Motobu's Recipes: Yard bird and Sake soup

Choki Motobu certainly liked his sake ☺ This recipe is recommended for "Treatment of Lung Hemorrhage due to a forceful impact" and also "This restorative medicine will be of great benefit to people with lung disease".  So of course I had to read it ☺☺☺

"2.5 to 3 kilos of bone-in yard bird.  Thoroughly massage the meat and bones with 1/3 litre of Moroshiro, a sake made with 100% polished white rice. Add enough water to cover the meat and bring the mixture to the boil.  When the liquid has reduced by half, take it off the heat and eat the soup for the next three days.  This kind of soup made of poultry meat is very helpful even for people with weak lungs."

"Drinking it two or three times a month without fail over the course of a year will do wonders for strengthening the lungs and an overall improvement of health.   The positive weight gain you will achieve will surprise those around you."

I don't think that the recipe would actually help my copd:  However, drinking a chicken wine soup sounds like a fun idea to try for me ☺☺☺

<Translated by Eric Shahan - Karate Jutsu: Kumite by Motobu Choki>

Depression and the dojo

Due to the exigencies of work, for the first time in almost two years I missed training last week.  Work and home life has for various reasons led to me being on Citalopram and soon so undergo depression counselling 😩😩  So possibly the worst of times to miss a training session, given the break it represents from outside events.

The Citalopram has played havoc with my sleep, appetite and stomach, so I gave it up just before this weekend's training,  However, the two weeks I was on it took their toll 😩😩.  My stamina was as low as it has been for a long while😩😩.

There is a grading planned for next month, so a lot of the lesson was based on the fundamentals.  I managed most of the warm ups, including sprinting but my heart rate went through the roof.   I tried to work through it, but once we got to the kicks I had to miss out on a fair few, including the increasing sequence of Mawashi geri kicks that forms a part of our drills now (1 then 2, 3 up to 10 on pads).  I rejoined for the most of the rest of the session, but did 3/5 of each of the remaining techniques (kihon kata pad work), so that I got to practice them all.

We also did Kata, and as ever that is a favourite part of the sessions for me.  I now regularly practice Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan as known kata, which is something at least I can take away as a positve, plus my unwillingness to give up.  ☺☺☺

What came before Karate

From what I have read and heard so far, before Karate there seems to be a bit of a pattern emerging as to what existed:
    • Okinawan wrestling - Shima 
    • Chinese empty hand - practiced by the Sapposhi and Chinese families who settled in Okinawa
    • The empty hand and weaponed techniques for example used by law enforcement by the pechin caste
    • The open hand techniques practiced by the families of, or descended from, nobility, such as Motobu Udendi
At various stages these would have become intermingled to a degree, and influenced by all the trade and state visits from overseas.

      
The Shima element still exists and is also known as Tegumi, There is a youtube video that demonstrates: 

Example of Shima

         
  
The chinese connection is through the trade links, and the obvious existence of Chinese forms in Karate plus so much research by the likes of Patrick McCarthy, Andreas Quast, etc, and Jesse's recent video series.

Jesse Enkamp: Karate Nerd in China

         

There are many articles about the pechin class practicing law enforcement, and also being a source for the open hand techniques that ended up by lineage being a part of Karate. Though I haven't read anything that says specifically open hand techniques were used for law enforcement, I don't think that is too much of a leap of faith.  Ok, so it's in the Bubshi:

The Bubshi: Tr: Patrick McCarthy

   
The Motobu Udundi observation comes from Simon Keegan's book on Karate Jutsu, which also references the Motobu family web site. Other material was converational and therefore not admissible. There are videos of Motobu Udundi available that back up Simon's book:

Motobu Udundi Bunomai..

Motobu Udundi Tuiti

       
          
         

Two 90 minute sessions, no time outs ☺☺

I definitely enjoyed last weekend's training.  Two 90 minute sessions without taking timeouts ☺  Still can't do the warm ups full on, but I do have some limits, due to age and over enthusiasm.  Hey ho, the results of growing old disgracefully; refusing to lay down and accept my lot ☺☺☺

On the Saturday, apart from the warm up, we went through:

Tegumi drills - including hooking hands; a more advanced hooking hands, jodan uke / punch drill;.
take punch, back slap to rib, slap to face, hammer fist to arm, hammer fist to face;pushing away and turning drill
Conditioning
Kata
Pad work - drills, including jodan-uke, tchudan-uke, gedan-uke, cross, jab, cross punch combinations.

On the Sunday it was a bo kobudo lesson, with guest Sensei Darren and Luke:

Warm up
Kihon katas
Sushi-no-kon, starting to learn the kata
Two person drills

Thoroughly enjoyed and thank you to my teachers and fellow students, for making two great days ☺☺

What Karate lost, when it lost it's teeth.

