Decoding Karate’s twisting and turning history.
So, I am a Karate nerd! I am a history nutter and I basically research the history of Karate for fun, but something’s end up at dead ends, which I don’t like, and other mysteries pop up, or answers for questions I never had get flung at me! Some things I can say for sure would be that the history of Karate all depends on your perspective and goals and what you get out of it is that we have been lied to a fair bit over the years.
Lie number one….Funakoshi was a student of Azato and Itosu. Well, its not so much a lie as it is a stretching of the truth and some very shady misrepresentations or very suspicious omissions of facts. But we really need not be surprised, the third and fourth generation Karate instructors saw a franchise opportunity and they were implementing their own versions of history so they could take advantage of this and make a living, I mean you cant blame a guy for trying.
Now when I say they omitted things, lied and replaced real history with their own versions I am not talking that silly sales pitch garbage about the Karate systems being created by the poor peasants who were being attacked by the big strong Japanese Samurai that we all know now is BS and used to sucker us in, No I am taking about some really basic stuff that we take for granted.
Also, looking at the history we can dig out some of the other common lies we end up getting force fed over the years, mostly convenient lies meant to keep us all training with just one instructor and following some kind of false sense of honor that never existed back in the beginning of Karate.
Some of the things we can abolish right off the bat is the idea that the masters of old never left their own masters to train with others. It would appear that not only is this not correct, it was encouraged by the masters. People like Funakoshi trained under several masters including Matsumura, Azato, Itosu and others that Azato sent Funakoshi to so he could advance and enhance his knowledge and training in Te. Also people like Mabuni Kenwa trained outside of their own systems.
See back in the day there were three main systems of Karate, Shuri-Te, Naha-Te and Tomare-Te. From what we know of the systems the styles themselves had big cross overs in some areas and shared Katas like Seisan between them, but had vastly different ideas in other directions. The vast differences really seem to be how the instructors learned their systems and what the systems brought to the table. Those that traveled to China to really fortify their studies, men like Higashionna and Ueichi brought back a softer more Chinese system than those that picked up fighting from the Chinese emissaries like Chatan Yara and Takahara Peichin passed down the shuri line.
It has kind of been assumed, well actually told to us that the Shuri types did not cross pollinate with the Naha types or the Tomari types and at some point the Tomari types melted away and left just the two city styles of Shuri and Naha-te. Problem is that this is not true. Matsumura Sokon himself trained under Iwah, who was Kojo Tatei, Higashionna and Kogusoku Isei’s instructor. This means that the linchpin of Shuri Karate, the center point of the style also trained with Naha te masters.
People like Chotoku Kyan also trained with Tomari masters as well as people like Kentsu Yabu and the Motobu brothers. So, its more accurate to say that the Tomari system melded into the Shuri system through cross training and passing on the styles to the masters from Shuri.
Just a quick look at Funakoshi can tell you much about the cross training and working with other instructors. While Azato was his main instructor and he trained with him with a few fellow students, when Azato passed away he kind of went on his own, but he was sent out and trained with other masters while still a student with Azato. Records show that while he was still training with Azato he trained under Itosu and Matsumura as well as Arakaki. These three masters along with Azato taught Funakoshi his Karate and developed his solid understanding of traditional Karate. Not once did Azato show the kind of jealously that modern instructors show, but we also have different financial obligations. In the old days they trained in their back yards and small court yards, now we have lavish Dojo’s to train in, so keeping students happy and training is important to our clubs survival.
While Funakoshi no doubt felt a lot of loyalty to Azato he did train with other masters and I am sure he showed them the same respect that he showed his first and most influential instructor, but they all knew that he trained with others and they did not covet him. In the case of Mabuni its known that he trained under many great masters from Shuri Te and Naha Te as well. No one master held his loyalty alone, and this story is common among Okinawan masters.
The other falsehood that we get told a lot is regarding the set up of techniques or the applications ext that come along with the styles we train in. We are told that “this hand movement is done this way in Kata” and “if you change it, it is wrong”. Well not exactly. Not really at all actually. For as many different versions of a Kata that exist there are multiple variations on each that makes the one you are doing look very different, or makes them look very different from the one you are doing. The truth is that there are multiples of multiples of variations for each form and movement in Kata or in general Karate.
