Post by Mod on Sept 22, 2012 7:55:36 GMT -5
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:16:33 -0700
Aug News letter
Okinawa Kenpo Karate Kobudo Renme
Taketo Nakamura Grandmaster
N. Flores President
Can a dojo that is traditional karate coexist with other sports karate? Not in the same building.
There are traditional karate, taught to foreigners, and real Okinawan karate, taught to close students and relatives. This has to do with ancestor worship. The Okinawan religion. It is very beautiful. My sister-in-law was from Futenma Okinawa, Yatsuko Nakasato. Sensei Odo And Taketo taught me a lot about real karate. Not taught to foreigners. Because they would laugh.
The chi of kata, can be found in sanchin, chi being the spirit. Chi is a Chinese word, ki is a Japanese word, chin is an Okinawan word meaning the same thing as chi. In china it means air, in Japan it means internal power, in Okinawan it means spirit, in the USA we use the Okinawan version and meaning, when we say that guy has a lot of spirit. Or, we use the Japanese meaning, saying that guy has a lot of internal fortitude. Or, we say the Chinese version, he has a lot of energy. Air is energy for our body.
Having said that, real karate is Okinawan in origin, our kata goes back to the seventh and eighth century. This is called, mei kata (festival kata). I am explaining real karate, (karate jutsu). Traditional karate, as Americans knows it, is tournament karate where one practices for a trophy, and rank is the most valued thing. Kobudo, kata and point sparing, with grand champions etcetera is the norm. American traditional karate is not real karate. Just because one wears a white gi and does kata they call it traditional karate. Kata and a white gi is only a small amount of real karate. Nothing wrong with Americanized karate, it just isn't karate jutsu (real karate)
In karate jutsu, there is kata, Kobudo and kumite. We avoid tournaments as much as possible. Trophys are nonexistent. Rank is rare and a 30 year shodan is common. In karate jutsu you practice in your back yard ... your own property. The emphasis is on how many students you can train and do the basics first and foremost and stances blocks and kicks. The drop out rate is about 90 %. The first thing karate-jutsu does is to see how many students you can get rid of as fast as possible to weed out the wimps, and quitters, they only waste valuable time in the dojo. To weed them out the first day they do full contact. The ones who don't quit, if they can walk home after a class, they did okay for that day. That is the way Sensei Odo trained some of us. There were wimps and he did tolerate them ... as long as they paid their dues. Sensei Odo told me to bogu kumite every class, which was 3 classes per day ... sometimes 2 or 3 times bogu kumite per class, depending on how many students there were. Minimum was 18 times of bogu kumite per week for me. Most students only did one class per day. The most bogu kumite I did at one time was five in a row. The first 4 that I fought got knocked out. The fifth one, when Sensei Maehara said hajime and put his hand down to begin, laid down on the floor of the dojo and said "what's the use." That is karate jutsu.
Back to the question, "Can a dojo trained in traditional karate coexist with sports karate?" Yes, sports karate has tournaments with trophies and medals. Sports karate does a lot of good teaching discipline. Traditional karate saves your life. What messes up traditional karate or karate jutsu, is that going to sports karate tournaments for the purpose of winning a trophy ... one should go for the purpose of demonstrating traditional kata, or karate jutsu. If you win a trophy, give it to some kid who won nothing. Trophy's belts and certificates just weigh you down. If you posses these things, get rid of them, at least in your mind.
My Puerto Rico trip, was a giant success. The Okinawa Kenpo Tournament honoring Shigeru Nakamura was wonderful. Okinawa Kenpo in Purto Rico is alive and well. Before I came, Okinawa Kenpo was being practiced as if in a time capsule for over 37 years. I was asked by Orlando Rodriguez to come and teach how Sensei Odo trained, because he was Shigeru's senior student. I showed them how I was trained and how we bogu kumite. And how Okinawa Kenpo tournaments were held. Puerto Rico is predominately Okinawa Kenpo, recognizing Shigeru Nakamura as the founder and his son Taketo Nakamura as the grandmaster of Okinawa Kenpo. I, Sensei N. Flores, am a Sensei under Taketo Nakamura. What really impressed me was that the picture of Shigeru was in every dojo. This was a very happy moment for me.
STORIES AND LEGENDS
Weakness is strength
In ancient Ryukyu, in a village lived a blind man in his 60's and he was baby siting his grandchildren. It was dark, rainy, and cloudy. This made especially dark. The grand father had been blind since birth. He had a garden out around his house. This was his world. He knew day from night by feeling the cool night air and the warmth of the day and in every inch of his house where he had furniture were candles for his guests and so forth. One day, as quite so often, he was once again baby siting his grandchildren and it was dark, rainy and cloudy. when all of a sudden a crashing sound, the grand children were screaming in a frightful way. Grandpa asked what going on. The children said that there are armed men breaking down the gate, grandpa asked "how many?" The children said 7. Grandfather said "when they are inside, yell, blow out the candles, and hide in the closet." The children followed his instructions and then the fighting began. Then the grandfather said "You may light the candles now." All you saw was the dead intruders. This teaches us that one can turn a weakness into your strong point
Sensei. Neco
related web links:
okkkw.webs.com/
okkkr.webs.com/
okkkre.webs.com/
Aug News letter
Okinawa Kenpo Karate Kobudo Renme
Taketo Nakamura Grandmaster
N. Flores President
Can a dojo that is traditional karate coexist with other sports karate? Not in the same building.
