Robert Hunt

The Others

The Karate Tapestry - Part 10

By

Robert Hunt

We understand karate through the prism of a style. That's how it was handed down from men who tried to preserve and organize it, each to his own vision. We are greatful to them.

            But karate styles are a 20th century phenomenon and, for the most part, the second half of the 20th century. From Okinawa, we know of Itosu, Higaonna, Miyagi, Mabuni, Uechi, Funakoshi, Shimabukuro because of the styles they created or fostered and because, for whatever reason, those styles endured, flourished and took root in the east and west.

            But there were others who populated the early world of Okinawan karate during its modern infancy whose names we should know and remember, if we are to grasp the entire spectrum of our martial art rather than just the corner of karate on which we first stumbled.

Funakoshi popularized karate in Japan. Mabuni amalgamated it. Miyagi researched and synthesized. But what they were working with was hugely affected by the other karate students/teachers/masters around them, who didn't form organizations, or send out emissary instructors, or happen to teach entrepreneurial American soldiers.

Aragaki Seisho, dubbed Maaya (The Cat), bequeathed us the katas Unsu, Niseishi (Nijushiho), Seisan and Seiunchin, plus Aragaki no Sai, and Aragaki no Kon. 

Aragaki Seisho

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To contact Robert Hunt  

steelmoon@hushmail.com 

The Japanese karate organization I belonged to for the first 25 years of my training career recently ended. After 50 years of existence and a once large organization, the doors closed. It had been in severe decline for decades.

There are currently other great karate organizations collapsing in this same manner; soon to be gone or morphing into something completely different.

The question is why are these Japanese empires collapsing in the United States?

I can only give you my perspective as an American student who has trained, experienced, and observed this phenomenon for nearly four decades. It is with this observation and understanding that maybe future mistakes can hopefully be avoided.

This impending disaster was never envisioned by either the Japanese or the newly exposed American karate population. In hindsight it seem so obvious; young Japanese men coming to America with little life experience, a misunderstood cultural teaching method, possibly negative post World War II feelings, and an American student base ready to apotheosize this new experience.

These young Japanese instructors had little life and teaching experience let alone knowledge of working within a foreign culture. In addition, there were no mentors here to assist in their maturity growth or to give guidance into organizational methods that would be successful in this American culture. Their only guidance came from Japan.

The immaturity in life and teaching skills, masked by the stoic and charismatic Japanese façade, combined with a student base that was young, naïve, unfamiliar, impressionable, and enamored with this mysterious and mystic art was the perfect storm. This unique set of circumstances greatly impacted these instructors. Many of them started to feel a sense of superiority. What young human being, praised by the masses and held on high, would not lose his way? One just has to look around today at the young rock star or famous athlete to see what can happen when treated in such fashion in our American culture.

Ray Hughes

Scottsdale Martial Arts Center

SMACUS.com 

rhughes@smacus.com