Although Karate today is a relatively new Martial Art, it's roots lie in much older practical combative techniques.  However, it's effectiveness in this direction was firstly reduced by Itosu Anko for introduction into Okinawan schools, and the likes of Funokoshi Gichin for it's introduction into the Japanese mainstream of martial arts.  This was confirmed as the desired route of progress for Karate at the "meeting of masters" in 1936.   Apart from the Itosu Anko part, this is all documented is a conversation published by Iain Abernethy:

How did we lose the Bunkai?

This was to try to give Karate a future at a time that it was losing popularity, but resulted in budo versions that were superficial in fighting content.   The intervention of World War two just about completed the job, as again indicated the article, because many of the old masters passed away during the conflict, including Motobu Choki.  The ones that were left mostly continued to espouse the budo version of th art, and most of the documentary evidence which survived was of those styles.  So the practical content was mostly lost.

One of the few honourable exceptions was Motobu Choki, who first in 1927 (Okinawan Kenpo - Karate Jutsu: Kumite <Motobu / Shahan>) and then 1932 (My Art and Skill of Karate <Motobu / Quast / Motobu>), took time to provide some documentary evidence of what he felt was being lost.  This included:

Use of Makiwara
Paired drills
Kumite

Apart from saying why they were important, he even provided evidence of the paired work he was referring to, plus photographs of the techniques.  According to Iain Abernethy, he was only one of two people known to do this, and the other person's work appears to have been lost. 

 In the two books, you see descriptions of how to receive and redirect stikes, to open up your opponent for your own strikes.  Plus you see techniques that are undeniably effective but were removed from Budo karate such as knee strikes to vital areas and strikes and grabs to the groin.  Here are a few examples, 

Where your opponent punches with his right hand, move slightly to the side, receive and redirect with your right arm (soto uke) and strike with your left fist.  The picture below shows a body strike, but can also be done to the head.

Image from: https://romanwestfehling.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/kihon-kumite-und-kata-die-3-saulen-des-karate-do/



Where your opponent grabs you from behind. drop your weight and open your arms slightly (ala Naihanchi Nidan), twist slightly and stretch behind, to grab your opponent's testicles.

Photo’s from Iwai Tsuko’s “Motobu CHoki & Ryukyu Karate 2000, page57 (read from right to left). Description from “Motobu Choki – Karate My Art”, translated by Patrick & Yuriko McCarthy, page 100. - via attached link

Other drills included trapping both arms and executing a knee strike to the groin; blocking and trapping the right arm with the left, stepping in with the right leg and grabbing the testicles, or striking to the ribs with the right elbow; etc.

It was this kind of practice that was lost to Karate by the introduction of the budo forms, and in part due to the intervention of World War II.  In conclusion, as a result Karate had lost many of it's teeth.

Old Hopalong

I had both a lesson in the Dojo and an additional lesson booked for Saturday, so it just had to happen. We had an extended warm up in the dojo; after the normal running, sit ups, squatageris, and stretching, we practiced rolling out from full mount by trapping the head and one leg of the assailant, then we practiced avoid, then stun and avoid on a knife being pulled,  I ran out on the first element, so on the second element I was determined to give it ago.  I got a double palm strike in on the first run through and a single one on the second run through.  Then I felt like a sharp stab in my right calf as I carried on running.  Sure enough, the pain shot as soon as I stopped..... Seems like I've pulled my calf muscle 😞😞😞

I wanted to carry on, but had to sit out various parts of the lesson.  We went from the knife drills to Mokusu and the formal opening, Then on to fundamentals, punches, receiving techniques, and kicks - had to sit out that part, and would have certainly struggled with the 10 mid to high level Mawashi geris, even on a good day.

After that, I was back into the lesson, for two person drills and Kata, I got to practice Naihanchi Nidan with the more advanced group before going back to doing Naihanchi Shodan, which ended with doing another solo performance then a couple more paired drills.  Plenty of variety as usual, and relieved to get to the end of it without doing myself anny further mischief. 😌😌😌

Being a glutton for punishment, I  decided to go ahead with thr additional lesson.  The main purpose of this was to work on Tensho with my Sensei, especially the way in which the breathing ties into the actions and basics such as the Sanchin dachi stance abd step throughs.   However, to make up for what I had missed on the main lesson, we also went over the fundamentals again, this time including kicks.  The kicks were more about form than  repetition, concentrating on mainly my Yoko and Ushiro geri 
techniques, followed by another run through of Naihanchi Shodan.

I must be kind of mad, because I also went to the Monday evening session as I wasn't at work.  Whilst I was a little ginger on my right leg, I managed to participate in most of the lesson.  I missed out on some of the kicks, and got a sharp reminder when a roll out from under went slightly awry, but otherwise was pleasantly surprised. ☺☺☺

Most of the lesson was taken up by working on paired drills, including revisions to the quadrant drill, kicking drills, take downs and escape from take downs (trap and roll).  We finished off with about thirty minutes working on the Hamahiga nunchuku kata.   A really enjoyable lesson, and I think I must have been lucky with the muscle injury. ☺☺☺