Kitabı oku: «Empty Hand», sayfa 5

The Creation of the Shitō Ryū

After my father had fixed a plate over the entrance with the inscription Yōshūkan45 and his dōjō opened, nobody came in for a certain while, and so times were rather hard. The first student came from the jūdō club of the Kansai University. His name was Sawayama Masaru (1907-1977). Later he became the founder of Japanese kempō (Nihon kempō).

In the small space of a six tatami 46 room they practiced day and night. Soon the tatami were spoiled and for this reason covered with reed mats. Although my father quickly provided a nice floor replacing the worn out tatami by wooden boards the dōjō remained rather unknown and only two or three young men, half students and half spongers, came regularly. But finally some high school students and some students from the Kansai University dropped in, then a lawyer and the owner of the rice shop close by, who always brought along some rice. – So, somehow we managed to survive.

At that time training methods were quite different from today’s training. They practiced always the same kata day by day until the master said, “It’s alright now!” (yoshi). The kata were not explained in detail as today. When a student asked for help to understand a certain technique the master said, “Come on, try to attack me!” and made him kick and thrust freely and answered by blocking or evading the attacks and finally asking, “Well, did you get it now?!” Techniques which lasted only parts of a second were practiced not only one or two times but almost endlessly until the physical experience was deeply ingrained in the body.

After my father had moved to mainland Japan he kept contact and regular exchange with the top ranking masters of martial arts of the time like Konishi Yasuhiro (1893-1983, founder of Shindō Shizen ryū), Ōtsuka Hironori (1892-1982, founder of Wadō karate) or Fujita Seiko (1899-1966, 14th generation of Kōga ninjutsu). They helped each other to develop their own styles, not hesitating to offer their internal knowledge on kata for their studies.

After I had finished middle school my father sent me to Tōkyō for one year to the jūdō master Konishi. I assisted his coaching and under his guidance I learned jūdō joint manipulation techniques47. This ability was important because it could help me to make a living. My father was always afraid that I could not build up my own life only based on karate.

In the early years karate still was regarded in mainland Japan to be minor and barbarian compared to kendō or jūdō. At that time the “shrine” of budō was the Dai Nihon Butoku Kai (Great Japan Martial Arts Association). It was in particular thanks to the efforts of the masters Kanō and Konishi that karate could finally gain an independent position in this organization. Step by step master Konishi took the lead in making karate popular and officially recognized. The first karate performance in the Butoku Kai was given in 1938. In 1939 the Shitō style my father had created was officially registered in the Butoku Kai headquarters. The same year the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai (Great Japan Martial Arts Association) awarded my father the rank of a “grandmaster of karate” (Karate jutsu renshi). Under the official name Shitō Ryū Kempō Karate Dō the Shitō karate had become an official and independent school of karate. At the same time the Dai Nihon Karate Kai (Great Japan Karate Association) was founded. From now on karate could move forward on the right tracks.

Following My Father’s Footsteps

After I had spent half of my life with karate at my father’s side I was called for duty in January 1940 to the 8th Ōsaka Regiment. In the beginning I served in the regiment staff in Ōsaka. Then I was sent to Taiwan and finally to the Philippine island of Cebu where I awaited the end of the war. For a certain time I was held there in a POW camp and luckily returned home in December 1945.

At that time my father was leading the karate training at the Kansai, Kansai-Gakuin and Tōyō universities. The young fellows he was sweating with in karate practice helped very much to build up and develop the Japanese Karate Association in the post war years. My father had teaching assignments at nearly all universities in the region. I helped him as an assisting karate teacher and I also gave lessons at some other universities like the state-owned Ōsaka University, the municipal, technical and economical universities in Ōsaka, and also at the Kōbe University and the Kōbe University for Foreign Languages.

From the end of the war until the death of my father in 1952 I practiced karate very close to my father. He taught me a lot of techniques but also a lot of psychological aspects I truly understood only in later years. This does not mean that I learned only by copying. Some things just need time to be understood.

