Gogen Yamaguchi

They call him the "Cat." Nobody seems to know quite how he got the name. Some say that the American G.I.'s stationed in Japan after World War II were the first to dub him with it because he walked so softly in the dojo they never knew when he glided up behind them. But however the name first got started, it has stuck. It seems particularly appropriate to the lithe movements of the man himself and to the graceful, beautiful brand of karate he preaches. The Cat, whose real name is Gogen Yamaguchi, is the head of the famous Goju school of karate. With his flowing hair and his piercing black eyes, this remarkable karateka has become a world figure and something of a legend in his own time. Coming out of a Manchurian prison camp after World War II, he picked up the reins of a flagging school and built it into a powerful, sprawling karate empire At 59, Yamaguchi remains a baffling figure. This descendant of samurais certainly is one of the most complex figures striding the world karate stage, and a bundle of contradictions. A Shinto priest, he is a deeply religious man. He also has the unmistakable flair that, if it were in any other field, he would have to be described as a showman. He is an apostle of calm meditation and philosophy and at the same time a restless, driving, and energetic head of a worldwide karate organization. Deeply suspicious of businessmen, he is himself the business head of what is one of the biggest and most financially successful karate systems in Japan. Domineering, humorless, he keeps a tight karate fist on the operation of the organization and the more than 1,200 dojo and clubs and 600,000 members claimed for the Goju system. Yamaguchi is a fanatic when it comes to karate. He has only two interests in life: his art and his religion. And it's difficult to tell just where the religious man leaves off and the karate man begins. The two have become so intertwined over the years that they are probably one and the same by now. Yamaguchi is a small man, just over five feet, but he gives the impression of great bulk and solemnity. His 160 pounds is spread over a powerful frame. He has been known to smile, but not very often. He is gravely serious and reserved, with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of dignity. At the same time, he can be a boon companion to close karate companions on their

exuberant physical outings. He comes alive best when charging up a mountainside in the dead of winter at the head of a group of followers, sandalless and clad only in a thin gi. While his interests are limited now, his has not been a narrow background. Trained in the law, he is also a medical doctor. He has studied all the major branches of the various arts and is a fifth degree black belt in judo. Yamaguchi is a vegetarian but he still has managed to put on a few pounds in the last few years. Yet it doesn't seem to have slowed him down. He still flashes his famous speed when he goes into action. He can deliver three or four kicks to the stomach, chest and head in one lightning-like lunge. Yamaguchi was born in Kyushu, Miyazaki Ken, in 1907. The young man was fond of athletics while growing and it was here he first began to study karate. But it wasn't until the family moved to Kyoto while he was in his teens that he began the serious study of karate. It was while attending Ritsumeikan University that Yamaguchi first heard of Goju karate and of Chojun Miyagi, the Okinawan who was head of the school. Curious about the system, Yamaguchi wrote to Miyagi and invited him to come to Japan. Miyagi accepted and left shortly thereafter. The meeting of the two was to be a fateful one, not only for Goju but for all of karate as well. Miyagi came from the city of Naha where the development of karate had taken a separate path. The other major schools of karate were centered mainly in Shiru in Okinawa. In Shiru, the emphasis had been more on the hard approach. But with Miyagi's Goju, the soft style was as important as the hard. Hard-Soft Style Indeed, the word Goju means hard-soft. Go is the Japanese word for hardness and ju means softness. The system is based on an Oriental concept that all hardness and stiffness is not good. At the same time, all softness and too much gentleness can be harmful. The two should complement each other. This combination of the two gives Goju karate its beautiful, disciplined movements, filled with grace and flowing form. But lest anyone believe that Goju is merely a beautiful style of the dance with little of the art of defense, he need only watch two Goju practitioners square off in kumite against one another. The action is fast, extremely fast. It relies on an aggressive style of attack, with the emphasis on delivering blows "hard" but with easy effort and in rapid succession. The opponents don't have much time to stand still and to look cautiously for openings. They are exchanging kicks and punches rapidly, always moving, not only forward and back, but maneuvering from side to side and aiming blows from the outside left or right. Yamaguchi immediately fell in love with the strange and intricate patterns displayed by Miyagi. From that moment on, the future of Yamaguchi was sealed. He concentrated on the study of Goju to the exclusion of almost everything else. When Miyagi left to return to Okinawa, he left behind a well-trained and dedicated follower. Miyagi awarded Yamaguchi the highest rank in Goju and made him head of the school in Japan. Devoted Apostle Miyagi couldn't have made a better choice. Driving, relentless, Yamaguchi became the apostle of Goju in Japan. With single minded determination, he set about the task of spreading the word throughout Japan.

