Classical Fighting Arts - Isshinryu Article

Oh-rah, CFA magazine has another full feature article on Isshinryu, Tatsuo-san and its history, etc. I am extremely pleased to say a huge contributor to this article was a karate-ka for whom I have a good deal of respect - Sensei Andy Sloane, USNavy Petty Officer stationed in Korea (just left an accompanied tour, three years, on Okinawa).

I found the article informative and enlightening. I also found that it will bring a hale of fire down on Andy and CFA simply because it refutes many of the beliefs that western, American, Isshinryu practitioners have come to "believe" as truth and fact as to Isshinryu history and its founder Shimabuku Tatsuo Sensei. 

The article is titled, "Isshinryu Karate: A Riddle Wrapped in An Enigma." the author is actually a compilation of effort which included Andy Sloane. The CFA Staff have the byline on this one. 

Well, I have read it and will read it a few more times so as to understand not only the content but the ramifications which for historical and ancestry/lineage reasons has impact yet for the practice of Isshinryu, not too much if at all.

I want to say, "get a copy of this issue of CFA and read the article, especially if you are an Isshinryu person," and get ready for a paradigm shift regarding what you think you know about Isshinryu. 

p.s. Andy Sloane is also going to contribute to the future publication "A Pictorial History of Karate." Totally cool and well deserved honor I am sure.

Addendum dtd 8 October 2012 at 08:35 hours:

Andy Sloane Sensei has sent out an email regarding this article. I asked for his permission to reprint it here to clarify the articles content and hope he allows it as the counterpoints he presents in his email are to correct the editors somewhat misguided efforts to promote more understanding of the Isshinryu system.

I also spoke up in a reply message to Mr. Sloane to get his history printed and out there for all to see, read and consider for their Isshinryu practice because this could happen again especially with an upcoming book of a pictorial of karate history where a concerted effort must be applied to "get it right" the first printing.

Regards and Respectfully

Addendum dtd 24 October 2013 at 09:06 hrs:

As time flies and more information comes out about this article I have to say emphatically that "I was wrong about its content." In my excitement seeing such a periodical publishing an article on Isshinryu colored my perceptions until Andy contacted me to set the record straight. 

Suddenly after all the hoopla this article has reared its ugly head once again. To my dismay it comes from what I feel is vindictive point rather than an effort to change people's minds - sad. 

Regardless, the best way I can see to correct this egregious mistake and misperception of Isshinryu is for CFA to print a retraction along with "the original information and intent" sent to the publisher for a corrected article. I am not holding my breathe on this one.

In addition, is it necessary to continually dredge up all the negative aspects of such a piece? I say, no it is not. I once again implore to those with the knowledge to once and for all "write a history of Isshinryu" and "publish it" even if through the eBook publishing industry such as "Smashwords" and let the "facts speak for themselves." It seems a better and positive teaching method to allow others to receive positive and accurate information without biases to come to their own conclusions. 

Again, I regret I missed the initial essence of this article. I also regret that CFA has not retracted it under the enormous proof provided by Andy Sloane and Advincula Sensei and published a true and accurate article about Isshinryu and Shimabuku Tatsuo Sensei. It would seem with all the hoopla on the Internet and Martial Arts venues that CFA would recognize the truth and make a change.

I also regret that the current effort to provide the facts is mixed with a concerted effort to denigrate any human being or organization or group. Even this effort is not clean of that type of thing so I understand the need but as a leader of the practice of Okinawan karate I think we owe it to Tatsuo-san to understand the true nature of the Okinawan's as a peaceful, honorable and exceptional peoples by not resorting to this type of diatribe. 

Have a positive day,

Addendum October 25, 2013 at 08:53 hrs:

What exactly does it mean when you see a bibliography after say a post or an article in a periodical or a book? It is simple a list of books, articles and Internet sources referred to in a scholarly work, usually printed as an appendix. It doesn't really have to be some scholarly work per say, it is about a particular subject where some mention either directly quoted or possible redacted into the authors own words. 

