex Mintz, Michael Boasso, Miro Musulin, and I (Matthew Schickele would meet us at the hotel, going there by train from NY). Alex flew us in his Jeep, with the guidance of his GPS. Even though we hit a snag at the George Washington Bridge–the unbelievable number of trucks this early on a Saturday morning-- he managed to circumvent it with some creative driving and soon we sailed smoothly up Route 87 to Tuckahoe Rd., arriving there a half-hour ahead of schedule. By that time, the fog had lifted and the sun shone brightly. It was also getting progressively more humid.

The training was to take place in the same carpeted conference room I was at a couple of years ago, in the dingy basement of an otherwise seemingly classy hotel. By 10:00 a.m., Oshiro sensei came down, accompanied by a few students who, apparently, lodged here as well; he looked slightly tired but neatly attired in his official blue hakama and his RBKD blue-and-gold jacket. Besides the five of us, there was a disparate group of attendees waiting for him: a few young black belts from Cincinnati coming for tomorrow’s tournament, some students of Mr. Brockington’s (who has been coming to our dojo for training on a regular basis), some from Miyazaki sensei’s, and Mr. Koji Igarashi from Bergen county who had paid me a visit last month out of curiosity about Yamanni-ryu, and who wanted to meet Oshiro sensei.

Cleve Baxter showed up in his referee suit, introduced Sensei, and left to attend to his referee seminar which is taking place at the same time at his dojo in Mt Vernon. Sensei began the session with his customary lecture about karate and kobudo. Talking about how karate had changed since its inception, he revealed that the Okinawa Karatejutsu Kenkyukai (Society for the Study and Research of Karate), established by many karate masters on Okinawa in the 20s, did not do research into karate’s past as many might have supposed, but rather, studied how to transform karate into a sport in order to popularize it. This event caused a profound shift in the character of karate.

We next trained on bojutsu basics; Sensei gave a lot of detailed instructions on posture, body placement, muscle control, and weapon manipulation. Then he taught Suuji-no-kon, something I haven’t seen him do in twenty years.

After our first break, Sensei went on with saijutsu; however, a couple of neophytes (including Koji) did not have sai, so Sensei took the main group, instructing them on sai basics while asking me to work with Koji on Suuji-no-kon. Koji didn’t do a bad job learning the kata, considering the fact that this was his maiden voyage into the murky waters of Yamanni-ryu.

During our lunch break, Kowa Chhe (from Greenwood Lake, NY) and his son Kyle showed up. This brought the attendance to around 18 participants.

We resumed at 1:00 p.m.; it was now very warm in the windowless room. Sensei wanted to work some more on bojutsu so he split the class up and took a few intermediate students to train them on Sakugawa-no-kon (lucky Matthew!) while I worked with the rest on Choun-no-kon. Before he let me loose on them, Sensei gave me some cryptic advice on how to teach them.

Near 2:00 p.m., Sensei called the seminar to a close and sat everyone down to talk some more about karate and kobudo. While on the topic of dancing bo (or festival bo) and martial art bo, he mentioned that in traditional Okinawan dance, beginner students wear a gi to start. After they become more advanced, they wear a kimono. This is meant to hide the more subtle body movements they use. Sensei thinks the same should apply for karate. Then he proceeded to demonstrate a technique from Shirataru kata intended to teach--me in particular-- how to perform this one swing. As I looked bewildered, he repeated the movement, then asked me specifically, “Did you get it?” I nodded yes. Mike Boasso got a big kick out of this odd piece of private instruction inserted in the middle of a lecture.

We bowed out and I got everybody together for a group shot. We said our goodbyes and I promised Sensei I’d see him again in two weeks, at his West Coast seminar in California...

THE RBKD’S WEST COAST SEMINAR, OCT 19-21, 2007.

...For which Michael Boasso joined me on his first trip. We left Newark Airport at 11:30 a.m. on a warm and muggy Friday, Oct 19, and landed in San Francisco at 2:30 p.m., on the cooler side of the day. It was a busy afternoon on the shopping strip by Sensei’s dojo and we had to drive around the block before we could find a parking space.