The first thing he did was to set about establishing dojo. He organized the first karate club at Ritsumeikan University and the first karate dojo in western Japan in 1930. Under his indefatigable leadership the school began to attract new adherents and the Goju karate system began to fan out across the island nation. Early in the Japanese development, Yamaguchi made a fundamental change in the Goju school that was to alter radically the course of karate. After observing his students, he came to the conclusion that the strict Okinawan brand of karate, with its ancient Chinese origins, was too static and limited in style. Free Sparring Developed He believed that just the practice of kata (forms) and the prearranged steps in sparring called yajusoku kumite inhibited too many of the students. Under the movements of the Okinawan system, he noticed that many of the students could not create combinations of techniques readily enough or follow through with an advantage when an opening presented itself. What Yamaguchi wanted to do was to open up movements to make for faster play and to allow greater freedom of movement. He wanted a system that could be tailored to individual needs yet still retain the basic fundamentals of the system. The idea he hit upon was kumite, or free-style sparring. At first, the kumite was systematized along boxing lines. After that, it was a natural step to go from free-style sparring to tournament play. But in going from the dojo to the tournament hall, the system of kumite underwent further transformation. Yamaguchi called upon his knowledge of the other martial arts to set up a tournament style. This time he leaned heavily on the principles of kendo (sword play) in devising rules of shiai (competitive) jyu kumite for sport. Kendo was favored for two reasons: it emphasized form when delivering a strike and it limited the target area. Despite many differences with others over the areas to be left open for attack, Yamaguchi settled on the stomach and head as target areas. As he explained in silencing his critics: "In kendo, a real blade can cut any part of the human body and cause damage or fatal injury. But for safety purposes, points are made for striking only the head and stomach." So too for karate, he said, the strike zone should be limited. And so were the types of blows that could be delivered. For shiai, the opponents are restricted mainly to kicking and punching. Elbowing, clawing, and other finger and open hand strikes were disallowed. However, for dojo free-style sparring, the play is wide open with no restrictions. For this reason, as has been often observed, the best player in the dojo may often not be the best tournament player, and vice versa. With the freeing of karate from the strict adherence to kata and the addition of the competitive element, karate made tremendous strides in the next few years. But the war drums were beating during that time, and under the leadership of the war lords, Japan had embarked on an expansionist policy. In 1939, Yamaguchi had to leave his school and was sent to Manchuria as an officer of the Japanese government. He remained there throughout the war. But while abroad, he took the opportunity to travel throughout China to study various Chinese martial arts. Near the end of the war, the Russians intervened in Manchuria and Yamaguchi was taken prisoner. At the time, his wife, Midori, was expecting their third child almost any day. Taking her two other children with her, Mrs. Yamaguchi walked for miles to another village where she gave birth. For the next few months, the village was raided constantly by four different armies.

