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.
Karate Kenkyū Shitsu 