Pass It On, Part 2


By: Russ Mahan



It is very dissatisfying and confusing having learned katas at one karate school only to have them considered incorrect at another. We tend to think things are wrong if they are not done the way we know them to be. Many forms in one dojang (or dojo) from another are different in some way even though they were considered to be exactly the same and from the same origin. I have experienced changes in footwork, how to make a fist and knife hand, changes in position of the elbow, angle of the arm/hand or whether the hand is palm up or palm down, the distance between stances, whether to step with a .c. motion while stepping or not and on and on. Why is there so much difference and seemingly such confusion on forms and all of this positioning and movement of body parts in the forms? What I would like to address here is a follow on to the previous article I titled Pass it On and what it is we are passing on.


There is an Okinawan saying that goes something like this: In life, ones greatest adversary is oneself. No matter where I have trained and no matter what I have had to re-learn, to get to the "correct" way of doing things, it has always been about working with my mind and my body on my own. As Travis Willis has told us so many times, "you are the best teacher you will ever have." I heard it put another way too, "the mind is a terrible thing" meaning we allow our thinking to get in the way of what we really intend to do. I think the point is, no one can do for you what only you can do yourself. In other words, you push yourself and you know when you are trying your best and when you are not. You make yourself practice or not.


Another point is realizing our time is much different than when tode (look it up if you don't know what this means) was being developed. I refer it the "95 and 5 rule." Because today, we have so many things that take up our time (the 95 part), the Internet, TV, sports, cars, motorcycles, movies, and Americans tend to work, work, work. These things take up (95%+) of our time while we spend very little time training or studying about it - unlike in times of old (I use this term loosely and to put this into perspective, the story Peter Pan for example was already written when Shito-Ryu became a style of karate in or around 1937). I am always taken back at the rate at which schools across America issue black belts to kids after a couple of years of "training," having really only trained a few hours each month. By comparison we practice so little compared to the karate-ka of the really old days. They would train many more hours each day and spend many years to achieve enough understanding and skill to earn 1st Dan, and that is really when learning is just is beginning. Kanyro Higaonna reportedly trained 5-6 hours everyday. More about him later.


But, back to the reason why I think there is much confusion on what is right and what is not. Much of the history of martial arts is clouded in mystery, misconceptions, opinions and etc. By the way, you too will have to make decisions on what information is accurate or what you agree with. Just start reading books and you will see what I mean. For example, the date of Higaonna's lifetime, I have three books here with me and everyone of them differ in the date he was born and the date he died. The Kim Soo Karate website (http://www.kimsookarate.com) dates him different than the 3 books I have here as I write this.


Furthermore, you can read just about any book that has karate history and it will describe how a teacher that developed a kata that was changed at the hands of his own students (usually an attempt to make it better). Of late, there has been a fall out of information that the intent of the forms was to encode or document movements - an angle and direction - that have specific meaning and over years the reason for the movement became hidden or lost movements and the kata just became a series of movements. Today many are greatly mis-understood. In addition, changing the original kata movements (angle and/or direction) would then destroy the original "hidden" reason intended to be preserved in the movements of the form. It has been told many times over that what I call the "real chewy caramel center" of karate is not revealed to a student until after many years of practice and dedication. If this is true, then one reason things became lost, mixed-up and/or changed could be because many never reached the point of learning the real intent and went on to teach what appeared to be senseless movements to others. I could easily understand how someone, not understanding what may appear to be useless may have changed a movement here and there in order to make the movement make more sense to one practicing it.


In May of 2005 I attended a karate camp which was attended by practitioners of several differing styles and types martial arts. One group that attended had thrown out all kata because the leader of this group came to the conclusion that they did not fight the way kata was practiced and therefore decided kata to be useless. They understood when fighting they did block or punch the way it is taught in kata and concluded it was useless to require students to learn that way. They were all black belts and the highest ranking member was a 7th Dan. The seminar focus was on the "hidden" meaning of kata. The result greatly impacted this group and the senior ranking member said they would revive the practice of kata following the seminar.


I believe many teachers began running out of things to teach, lacking "real" content to teach beyond kata have added "filler" activities to keep students busy, adding more time and difficulty to a seemingly empty and simple curriculum that leads to a black belt. Some schools here in the Orlando Florida don't add content and simply allow students to achieve 1st Dan within a couple of year by learning the all the required forms. Most students practice over and over learning the "proper" movements of a form so that they can pass the next rank test to get the next belt level and do not have any idea of what the form is actually about. Not knowing and understanding that "a block is not a block" is fundamental. Knowing the name, where it came from and the actual movements is only the start of understanding the art or tradition behind it. There is so much more that is missed by most martial art teachers and thus the students are left lacking and only look to learning the next thing so they may get the next belt. Many schools have turned this process into a way of making money having little to do with Budo.