Though a calm, sensitive person, Mrs. Yamaguchi displayed during that period the quiet strength and strong will characteristic of her. There are those close to the Goju organization who say that if Yamaguchi hadn't had the strong-willed Midori at his side during all these years he wouldn't have been able to organize his system. Some of the old-time students feel greater affection for her than they do for the master. She encouraged them and kept up their spirits during the years of rigorous training. Yamaguchi had been slated for hard labor in the Russian POW camp. But even his Russian captors were impressed by the man. When they found out who he was, they had him give karate lessons to the Russian troops. And so the captive became the master of the captors, who became his students. When Yamaguchi was finally released in 1947, he came home to find the martial arts in disarray. The victorious Allied armies had outlawed the practice of the martial arts under the terms of their occupation. But karate was not affected by the ban. At that time, the art was not well known to Westerners and the army brass believed karate to be a form of Oriental dance. Even so, Yamaguchi had his work cut out for him. He found his own school badly disorganized in his absence. He set to work with typical energy to rebuild. One thing that aided him was his dramatic appearance. He had taken to wearing his hair long, in the style of older Shinto priests and the samurais of old. As the ancient ways were being swept aside in the aftermath of war and the exposure to Western ideas, Yamaguchi reaffirmed his faith in the country's basic traditions by affecting the style of the ancient feudal lords. Expansion of Arts His striking appearance and his appeal to ancient pride struck a responsive note in the Japanese people. The years ahead were to witness a remarkable expansion in karate and all the arts as wen, and not only in Japan, but other nations, too. It is somewhat ironic that, while Japan was unable to expand its ideas by force of arms during the war, its system of individual fighting was to sweep the rest of the world in peacetime. It's also interesting to note that the military occupation was also to prove advantageous from one point of view. There were many servicemen who found their way to his Goju-Kai dojo in Tokyo and studied the art there. When they left to return home, they took the art with them and aided the expansion abroad. One of the first things that Yamaguchi did when he arrived back from Manchuria was to try to revive interest in the arts again. He decided to hold a big week-long exhibition in Tokyo featuring all the various Chinese arts he had discovered during his years there as well as the traditional Japanese arts. The festival proved to be a great success and helped reawaken interest. Meanwhile, Yamaguchi's students were flocking back to him. Today, the Goju school flourishes in Japan. From his headquarters at the Goju-Kai, Yamaguchi oversees a vast network of dojo in schools, offices, factories and elsewhere across the country. And Yamaguchi keeps tight control over the organization. The result is a highly organized school with strong financial resources for running and expanding the system. To his instructors and top students, Yamaguchi can hold out the prospect of their opening their own dojo. He can supply them with the monetary backing they need to tide them over while becoming established. In return, they owe their allegiance to the Cat and his school. Partly through financial help and partly through force of personality, Yamaguchi has been successful in tying his dojo heads to him instead of seeing them

spin off to open up systems on their own. To keep the system going, there has to be a steady stream of funds moving upward through the organization to be dispersed at the top for promoting the system. Times have changed since the old days when a master instructed a few pupils who came to his home to study. Yamaguchi now has almost 2,000 students at his Goju-Kai dojo alone. It takes organization and financial liquidity to run a large and successful martial arts institution today. Funds are received in two ways- through the initiation fee each student pays when he enrolls at a dojo affiliated with the Goju system and through the purchase of certificates and diplomas of ranking. Part of the funds go to the local dojo and part is passed along to the central organization. At the top, Yamaguchi uses the funds to open new dojo, pay the expenses and salaries of his instructors and to meet organizational expenses. The goju brand of karate is as complex as the baffling figure who heads the system. Its style is a hybrid of Chinese, Okinawan and Japanese influences. In addition, Goju karate has been influenced by a number of the other martial arts. Many of the school's movements are very soft, as in Chinese kenpo. The Okinawan brand of karate was originally imported from China more than 400 years ago, but had developed into a hard style during its years on the island. Goju doctrine holds that certain breathing exercises can harden a man to the point where he can absorb a kick or a punch without feeling pain. Goju men will sometimes test themselves by raining blows on each other during the breathing kata. Their concentration is so. intense that they continue the exercises, seemingly