Kategorie: Allgemein

I have been in Japan since January 6, preparing some future projects. Naturally, I am also diligently training in Karate and Okinawa Kobudō.

We spent the first week in Okinawa. This time was originally supposed to be more productive than it turned out. Unfortunately, my wife and I contracted a variant of COVID-19 and had to spend several days in quarantine, unable to leave our hotel room during that time.

Luckily, we recovered just before our flight to Fukuoka and the subsequent train ride to Beppu. There, we had 13 days of Tō’on-ryū training planned. Ikeda Sensei opened his treasure chest and provided us with some previously unknown articles and pictures, which we will use in the upcoming Tō’on-ryū article. During our time in Beppu, we also completed the first draft of the article and submitted it to Ikeda Sensei for review. He gave us some suggestions and improvement ideas.

After 14 days in Beppu, we took the Airport Express Bus to Ōita Airport, then flew to Tōkyō Haneda. From there, we took the train to Ryūgasaki, where we had 5 days of Matayoshi Kobudō training with Hayasaka Sensei. I gained many new insights and had interesting conversations with Hayasaka Sensei during the training-free periods, which led to further insights.

After 6 days in Ryūgasaki, we returned to Tōkyō by train. We had originally planned to attend the „48th Nihon Kobudō Enbu Taikai“ as visitors. However, at very short notice, the BAB publishing house asked if we would be interested in writing an article for Gekkan Hiden magazine — a request we gladly accepted.

On Monday, I visited the Kōdōkan, where I had the opportunity to meet the current curator. On this occasion, I presented the Kōdōkan with my two books on the history of Jiu-Jitsu/Jūdō in Germany.

On Tuesday, we conducted an interview with Koyama Masashi Sensei. This interview will also appear in one of the upcoming issues of Gekkan Hiden and will serve as a source for many future articles. Koyama Sensei is not only a former Kata world champion (Taipei, 1982) but also an excellent researcher who has already published numerous works.

In 1977, he had the opportunity to interview Iraha Chōkō Sensei twice and also learned the Sansērū kata from him. After consulting with Ikeda Sensei, I was able to compare the Beppu Sansērū with the Iraha Sansērū and identified some differences.

Wednesday was a family day at Tokyo DisneySea.

Thursday and Friday were fully dedicated to research. We visited the National Archives and the Yūshūkan Museum at the Yasukuni Shrine, where we gained important insights for a future topic.

Today, Saturday, is dedicated to rest, and tomorrow we will head to the airport in Tōkyō.

Yesterday, it was announced that an article about Tō‘on-ryū will soon appear in the April issue of Gekkan Hiden. The article was introduced as the first part, implying that there will be a second one.

Tō‘on-ryū 4th Generation Sōke – Ikeda Shigehide

The History and Techniques of Tō‘on-ryū – Part One: Kyoda Jūhatsu and Higaonna-ha Kenpō

We were informed about the article very early on and also know the name of the author. However, since the author is not mentioned in the announcement, I will also keep the name to myself for now.

Our own Tō‘on-ryū article is independent of this series and will be published later this year. It will likely delve much deeper into certain aspects of Tō‘on-ryū history.

Of course, I will buy both issues and highly recommend that everyone do the same.

The following article sheds light on the rediscovery of a long-lost photograph and series of articles documenting the 1936 Okinawa Karate Roundtable discussion. It details the historical significance of the event, the challenges of recovering pre-war materials, and the collaborative efforts that brought these treasures back into the public eye, highlighting their impact on modern karate research.

BTW, Merry Christmas 😉

The year is slowly coming to an end. I would therefore like to wish all my fellow karateka a reflective Advent season, a Merry Christmas, and later a Happy New Year for 2025.

We have concluded the year with a total of four articles in Gekkan Hiden magazine (the latest one also in English & Portuguese), and the fifth article is already scheduled for publication on January 14, 2025. I hope that 2025 will be just as exciting and interesting as 2024.

