Newsletter #04 - 10 September 2009

From Sensei Bob - WSKF Beijing and the Sugihara Tournament in Auckland

Karatedo Shitokai New Zealand has had a fantastic September with Sensei Bob taking a small team to Beijing to attend the World Shitoryu Karate Champs. The team was Nicky Roberts, Matthew Baird, Matt Burns, Aaron Springford as competitors with Sensei Bob and Murray Burns as coaches and officials.

The feedback from the tournament was tremendous with huge numbers competing, Friday was the Youth Tournament which was total chaos, with people milling around speaking many different languages but eventually it all started to settled down and the tournament finally began.

Nicky & Matthew competed in the 17/18 years kata with Nicky winning Silver and Matthew winning Bronze.

- - - Awesome Result - - -

One of the key features of this tournament, as reported by Sensei Bob, was that there were no repecharges, meaning you had to reach to semi finals to win a medal, which made it all the harder.

Matt and Aaron competed well with Matt being unlucky in his first fight and Aaron finding the competion very tough. However, it is all experience for the future.

A great result for a small club in Whangarei!

On their arrival home on the Tuesday they met up with the New Caledonians who everyone has met at the club training the previous Thursday. Sensei Bob coached them on the Wednesday and Thursday, giving them a good workout before the Sugihara Cup in Auckland on the comming Saturday. They were happy with their results, winning 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronzes. Congratulations to all of them. They have also become a "sister club" and Karatedo Shitokai will be planning to take some club members to Noumesa next winter.

However, the big success is the Sugihara Cup, which is the biggest tournament in New Zealand with over 300 competitors from Turkey, Japan, New Caledonia, Australia and of course New Zealand, was Nicky. Sensei Bob was not sure if Nicky could raise herself again so soon after Beijing, but boy did she! Nicky won the Junior Women Kata first then won the Senior Women kata effortlessly, beating the best that Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand could throw at her. The final was showcased in the evening at 8pm, with Nicky and Andrea Anacan (the Shotokan Woman who has been narrowly beating her this year), both performing Chatanyara Kushanku. Nicky was simply regal, defeating Andrea 4-1. Nicky has moved her Karate up another notch after Beijing and is looking very good for the competition in November in Morocco.

For the local content, Karatedo Shitokai New Zealand - Palmerston North are keeping very busy, mainly in preparation for the 2009 Dan gradings due in December although Kieran is on light training due to a recent broken thumb he got during bunkai training.

I am off to visit Sensei Bob in October for some training and will also get the chance to get together with some of his other club member. Should be a fun time and I am looking forward to it.

Well thats it for the next couple of months. The next big event will be how well Nicky goes at the World Champs in Morocco.

And Now for something completely different - Karate

Karate is a Japanese art of self-defense in which sharp blows and kicks are administered to pressure-sensitive points on the body of an opponent.

The Chinese character used to write Tode could also be pronounced 'kara' thus the name Te was replaced with kara te - jutsu or 'Chinese hand art' by the Okinawan Masters. This was later changed to karate-do by Gichin Funakoshi who adopted an alternate meaning for the Chinese character for kara, 'empty'. From this point on the term karate came to mean 'empty hand'. The Do in karate-do means 'way' or 'path', and is indicative of the discipline and philosophy of karate with moral and spiritual connotations.

The History of Karate

Most Western students of Asian martial arts, if they have done any research on the subject at all, will surely have come across references to Bodhidharma. He is known as "Daruma" in Japan and as often as not, this Indian Buddhist monk is cited as the prime source for all martial arts styles or at the vary least, for any style which traces its roots back to the fabled Shaolin Temple. However, the question of his contributions to the martial arts and to Zen Buddhism and even of his very existence has been a matter of controversy among historians and martial arts scholars for many years.

As legend has it, the evolution of karate began over a thousand years ago, possibly as early as the fifth century BC when Bodhidharma arrived in Shaolin-si (small forest temple), China from India and taught Zen Buddhism. He also introduced a systematized set of exercises designed to strengthen the mind and body, exercises which allegedly marked the beginning of the Shaolin style of temple boxing. Bodhidharma's teachings later became the basis for the majority of Chinese martial arts. In truth, the origins of karate appear to be somewhat obscure and little is known about the early development of karate until it appeared in Okinawa, Japan.