From time to time I am asked how the essence of the karate the masters of the former generations had taught could be defined. Once my father was asked by some students whether there is an essence or kernel in karate. He answered that there is nothing like this. And he added, “Somehow everything can become its essence.” He also said: “There is no limit to the techniques.”48 This might be the kernel of his teachings.

After I had become the head of the Shitō karate, I studied a lot and even changed some of the techniques. Therefore some people considered the result to be “quite different compared to the former or traditional techniques”. But this is not right. My father’s karate also changed according to the several stages of his life from the pre-war times, through the post-war times until his late years. Meanwhile the Shitō karate has split up into different sub styles. The reason might be that the masters who created the sub styles met my father in different periods of his life. People change according to their age. And the same applies to karate.

My Father’s Goals

In the beginning I have tried to explain that originally there was no karate on the Okinawan islands but several fighting techniques which were called “hand” (ti, Jpn. te). Furthermore, because of the strict rule over the islands by the lords of Satsuma, no written records about techniques and psychological methods of the defense against sword attacks could be made and passed on to the following generations. The term karate was used to collect the several local hand-fighting techniques, te, and to shape all the physical and psychological techniques included into one system and constructed a comprehensive ideal system comparable to that of kendō and jūdō. Sadly master Funakoshi and also my father were still on the way to their great goal when they had to leave us and left the question what karate actually is, unanswered.

To determine the word “karate”, master Funakoshi had taken the character meaning “sky, heaven or emptiness” and the reading kara from a sentence of a famous Buddhist prayer called Hannya Sutra: “The color is emptiness and emptiness is the color”.49 But until today it is not fully clear what concrete meaning he had in mind in doing so.

My father had composed the name Shitō of parts of the names of his main teachers Itosu and Higaonna. In doing so he had at the same time provided a clear definition of his style because both teachers represented the two main sources of karate, the Shuri-te and the Naha-te, which my father had studied with equal intensity. This made him unique and for this reason he was honored by the martial arts experts of his time with the name “Mabuni the technician” to confirm his position as the major expert in the field of kata.

As mentioned above, master Funakoshi, too, had learned many kata from my father through his son Gigō. Master Funakoshi always said: “If you have questions about kata, ask Mabuni.” Also master Ōtsuka, who founded the Wadō ryū, and master Konishi, who founded the Shindō Shizen (also Jinen) ryū, had much of their knowledge about kata from my father. As an afterword to the above-mentioned book50 by my father master Funakoshi clearly showed his respect for my father’s achievements.

Memories About the Days Ten Years Ago. By Funakoshi Gichin.

Mabuni Kenwa and I are very close friends. Mabuni is a true researcher on karate rarely to be found in modern history and is the outstanding specialist in our days. When we were living on Okinawa we were trying to gather like-minded people – Mabuni in Shuri and me in Naha. We founded many practice groups and promoted our students and were so busy about it that we even forgot to eat and sleep.

Our reputation spread throughout the island, and more and more people wanted to join us. Day and night people came to our houses to ask us questions and talk about things.

Mabuni was a comrade with a warm heart and a strong character. He did not care about former conflicts between the different styles of martial arts. Age hierarchy, too, was not important to him. When there was something we did not know he even asked younger fellows for help. And when he had learned something new he did not keep it to himself. At the next occasion he would show it to others and share it as part of the joint research.

He prefers open discussion and has absolutely left behind the mystery mongering so typical for this sphere of life. For a very long time he has been collecting material. Now he is absolutely familiar with all kinds of hand fighting. There is nobody equal to him in this regard. I am not exaggerating to say that he is the greatest in this respect.

He initiated meetings between the Shuri-te and Naha-te fighters, was always open for criticism, improved whatever was found to be weak and struggled for joint learning and joint development. That is what he was admired and respected for by all sides. There was nobody to criticize him.

