Karate Kenkyū Shitsu

I’m so happy that the Shōgun series officially got renewed for a second and even a third season.

It was originally planned as a mini-series …

I spent last weekend in South Germany attending an Okinawa (Matayoshi) Kobudō seminar with Ōshiro Zen’ei sensei. It was actually the first time I met and trained under Ōshiro sensei. The style isn’t new to me; I’ve been training in Okinawa Kobudō since 2007.

My wife and I had the great pleasure of interviewing Ōshiro sensei, and he was very friendly in answering our questions. We also asked him about the Sansērū Kata of the Shōdōkan and his training under Matayoshi Shinpō sensei.

After many years, I also had the chance to see my friend Andreas Quast again. We last met in person at my wedding party in 2018 – Andreas came all the way from South Germany to attend. Now it was my turn to visit him in South Germany.

We talked a lot about Okinawan Karate and Kobudō, including Yamannī-ryū, Yabu Kentsū, Hanashiro Chōmo, Bō-Jutsu in general, and our future plans.

Our last stop was the Hohenzollern Castle in Hechingen, where we spent two days for my research into Jūdō history about the Hohenzollern. Sadly, it was without benefit.

On February 10, 2024, Ikeda sensei asked us to write a historical article for Tō‘on-ryū. Before this, we had gifted him our first article about an unknown karate demonstration, which we wrote for the January issue of Gekkan Hiden. He saw my wife’s writing style and was quite impressed.

Over the years, I have collected a lot of historical material about Tō‘on-ryū. However, my intention wasn’t just to copy other material and republish it later in Japanese. My wife is currently working on a book about Higaonna Kanryō, and Higaonna Kan‘yū will also play a small role. But what about the other teachers of Kyoda Jūhatsu sensei? Actually, in Japanese, not much information is known about Yabu Kentsū, one of Kyoda sensei’s teachers.

So, I decided to write about Yabu sensei before continuing my journey into Tō‘on-ryū.

My first article will come out exactly one month from now, on June 14, 2024. It will be the start of a whole article series. And it will also be the introduction of the “Jion” article. How can I write about Jion without mentioning Hanashiro Chōmo and Yabu Kentsū? It is like writing a karate book without any karate knowledge.

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And yes, I know that Mr. Feldmann is currently working on a biography of Yabu Kentsū. I have shared a bunch of material with him since 2021, as I did before with his first book, the Itosu Ankō biography.

Until he publishes his book, there will be no English translation from my side. I wish Mr. Feldmann all the best for his future book, and I hope that the material I sent him in the past is still a big help to him.

Actually, I was the first westener who probably read the book in whole detail and some important news will be soon published !!!!

I completely analyse the recent book, about Okinawan Immigration to Hawaii. And I found so many nice details. It’s time to complete the puzzle to publish the article in the near future.

But the big names are missed… also missed are names like „Kawakami“ and „Kawamae“ …

stay tuned !!!

(middle) Mr. Miyagi Chôjuns Hawaiian journey !!!

Actually, I don’t keep track of the money I’ve spent on all my historic Karate books, as I’ve been collecting them for over 17 years. For example, the Okinawa Karate Kobudō Jiten is currently listed for ¥39,999 (without shipping) as of April 13, 2024. Also, consider the Uechi-ryū Blue book, which typically sells for around ¥100,000 (excluding shipping). These are just two examples; there are many more needed to gain a comprehensive understanding.

Visiting a library, such as the Okinawa Prefecture Library, is free of charge. However, each paper copy costs ¥10. While not prohibitively expensive, serious research requires substantial time beforehand to know what to copy. This preparation can consume a lot of time and detract from a regular vacation trip.

Interviews with Karate Masters are usually free, but transportation to reach them isn’t. If I stay in Naha and want to interview a Karate Master in Chatan or Okinawa City, I need a car or taxi. If I opt for a car, I must translate my overseas driver’s license into Japanese, which incurs both a cost and time investment.

In conclusion, conducting outstanding historic Karate research isn’t free. It requires a significant financial investment. It’s important to remember that when someone offers their time to share information, it should be met with respect. Real researchers invest considerable time and money to acquire the information.

Simply sitting on a chair and typing a few words on a smartphone shouldn’t be mistaken for genuine research; it essentially relies on someone else’s goodwill, without the individual investing their own money.

I’ve been back since last Wednesday, back from my research trip to Japan.

Before, I went a lot to Japan, but this trip was something special for me. Our main topic this time was Karate research. It took us a lot of preparation before we started our trip – we prepared more than ten interviews, made a copy list for the prefecture library, and so on.

After we arrived in Okinawa, it took us a few days to prepare everything in more detail. With the help of „Skype,“ we fixed lose dates into fixed dates and started our interview series in Okinawa.

We hope to publish mostly each of them in the future.

After I published my first Karate article in „Gekkan Hiden“ magazine, I think it‘s time to announce my 2nd article. It‘s a continuation of the first article, and will describe a commonly unknown karate area in much more detail.

At the same time, I also collected a lot of information for a 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th article. And of course, with the help of my wife – I did a lot of interviews with Karate masters – each of them will deliver a lot of unknown information and they helped me already a lot in my understanding of Karate.

Finally, I hold a printed copy in my hands… Gekkan Hiden magazine did a great job. I really like the editing and the position of the photos.

It’s time to start my second article, which will be a continuation of my first article.

I‘m still working on it to walk minimum 10.000 steps a day !!! On my today morning tour I visited the monument of Funakoshi Gichin sensei.

I‘ve been many times at the old location, but finally I made it to the new location.