As we walked in at around 4:00, Sensei was teaching his first class of the day: a semi-private group kobudo session. Just then Tomoko sensei (Mrs. Oshiro) herself came in; she had just returned from Okinawa the day before, still jet-lagged but always businesslike and managerial as ever. I took care of my association dues and other dojo matters with her.

Then Sam Brockington from NY showed up; he had been in the area since Thursday and intended to stick around until next Wednesday to sightsee.

Among the crowd in the dojo I noticed Nakata sensei, the person in charge of Yamanni-ryu in Ibaraki, Japan, whom I had met last November. When he saw me, he came out and greeted me profusely, still thanking me for helping out at his tournament.

At 5:00 p.m., Michael went in for his taste of Kusanku/sho, an advanced Shorin-ryu kata that Sensei was teaching next. His friend and former sensei, Chris Carlson, from Georgia, was in the crowd too, a convert to Oshiro sensei’s genius.

When they were done at 6:30, it was my cue to go in for my turn at the RBKD Instructors-only weapons session. A few of Sensei’s senior students were present, including Sonya, whom I had met in Tokyo, and Hiro, a 36-year old mother of two who looked like she was barely 15. A transplant from Cincinnati was there: Chaz, a student of Nishime sensei’s, who had recently relocated to sunny California. Sensei trained us on bojutsu, recommending a looser grip on the staff. He took us over Suuji-no-kun for warm-ups, then focused on sections of Shirataru. Around 7:30, Minakami sensei from Seattle arrived, accompanied by Messrs. Murakami and Hashimoto, the President and Vice-President, respectively, of his Shito-ryu organization from Osaka, Japan.

After our session ended, Oshiro sensei spent some time with them as the two gentlemen were eager to learn about his ideas on karate.

SATURDAY, OCT 20: Today, our seminar took place at the Mountain View Buddhist Temple, located some 15 miles south of San Mateo. I haven’t been to this place before, having missed last year’s seminar when Sensei had relocated his event due to his increasing difficulty in renting the Japanese Community Center in San Francisco. Chris, Mike, and I drove out in our rental Ford Focus and arrived by 8:00 a.m., just in time to help Tomoko sensei and Sil Piccoletto (Sensei’s most senior student) set up the gym.

As usual, participants came from the general area, as far away as Fresno; we were the only ones coming from across the country. One person on whose name I could finally place a face was Michael O’Donnell, a student of Minakami sensei’s who has been marketing his Yamanni sai, a stainless steel replicate of Oshiro sensei’s, manufactured in China. As the gym filled up (I counted some thirty odd attendees), Oshiro sensei, who was arriving late, phoned for Sil to begin the class with the warm-ups at 8:30. We lined up with the junior students in front (about six of them) and went through the basics.

A little bit later, Sensei came in and took over. He immediately broke up the group for katas, assigning various sub-groups to different senior instructors. To me he assigned an intermediate bunch who were to go over Sakugawa-no-kon, then learn Shirataru afterwards, as a treat. I took them through the kata many times over, discovering weak spots to correct at each turn; after a while, Sensei stopped by to inspect and deemed them ready to start Shirataru. I took them over the beginning section. At this time, Minakami sensei had shown up with his high-ranking visitors in tow. Oshiro sensei stopped the class and announced a change in the syllabus: previously, he had planned to continue with saijutsu but decided to let Minakami sensei lead the class through the nunchaku kata instead (to allow Minakami sensei time to leave in the afternoon with his visitors). Minakami sensei introduced his honored guests with great trepidation and nervousness and organized the class. This is a kata I already know, but Minakami sensei had made some minor alterations in the footwork. We stopped at 12:00 p.m. for our lunch break. Class resumed at 1:30 and Oshiro sensei led us through tunfajutsu. He went over the basic tunfa spins then led the main group through Shikina-no-tunfa. This is the kata I had demonstrated in Tokyo. Now, however, Sensei had made the stances deeper and the crouching techniques nigh impossible for less nimble students to perform. It’s a good thing I could still stretch close to the ground!

