Karate/Expert Profile

Expertise

I can answer questions on history, culture and on actual self defense effectivness of Okinawian Karate and some systems of Japanese Karate

Experience in the area

Experience in the area I started learning Karate in 1967, so I'm comming up on 40 years experience. I have studied with four men ranked 8th Dan or higher. Organizations Over the past 40 years I have belonged to a variety of Okinawian Karate groups. As different masters have retired or passed away the groups have been renamed, so while I have belonged to differntly named organizations it has pretty much always been within the same family.< Education/Credentials My current certificate is Kiyoshi, 6th Dan.< Awards and Honors Kiyoshi is an honorific title signifing the full ability to teach. Past/Present clients I teach only on refferal and only privately.
Update:June 2007 Shortly before he passed away the head of the system in America, Ken Penland awarded me the certificate of Nanadan, which is a 7th degree, and considered a Master Level teaching certificate. I have known Ken since the early 80s. In those years he and I have written a number of historical research papers. Ken lived in Southern California but visited Seattle on several occasions and stayed with me on those visits. I am going to miss him but I know he expects me to continue research into our art.

What do you like about this subject?

Karate is not thing apart from one's life, but rather a deep and constant center of one's being. The exterior ability of the hands or feet is only 10% of the teachings. It is what happens inside that is more important.

What do you still hope to achieve/learn in this field?

The learning is endless. There is so much more to know what the old masters were trying to teach us. The monks from the various religius groups, Buddhist, Taoist, and Confunsionist, all had different systems. They also had complete systems of herbology and medicine. These systems, the martial and the medical, were all part of one larger system.

Something interesting about this subject that others may not know:

In China each of the major religions had at leat one school of martial arts. Buddhists had Shao Linn, Confusians and Taoism each had schools too. The Okinawian people, being seamen, traveled as late as the 1920s to the Southern Shao Linn in Fukien China. Sadly much of the templas were destroyed in 1928.

Something controversial or provocative about this subject

Tournament fighting is a post world war II invention and not part of a traditional school. Many Okinawan Karate Masters had a very critical view of tournaments. Karate is not an art like boxing or wrestling, but one in which left with no other, an art of destroying our enemy. As such, there is really no place for the slap and tickel tactics of tournament "fighting".