An interesting event recently occurred in which I met and trained briefly a Tang Soo Do fighter named Paulo, really nice guy from Panama that came up here to go to a family wedding and he just kind of hung out. First off I knew little about TSD other than a smattering of its history and that Chuck Norris did it. The funny thing is that I keep hearing how we are basically the same style, just they have been “Korean-ized” and we were “Japaneses-ized” at some point. But if you watch him doing Kata you really did get the feeling that this was something totally different than what we were doing, even though we came from the same base.
I also had a chance a few years ago to train with a Gima-Ha Shoto-Ryu student that came to the Dojo. Sensei let them train with us (about four people from my memory) and we were to study them a bit to see what they were doing. Makoto Gima was a direct student of Funakoshi Sensei after he came to Japan and he adopted many of Funakoshi’s technical points. But if you looked at what JKA people were doing compared to Gima people, its like we learned from a different source. The changes are great.
The other “annual event” that normally used to set me afire with training and implementing change was the annual summer camps. This year I sat back and watched as our members came back with the latest “Changes” or “Corrections” that the JKA had handed down. The new members were really jazzed and wanted to implement the changes right away, they wanted to show me the changes and get me on board, and I think one of them was a tad put off that I was not falling all over myself to learn the new changes. The reason….next year they will be completely different again. I am going to keep doing it my way and the way that Dingman sensei taught me and I will wait to see what the next Karate “Master” brings to the table for me to learn and implement along the way.
The point being is everyone thinks they are doing the “Right Karate” or “Correct form” of something, but the reality is that there are far to many variations out there that we should be paying attention to and not worrying about who is right, study from all of them and build your own Karate.
One of the other falsehoods that you read a lot is how Funakoshi was one of Itosu’s Uchi Deshi and how he was a senior student of his. But this statement is not really true from what I can tell. See, it explains a whole lot more when you realize that he was Azato’s heir and student and not Itosu. Why else would many of the socially awkward events be allowed to occur if Itosu was Funakoshi’s instructor? Look at it this way, Okinawa shared a cultural palet with Japan and Honor of seniors was HUGE to them.
Funakoshi was born in 1868, Mabuni was born in 1889, making him 21 years younger than Funakoshi. Yet, when Mabuni visited Funakoshi, his elder, he was pictured sitting while Funakoshi was pictured standing. In Okinawa/Japan if Funakoshi was 21 years older than Mabuni and he had been training with Itosu regularly enough to be seen as a primary student, this would have easily made Funakoshi Gichin….Mabuni’s Sempai….and their would be NO way that Mabuni would take a seat and relax for a picture while his elder and Sempai stood behind him. However, if Funakoshi was not from the same Dojo/School as Mabuni it is conceivable that Funakoshi was extending a nicety to a visiting senior from a different school of Karate.
In fact it is noted that both Mabuni and Funakoshi maintained a friendship and did not share what would appear to be a Sempai/Kohai relationship at all. Funakoshi considered Mabuni to be an intelligent and gifted Kata person and Mabuni saw the brilliance of Funakoshi’s in changing Karate practice and traditions to spread Karate and help grow the arts. He also saw that Funakoshi was a great political mind and dedicated to Karate. However, it has been shown that while Funakoshi may have trained under Itosu, it is suggested that Funakoshi picked up much of the Itosu Karate ideology and practice from Mabuni himself and not Itosu in the training exchanges long after Itosu died. So, no Funakoshi was not a student of Itosu’s of any great relation. He was more than likely sent to train with Itosu for the conditioning that Itosu was known for.
The other misconception that has slunk into our understanding of Karate is that Kobudo is a separate art from Karate. Or that it was made up by peasants to fight Samurai (similar to the lie told that Karate was created for this purpose.)…..well that’s just not true! If you read the history of Karate and Kobudo some similar names seem to creep into the conversation a few times. Names like Chatan Yara, Sakukawa Kanga, Taira Shinken and even Kenwa Mabuni. Heck even Funakoshi Sensei taught Sai-Jutsu when he got to Japan from Okinawa along with Bo staff fighting.