In its earliest stages, the martial art known as "karate" was an indigenous form of closed fist fighting which was developed in Okinawa and called Te, or 'hand'. Weapons bans, imposed on the Okinawans at various points in their history, encouraged the refinement of empty-hand techniques and, for this reason, was trained in secret until modern times. Further refinement came with the influence of other martial arts brought by nobles and trade merchants to the island.

Te continued to develop over the years, primarily in three Okinawan cities: Shuri, Naha and Tomari. Each of these towns was a centre to a different sect of society: kings and nobles, merchants and business people, and farmers and fishermen, respectively. For this reason, different forms of self-defense developed within each city and subsequently became known as Shuri-te, Naha-te and Tomari-te. Collectively they were called Okinawa-Te or Tode, 'Chinese hand'. Gradually, karate was divided into two main groups: Shorin-ryu which developed around Shuri and Tomari and Shorei-ryu which came from the Naha area. "It is important to note, however, that the towns of Shuri, Tomari, Naha are only a few miles apart, and that the differences between their arts were essentially ones of emphasis, not of kind. Beneath these surface differences, both the methods and aims of all Okinawan karate are one in the same". Gichin Funakoshi goes further to suggest that these two styles were developed based on different physical requirements Funakoshi, 1935. Shorin-ryu was quick and linear with natural breathing while Shorei-ryu emphasized steady, rooted movements with breathing in synchrony with each movement. Interestingly, this concept of two basic styles also exist in kung-fu with a similar division of characteristics.

The concept of Do has been prevalent since at least the days of the Okinawan Scholar Teijunsoku born in 1663, as this passage from a poem he wrote suggests:

            No matter how you may excel in the art of te,

            And in your scholastic endevours,

            Nothing is more important than your behavior

            And your humanity as observed in daily life.

The first public demonstration of karate in Japan was in 1917 by Gichin Funakoshi, at the Butoku-den in Kyoto. This, and subsequent demonstrations, greatly impressed many Japanese, including the Crown-Prince Hirohito, who was very enthusiastic about the Okinawan art. In 1922, Dr. Jano Kano, founder of the Japanese art of Judo, invited Funakoshi to demonstrate at the famous Kodokan Dojo and to remain in Japan to teach karate. This sponsorship was instrumental in establishing a base for karate in Japan. As an Okinawan "peasant art," karate would have been scorned by the Japanese without the backing of so formidable a martial arts master.

Today there are four main styles of karate-do in Japan: Shito-ryu, Goju-ryu, Shotokan, and Wado-ryu.

Shito-ryu was founded by Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1952) in 1928 and was influenced directly by both Naha-te and Shuri-te. The name Shito is constructively derived from the combination of the Japanese characters of Mabuni's teachers' names - Ankoh Itosu and Kanryo Higaonna. Shito-ryu schools use a large number of kata, about fifty, and is characterized by an emphasis on power in the execution of techniques.

Goju-ryu developed out of Naha-te, its popularity primarily due to the success of Kanryo Higaonna (1853-1915). Higaonna opened a dojo in Naha using eight forms brought from China. His best student, Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953) later founded Goju-ryu, 'hard soft way' in 1930. In Goju-ryu much emphasis is placed on combining soft circular blocking techniques with quick strong counter attacks delivered in rapid succession.

Shotokan was founded by Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957) in Tokyo in 1938. Funakoshi is considered to be the founder of modern karate. Born in Okinawa, he began to study karate with Yasutsune Azato, one of Okinawa's greatest experts in the art. In 1921 Funakoshi first introduced Karate to Tokyo. In 1936, at nearly 70 years of age, he opened his own training hall. The dojo was called Shotokan after the pen name used by Funakoshi to sign poems written in his youth. Shotokan Karate is characterized by powerful linear techniques and deep strong stances.

Wado-ryu, 'way of harmony', founded in 1939 is a system of karate developed from jujitsu and karate by Hienori Otsuka as taught by one of his instructors, Gichin Funakoshi. This style of karate combines basic movements of jujitsu with techniques of evasion, putting a strong emphasis on softness and the way of harmony or spiritual discipline.

Train Hard

Regards