The Voyage of the Damned

At 58, having heart and lung complaints, I'm somewhat at risk from this shitty CoronaVirus.  I'm damned by work because of, despite doing social distancing, splitting the teams in two and only essential people having to go in, as a chief fire marshal I have to go in two weeks out of four.  

Then I have some criticism for not taking the virus seriously enough and having to go into work.  I'm accused of not caring enough, because I go into work and put myself at risk, both there and using public transport. 😞😞😞

Finally, I'm damned by a common cold.  My son has a common cold, and looks like I've got the start of one, so neither of us can train and tomorrow is grading.  Oh balls 😞😞😞  Oh well it stopped raining for a while outside, so I though I might run through the kata, fundamentals and kihon gata needed for grading, followed by a wind down.

Part 1`

Part 2

Part 3

Shuri and Tomari, Matusumura and Matsumora, Naihanchi

<From Watashi-No-KarateJutsu>

From many sources I have read, many of the late 1800s and 1900s Karate masters had learnt Naihanchi (I only reference that referred to as Shodan as the additional kata are thought to be a separation out or newer additions), but very few attributed their sources. In at least one case, where a source is attributed.  Yoshimura Chōgi, cousin of Motobu Choki, wrote that his first teacher, an old man who served as an accountant and administrator of the Yoshimura Udun, taught him Naifanchi and Passai.  No name was given (1).  However, in  another source, the teacher is identified as Ishmine (7).

Naihanchi is generally categorised as a Shuri-Te Kata, but many Kata are shared between the styles attributed as either Shuri-Te or Tomari-Te.  However, with the number of masters that trained with teachers from both locations, at best the distinction between the two is somewhat blurred.  An article from the Motobu-ryū website goes further and says in two places "there is no clear distinction", then later "there is no essential difference between Shuri-Te and Tomari-Te" (2).  So essentially Shuri-Te and Tomari-Te are one and the same.

Matsumura Sokon is acknowledged as a root source of Shuri-Te material and Matsumora Kosaku is given similar standing for Tomari-Te.  However, if the styles are much the same, as indicated above, both can be considered the fathers of Shuri-Te and are highlighted as having been of similar standing.  Many Shuri-Te Karate family trees place Matsumura Sokon near the top of their tree and often cite him as the source of Naihanchi, however there is scant evidence of this.  Many who learned the Kata do not give sources at all, but simply name the Masters they studied under, quite a few said they studied under both Matsumura Sokon and Matsumora Kosaku.  Motobu Choki especially is very specific in this, he trained with both. (3)

Matsumura Sokon didn't teach Naihanchi as a Kata from most of the evidence available.  Most, who do cite Kata learnt from him cite different Kata.  For example, Yoshimura Chogi cites Gojūshiho and Kūsankū (1).  From my conversations with Scot Mertz, Matsumura Sokon was primarily a swordsman who became known for his karate only after his death (4).  According to his conversations with the family, he didn't teach Naihanch, mainly Sanchin, Seisan and Useishi (Gojūshiho).  

On the other hand, there is evidence that Matsumora Kosaku actually did learn Naihanchi from Ason.  Definitely via Ufu Giko, who learnt the Kata on Ason's first visit in the 1830s and possibly directly from son on his second visit in the 1866 to 1868.  (4).  Both Matsumura and Matsumora have the same sounding name if the Okinawan dialect, “Machimura”.   This potential misunderstanding coupled with information I have to hand, I can only conclude:

Matsumora Kosaku having learned Naihanchi from Ason, whilst Matsumura Sokon was more renown for sword work:   Matasumora Kosaku therefore would be the more likely source of the Naihanchi kata in the Shuri-te styles, rather than Matsumura Sokon.    

That is not to say that there are no other sources for Naihanchi in the Shorin Ryu family, just that on the evidence I have seen and heard so far, this is the most plausible source to me.  Both Motobu Choki and Kyan Chotoku studied with Matsumora, and I found an article by Tom Bell (5) that says Itosu Anko studied with him.  I am not sure of the veracity of this last source though.  I have since come across a quote from Motobu Choki himself saying he introduced Itosu Anko to Matasumora Kosaku, in (8): Episode When Choki Won a 10 Yen Bet by Solving a Homework Problem (Figuring Out Ukete) "Then I brought Itosu to Matsumora's place. And Matsumora said to Itosu:

"This young man is very gifted. He has a great future. So let's train him together."". This suggests that they may have even worked together to train Motobu Choki.

(1) http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=8566&fbclid=IwAR2PxCgKB0zK5caoQzyKOJzuJM4uzgPfIe-UNQ_4O1x2RbUVFeBpGI00AaY

(2) http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=4123

(3) My Art and Skill of Karate (Motobu Choki, Andreas Quast et al, 2020)

(4) https://www.karate4theheart.com/2020/01/nerd-life-origins-of-naihanchi.html

(5) http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=104

(6)  https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E1U_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA417&lpg=PA417&dq=did+anko+itosu+study+with+matsumura+kosaku&source=bl&ots=LsHATfQdpK&sig=ACfU3U1vpXVAlZW6t1a35vtG6CLQn_fTRA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVlrzv943oAhUNHMAKHeSED4UQ6AEwB3oECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=did%20anko%20itosu%20study%20with%20matsumura%20kosaku&f=false

(7) The Essence of Naha-te (Joe Swift)

(8) https://www.motobu-ryu.org/motobu-kenpo/lost-interviews/?fbclid=IwAR1ynwMixXMeeH7EwbZ8YzEdOKOqvVlKuFOVZuJd5EfChljwAaOOZD6K9kE

Dojo determination : An old dog trying to learn new tricks

Going into the Dojo on Saturday, I felt better than I have in a while.