impervious to the blows. Miyagi reinstituted the Chinese influence after he made a trip to the mainland to study the different Chinese arts. Originally, Miyagi had been a student of the Shorin school, a hard style. The story is told that while visiting a temple, he noticed a crane sitting on a roof which was made of tile. As he approached the huge bird, the crane became alarmed and flew away. As it was flying away, the frightened crane flapped its wings against the tile roof, breaking some of the tiles in the process. Miyagi was amazed that the soft feathers of the crane were able to break something as hard as tiles. With that as the beginning, he devised a whole new approach to karate, mixing in with the hard techniques many soft ones to be used in countering hard blows and kicks. Many goju techniques today actually look like the flapping of a bird's wings. Many blocks and strikes are in the form of slaps, though the slaps usually feel a lot more bear-like when one is on the receiving end. Though graceful and bird-like in appearance, they are delivered with a powerful snap. In actual practice, the goju man uses what he terms the "five power rule" in countering a hard blow with a soft technique. The five-power rule is used for grading the intensity with which a blow is delivered. A lightly delivered blow would be using only one-power or two-power strength. An extremely heavy blow would be fivepower. In countering a full-force blow, a goju man would never meet the force of the blow head on with an equally hard block. Instead, he would wait toward the end of the strike and parry with a three-power block. By using only moderate power to block, the goju man would conserve strength. By waiting, the opponent is allowed to commit himself to following through on his strike. If the opponent is countered too soon, it gives him a chance to recover and to apply another technique. Of course, this waiting until toward the -end of the opponent's blows requires

developing a good sense of timing and split instant reactions to be able to get the counter blow off quickly and accurately. Hence, the great emphasis on speed in this school. Blows are delivered swiftly and in rapid succession. Yamaguchi, for instance, can deliver three or four kicks to the chest, neck, and side of the face in the same lunge. His hand strikes are delivered with blinding speed. One of his tricks is to hang a piece of cardboard by two slender threads and then withdraw his hand into the sleeve of his gi. His hand can shoot out and Pierce the cardboard with three finger holes and then be withdrawn into the sleeve with an observer barely able to notice the flicking movement. At the same time, the cardboard hasn't moved, though it bears the telltale three punctures. The overall movements of the entire system are based on speed. There is a great deal of moving in and out quickly and weaving from side to side, in contrast to the hard schools which concentrate more on straightforward movements. Naturally, all this fast motion lends itself to graceful and artistic techniques. A basic stance, called the cat stance, is a very soft one with one foot poised on tiptoe, ready to move quickly in any direction. This is in direct contrast to the solid, flat-footed stance so often employed in the hard styles. Another facet of Goju is the extreme closeness with which the blows are delivered in kumite. The school emphasizes control of motions and a student is supposed to be able to stop a punch or kick only fractions of an inch from target. Yamaguchi himself knows hundreds of techniques. But his favorite techniques are concerned with kicking and elbow strikes. He has huge elbows and delivers the elbow blows with great force. As for kicks, he likes specially a front kick and roundhouse kick in combination. But even with all this emphasis on speed, the study of the traditional kata is still underscored. Goju, with its love of graceful and delicate movements could be expected to venerate the historical kata. Many Goju men feel that the kata is usually more dynamic and far more beautiful than kumite, not to mention considerably more varied. There is another form of kata for which the school is famous and without which no explanation of the Goju style would be complete. That is the school's breathing kata. No one who has ever witnessed a Goju man practicing his breathing kata under a full head of steam will ever forget the experience. It is an awesome and, to those of a more timid turn, sometimes frightening experience. A good Goju man can be heard half a block away and more while engaged in breathing exercises. There are two types of breathing practiced, the in-ibuki and the yo-ibuki. The in-ibuki is the soft but firm type of breathing which starts from deep within the abdomen. This is similar to the type of breathing which is practiced in Yoga and Zen meditation, and is usually directed towards spiritual and meditative matters when practiced. Goju adherents never tire of repeating that this is the normal way a baby breathes. It is only when we get older that we learn to breathe from our chest. The yo-ibuki is the hard style of breathing. The sound effects are menacing. The breathing is loud and heavy and comes from deep within, producing something of the sound of a full-throated lion about to strike. The inhaling is done in quick intakes through the nose while the exhaling is a prolonged process of short breaths through the mouth. In exhaling the whole body is tensed, including the throat and esophagus. This tightens the air passage and the air is forced from the abdomen. This whole process is said to be combative or animal-like breathing. The tensing that is carried out during the breathing exercises is similar to that carried