Afterwards, Sensei took us through saijutsu. He broke up the group again and took the main body through Kishaba-no-sai/dai. After he had taken us over the kata a few times, he let us self-train. This way, he could circulate and help individually, according to needs and ability. To me, he showed an advanced way of moving in and out of the crouching punch.

The last 30 minutes were reserved for kumibo. We paired off and went over a few application techniques before the next group arrived: they were Taiko (Japanese big drums) practitioners who had rented the gym at 4:00 p.m.

We ended class and hurried to vacate the premises as the Taiko students set up their instruments.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NEXT MARCH:

THE ASIAN ARTS CENTER’S ANNUAL FUND-RAISER FOR StJUDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, WEEK OF MARCH 3-7: Once again, we will hold our fund-raiser for St Jude Children’s Hospital: the students will be issued pledge forms for family and friends to fill in. As usual, St Jude’s will send prizes to contributors: T-shirts for donations of $35, sports bags for $75, bronze medals for $125, silver medals for $250, and gold medals for $500. I thank you in advance for your generous contributions!

WEST COAST YAMANNI-RYU SEMINAR: MARCH 21-23: Oshiro sensei’s next West Coast seminar will be the week-end of March 21-23, 2008.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NEXT APRIL:

OSHIRO SENSEI’S YAMANNI-RYU SEMINAR AT THE AAC, APRIL 5-6:

Oshiro sensei will be at our dojo, Saturday, April 5, teaching the Yamanni class in the morning and the RBKD Instructors in the afternoon. The open Yamanni-ryu seminar will be held at Bloomfield Middle School gymnasium Sunday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Training fee is $100.

KURASHITA SENSEI’S THIRD ANNUAL GASSHUKU, APRIL 21-27:

Kurashita sensei will be back for our 3^rd annual gasshuku, April 21-27. Training schedule will be: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 7:30 - 9:15 p.m. Thursday will be Sensei’s day off for sightseeing. Friday: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Training fee: $250.

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TO’ON-RYU

If you look at our genealogy chart, you will see that Kanryo Higaonna had three major disciples: Juhatsu Kyoda, Chojun Miyagi, and Seko Higa (read right to left). Everybody knows Chojun Miyagi sensei: he was the founder of Goju-ryu. Seko Higa was Higaonna’s relative, trained with him until his passing away, then continued with Miyagi. It is his line of transmission that we are following here at the Asian Arts Center/Tobukan.

But who was Juhatsu Kyoda? Born December 5, 1887 (he was Miyagi’s senior by a year and therefore is mentioned first in the genealogy), Kyoda was by all accounts a quiet and modest person. His mother was a relative of Higaonna Kanyu (an elder cousin of Kanryo’s) who introduced him to karate at an early age. Between 1901 and 1903, Kyoda started training with Kanryo. A few months later, Chojun Miyagi would make his debut.

Kyoda spent the first few years studying Sanchin kata, kakie (push-hands), yakusoku kumite (pre-arranged sparring), and kigu undo (supplemental training with equipment). After those basics were assimilated, Kyoda would be allowed to learn the katas Seisan, Sanseru, and Pechurin.

While attending the Okinawa Prefectural Teachers’ College preparing himself for an academic career, Kyoda also studied karate under Kentsu Yabu (1863-1937), one of the greatest Shuri-te (karate from the city of Shuri, as opposed to that from Naha, such as Goju-ryu) exponents. From Yabu he learned the kata Jion, which he later incorporated into his style’s syllabus.

Following Higaonna’s death in 1915, Kyoda, along with the other instructors, continued his teacher’s efforts in disseminating karate throughout Okinawa and mainland Japan. As an educator, Kyoda had the opportunity to establish karate clubs at many of the elementary and junior high schools he worked at prior to WWII.

In 1925, Kyoda was instrumental in establishing the Okinawa Karatejutsu Kenkyu Kai (Okinawa Karatejutsu Research Association). One of the famous instructors who taught there was Gokenki (1886-1940), a Chinese tea merchant who was an expert in White Crane boxing. He taught Kyoda the kata Neipai (“Twenty-Eight.”)

In 1933, the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai (Greater Japan Martial Virtues Association) officially recognized the Okinawa Karatejutsu Kenkyu Kai. Karate at that point had received the status of a Japanese classical budo.