Starting with the warm up, I managed the whole of that.  It included doing a backward breakfall and shrimping, followed doing a forward breakfall and cover.  I could never do forward rolls at school, and am not much better now, but this old dog still wants to try to learn new tricks.

To me it looks awful, but judge for yourself: My Sensei says I've made some progress with my forward breakfalls. 

Then came Mokosu and the formal opening.  Next week is grading, so we went into punches, receiving, kicks and other fundamentals.  For the first time in ages I managed to get through almost all of this, though I was struggling for breath a little on the last of the kicks.

Then it was on to Kata; As the next grading is the first at which I will need to perform (Naihanchi Shodan), this was more intensive than usual and included specific group tuition followed by performance.  I was a little disappointed with the performance as it was too rigid, with not enough flow 😐, but I know that is because of nerves and trying too hard.  Hopefully it will be good on the day.

Next came light sparring:  Kicks and punches, kicks, punches, kicks, punches and open hand strikes.  These were all done with different partners, and here I need to make an apology and take stock of my punching. I have instinctively started to hook upwards inside the guard when punching and it resulted in a couple of head shots to my training partner who was shorter than me.  So apologies Shell 😐😐, I need to adjust my techniques accordingly.  On the other hand, I seem to be getting the hang of open hand strikes, so not too bad.

The final part of the lesson Kihon kata on the pads, I need the first four for the next Grading, so I was doing one to five.  My kicks were certainly much better than last week. ☺☺
We also had a quick photo session for the end, for a group photo and kicks.   Plenty of hard work and some fun, a few lessons learnt and for once I felt overall I did myself justice.  Good session, and thank you too to Sensei Graham, as well as our regular Sensei, Ben and Alison 👊👍👍☺☺

Kata, Drills and Triangles, with a little bit of Tai Chi style

Saturday in the dojo was an interesting session, I learned maybe four things about both myself and my karate and they weigh out 50 - 50.  On the positives, I think my health is improving again, and my control in pairs is improving ☺☺.  On the negatives, I need to be pushing myself again and my kicking after exertion becomes very ragged 😞😞.  However, the big idea plus that made the lesson for me was the idea of triangles, I suppose it had been there all along, but the penny dropped when we varied a regular drill later in the session ☺☺☺.

We started with a regular warm up, but since I had been warming up for 10 minutes or so whilst watching my son, maybe I didn't need to attack it quite as much and it told shortly after when we did a form of circuit training:
Jump stepping in and out of rope ladder steps, receiving pad strikes using jodan uke, running round the outsides of a cone circuit, receiving pad strikes with tudan uke, forward rolling break falls, followed by mai geris to the pads  to close the circuit.

 I ran out of stream at end of first circuit, and my kicks were ragged as a result. I sat out most of the rest, but was encouraged to rejoin, so did last half of circuit with better kicks though still not brilliant,  so this is where I picked up the two negatives mentioned earlier: my ragged kicking after exertion and not re-joining without encouragement 😞😞.

Then it was time for Mokosu and formal start to the lesson, which opened with paired work with different partners.  This included:

Light sparring in various forms, including kicks and punches, kicks only and punches only.
Paired continuous contact drills, including taking the inside, gripping and breaking grip, gripping and breaking then striking
Paired Kicking drill, receiving right mawashi geri, left mawashi geri, right mawashi geri catchi, right mawashi geri step back, return mawashi geri

This is where I found that I was definitely improving my control in paired work ☺☺.  Was definitely so much better in the sparring and the kicking drill, well at least I thought so.

Then we were on to Kata - including Naihanchi Shodan tai chi style to open, I did performances of  Naihanchi Shodan and Naihanchi Nidan (which I was corrected for performing too slowly, oops too much Tensho and not enough of this kata 😞).  I went through forms of Naihanchi Sandan and Pinan Shodan, after which the higher grades did performances of their kata required for grading.

Then it was back to an old favourite to close out the session:  The Quadrant drill (single person practice shown here)

What we did in this session was the Quadrant drill with variations, using an expressly triangle form to receive and counter, explicitly to the part of the drill with hammer fist followed by two hooks.  It was there all along I suppose, but   the transition from receiving to striking with the forearm or elbow seems so simple when explained this way ☺☺. Another variation was that after head butt, the agressor finishes with a shoulder barge which the other partner had to avoid.

All in all, another excellent session of the dojo, with the big plus being that I realise my my stamina seems to be improving ☺☺☺☺

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. ☺☺☺