on in dynamic tension and isometric exercises. Tensing is believed to build up physical strength. And that goes internally, too, where the breathing is said to strengthen the heart and other vital organs. The student is taught never to exhale all his breath at once but to ration it out in short breaths. One reason is to always save a little breath so that an opponent cannot strike when one is out of breath and at one's weakest just before inhaling. The idea is always to save a little breath to counter. A good Goju man who is really warmed up will stride across the floor rippling every muscle from head to foot while engaged in powerful animal-like breathing. The effect can be quite spectacular. But there is another side to the breathing exercises, the side concerned with the mental and spiritual aspects of karate. By its very nature, this is the side most difficult to grasp for many persons, especially Westerners. The most advanced type of breathing exercise is that in which all of one's strength is concentrated on a specific feeling or thought. It is through concentration and meditation that man learns to improve himself. The martial- arts are an excellent example of the Oriental approach to life. In the Western world, great emphasis is placed on team sports. But the Oriental thinks of life as an individual and personal thing and trains by himself in his sports. The arts also stress discipline-not only physical control of the body but control of the mind as well. The idea is to try to conquer one's own laziness and shortcomings through mental training and discipline. Whereas in the West we are taught that the needs of the body are important and not be neglected, the opposite is true in much of Oriental philosophy. Shintoism and Buddhism deny people's nature. A person is taught to endure hardness and to shun bodily pleasure. As a result, many serious students of karate in Japan go into periods of hard training without eating anything to test their endurance and patience. Finally, most Orientals tend to be pessimists. They tend to deny their service as human beings. Religion teaches them that this life is just borrowed and the really pure and happy life comes after death. As a result, the Oriental tends to live not for himself but is taught to be self-sacrificing. As this is translated in the martial arts, it requires much self-sacrificing effort and disciplining. For instance, in Yamaguchi's place, he goes out into the mountains once a month to toughen himself up spiritually and physically. He engages in sanchin (breathing) exercises for several hours under an icy waterfall to try to make his mind and spirit impenetrable to adverse physical conditions. During the coldest part of the winter, Yamaguchi sets off for two weeks of grueling exercises in snow clad mountains. Last winter, the outdoor excursion was held on the slopes of Mt. Nagano Ontake. Each day started off with Yamaguchi and his followers pouring ice water over themselves. After that bracing morning eye opener, they ran around for a while before doing calisthenics and sanchin exercises under a stream of water that poured down on them. At the end of the training session, Yamaguchi, still fresh and bursting with vitality, led his charges on a barefoot run up the hill to the Ontake Shrine for a little Zazen meditation. When away from such a stimulating environment, Yamaguchi still keeps a rigid schedule at home. He rises early and manages to get in an hour or more of meditation and more than an hour of kata practice by himself every morning. After breakfast and catching up on his correspondence and other business details, he puts in a full day teaching and working at the dojo. He can be found there most days from noon until 10 p.m.

Though he's 59 years old now, Yamaguchi shows no signs of slowing down. Just the opposite. He has big plans afoot which require his energies. He has one big dream and that is to start a four-year martial arts college in Japan. He has started construction on the first building already. After the first two years, the student would receive his black belt. In the third and fourth year the student would train to be an instructor. Other subjects studied would be weaponry, chiropody (Yamaguchi is a bone specialist), religion and Japanese art., Fully realizing the spread of karate outside Japan, he has reached out to try to expand his school in the United States. Since the Shotokan school got the jump on Yamaguchi and has been strongly established in the Los Angeles area for years, he has made his principal U.S. headquarters at the Goju-Kai Karatedo in San Francisco. The San Francisco school is under the direction of Yamaguchi's son, Gosei. Gosei is a black belt, of course, like his two brothers and two sisters. All five children began instruction at an early age. But though Gosei studied karate practically every day of his life from age five onwards, his father did not give him a black belt