It is a history, identification, and/or description of writings or publications. A work can also have a list of descriptive or critical notes of the writings as related to the work, subject, period or author. 

Are these works actually factual validation of what is written? Not necessarily except as a reference of where a particular quote is derived. It does give substance to the post, article, book, etc. but the material as written by the author is that of the author. 

Then it also depends on the various sources as to acceptance as bona fide factual sources. What I mean is that some sources are readily accepted as critical valid sources while others are simply references to studied material. Say for instance your doing an article on some psychological event then your source from a book on the material written by an interested person may not hold as much value to the group that material written by a doctor of psychology from a authentic, certifiable and genuine psychological organization pretty much accepted by the group and society as expert is more readily accepted as authentic source material. 

It is the difference between heresy evidence vs. actual physical evidence such as the difference between the word of a criminal vs. that of a police official in a court of law. 

In most cases it is up to the individual reading or being exposed to the material to either accept the person and their sources, bibliography, and then give a certain level of credence to said material accordingly. In other words, one persons bibliography may be another persons crap. 

Is the material and bibliography authentic, certifiable by some officially accepted expert means, is it genuine, honest, real, factual and true? Sometimes it is a matter of whether it is lawful or not. Is it incontestable, incontrovertible and validated by some accepted means? 

In the end it is up to the reader of said material and it is more a means of identifying the source material the author used to come up with the theories, ideas and facts within the material. 

When I hear someone use hear-say circumstantial evidence then I tend to take the material with a grain of salt until I can personally do fact checking and verification from at least three sources. I would even accept myself as one of those sources, i.e. does the material match up with my experiences, my theories, my knowledge and my understandings? Then I would add two more sources to either accept or reject the material. 

Consider this as well, sometimes I may reject some of the content of a piece and accept other content of the same piece. I don't simply disregard the entire piece simply because I may not accept certain aspects within the piece - that seems to cut my nose off my face for no real reason. 

Note: In my opinion, my theory is that most, if not all, martial arts information is subject to being circumstantial and hear-say as to facts and truth. The history of most is such that there is no real way to verify and validate the material. Just because someone says it is so does not make it so. This is especially true as to word of mouth even from professionals and masters. Why? It is because time often changes when a person believes is true. Perceptions, cultures, and beliefs also have heavy influences on what is said at what time in a person's life. Sometimes things within the mind shift on their own, subconsciously, because of experiences and influences as we live life so hear-say evidence regardless of the person who presents the material is subject to being inaccurate, incorrect and just plain wrong. In the martial arts community if it is not based on some societal historical written record then it is subject to scrutiny as to hear-say and circumstantial evidence and that is often not enough. 

In my system of karate every single bit of information is hear-say and circumstantial. There is enough variance toward historical information that everything is subject to the acceptance and belief of each individual. Take the CFA article that has come back into the flames of the Internet. One source says one thing, another also refutes the first source and then a third source provides even more contradictory information and all of them are experts in their fields so who is to say who is correct. All of them are relying on personal passed information that is circumstantial and hear-say. Even among those experts there are enough variances to support this theory. 

It comes down to how can you prove your view of events, etc. if all you have is "here-say and circumstantial" evidence because all three of those sources use the same type of evidence to support their position. Even when you are in receipt of "expert" information, theories and ideas you have to question it as sometimes even the experts are wrong. 

In the end it is still up to the individual as to acceptance. In the CFA issue I accept the article as flawed but substantiate my view on this by my experience, my understanding and my knowledge. I believe all three parties are correct in some of their information and some are inaccurate and it would need to be gathered by an unbiased fourth party to coalesce all the material into something acceptable by all parties. This may never happen because some of the parties are resistant to a possible discord to what they believe. One in particular was contacted on the subject at least twice, maybe more, since the nineties for an article but simply did not respond to even acknowledge the contact. 

As long as there are ego's and prideful personalities there will be no meeting of the minds so Isshinryu and much of martial arts will remain fractured into factions with their own and individual belief systems. Isshinryu and many martial arts, but more so in Isshinryu from my view, will remain fractured and full of anger, resentment and discord. Such a shame.