I look forward to sharing more about our plans for 2025 at the end of January.

The monument, erected under the leadership of Nakazato Jōen in 1999, honors the legendary Karate master Kyan Chōtoku. Situated near the Hija River, it marks the area where Nakazato trained under Kyan from 1937 to 1943, before leaving for the Pacific War. Having visited this site in January 2024, I feel it is now the right time to share my translation of the monument’s inscription, which celebrates Kyan’s profound legacy in Okinawan Karate.

I received new books from Japan today… exciting times ahead. In 2025, there will be a detailed report on this. But first, I need to finally finish writing my Tō’on-ryū article.

Currently, there are two translations of Hanashiro’s words into English. Comparing both texts reveals significant differences—not only in the style of translation. Hanashiro addressed his obituary to the heroic spirit of Yabu Kentsû.

However, there are substantial discrepancies in the actual text. In my translation, I blacked out the sentences missing in the other translation to give an idea of how much was actually omitted.

During my recent stay in Okinawa, I observed the Ryū’ei-ryū training led by Sakumoto sensei, which reminded me of stories about Yabu Kentsū’s karate. Yabu emphasized a balance of gentleness (lamb), agility (cat), and strength (tiger) in his teachings.

It is impossible to write a well-founded article without following in the footsteps of other authors who have already written on the topic, trying to gain new insights and then connecting these with previous knowledge. That is exactly what I did with my latest article.

First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to the late Kinjô Hiroshi sensei and the late Yamauchi Seihin sensei, who wrote an article back in 1956, also discussing the figure of Yabiku Môtoku sensei, a person who is now relatively unknown even on Okinawa.

Further thanks goes to Chinen Yudi sensei (the grandson of Kokuba Seitoku), who shared the video of the 1951 demonstration on his YouTube channel in 2016. It was Motobu Naoki sensei who revisited the report by Kinjô Hiroshi sensei and Yamauchi Seihin sensei and connected it to the video published in 2016, documenting the demonstration. He was also able to establish contact with Yabiku Marcelo at that time.

I also owe a special thank you to Yabiku Marcelo, the great-grandson of Yabiku Môtoku sensei, who has always been willing to answer my numerous questions, sent me a copy of the demonstration, and provided me with 14 photos for my research.

The almost exclusive credit for the research in Hawai’i goes to Charles Goodin, who, as far as I know, spent countless hours in libraries, sifting through endless newspapers. Even more importantly, he spoke with the children of the demonstrators from that time and was able to gain significant insights. I discovered an error in one of the newspapers, which I corrected to create a clearer picture. I also extend my gratitude to the staff at the Hawaii Karate Museum, who allowed me to use four photos that Mr. Goodin had found, which are currently housed at the University of Hawaii.

From my newspaper research in Germany on German Jiu-Jitsu, I’ve learned that with enough searching, you can almost always find a program, report, or something similar for a demonstration. In this case, I was also able to find a program of the 1951 demonstration in São Paulo, which my wife and I translated after many hours of character search.

A special thanks goes to the BAB (Gekkan Hiden) publishing house, which allows us to publish our research findings. For this article, we took on the challenge of translating it into English and also publishing it in Portuguese for the first time. A huge thank you to Thomas Krekel for proofreading the English version, and an even greater thank you to Lucas Barboza for the wonderful Portuguese translation.

Thank you so much.

Without all the help, this article would not have turned out as well as it did.

I wish I could have expressed my gratitude to everyone directly in the article, but we were limited to just 6 pages in the magazine, even though we could have easily written 15. So, the only option left was to dedicate a few lines on my blog.

An in-depth exploration of the karate history of Yabu Kentsū necessitates working with Japanese primary sources and analyzing them in great detail. Only in this way can discrepancies be uncovered and corrected, even if they pertain to seemingly minor details. Otherwise, there is a risk that errors will be perpetuated or false information will be regarded as truth, which can significantly undermine historical accuracy.