As I have learned recently he has moved to Ōsaka and built up good relations, for example with the Kansai University, and is guiding many young people, showing his devotion to our common cause, to our country and our society. I am glad to say that recently his efforts in the Kansai region have been recognized properly. Now he is well known and respected. So, we should deepen our relations and coordinate our activities in the Kantō and Kansai regions and I would like him to take over a responsible role for our common cause.

I wrote down these memories because master Mabuni has asked me to add some final remarks to his book.

When my father created the Shitō style, it was surely not his aim to see it splitting into several schools and drifting apart. As master Funakoshi confirmed, my father wanted to create a karate as Nihon budō (Japanese Way of Fighting) and in this regard had the same aim as master Funakoshi in Tōkyō.

Shitō Karate is Authentic Budō Karate

My father tried to show that the technical content and the ideas of the Shitō style are passed on within the Mabuni family. That is why he used the family crest of the Mabunis as the symbol for the Shitō style. According to my father’s explanation, the circle symbolizes harmony (wa) while the two parallel vertical lines to the left and to the right inside the circle and their corresponding short horizontal ones symbolize the Shuri-te of master Itosu and the Naha-te of master Higaonna – the whole image stressing the harmony of the two schools.

Photo 20: The Mabuni family crest.

Of course Shuri-te and Naha-te were used metaphorically representing all Okinawan hand-fighting techniques, because from the beginning my father was searching for a karate to unify all of them. Giving the family crest a new meaning he created a symbol of the karate he wanted to achieve. This was not just a superficial mixture of both main schools but a true and deep fusion.

When traveling abroad I am often asked about the spiritual meaning of the Shitō style symbol. That is because in Europe family and heraldic symbols always seem to have a spiritual message often expressed by the images of swords or lions.51 But my father did not leave a psychological or spiritual message. He created the Shitō style as an unified technical system but he did not have the time to systemize its psychological and spiritual aspects. When talking to foreign students, the Shitō style symbol always seemed to be an interesting matter. The lines left and right inside the circle could also be understood as two human beings and the circle as the earth. So the symbol could be explained as two human beings holding the earth and maintaining its balance.

One day, when asked again at the occasion of a karate seminar abroad, I spontaneously answered without any hesitation that the crest symbolizes the “harmony between the human beings (wa)”, thus being a symbol of peace. And I think that this interpretation is a good one. So, I finally added a spiritual explanation to the merely physical one. I guess my father would have appreciated this interpretation of our family crest, since in his book from 1934 he had written: “The essence of the martial art is balance (hei). Its final aim is harmony (wa).” Both characters combined build the Japanese word heiwa meaning peace.

At the 3rd World Convention of Shitō Karate in 2000 my explanation of the Mabuni family symbol was published in Japanese and English. That is how the message of the Shitō karate symbol carrying the ideas of “reforming karate” and “world peace” became internationally known.

Finally, to all those who practice karate I would like to stress again which kind of karate my father was aiming at and what is characteristic about the Shitō style. Shitō karate is budō karate, it is a martial way. This corresponds exactly to the meaning of the above-cited sentence. Karate was created as martial way, budō, not as sports and not for competition.

2.2 The Pleasure of Learning and Teaching Karate
How to Teach Karate

To my father it was extremely important to respect and to develop the individuality of each student when teaching karate. The essence of karate training is practicing kata. Long kata contain about 70 and short ones about 20 attack and defense techniques. Each of these individual movements has to be executed with precision. According to the aims of the student there are different ways of acquiring kata. They can be used to improve one’s health. Studied analytically by applying analysis (bunkai)52, they can become an abundant armory to get equipped for real fighting. Whatever karate is practiced for, the kata contain all the necessary techniques and ideas. My father used to say: “Karate begins with kata and ends with kata.”

Meanwhile several sub-styles of the Shitō karate exist. One might wonder whether those who founded the different sub styles had learned the kata from the same master. But kata are something individual. This probably depends on the fact that those masters learned kata from my father in different stages of his life, and another reason is that his education was focused on the individuality of his students.

