Karate Soup - The Recipes of Motobu Choki

One of the earlier books by Motobu Choki: Okinawan Kenpo - Karate Jutsu: Kumite (tr. Eric Shahan), has a section on "Essential knowledge about medical ttreatment", presumably on the grounds that once you have consensually beaten each other up, you need to know how to take care of the aftermath ☺.  Here is one of my favourites, paraphrased somewhat:

Goat Soup - a treatment for Uchi-chi

(Uchi-chi being bruises)

4 ro 5 slices of Goat meat are required, 2.5 to 3kg, to be soaked in the juice of Nine Year Mother oranges (Kunenbo),  There needs to be enough juice to completely immerse the Goat meat.This needs to be boiled until the liquid has been reduced by half, then remove from the heat.

You must then drink the juice and eat the meat for the next three days to reduce the bruising.

Bone-in-chicken Soup

In areas where Goat meat cannot be obtained, 2.5 to 4kg of Bone-in-chicken can be used, along with a cup of ginger in vinegar.  Again this needs to be boiled until the liquid has been reduced by half.  If again this is eaten for three days, a distinct improvement should be noticed.

The next bit gave me a bit of a laugh:

"You should also note that this samr chicken meat boiled in vinegar and ginger can be used to treat inflammation from getting kicked in the balls.  If eaten for two to three days in a row you will see distinct improvement" 😂😂😂😂

Schoolboy humour I know, but it made me laugh ☺☺

Dojo determination - round two..

Things still aren't right, I can walk distances just fine, but explosive exercise is still taking it out of me. Saturday in the dojo was more determination than substance but got to keep going....

I love the way our Sensei vary the content of the lessons, always keeps you on your toes ☺☺  Was a fairly regular warm up today, but hey we need those one in a while.  After the warm up, most of the lesson was drill and pad work, plus conditioning and what lesson would be complete without kata?:  We had in there (but not necessarily in that order):

Naihanchi drill, - crash and control, knee strikes , elbow to head, plush away
Conditioning. kicks (low, mid and high Mawashi-geri) and blocks forearm, inside and ouside Chudan-uke, Gedan uke.  First time I tried high Mawashi geri (always got to push)
Tegumi drill take punch, trap, slap to ribs, slap to face, hammerfist to arm, hammer fist to face
Pad work, including pad drills and inside leg kicks
Desensitising, slapping around the face
Kata - including be taught by a black belt in training
Naihanchi Nidan drill, bear hug from behind, sink, break by lifting arms, control arm, turn, elbow to ribs, turn again, strike.

I had to miss partway through, due to a chest flair up, but pushed myself as far as I could ☺☺  Plus I got to spend a bit more time than usual doing paired work with my Sensei and actually tried for a high Mawashi geri for the first time ☺☺

As an addendum, had to take today off work with a bad flair up and possibly found out why I am still struggling 🙀🙀🙀  Seems my chest is clear, but the infection just moved house and lodged itself in my upper respiratory system. so now on to round two....

Nerd Life: The origins of Naihanchi

There are many different versions of the origins of Naihanchi.  Given the modern nature of Karate, this one seems more plausible than most to me.

Taught by Ason (possibly actually called Liu Longgong), one of the two bodyguards of the Sapposhin (Chinese emissaries) to the bodyguards of the Sho, during the last ever visit between China and Okinawa from 1866-1868. It's original name was Daipochin, which means "fighting on an uneven surface".  Ason give the first ever noted performance of the Kata during this visit.

It's unique sideways transitions suggest that, rather than being derived from the more usual kung fu (chu'an fa, quanfa) sources of kata, it is one specifically developed for militaristic defensive purposes.  It was renamed Naihanchi when translated into Okinawan culture, and one of it's more likely conveyors was Kosaku Matsumora, rather than Sokon Matsumura (who's family insist was better known as a swordsman).

Matsumora taught both Anko Itosu and Choki Motobu, and in it's original form, the kata started to the left rather than right, as Chinese culture precludes moving the left foot first (as evinced by the Sanchin kata).  This is supported by at least two versions that pre-date or were relatively uninfluenced by Anko Itosu's intervention:  Tachimura no Naihanchi (KishimotoDi) and Motobu-Ryu*.  The Itosu influenced versions start to the right and have his additional Nidan and Sandan kata added in, as were possibly added for the Okinawan education system.

Left starting examples of Naihanchi

Arakaki no Naihanchi

Tachimura no Naihanchi

This is derived mainly from conversations with Scot Mertz.

*Ryukyu Bugei 16 January 2016 - Tachimura no Naihachi

Addendum:

Attributable sources - Scot Mertz kindly provided the additional information, when I asked about the above chat.