The fact is that we have enough proof to suggest that prior to Funakoshi Senseis generation Kobudo and Karate were one and the same. You would train empty hand and then with weapons. Some of the Kobudo systems taught today trace their lineage back to Sakukawa Kanga himself. It appears that the early training in Karate was steeped in Kobudo weapons training.
Karate may have become much more palatable to the aristocrats that were training in the arts when the Kobudo was shaved off of it however. Remember that these nobility were stuck in a world between Chinese culture and forced Japanese Immersive culture. They were traditionally closer to Chinese in Culture with a strong native cultural flavor for most of the Ryukyu kingdoms existence, then the Japanese came and invaded, physically and culturally. When the Japanese came they brought their sword culture and influenced the Okinawan or Ryukyu people. It was at that time that the Okinawans would have started to see Japanese weapons as being superior, but physically and spiritually, and the training in Kobudo would have changed and been separated from the empty hand arts.
Even with the separation, training in weapons arts was still a big part of Okinawan culture and fighting arts. Funakoshi, when he came to the mainland (Japan) many photos of him using a Bo and a Sai were taken and even doing Kata with the Sai, and we may assume that its basically Shotokan Kata with the Sai, but maybe it was not. Mabuni is quoted and shown sing Okinawan weapons in some photos as well, but it seems that at some point the use of Kobudo became taboo as it was linked to Okinawa or Chinese martial arts and the new found want to be accepted in Japan meant abandoning everything Chinese and trying to make it all as Japanese as possible.
Funakoshi was not “Peers” with people like Mabuni and Kentsu Yabu, both of whom trained mostly with Itosu. From what we can see they had a healthy relationship, but they did not have a “Sempai/Kohai” relationship like some suggest. Actually those that are suggesting it are those that want to belittle Funakoshi or Mabuni by pointing out that in a few photos Funakoshi is shown standing and Mabuni sitting, suggesting either that the older Funakoshi was actually Mabuni’s junior or that Mabuni had a huge ego and insisted on being treated a specific way.
Neither of these are the truth! First off Funakoshi was actually taking his first job as a school teacher and had been training in Karate from the time he was a young lad before Mabuni was BORN! That’s right, a decade of training before Mabuni, the great Kata wiz, was even born. According to tradition, IF Funakoshi had a student of Itosu only, and had started training with him and was in the Dojo before Itosu….He would be Sempai or senior to Mabuni and would be viewed as this regardless.
The other item that is often used to show that Funakoshi was somehow less proficient or less skilled or a lower level than Mabuni would be Funakoshi’s admittance that he went to Mabuni to learn the Heian Kata and some advanced Kata. When Funakoshi was training with Azato the regiment would have included Naihanchi, Kushanku, Passai, Wanshu, Seisan and Jion. But the Pinan (Heian) Katas were created by Itosu. When Azato died Funakoshi was already learning Kata from Itosu to help bring Karate to the student level with easier Kata to train in. He was also sent to Mabuni to learn these and some advanced Kata from Itosu’s Kata Catalog.
The fact is that when Funakoshi went to Japan to teach and spread Karate he only had the first 15 Kata and he had learned the Pinan Katas from Mabuni and Itosu to help spread the art. This is a case of him learning from a different style of Karate similar to his own, but different.
Along this line of false hoods is that Funakoshi ONLY learned from Azato or Itosu or both, the truth is he had lots of chances to train with others and was well liked and respected for his training with other masters. His education in Martial arts was very diverse, he appears to have trained with Tomari Te masters, Shuri Te masters and others who had trained in Naha Te as well. He would have been exposed to many different systems and styles and while he may not have been a Kata encyclopedia like Mabuni was, he was known as a great instructor and technician.
So, I have debunked a few of the common misconception, lies and half-truths that we suffer from in Shotokan, and in most Karate styles. The facts tend to become very inconvenient when they are trying to market the systems and styles that are coming out and supporting seniors and instructors. Sometimes the truth is far more interesting than the marketing stuff they make up. Here is some truths that are far more interesting than the half-baked lies that the seniors made up to sell the whole thing in Japan.