until he was 20 years old. "Remember," he admonished his son, "we are always students of karate. We can never be complete masters." He drove his sons relentlessly in their study of the art to try to make them as expert as possible. The result is as might be predicted. Though he made them highly proficient, even brilliant, practitioners of the art, their main interest has not been in the field of karate, at least in the case of the two oldest sons. Originally, Gosen Yamaguchi was sent to the United States to establish the school here. But after two years, he quit and went to work for Japan Airlines. Gosei Yamaguchi, who took over, is more interested in literature and acting, and is taking his master's degree in English literature at San Francisco State College. The third son, Goshi, is the strongest and best karate fighter of the three, but he has artistic and photographic interests and it remains to be seen in which field his interests will lay. Though hard with his sons, Yamaguchi has been softer with the girls, which seems particularly fitting in view of his overall philosophy of hardness and softness. Whether go or ju in his outlook, one thing can be expected of the cat man of karate. He will always be on the move, looking for new and varied ways to expand his beloved Goju system. By Sonny Palabrica Black Belt, March-April, 1966

Jigoro Kano

Indeed, he was many things to many people. Like Sir Thomas More, a man for all seasons. His many worlds encompassed much of value to Japan. From scattered quotes taken from various sources close to him, we can only glimpse Jigoro Kano, the man: "He used to take an umbrella with him every day because he didn't like to worry about whether or not it would rain." "When he returned home, he would go straight into the living room, which meant on most days I would not see my father at all. "Just after I graduated from Waseda University, he sent me a cable: 'Your father has been looking for a wife for you. What sort of woman do you have in mind for a wife?' Less than three years later, I married his daughter." "He was very strict with us at school. I had to get up at 5 o'clock every morning and help clean the rooms and the garden." "He was so proud of his legs he used to pull up his hakama just to show off his big calves." "He wept when he heard of my sister's (his daughter's) death." He was a perfectionist, a disciplinarian and a traditionalist. But, at the same time, an innovator, an internationalist and a man of great generosity. More important, he was a famous educator and the father of modern sports in Japan. But above all, Jigoro Kano was the founder of judo! When he first saw the light of day on Oct. 28, 1860, Japan's feudal period was rapidly drawing to a close. Across the seas in America, the United States was embarked on a tragic civil war. Just as today, it was a time of turmoil and change around the world. He was fortunate enough to be born into a family that was reasonably well off, at least well enough placed to get Jigoro into the elite Tokyo Imperial University. His grandfather had launched the family into the business of making sake in Nada, Shiga Prefecture, near the Biwa Lake in central Japan. In fact, it was this same sake-brewing clan that organized the other sake makers in the area to help finance the Fujimi-cho Dojo which served as the Kodokan in the latter half of the 1880s. Since Jigoro's father was not the eldest son, the sake business was not passed down into his hands. Even at that, his father did all right for himself at Kobe-Jigoro's birthplace-as both a Shinto priest -and a high-ranking government official in charge of purchasing agents for shipping lines. It was this side of the Kano family that prompted

the building of Japan's first steel ships coastal vessels designed to carry sake. The third son in a family of three boys and two girls, young Jigoro was physically weak in his early years. In fact, he was beaten up so often by local bullies he resolved to strengthen himself the best way he could. It was this unrelenting drive to learn how to defend himself that eventually led to his formulation of judo. One wonders what would have happened had Jigoro Kano been a big brute of a man instead of the 5-foot, 2-inch, 90-pound weakling he was in his teens. Jujitsu was flourishing during Jigoro's boyhood. One might even term the mid-19th century the golden age of jujitsu. So it was with rather anxious expectation Jigoro looked forward to moving to Tokyo, where most of the jujitsu activity was going on. When he was 17, his father ordered him to go to the capital on board one of the sakecarrying steel ships, but he insisted on traveling by land. His father relented-and a good thing, too, because the vessel he was to sail on broke up in stormy seas en route to Tokyo and sank. Obsessed With Learning Jigoro enrolled the following year at Tokyo Imperial University at the age of 18. When he wasn't in class or studying, he would go off in search of an osteopath because they had all received jujitsu training. Apparently, he was still obsessed with the desire to learn the art of manly self-defense and concluded jujitsu offered him the best hope. His search finally led him to the door of a bone doctor in Nihonbashi named Teinosuke Yagi who promised to introduce him to a jujitsu teacher living in the neighborhood. Jigoro