Sharing Lessons From My Okinawan Family

Over the past weekend, I needed to forego my Skype training in our Kwoon so that I could participate in an important local event, the 40^th Anniversary celebrations of the Taka Karate School here in Lethbridge, Alberta. My wife Adrienne and I have been practicing Gohakukai - a combination of Goju Ryu and Tomarite - under Sensei Taka Kinjo, off and on for about thirteen years. Although it’s a bit unusual (some might even say unethical) for a person to be engaged in training with more than one school, under multiple teachers, this is the case with me. But in my situation, or at least how I look at it, it’s like a marriage… there’s your family, and then there’s your spouse’s family. If you really want your marriage to be strong, you should cultivate intimacy, love, commitment, and compassion on both sides. The truth is, for Adrienne and myself, this two family approach really is necessary. Both of us have been involved in martial arts since childhood. In fact, one of our first dates involved me accompanying her to a TKD session. There’s no way we’ll ever feel whole or satisfied without having martial arts in our lives. Yet, at the same time, the two of us have somewhat different needs, and hence the two schools

Adrienne, as many of you now know, suffers from an auto-immune disorder, a crippling rheumatoid condition. For her, Taka Kinjo’s Dojo is perfect, because he specializes in using karate movement as a form of physio-therapy to help people with chronic diseases and neural injuries. Certainly he has helped Adrienne, and when she’s active in karate practice her mobility goes way up. While I’ve whole-heartedly adopted this Gohakukai appreciation for martial arts as therapy and medicine, I’m also very interested in exploring ‘art’ as personal expression and creativity, something that can be perceived as threatening and/or naive by adherents of traditional schools. In order to actually obtain a creative license in the martial arts, one usually has to set out alone, or recruit students and start an autonomous school. Never, prior to Freddie Lee, have I encountered a Sifu who actually encouraged self expression… who was willing to say that mimicry is not the same as artistry. For this reason, as well as for the more dynamic physical challenges involved, I feel like FMK is my family, where I belong. I’m so proud to be a part of the emergence of this Kwoon. In many ways, I view what we are doing as incredibly ancient, but yet modern, innovative, edgy and adaptative at the same time. I hope other Todai appreciate how special this opportunity is

It’s strange though, belonging to two martial arts families. There’s a weird sense of… I don’t know what to call it… it’s like I’m not supposed to talk about it. When Adrienne and I go to the Gohakukai Dojo, we both arrive and leave in our FMK hoodies, though we replace them with Japanese gi tops for training. Sensei Kinjo has not asked about FMK, and I think it’s because the whole thing is semi-taboo. Instead of looking at it as having two families merged in the context of a marriage, it seems to be framed more as though having two families is a betrayal. And that’s messed up. Part of the reason for this unease is economic, I’m sure. But another part is that it’s maybe considered threatening to the teacher-disciple relationship. Yet for Adrienne and I, from a Blackfoot cultural perspective, what we’re doing is nothing at all unusual. In our way, relationships are almost always celebrated. The more complex and encompassing the better. Except in the case of real marital fidelity, where any wavering whatsoever would definitely result in me getting my ass handed to me, lol

Anyway… where I’m going with this is that I don’t want to feel as though I’m leading a split life, so I’ve always blended my other training with what I’m doing in FMK. Anyone who’s watched my videos on the YouTube channel has no doubt observed goju ryu and tomarite techniques and katas, or maybe some JKD-influenced backfists, fingerjabs, and crossover kicks. A couple weeks back, while in class via Skype, I suggested to Sidai Shunyuan and Todai Daoming that they try moving through a lock sequence in a manner I’d learned from Aikido training. Similarly, in the Gohakukai Dojo, I’ve often participated dynamically in demonstrations of various locks and throws by Sensei Kinjo, if for no other reason than that I’m capable of properly breakfalling on a hardwood floor, an ability I owe again to Aikido. The way I see it, why not contribute what you can to the benefit of your family, even if it derives from learning acquired in other relationships? Why should there be conflict or jealousy? Personally, I want to share.  To this ends, I offer the following four videos from this past weekend…

The first is of Sensei Taka Kinjo himself, performing a kata called Pechurin from Goju Ryu. I hope you will appreciate what I do about Okinawan forms, which are the transitions between soft and hard. Each technique is guided by the hips, and completed with an abdominal (as well as other delivery muscle) tightening. Compare this video with some of the examples of myself performing Goju Ryu or Tomari Te kata, and you will see the difference between a relative novice and a master. Over the weekend, Sensei Kinjo became the second ever to receive a 10^th Dan in Gohakukai…

The second video is a performance by Sensei Masahiro Miyazato, who was part of an Okinawan delegation who traveled to Lethbridge for this event. Miyazato is very well know for his demonstrations with kama blades. Really though, he’s an incredible artist, proficient in many weapons, always dressed to express his identity, and quite musically talented, as you’ll see in the fourth video. Here’s Miyazato with his kama…

The content of the third video can be traced directly back to Zen founder Bodhidharma, and his influence on the Shaolin Temple. It is an intense form of Qi Gung called (in Japanese) Tenshiyo, as performed by Gohakukai founder Kaicho Iken Tokashiki. I was very pleased to be privy to a lengthy lecture toward the conclusion of our practice in the Dojo on Saturday, during which Tokashiki detailed some of what he’d learned in more than twenty trips he’s taken into China to research the origins of these arts. Sifu Freddie Lee is very correct when he says that all of the ‘martial arts’ as we know them came from China. Gohakukai recognizes and celebrates that. Tokashiki has been to Shaolin several times, and I hope we at FMK will travel there together one day…

Finally, my absolute favorite video of the weekend: A decade ago, an anonymous elderly karateka told me that the key to his health was that he would never lean on anything. When standing, he’d balance between both legs, and never support his weight otherwise. When sitting, he never allowed his back to touch a chair. Core balance, plain and simple. More than karate or anything else, it was this attention to posture and balance that enabled him to be so vital in his senior years. I was very pleased Sunday night when, after so many years, I found myself seated next to this man for dinner. Despite a significant language barrier, we joked around. He even leaned on me, lol. And when the plates had been taken away, Masahiro Miyazato stood up to the microphone with something like a Japanese banjo, while the now eighty-five year-old Sensei Shimabukuro Katsuyuki performed an impromptu martial arts dance. To me, such ego-free movement is what makes Katsuyuki a true master…