Matsumura Sokon was the center of Shuri style Karate and Higoanna Kanryo was the center of Naha Te. Matsumura was a wealthy aristocrat that worked in the royal palace as an assistant to the Sho family and trained under Sakukawa Kanga, a wealthy Royal associate as well. Matsumura also trained with Iwah, Chinto, Annan, Ason and his instructor, also some people suggest that he also trained with Kusanku, but the time line suggests that is not really possible. Sakukawa took Matsumura under his wing and taught him personally, it is suggested that Sakukawa had very few students and Matsumura was his Uchi Deshi (head student) and possibly the only person that passed on his art after Sakukawa passed away.
Matsumura however taught MANY different people and taught many of Itosu’s students as well, Itosu being his student for a time. Matsumura however appears to have passed on most of his teachings to Anko Azato and a hand full of other students and Itosu went to train with others after a falling out with Matsumura. Because Matsumura spread his style to others on a larger scale and made it fashionable to teach groups of Karate students over just a few small groups we now see a lot more larger groups that we would have had he not taken up this practice.
Higoanna was a son of a wealthy business man and he traveled to China to study after taking Karate from a few local instructors, its form Higoanna however that the Naha flavor styles grew with his teaching people like Mabuni, Miyagi and Kyoda. He also began teaching more than just one or two people at a time and began giving people like Mabuni and Myagi permission to spread Naha te, Mabuni doing it along with Shuri te and Miyagi creating Goju as a vehicle to accomplish this.
Karate really spread out after Matsumura and Higoanna brought their teachings to the students. It spread out and changed dramatically from a very informal but traditional training system with some variations on the general movement ideas to a vastly different fitness program filled with new traditions and etiquettes that were forced on the new students. The changes also proved beneficial however as the new ideas, new training program outlines and traditions served to draw new people in and also create a interest in the growth of Karate in Japan and Okinawa.
When you study the different core or root styles (Naha-te, Shuri-te and Tomari-te) you notice one big difference between the initial transmission of the styles that makes Naha-te unique from Shuri-te and Tomari-te. You will notice that for the most part Naha-te was transmitted to Okinawan “non-royals” when they traveled TO China and that Shuri-te and Tomari-te was adopted by the Pechin class in Okinawa when Chinese traveled TO Okinawa.
Not only do the styles appear to have been received differently but the systems themselves are unique in that the Shuri/Tomari-te styles were adapted and changed in Okinawa by the Okinawan people that were taught the systems and styles of Quanfa by emissaries to Okinawa. They took systems like Hsing-I, Monk fist and white crane and merged them with the existing systems and retooled them so they could be used to defend royalty. They made the systems much more applicable for self-protection and a bit less traditional Chinese looking. They had a goal in mind when training and they keyed their training and ideology towards this from the start.
The Naha systems were brought back by to Okinawa when rich Okinawans who were not Royals or Shizoku class went to China and studied Chinese systems. They did not change them very much in the transmission and kept them as traditionally Chinese as possible as their goals were not to really learn to defend themselves, however I am sure that was a goal in some way, but it was to learn a fighting art that was good for health. They studied white crane and Chi Gung style training and conditioning and brought the system back to Okinawa and spread it very literally without change. Higoanna, Kojo, Uechi were all people who went to the source to train and brought back fairly unchanged systems. Others did follow, but mostly after being exposed to the Chinese systems previously from one of these three.
The point being is that the goals and transmissions for these root systems were very much different at the beginning and this really affected the content and transmission systems that are traditionally seen in these styles. Early training in Goju was done in a very loose format with people warming up together then splitting into groups or training on their own in Kata and conditioning exercises. It would look like pure chaos to the shuri system people who focused on weapons kata and drilling in applications from unarmed Kata. The conditioning was regimented more and training very focused on different goals.
Itosu was a smart business man as well as a good Karate instructor. First off he was NOT one of Matsumura Sokons star pupils and he was NOT one of Funakoshi’s primary instructors really. Itosu started training under Matsumura when Azato introduced him to his instructor, but they did not get along and it has been suggested by some that Matsumura did not like Itosu’s Karate. Itosu left the Shur-te line and started training with a Naha instructor named Nagahama Chikudon (Chikudon meaning middle level Pechin). He taught mostly conditioning exercises that was meant to make Itosu stronger…and many of the stories that go around about him illustrate this.
