Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
The current edition of “Classical Fighting Arts” has a wonderful article about Gushi Sensei, who I believe has recently passed away. I found many of his statements toward real karate very enlightening and present those quotes here (remember, quotes extracted tend to take them out of context of the whole so please get your copy of CFA and read the full article).
“Yes? If you only studied sanchin kata that would be enough for any karate man. It has everything.”
“Although you must study basics and exercise your body as well, sanchin is important because it allows you to build a shield of muscle that you can use at will that will both protect your body, and give you a lot of power to attack with.”
A statement on the topic of commercialization: “We made small contributions toward expenses in the dojo although we didn’t have a dojo as such. As we became more skillful we would help teach the juniors, and take classes when the sensei was busy (as in teach class for sensei), and that was the contributions rather than money.”
“Real martial arts is not a business, it’s usually practiced in small groups. I would train for several hours at school. I trained about four hours each day, six days a week.”
“In 1958 we had our first dan grad examinations in Okinawa. I had to view this as the beginning of the change in karate. Until this point we practiced in the dojo individually under the supervision of our senior, there wer no organized classes as such, or grades. We practiced techniques that this first grading in 1958 showed all to clearly were far too dangerous to use in competition. From this point on “Modern” karate started to develop along sporting lines while the old dentou karate stayed in the background, and backyards, of Okinawan teachers where it had always been.”
On fighting in the dojo (we term it kumite but it was different): “We were always taught in the dojo just to attack the enemy and beat him. We didn’t assume a stance and then circle warily. We went straight at each other, and using sanchin, tried to avoid injury while beating up the opponent. Only direct strikes to the face were forbidden, everything else was allowed, so we attacked with everything we had and a lot of students were injured.”
On rules for sparring: “We were allowed to hit full power to any target with any technique except to the face. We would attack the opponents face, but not make contact.”
His opinions on Sport Karate: “It’s good for small children and because it’s much less demanding than budo karate, you can train from childhood to your later years. But many people who practice sport karate don’t understand about budo karate, and that’s a pity. You should do both. As soon as you make rules, it’s not budo karate anymore because real fights can’t have rules as they are about survival and not point scoring.”
His comments on Women in Karate: “The female body needs completely different types of training than the male body does.”
On training large groups in karate: “When you are marching up and down the dojo it’s easy to be anonymous - there is a certain feeling of belonging to a group that is reassuring. But when you fight, you fight alone, so we train alone, student with instructor. In this way you can’t hide anything as you can with group training. That is not to say that what other people are doing is no good - just that what we do is different.”
Being hard on students: “Sport karate was invented as an alternative to the sort of brutality hard training required; it satisfies the needs of modern students in the modern times in which we live now.”
On makiwara training: Yes, of course we used the makiwara. We used to try and break them to see how strong were were. In our system we don’t use the normal (seiken) fist, we preferred soken, hira ken, boshi ken, shuko ken, nukite and shuto.”
On tameshiwara or breaking: “Breaking is basically to make sure that what you are doing is correct. How much power you are developing. A test to see if you really have power or not - a very personal test.”
Sanchin: “If you have to protect yourself the first thing you would do would be to tense your body. When you tense your body, it protects you from attacks to your never points, etc.”
Karate now, karate then: “Time changes things you know, so does transmission from one instructor to another. Everyone has their own interpretation of things that varies by a tiny amount from everyone else, and as these are passed on things change. We are all human and this is natural.”
Fighting: “When you are fighting (drops in sanchin dachi) you pull your shoulders down and tense your muscles, including those around your throat to make a shield. With your body round and compact and your muscles tense you are relatively safe and protected.”
Practicing and Applying techniques: “Techniques are performed in front of the body, we don’t block above the level of the head for example because that would weaken our defenses.”
Charging for Lessons: “When demand for tuition became very strong during the sixties and seventies, students were given permission to teach before they were ready. Not knowing the bunkai, that is, the purpose of the movements they were teaching, they ended up just teaching the movements.”
“In authentic Uechi Ryu there is order and method, and this must be passed on to students perfectly, not just the physical appearance of techniques as has been the case so often in the past.”
Teaching in the U.S.: “When I came to the United States, students asked me many questions about technique which is not the way we do things at Okinawa. I was accustomed to waiting patiently until one of my seniors in the dojo would decide that it was time for me to learn something new.”
“This period of self-examination made me aware of the real secrets of karate so you could say that it was not until I became 8th Dan that I really know what I was doing.”
Learning Karate: “Learning karate properly is hard work, you will often feel pain and exhaustion, frustration, and from time to time you will suffer injury. Karate still involves strengthening and conditioning the body, learning the techniques so you can do them without thinking, and building a strong spirit. When you can bring these elements together perfectly, you are really doing karate and your ability will become much grater than the sum of these three constituent parts.”
View on Sparring: “When extensive protection is used students lose all fear, much of their control, and a good deal of their mobility. Sparring became a wild brawl with punches being swung indiscriminately and the fighter with the longest arms and legs usually comes out on top.”
Overall the article was illuminating, to hear from one who lived during the times and who speaks the same language of karate but from a point of view that often does not match current beliefs, etc., of karate and martial arts from Okinawa. Many of his views or beliefs fit snugly along side those I personally believe and what ever “Small Changes” his words inspire will be easy to assume and assimilate. Granted, like all things of this nature, this personal interview whether in person or through CFA is not indicative and validation toward truth but merely a personal perspective through a personal perception even if he lived during the era, etc. It goes a long way toward a better understanding but it is not the only one. You have to take personal perceptive verbal communications and transmissions with a lot of salt, i.e., how age, time, practice and influences from environments, others, cultures, etc., will affect how you see, hear, feel and apply such things - purely subjective and not written in stone.
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