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"Have pride in your style, but love for Martial Arts." Shihan Osamu Ozawa There is no doubt that more than 7,000
years ago, in its pre-Egyptian provinces, Africa bore a system of fist and
foot-based self defense, though most of its more contemporary (2000 B.C.)
description has yet to be translated, and perhaps discovered. That these dark
hued combatants ventured far northward from the African continent toward what
was eventually to become the well populated provinces of Europe, the far
East, and India is not in dispute. Evidence has been found indicating that as
far back as three thousand B.C., in India there existed
a warrior class that was taught a system of unarmed combat. Several
Buddhist documents tell of at least three systems. And so began the
preserved historic memory of warrior castes and their tools. The founder of the Zen sect, Daruma Taishi (Bodhidarma), was born into the warrior class, and learned
unarmed fighting as a boy. As a young man, he decided he did not want
to be a warrior. Instead, he became a Buddhist monk. After
several years of Buddhist studies, he decided to travel and spread the
teachings of Buddha. His travels eventually led him to
China. Shortly after his arrival in China (ci.
500 B.C.), Daruma took up his residence at the Shaolin monastery. He set about teaching Buddhism
to the monks there. He found them quite unable to absorb his teachings
as well as to perform the arduous ascetic practices that led to the
attainment of true Satori (enlightenment). Daruma discovered that the greatest impediment to the
monks’ progress was their very poor physical condition. Legend has it
that he then began to instruct them in the system of exercise he had learned
as an adolescent member of the warrior class in India. He also taught
them a system of physical and mental disciplines embodied in the "I Ching Sutra." With this training, these
monks eventually became known as the most formidable fighters in China, and
the art they practiced became known as Shaolin-szu.
The Japanese translation of the name is, Shorin-ji
Kempo. [Our Chief Instructor, Daniel
Sensei, began his martial training as a young teenager under a Chinese Gung
Fu instructor.] By way of social and commercial intercourse
with China, the Chinese system of unarmed combat was introduced to
Okinawa. Okinawa is an island chain that stretches from Japan’s southern most island, Kyushu, to
the island of Taiwan off the coast Of China. Okinawa has a native form
of self-defense known as "Okinawa-te" or
"te." It was combined with the
Chinese art and became known as Okinawa’s "Tode." In the meantime, Okinawa underwent two
periods of arms prohibition. The first was imposed by King Hashi in 1419. This served to spark interest in
unarmed defense methods. Then in 1609, the Satsuma clan, of southern
Kyushu, overran Okinawa and imposed another arms ban. This invasion
unified the Okinawans against the Japanese
aggressors, and precipitated the marriage of many rival martial arts
schools. This marriage gave birth to many
strong hybrid styles, culminating in the birth and maturation of three major Okinawan styles: Shurite,
Nahate, Tomarite. The man most responsible for the system of
Karate as we know it today was Gichin
Funakoshi. He was born in Shuri, Okinawa in
1868, and when he was only a boy of eleven, he began to study Shurite under Master Yasutsune
Itosu. Itosu taught
him all he could of Shurite. He then sent him
to the Master of Nahate, Yasutsune
Azato, who taught him the intricacies of his
art. In time, Funakoshi became a Karate expert in his own right. In 1917, Funakoshi, who was then a teacher
in the Okinawa Teacher s College, was invited to Japan to lecture and
demonstrate at a physical education exposition sponsored by the Ministry of
Education. His demonstration so impressed the audience that he was
inundated with requests to teach in Tokyo, but pressing obligations forced
him to return to Okinawa. In 1922, Funakoshi returned to Japan.
Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, invited him to
teach at the Kodokan, the Mecca of Judo. His
martial art soon caught on in Japan, and Funakoshi traveled throughout the
country giving lectures and demonstrations. The main universities
invited him to help them set up Karate teams, and hundreds of people studied
the art under his guidance. The Japan Karate Association (J.K.A.) was
established in 1955 with Funakoshi as the chief instructor. The
association was approved as a corporation by the Japanese Ministry of
Education in 1958. This made it possible for the leading Karateka to
pool their knowledge and ability. One of those top Karateka who
actually trained along with Master Funakoshi, was Shihan Osamu Ozawa, the
chairman of the Traditional Karate International Confederation, and
the gentleman to whom all of us who call ourselves members of the Blossoms
Before the Fall Dojo once had to answer. From the birth of the J.K.A onward,
progress was rapid, leading to the development of three aspects of present
day karate: 1) as self-defense, 2) as a physical art, and 3) as a
sport. In 1957, Funakoshi, the father of modern
Karate, passed away at the age of eighty-nine. But thousands of Karate
students who learned under him remained, insuring that the art that Master
Funakoshi taught would not die with him. On the contrary, in Japan and
America, Karate is widely taught, sometimes by masters such as Osamu Ozawa to
whom our dojo once answered as TKIC leaders and members, and sometimes by
imminent instructors such as Master Teriyuki Okazaki, who were the first JKA
teachers of students including our instructor Daniel Sensei. However,
now that Ozawa Shihan has passed on, each of us, and Daniel Sensei, no longer
answers to the man or TKIC, but rather to arguably what is Master Ozawa’s
conceptual legacy, i.e., "pride in one’s style, but love for
Martial Arts." |
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INDIA => CHINA
=> OKINAWA =>
JAPAN => USA
=> USA Blossoms Dojo Karate transforms the body; How far have you come, and what is your name,
warrior?
© 1993 - 2023 Blossoms Before the Fall (Dojo). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. |
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