Nagahama however issued a horrible truth to Itosu when he was on his death bed, he told Itosu that he made a mistake teaching mostly conditioning exercises and that he should go back to Matsumura to continue learning true fighting skills, however he did not. He was supposed to go back to Matsumura of Shur-te but he choose to go to little known Gusukuma of Tomari to continue his training in Tomari te.
Now, Itosu was a smart man, he merged the Naha te, Shuri te and Tomari te and created his Shorin ryu style of fighting (named by his students not him) he also began innovating and creating new kata like the Pinan Kata, Passai sho and others that were additions to his training, all while Azato trained mainly with Matsumura in Shuri te and his Japanese Kenjutsu training. Both of Azatos training preferences really changed the training and colored the training that Funakoshi would have gotten. The more linear and direct methods from the Japanese Kenjutsu stood out against the circular and more graceful Chinese movement patterns and this shows in the difference between pure Shuri-te styles and the Shuri/Tomari/Naha-te style that came from Itosu himself.
Some very specific habits or movement patterns also came out of Itosu style Shorin ryu that you don’t see in Funakoshi’s Azato style Shuri-te. Such as a large dependency on the Niko Dachi as opposed to the Kokutsu Dachi of Azato which is much more aesthetically pleasing and leads to linear movement or the use of Sanchin Dachi or higher Zenkutsu Dachi in the Itosu styles opposed to the deeper Zenkutsu of Azato/Funakoshi.
Aside from Technical differences one other big difference would be in the acceptance of larger number of students to spread Karate. Azato was apparently much like his instructor, he only took a handful of students and trained them in his style of Karate. He focused on a handful of people and developed students with a deep understanding of his art and use of it for defense and increased health, however Itosu had MANY students and branched out to teach in the school systems. He sent students to become school teachers and to spread Karate in that method to children and others.
Itosu learned from others that for Karate to spread you had to find a wider base than just a few students to teach Karate to, then the larger group of students would go to schools and other groups and recruit many students to teach to. He changed the art to be softer and more accepted by the general public and in this way he grew his student base. He was very smart and he is probably the father of modern Japanese Karate because many of the Okinawan systems stayed the same and only had smaller groups of students, but upon Itosu’s changes to the styles teaching methods the whole Karate world grew and continued to grow as the Naha systems adopted a more modern teaching methodology and business model.
So, if Yabu, Kyan, Toyama, Chomo and Mabuni (along with others) all trained under Itosu….how com they all have different looking systems? That’s an easy one to answer…first off Itosu, like other Okinawan instructors, would have taught a variation to each student based on their skills and ability….but more importantly many of them trained with other instructors as well. People like Mabuni sought out multiple instructors, and often from different styles of Karate.
Mabuni, for example, trained primarily under Anko Itosu in Shuri-te/Tomari te style fighting, but he also saw some Naha te under Itosu, enough to get him interested obviously as he trained with Hoganna Karnyo in the precursor Naha te style to Goju ryu. He took a lot of the Kata that Shito Ryu started using from this experience and added to his Kata catalog from here. People like Chotoku Kyan studied with not only Itosu but also Matsumura Sokon in the Shuri/Tomari te styles and then worked hard to learn more Tomari by studying with Oyadomari Kokan, Maeda Pechin and Yomita Yara in Tomari style fighting before the style merged with Shuri and was lost as an individual art.
The outcome of these masters all mixing and training with other masters was the significant differences in styles between the Shorin ryu styles, Shito Ryu, Shotokan and other Shuri te/Tomari te styles. Some changes are strictly cosmetic and others are more significant changes in applications, perceptions and concepts and they can all be traced back to the root styles being mixed and merged under the application of the older generation of instructors and masters that trained with the founders.
One “lie” or marketing twist that actually make no sense unless you think like a salesman in the times that Karate was first trying to grow…is the lie that the first Karate people were peasants. They were actually social elites that had the time and resources to train with the big name Chinese emissaries that came to Okinawa on business. The Peasant class and no time, money or resources to find these emissaries and would not have had access to them even if they had the money. Lets face it a poor farmer or fisherman that approached a Chinese dignitary would probably have been killed or at least barred from talking to the noble Chinese official. The only people that had access to them would have been the nobility.