In 1934, Kyoda received his kyoshi (expert) certification from the Governor of Okinawa at the Butoku Kai’s request. (The other two certifications are: renshi–before kyoshi–and hanshi). In addition, Kyoda was also named chief director and head instructor of the Butoku Kai’s Naha branch.

In March 1937, Kyoda was involved with the Okinawa-ken Karate-do Shinkokai (Okinawa Prefectural Karate-do Promotion Society) along with a host of other karate masters (among them Chojun Miyagi) in creating the “12 basic katas of karate”, which laid the foundation for the Fukyu gatas.

After WWII, Okinawa lay in ruins. Kyoda retired from his position as school principal and moved to Beppu on the island of Kyushu, Oita Prefecture. There, he began teaching his system of karate, named To’on-ryu to honor his teacher, Higaonna Kanryo (To’on is the Chinese reading of Higaonna.)

Although both Kyoda and Miyagi had studied under the same master, their styles are completely different. Reportedly, To’on-ryu is characterized by springing movements and does not place as much emphasis on rooted stances as Goju-ryu. There is also a greater Chinese flavor to To’on-ryu.

To’on-ryu’s Sanchin breathing is different from Goju’s. While performing the kata, To’on-ryu students breathe out normally and continuously, and only after the hand is returned to the kamae posture is there a brief, sharp exhalation sounding roughly like “su.” As such, To’on-ryu does not use two stages of breathing as in Goju-ryu.

After Sanchin kata, Kyoda would introduce Rokkishu. Although his Rokkishu was inspired by the hand techniques seen in the Bubishi, it was never formalized into a kata the way Miyagi did with Tensho.

To’on-ryu’s next kata is Seisan. However, this version is not Kanryo’s (as we know it in Goju-ryu) but Kanyu’s. Although the pattern and techniques are similar, footwork and stances are completely different.

After Seisan comes Sanseru. It is said that Kyoda learned this kata from Higaonna in 1910 while Miyagi was away on the island of Kyushu during his compulsory two-year tour of military duty. Kyoda was exempt from such because he was a school teacher. This Sanseru has twice the number of movements that the Goju version has and contains many long jumping and lunging techniques absent from the Goju kata.

Pechurin and Suparempei are supposedly two separate katas, though similar in structure and technique. According to Kyoda, Higaonna only taught Pechurin. It is speculated that Miyagi learned Suparempei during his visit to Fuzhou after Higaonna’s death.

Thus, To’on-ryu’s syllabus is as follows: Sanchin, Seisan, Sanseru, Jion, Pechurin, and Neipai.

Juhatsu Kyoda passed away on August 31, 1968, at the age of 81. Today, only one of his students is still alive and continuing his tradition: Kanzaki Shigekazu (born 1928) who lives and teaches in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, Kyushu island.

Source: To’on-ryu and Interview with Kanzaki Shigekazu by Mario McKenna, Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Vol. 9, #3, 2000.

Meibukan online magazine.

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WORDS TO LIVE BY:

–All living matter is intelligent: rocks, plants, animals, air, water...You are not higher than a rock, or a plant, or an animal.

Energy is intelligent. It carries awareness in its pulsations.

A forest has intellect and awareness, and each tree in the forest has its own separate awareness.

You are not better or higher than an ant nor is an angel better or higher than you. What is, is, and to call it less than, more than, better than, is immaterial and irrelevant. It just is what it is.

Mary Marecek Multidimensional Reality

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RECOMMENDED READING:

TO HELL AND BACK by Audie Murphy, published by MJF Books, 1977 (original edition 1949.) I apologize for straying from my usual selection of books, but I have just rediscovered Audie Murphy, my childhood hero. I have also found out my son Eric shares Audie’s birthday and my dear late friend Paul Sylvain shares his death anniversary (Memorial Day.) If you don’t know who Audie Murphy was, he was the most decorated U.S. combat soldier of WWII. This book is his memoir; however, he does tend to sell himself short and does not overemphasize his exploits or honors. A true hero.

Training with Oshiro Sensei in Yonkers