Hawaii's first Nisei Karate Sensei
by Charles C. Goodin
(The author is writing a book on the roots of Karate in Hawaii.)

Born on April 25, 1915, in xWaimanalo, Hawaii, to parents xKana Miyashiro, of Aragusuku, Ginowan, Okinawa, and Uto (Shinshiro) Miyashiro, Thomas Shigeru Miyashiro was an active member of Hawaii's Okinawan community. He was a member of the Ginowan Shijun Kai and the Wahiawa Hongwanji, where he often performed volunteer work. Married at a young age, he and wife had four daughters and a son. For most of his adult life he worked for the City and County of Honolulu, first at Ala Moana Park, next at Foster Botanical Garden, and later as superintendent of Wahiawa Botanical Garden, where he eventually retired. His specialty was orchids. He was remembered as a Good Samaritan, a friend to those in need.

Few people are aware, however, that Miyashiro was Hawaii's first nisei Karate sensei. He certainly was the first local sensei to make the Okinawan art of self-defense available to the public. His tireless efforts to preserve and promote the art continued until his passing on March 22, 1977. -- more

Interview
Okazaki on Shotokan

DT: Okazaki Sensei, when did you begin your training?

Okazaki Sensei: I started at the age of 16 years, just as I entered the Takushoku University.

DT: At 16? That's very young for college.

Okazaki: Well, you see, that was just after the Second World War. Japan had an old system for universities; at that time I entered under the old system and graduated under the new system, so that's how I was able to get in at 16.

DT: Your first instructors were who?

Okazaki: I am really glad that Master Funakoshi has always been my instructor.
-- more

The Sensei
by Harry Cook

The expression "first born" used by Shakespeare could be easily translated into Japanese by the word"'sensei," a word used by Japanese martial artists as a title for their teacher or master. The word sensei is composed of two characters-sen, meaning previous or before and sei, meaning birth or life.

A sensei therefore is someone who has been "born before" you in the system you are studying and is therefore senior to you, or in Shakespearian terms your "better." This is not the same as the western idea of a coach. A sensei can actually do what he teaches, he or she embodies the art, while a coach can teach you how to do something without necessarily being able to perform the skill him or herself. -- more

Success in the martial arts
by Harry Cook

Why is it that some people succeed in the martial arts while others give up after a few lessons, and never really learn anything worthwhile? Obviously some people may not like the instructor or the style, but I don't believe that these are major factors. In my experience the student must have or must develop a number of factors to enable him or her to make real progress.

One major problem is that beginners may arrive in a dojo with a false impression of the martial arts and expect to be entertained. As a beginner in my dojo recently said, "they didn't do it like that in The Karate Kid!" The same individual has now moved on to greater things, having decided after five or six lessons that karate doesn't work! -- more

Chitose Tsuyoshi
A Bridge Through Time
by Michael Colling

Chinen Tsuyoshi, later to be known by the name Chitose, among others as was custom to his culture, was born in an era where the Okinawan fighting arts were quietly taught to those who knew the right people. His lineage can be traced back to Chinen Yamagushiku (aka: Chinen Peichin and Aburaya Yamaki) 1791-1881. He is a grandson of Matsumura Soken, well known into modern times as one of the most notable of his era. It seems with this family background Chitose was destined to follow the path he spent a lifetime studying. As a boy Chitose saw the entrance of karate into the school system in Okinawa by Itosu Anko (1830-1915) in a regimented form for mass instruction, to Funakoshi Gichin, a school teacher he had in grade school, introducing this art to Japan as a middle aged man to the Crown Prince Hirohito in 1922 at the First National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo, to the opening of worldwide acceptance when U.S. servicemen began learning the art under different sensei and taking it home to open dojo in the states. -- more

Fighting Spirit
by Harry Cook

Clint Eastwood, in The Outlaw Josey Wales, tells his companions that when everything looks bad and it seems you can't win then you must get mean, "mad-dog mean," in order to survive. This is the basic attitude necessary for effective self defence and has always been a precept of the martial arts that if we must choose between technique and fighting spirit, then go for fighting spirit everytime.

The bare-knuckle pugilists who fought in the Prize Ring valued courage or "bottom" above all other attributes in a fighter. Captain Godfrey, the author of A Treatise upon the Useful Science of Defence (1740/47)1, comments on one Boswell, a leading pugilist of the day "Praise be to his power of fighting, his excellent choice of time and measure, his superior judgement, dispatching forth his executing arm! But fye upon his dastard heart, that marrs it all! As I knew that fellows abilities, and his worm-dread soul, I never saw him beat, but I wished him to be beaten. Though I am charmed with the idea of his power and manner of fighting, I am sick at the thoughts of his nurse-wanting courage. Fair well to him, with the fair acknowledgement that, if he had a true English bottom, (the best fighting epithet for a man of spirit) he would carry all before him, and be a match for even Broughton himself." -- more

Karate Training
by Harry Cook

According to tradition the first Japanese sword blade was made by the swordsmith Amakuni about the year 700. Amakuni, his son Amakura and a number of other smiths were employed by the emperor to make weapons for his warriors. One day the emperor and his warriors passed by Amakuni's forge as they returned from battle, and instead of greeting Amakuni as he usually did, the emperor totally ignored Amakuni and all the swordsmiths. As the warriors straggled back Amakuni noticed that many of them were carrying broken swords; the weapons he had forged had snapped in the heat of battle. He closely examined the weapons and swore an oath to make a sword that would not break and so regain the emperors favour.

Amakuni and his son locked themselves in their forge and prayed to the Shinto gods for seven days and nights. Then they set to work, refining the metal of the blade and applying all their knowledge to make the perfect sword. After a month of work they emerged with a sword that curved slightly and had only one edge. Pleased with their first effort they refined the process, and when the warriors returned from their battles the following year, none were broken. -- more

Page 5 of 5 >> page 1 > page 2 > page 3 > page 4 > page 6