And those that traveled to China had to have the funds or the ability to travel. Most poor farm hands and fishermen would have never left their home town during their whole life time never mind travel to a foreign country to train in Martial arts! It almost does not make any sense to put the creation of Karate off on poor farmers and fishermen if you think about it! The odd master is stated to have been a farmer, but what they mean is far OWNER! In other words a wealthy land owner who ran a far as an administrator would.
NO the masters were not Black belts…the Dan system was introduced to Karate from Judo when Karate reached the mainland, prior to this they used a license system called a Menkyo system. The Menkyo system included different levels of instructor and also a license of proficiency in Karate. However, much like Karate today it meant very little and was based on a instructors personal preferences for his students.
One instructor would look at a student and say “you are okay, you get my license and you are a Renshi (polished instructor)” and this license was given after two years of training. The next instructor says “no, you have been with me for three months, and after this I think instructor A was wrong, here is a Hanshi (expert teacher) license”. Instructor C says “no, you are not as good as B says, but not as bad a A says…here is your Kyoshi license” and instructor C only knew the guy for a week!
The license system was very broken and no one could figure out how to fix it, so they adopted Funakoshi’s belt system and thought that would fix it…but the Dan system is broken as well. It used to denote how long a student had trained and most of the time no testing took place at all! Now its based on your tests that you pay big bucks for and you get a piece of paper to support your “Dan rank” which is a fancy way of going back to the broken Menkyo system. But here is the think, the masters all realized that “rank” in Karate is relevant. They knew of bad instructors and bad systems and they realized they had to ignore them and focus on what matters most, what an instructor can give you.
Funakoshi was creating it as he went along as well. He only gave ranking up to 5th Dan and their was NO standards for who was a 5th Dan, what made someone a 5th Dan and what skills you needed to know…or how long you had to train to get one…and people often skipped Dan levels along the way. In fact Masatoshi Nakayama, who entered Karate in 1932 earned his NIDAN by 1945….thats with a war interrupting his training for nearly 5 years while he was in China. So…it took him 8 year to earn a Nidan…that’s a good amount of time for a Nidan…but six years later he was a Sandan…and the Chief instructor of the JKA!
Sandan used to be seen as a HUGE accomplishment that was meant to be one of the top two or three ranks someone could earn! He then skipped 4th Dan and four years later was given his 5th Dan. Between 1955 and 1961 ….only six years later…he had gone from a 5th Dan to 8th Dan. No one says he was ever issued a 6th or 7th Dan that I can see. He stayed an 8th Dan till the 1980’s when he was issued his 9th Dan.
As you can see Dan ranking was by consensus back then and no real testing was required. Some seniors would come up to you (or in some cases you would approach some juniors that were senior in your organization) and a suggestion was made that you needed a rank advancement. Someone would draw up a new certificate and you were now a higher rank. Not like today where you actually need to grade for it…most of the time that is.
One other item before I end this blog about lies and truth in Karate is to point out that the instructors often took a little education in a art and did a lot with it. Most of the old time masters were said to have been under the tutelage of a master for less than 3 years or as much as 5 before they were issued an experts license. To put that in perspective it can take a modern Karateka that long to get a Shodan…a “FIRST STEP” license as it were.
Those masters would train for three years and bring back a system that had three to five Kata only and they would build off of that. Uechi Ryu started with three Kata and built their own additional Kata after Uechi Kanbun passed away. A whole style based on three Kata!
Karate is a very interesting thing, not just from a physical training perspective but also a historical and academic point of view. My suggestion to all students of Karate is to study the history, open some books, go on the web and read about the progenitors of Karate, those that brought Karate to us and introduced Karate to the masses. Go back and review who actually did what and make sure you know your roots beyond a generation or two back.
Studying something should mean you know the ins and outs and the truth behind the history, not just guess at things and listen to one flawed source of information. Take notes and learn, go to the dojo and train, but remember that your knowledge of Karate will never be complete until you understand its origins.
No comments:
Post a Comment