Matsumora Kosaku learned Naihanchi from Ufu Giko - From bodyguard Ason
Die Meister Des Karate und Kobudo, Part 1 (German) - Thomas Heinze

Ufu Giko learned Naihanchi from Ason, it was called Daipochin.  This was in 1838
Interview with Nakazato Shigoro 2012 - Scot Mertz

Matsumora Kosaku perfected Naihanchi in 1866 with Ason
The History of Okinawa Karate-do (Japanese) - Kiyoshi Aragaki

Interview with Higa Seiko “My father and grandfather identified Ryu Ryu Ko (Liu Long Gong) as the Sapposhi bodyguard who was with Wai in both 1838 and 1866.”
Karate Denshinroku (Japanese) - Kinjo Aoki

Liu Long Gong (Ryu Ryu Ko) - Teacher of Higashionna Kanryo, Nakaima Kenri, and Sakiyama Kitoku

Hand written scroll - Nakaima Kenko 1968

All courtesy Scot Mertz

Tensho and Breathing Kata

Under a Facebook Mentorship, have been practicing Tensho and a breathing kata loosely based on it.  Apparently these are progressing nicely, so thought I would share   Thank you Noah Legel ☺☺

Breathing kata

In this kata, am concentrating on taking deep breaths and releasing after a number of seconds.

Tensho

In Tensho, I am concentrating on matching controlled breathing to the actions.

And then I can't resist playing with the videos ☺

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZKH-gM4EFU

Another Saturday in the dojo

Saturday was a mix in the dojo, the familiar, something not so familiar, and something new ☺  The warm up contained sprints, so was a bit challenging, then there was Mokuso and the formalities, followed by Kata. this time Naihanchi Shodan only.  

Following that was something different:  Dealing with multiple attackers, deflecting the first person into the path of the second and third,  then dealing with them in turn.  We rotated through the set of four, with the three attackers wearing mitts, and the defender hand pads, to practice punching the attackers.

The third part of the lesson constisted of paired drills - step by step build up of a series of different drills.  Over leg take downs and hip throws featured as ending techniques, amongst others.  Then in the same pairs, we did hooking hands drills and conditioning.

The final part of the lesson featured kobudo, working on two or three of the more advanced Bo kihon kata.  Still struggling a bit with the breathing and recovery, but enjoyable as ever ☺☺☺

A Nerd Blog: The birth of Karate

Karate day celebrates the first meeting of what reads as a "Who's who" of Karate at the time, on October 25, 1936.  Those who were involved included Hanashiro Chomo, Kyan Chotoku, Motobu Choki, Miyagi Chojun, Kyoda Juhatsu, Chibana Choshin, Gusukuma Shinpan, Oroku Chotei, and Nakasone Genwa.

The meeting is primarily known for the general agreement to adopt the name Karate (using the kanji "空手"), in place of Toudi, Tode, Tii or Te, and in place of the kanji "唐手", meaning "Chinese Hand".   However, there were other things discussed that I wasn't aware of, or was only slightly aware of.  These are summarised below:

There were only three Kata considered as "Fundamental" that were presented at the meeting:  Naihanchi, Sanchin and Tencho (Miyagi Chojun).  Traditional kata should be preserved as old or classic kata, and new kata invented for the promotion of Karate nationwide (I would suppose this to mean as in Japan as a whole), through schools, universities and youth schools (the birth of shotokan?, again Miyagi Chojun).   Then there is the advocacy of Katate uniform, by both Miyagi Chojun and Furukawa Gizaburo.   The biggest surprise of all though, is even at this stage, the advent of sports Karate was introduced by Furukawa Gizaburo.  So Traditional, educational and sports Karate were all considered from the very start.

What also surprised me, but I suppose is a direct indicator of how secretive the development of techniques had been until this stage, was how unaware some of the meetings attendees were of how things had developed until this point.  This is evinced by the interchange between Ota Choshiki and Choki Motobu:

"Ota: Mr. Motobu, who taught you karate?

Choki Motobu: I learned karate from Master Itosu, Master Sakuma and Master Matsumora of Tomari village.

Ota: I thought you created your own karate on your own without learning from karate masters.

Choki Motobu: (laughing) No, I did not create my karate on my own."

Oh what other things must have been discussed at the subsequent meetings......

Thank you to Scot Mertz and his article on Karate Day:

  https://ryuhoryu.blogspot.com/2018/10/karate-day.html

On which these observations are based.

.Performance performance ...

Finally, the chest infection has begun to clear, but the 6 weeks or so getting over it has sapped my stamina somewhat.  Saturday's session was about basics again as it usually is at this time of year, but our Sensei are good at keeping it varied ☺☺.