I began with Tae Kwon Do and learned the Palgue series and Koryo forms. They are exactly the same in our dojang today here in Orlando, Florida (2006) as I learned them in New Mexico in the 1970s. They have not changed - at all. Why? I think it is because they were developed in the 1950s and they are well documented because of the technology of the time they originated. In contrast, Okinawan forms I would learn at one school would be taught differently at another school. As a matter of fact, every single time I moved and changed schools, they were different. I have had to re-learn the Pinan (Pyung) forms (not to mention advanced forms) 5 or 6 times over the course of many years; its frustrating to say the least to have practiced and taught a form for many years only to move and have the new school tell you its wrong.


Chayon Ryu is significant to me because it is the amalgamation of so many things that is available in martial arts but all "under one roof" so to speak. It resembles much of my own experiences, a conglomerate of martial art styles and movements into a systematic approach. It should be realized that we all have varying levels of exposure, we all are very different and we all bring something to contribute. You cannot change were you come from nor can you change your personal experiences. Why would you waste time wanting too? If we intend to pass anything on, we need to understand our base motive (ego, personal gain, etc. ) and make sure we have the student in mind at all times while keeping our bearings on where this all came from. I have decided that Chayon Ryu to be my "home" style because it really mixes all the things that I believe came from one source at one time. It brings it back together, puts it in a nice package - even though we break them out separately in order to teach significance. What I would like to leave you with are some lineage charts and what styles came from our Okinawan side and also hope you will dig a little to find out for yourself how rich martial arts history really is.


A quick look at Shito-Ryu: There are two kinds or types of Shito-Ryu from Okinawa. One founded by Shinpan Shrioma and the other was developed by Kenwa Mabuni. They were running mates in their day and both trained under Anko Itosu and Kanryo Higaonna.


Kanryo Higaonna: (his name is sometimes presented as Higashionna) brought the southern style of Shaolin Chuan fa Kenpo to Okinawa, born in Naha and was the fourth son of Kanyo Higaonna. He studied Chinese boxing under Ru Ru (sometimes called Ru Ru Ko or Ryu Ryu Ko or Lu Lu) and Wan Shin both from Fuchou China. He attracted followers from the Naha area as Itosu did in the Shuri area. This is why what Higaonna introduced in the Naha area became known as Naha-te. Naha-te katas were: Sanchin, Tensho, Gekisai, Sochin, Saiha, Kururunha, Seechin, Sepai, Sesan, Sanseru, Suparinpei and Betchurin. Many believe he should be noted as the founder of Goju Ryu since he laid the foundation for the style but Chojun Miyagi is given credit. Miyagi was a student of Higaonna. Higiaonna died around the age of 63 and was succeeded by Miyagi.


Anko Itosu (also known as Yasutsune Itosu) born in Shuri was a student of many teachers to include Sokon Matsumura (NOTE: Nabe Matsumura, Sokon's grandson trained Hohan Sokan who trained George Dillman. Travis, Rick Richard and myself have all personally training under Dillman). I think it interesting to note that Chotoku Kyan also trained under Matsumera. Kyan had a famous student well known in the United States, Joe Lewis. Lewis studied under Kyan while in the stationed in Okinawa while in the service. Since Itosu practiced his fist art in the Shuri area it became known as Shuri-te. Katas associated with Shuri-te are: Nainhanchi, Pinan, Passai (Bassai), Jion, Jitte, Sesan, Niseishi, Ananko, Gojushiho and Kusanku. Itosu worked very hard systemizing the a vast knowledge of movements into the forms and much is owed to him for doing so.


I should point out that Naha and Shuri are parts of Okinawa. Another area not mentioned that is important is Tomari. Ryu means style. I know I said to look up tode if you did not know what it means but simply tode (also to-te or tuti) literally means Chinese hand and can be taken to mean Chinese boxing. It was for many many years known as ti and later changed to the Japanese term "te" meaning hand. If you will look at a map of the area of Naha, Tomari and Shuri they are in close to each other and Foucho China is not far away from these areas either. It is believed that the shizoku class developed tode in the areas of Naha, Tomari and Shuri. From that evolution Naha-te and Shuri-te emerged as styles. Later, Tomari-te emerged as a style too and was influenced by the Naha-te and Shuru-te styles. Katas from Tomari-te are: Wansu, Wankan, Rohai, Chinto and Wansho.


Originally the Chinese boxing was Goju-Ryu was originally called Shorei-te but was locally known as Naha-te. The Shorin group of styles is commonly known to be a mixture of Tomari-te and Shuri-te. There have been mixtures of all of these as well as introductions of many others and changes to originals over the years. Kobudo was focused on the use of weapons and is usually mixed with the various styles and taught as part of a karate system.


Back to Shito-Ryu...its name was first known as Hanko-Ryu (hard and soft) but later changed to Shito-Ryu. It was derived by combining the Chinese charaters "shi" and "to." "Shi" meaning "ito" in Japanese from Itosu and "to" meaning "higa" in Japanese in reverence of the teachers who passed it on. The katas associated with Shito-Ryu are Sanchin, Seisan, Pinan (Shodan, Nidan, Sandan, Yodan, Godan), Naihanchi (Shodan, Nidan, Sandan), Passai (Bassai), Gojushiho, Kusanko, Chinto, Seyonchin and Seipai.