There are traditional karate, taught to foreigners, and real Okinawan karate, taught to close students and relatives. This has to do with ancestor worship. The Okinawan religion. It is very beautiful. My sister-in-law was from Futenma Okinawa, Yatsuko Nakasato. Sensei Odo And Taketo taught me a lot about real karate. Not taught to foreigners. Because they would laugh.
The chi of kata, can be found in sanchin, chi being the spirit. Chi is a Chinese word, ki is a Japanese word, chin is an Okinawan word meaning the same thing as chi. In china it means air, in Japan it means internal power, in Okinawan it means spirit, in the USA we use the Okinawan version and meaning, when we say that guy has a lot of spirit. Or, we use the Japanese meaning, saying that guy has a lot of internal fortitude. Or, we say the Chinese version, he has a lot of energy. Air is energy for our body.
Having said that, real karate is Okinawan in origin, our kata goes back to the seventh and eighth century. This is called, mei kata (festival kata). I am explaining real karate, (karate jutsu). Traditional karate, as Americans knows it, is tournament karate where one practices for a trophy, and rank is the most valued thing. Kobudo, kata and point sparing, with grand champions etcetera is the norm. American traditional karate is not real karate. Just because one wears a white gi and does kata they call it traditional karate. Kata and a white gi is only a small amount of real karate. Nothing wrong with Americanized karate, it just isn't karate jutsu (real karate)
In karate jutsu, there is kata, Kobudo and kumite. We avoid tournaments as much as possible. Trophys are nonexistent. Rank is rare and a 30 year shodan is common. In karate jutsu you practice in your back yard ... your own property. The emphasis is on how many students you can train and do the basics first and foremost and stances blocks and kicks. The drop out rate is about 90 %. The first thing karate-jutsu does is to see how many students you can get rid of as fast as possible to weed out the wimps, and quitters, they only waste valuable time in the dojo. To weed them out the first day they do full contact. The ones who don't quit, if they can walk home after a class, they did okay for that day. That is the way Sensei Odo trained some of us. There were wimps and he did tolerate them ... as long as they paid their dues. Sensei Odo told me to bogu kumite every class, which was 3 classes per day ... sometimes 2 or 3 times bogu kumite per class, depending on how many students there were. Minimum was 18 times of bogu kumite per week for me. Most students only did one class per day. The most bogu kumite I did at one time was five in a row. The first 4 that I fought got knocked out. The fifth one, when Sensei Maehara said hajime and put his hand down to begin, laid down on the floor of the dojo and said "what's the use." That is karate jutsu.
Back to the question, "Can a dojo trained in traditional karate coexist with sports karate?" Yes, sports karate has tournaments with trophies and medals. Sports karate does a lot of good teaching discipline. Traditional karate saves your life. What messes up traditional karate or karate jutsu, is that going to sports karate tournaments for the purpose of winning a trophy ... one should go for the purpose of demonstrating traditional kata, or karate jutsu. If you win a trophy, give it to some kid who won nothing. Trophy's belts and certificates just weigh you down. If you posses these things, get rid of them, at least in your mind.
My Puerto Rico trip, was a giant success. The Okinawa Kenpo Tournament honoring Shigeru Nakamura was wonderful. Okinawa Kenpo in Purto Rico is alive and well. Before I came, Okinawa Kenpo was being practiced as if in a time capsule for over 37 years. I was asked by Orlando Rodriguez to come and teach how Sensei Odo trained, because he was Shigeru's senior student. I showed them how I was trained and how we bogu kumite. And how Okinawa Kenpo tournaments were held. Puerto Rico is predominately Okinawa Kenpo, recognizing Shigeru Nakamura as the founder and his son Taketo Nakamura as the grandmaster of Okinawa Kenpo. I, Sensei N. Flores, am a Sensei under Taketo Nakamura. What really impressed me was that the picture of Shigeru was in every dojo. This was a very happy moment for me.
STORIES AND LEGENDS
Weakness is strength
In ancient Ryukyu, in a village lived a blind man in his 60's and he was baby siting his grandchildren. It was dark, rainy, and cloudy. This made especially dark. The grand father had been blind since birth. He had a garden out around his house. This was his world. He knew day from night by feeling the cool night air and the warmth of the day and in every inch of his house where he had furniture were candles for his guests and so forth. One day, as quite so often, he was once again baby siting his grandchildren and it was dark, rainy and cloudy. when all of a sudden a crashing sound, the grand children were screaming in a frightful way. Grandpa asked what going on. The children said that there are armed men breaking down the gate, grandpa asked "how many?" The children said 7. Grandfather said "when they are inside, yell, blow out the candles, and hide in the closet." The children followed his instructions and then the fighting began. Then the grandfather said "You may light the candles now." All you saw was the dead intruders. This teaches us that one can turn a weakness into your strong point
Sensei. Neco
related web links:
okkkw.webs.com/
okkkr.webs.com/
okkkre.webs.com/