We had our usual Warm up followed by the formal bit then straight into Kata.  We did the first Naihanchis together then split into two for the more advanced to concentrate on the later kata in our syllabus, whilst others (including me) went over Naihanchi Shodan etc.   Then it was time for performance with 4 of us at random picked to go through our paces.  I got the dubious honour to go first.

To be honest, I didn't do myself justice and I knew it.  Plenty of intent but way too fast 😕Techniques at wrong angles, poor shape, hunched back, Naihanchi Shodan as it shouldn't be done 😕 I asked if I could try again and was allowed to, so this time I slowed it down ala the Cardio version of the kata, just trying to snap the techniques and leg flicks.  Apparently it was a great improvement ☺ So there is hope for me yet ☺☺.

After that we worked on Kihon kata - shodan, nidan, and sandan for my group,, followed by pad work on the same techniques.  Finally in terms of karate, we expanded kihon kata Sandan with leg trapping.  We covered what you can do when your leg is trapped, and then what you can do when you have trapped a leg, low kick / sweep etc.

After that it was a short outing for the bos as we went through the first seven bo kihon Kata.  The best news though came last, our Sensei want to offer 1.5 hour kobudo lessons once a month if enough people are interested, Yes Please ☺☺☺.

Breathing in Deeply (Tensho)

With my recent chest infection, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to work on my breathing.   I took a facebook mentorship under my friend Noah Legel, in order to work on breathing techniques.

Under his supervision, I am trying to work with the kata Tensho, in two separate ways. 

1) Deep breathing, taking deep breaths to and exhaling using the diaphragm, after 6 seconds.  
2) Breathing to match actions, as with the breathing pattern used in Tensho, again exhaling from the diaphragm.

I started out using a short step sequence, with the 6 second breathing, then went onto a longer step sequence, again with the six second pattern.   Currently I am working on the hand sequences, with breathing to match.

I have done some videos to demonstrate my progress to Noah, and these are shown below for anyone who is interested in what I am up to.  

Tensho Steps - First Attempt

Tensho Steps - 6 seconds

Tensho Hands

 Today for the first time in ages, I was able to train without wheezing ot coughing, but now I've got to work on my stamina again, as that has suffered somewhat over the last six or seven weeks, whilst I have had the infection.

So I will keep on keeping on...... ☺☺☺

Opening day blues

Saturday was the First day back in the dojo for the New Year, but was still struggling with breathing.  My chest infection has cleared, but because of my COPD, am still producing too much mucous. My medication has been changed, but seems  to be taking its time to kick in 😕.

Warm up for the lesson included tag racing, press ups with kicks to the mid section, as well as sit ups with punches to the mid section , as well as the usual stretches.  Then it was time for Mocuso and a welcome back.   Our Sensei went over what was planned for the early part of the year  - Sensei Nohara's visit, open competition, and grading.

Given grading is coming up, it was then onto fundamentals - punches, receiving techniques, and kicks.  I struggled for breath during the latter part of these, but at least managed to get some practice in for most of them.  This was followed by drills, basic ones as far as I can recall, but things were a bit blurry at this stage.

Then we got onto Kata - Naihanchis, Pinanams, Passai - whole class did the katas up to around Pinan Sandan, doing performance of the ones we know and then pad work whilst higher grades did their Kata.  Kata I really enjoy, even when I'm struggling, as in performance I find it helps clear my mind much as Mocuso does.
We did a little work on Stances, specifically Naihanchi dachi, to show how it aids stability, including some basic grappling. This is one bit I left out this time 😕. Normally I quite enjoy kind of thing, but my heart rate felt way up, on top of the breathing.

For the last part of the lesson it was bo kata, followed by the news our Sensei want to start doing full kobudo sessions, Yes Please 😊 Much though I felt I struggled, I still enjoyed the work out, and hopefully can shake off this problem soon 🙂🙂

Maeda Conjecture: a Dojo blog only

So there is a functional side to Maeda Bo, and its maybe 500 to 700 years old.  So here's a bit of senile old man conjecture: The original person named Maeda was from, or founded Maeda village and they did have a style that encompassed both bo and open hand / grappling,  Imported open hand techniques replaced the native open hand techniques at all levels, and weapons such as swords replaced the likes of the bo for upper castes.  

That leaves villagers with the bo.  What Jesse described for the bo was more fluid than kata, though there are some implicitly embedded, so if it's fluid, maybe it originally included transition to and perhaps encompassed open hand as well.  So maybe Maeda-Ryu is Sensei Nohara's Maeda no kon and Maeda no ti? 

With oral traditions, probably no way we will ever know.  But we can always speculate ☺