In the past, by watching a kata performance one could say at first glance which master had guided the practice. In the last few years books and video tapes are increasingly used for karate teaching. That is why kata have become uniform even in detail, and lost individuality. Also at the big kata contests kata performances prove excellent training results but nearly no individuality; the kata always look the same.

Two or three years ago a young man joined my dōjō. He had already practiced Shitō karate for a certain time with another master. But when he came to me he wore a white belt to show his readiness for a new beginning. After some months he said: “Master, you corrected my exercises in each lesson only once. Nevertheless I feel like having progressed in those few hours more than I have in the last 10 years.” Well, maybe he was right. In any case it is true to say that I think a lot about the best ways to teach karate.

Karate for Children and Youngsters

I have enjoyed the great luck to be able to practice karate all my life, as a small child, as a school child, as a youngster, as a middle aged and aged person and as an old man. My teaching is based on my own long and deep experience acquired through all stages of life. Primary school pupils do not need complicated explanations. One should rather try to become their friend and play with them, sit down and talk with them on eye-level. And the heart, too, should be open to the emotions of the children. If one can truly come together and play with them, children will open their hearts.

In the same way one should adapt oneself to middle school or university students. This means one should not try to make the others adapt to one’s own level, but the opposite is right. One should try to adapt oneself to the others’ level. One must try to be flexible and flow like water which cannot choose in which direction to run. Water adapts to any environment. When approaching students in this way, differences in age or language do not matter at all. It is important to meet each other at eye level and interact with joy.

I taught in many countries. There are only few I did not travel to. Only if one tries to meet people on eye-level, no matter which race, ethnical background, culture or religion they belong to, there is real chance of spiritual exchange and emotional understanding.

The Wealth of the Traditional Kata

The word kata is written with a character meaning form or shape but not with homophone meaning model or type. Kata means movement in a certain form of appearance which can differ according to the psychological situation or the level of abilities of the person to carry it out. A kata is not a static mould the person performing it is pressed into. A kata is a living form or “figure”. A kata can be adapted to the own individuality or to breathing by slowing down the movements to a convenient speed even if it may look jerky, and it can be repeated as often as necessary until the meaning of the kata as a set of fighting techniques is fully understood.

Of course such kata are not apt to win in a kata contest. This may be a dilemma. But it should be understood that there are two versions of a kata – one for public contests and a budō one with respect to the fighting techniques and the martial mental attitude. Both are basically different. Kata for contest are destined for a broader public. They should include nice and spectacular techniques which in a situation of real fight would in fact mean total surrender. If the aspect of fighting technique is stressed on the other hand, only a few insiders can judge and enjoy it. But in any case, one should feel that the kata has something like a soul, that it is filled with ki53.

In his book Introduction into Attack and Defense Techniques in Karate Kempō my father wrote:

The karate kata are living creatures. It is easy for the observer to see without any special explanation to which degree the person performing it has practiced and understood it. If the person performing the kata does not understand it, the performance will look ugly. If the person performing the kata has not practiced enough, it will look weak and wobbly. But if the kata is deeply understood and thoroughly practiced, its spirit will enter the person and appear as a living creature expressed by this person. Often one can see how a kata is enjoying life. So a kata is a living thing. It is a spirit turned into a living creature. The more one practices and understands a kata the greater the benefits for body and soul will be.

In 1999, at the 1st World Convention on Okinawa,54 kata performances were given by the four great old masters Tomoyose Ryūkō (Uechi ryū), Miyahira Katsuya and Nakazato Shūgorō (Shōrin ryū) and Yagi Meitoku (1912-2003, Gōjū ryū). Master Yagi is even older than me and I have known him since he met my father for the first time. He was wearing a karate suit he had been given from his sensei Miyagi Chōjun and in memory of him was performing the Tenshō kata his teacher had created. A younger student who had watched this said: “I don’t think that a world champion in competition kata could perform in such a way.” I do not know to which degree this student understood the technical subtleties of this performance but at least he could perceive the high level of spirituality.