Kano had actually started his training in jujitsu at the age of 17, but his instructor, Ryuji Katagiri, felt he was too young for serious training. As a result, Katagiri gave him only a few formal exercises for study and let it go at that. The determined young man was not about to be put off so easily, however, and finally wound up at the dojo of Hachinosuke Fukuda, a master in the Tenjin-Shinyo School of Jujitsu who had been recommended by Dr. Yagi. Fukuda stressed technique over formal exercises, or kata. His method was to give an explanation of the exercises, but to concentrate on free-style fighting in practice sessions. Jigoro Kano's emphasis on "randori" in judo undoubtedly found its beginnings here under Fukuda's influence. The Kodokan's procedure of teaching beginners the basis of judo, then having them engage in randori' and only after they had attained a certain level of proficiency, teaching them the formal kata, came from Fukuda and a later sensei named Iikubo. In 1879, a year after Jigoro started working out at Fukuda's dojo, the jujitsu master suddenly became gravely ill and died at the age of only 52. The 19-year-old youth soon joined another branch of the Tenjin-shinyo-ryu run by a 62-year-old jujitsu instructor named Masatomo Iso. Located in the Kanda section of Tokyo near the center of the city, Iso's dojo was known for its excellence in kata. Iso, himself, was only 5 feet tall, but had a powerful body and an energetic personality. Over the next two years, Jigoro Kano ate, drank and slept jujitsu, practicing night and day at the point of exhaustion. Things got so bad he was even having nightmares about the martial art, shouting jujitsu terms in his sleep and kicking out at his quilt. The sensei saw his dedication and promise and soon made him an assistant. Jigoro instructed 20 or 30 students, starting with kata and then moving on to free fighting. By the time he was 21 years old in 1881, Kano had become a master in Tenjinshinyo-ryu jujitsu. But Iso, like Fukuda before him, became ill and Kano decided to move on, feeling he still had much to learn and wanting to study rather than teach.

The next step seemed almost inevitable. Jigoro Kano met Tsunetoshi Iikubo, master of the Kito School of Jujitsu, and began training at his dojo. Even when no one else showed up, Kano would work out alone. Like Fukuda, Iikubo put the stress on free fighting and he was especially skillful at teaching nage-waza. Reforming Jujitsu It was during these early jujitsu training days Jigoro Kano worked out some new throws and turned his attention more and more to ways of reforming jujitsu into some kind of new system. While practicing at the Tenjin-shinyo Training Hall, he ran up against a big, 200-pound bruiser named Kenkichi Fukushima. Outweighed by 100 pounds, the lightweight youth invariably lost to the bigger man. He wanted to beat Fukushima so badly he could taste it, studying everything he could get his hands on books on sumo techniques, training books from abroad, etc. Finally, Jigoro worked out a new technique. The next time he met his burly rival he charged in low, lifted Fukushima onto his shoulders, whirled him around and easily tossed him on the mat. He promptly dubbed his new throw "kata-garuma," or shoulder whirl. Other throws he worked out include "uki-goshi" (rising hip throw) and "tsurikomi-goshi" (lift-pull hip throw). The original idea was merely to reform jujitsu rather than found a new system. Kano was well aware of the shortcomings, but felt these could be weeded out with the result that jujitsu could be beneficial to young men-not only as a martial art, but also as a form of physical education as well as training and discipline of the spirit; in short, a valuable preparation for one's daily life. He dedicated himself to formulating a system of reformed jujitsu founded on scientific principles, integrating combat training with mental and physical education. He borrowed the "katamewaza" (mat techniques) and "atemi-waza" (throwing techniques) of Kito-ryu, holding onto those techniques that conformed to scientific principles and rejecting all others. All harmful and dangerous techniques were eliminated. When 22-year-old Jigoro Kano took nine of his private students from the Kito-ryu Training Hall in February 1882 and set up his own dojo in Eisho-ji Temple, judo didn't automatically spring into being. In fact, Kito-ryu master Iikubo came to the temple two or three times a week to help instruct Kano's students. So what they were getting was more jujitsu than judo training. Two years were to elapse before the bylaws of the first Kodokan were drawn up. Much has been written about those early days at Eisho-ji, and it is this temple that is generally regarded by most people as the birthplace of judo. The transition from jujitsu to judo was made slowly but surely, although it is difficult to pinpoint the day when what that handful of students were learning was no longer jujitsu, but judo. It might have been the day when Kano first defeated Iikubo. Until then he had never managed to get the better of the Kito-ryu stylist. But that day in randori practice, Kano blocked every move Iikubo made, then called on his "uke-waza" and "sumiotoshi" to throw the jujitsu master no less than three times. Kano explained: "Force your opponent to make his body rigid and lose his balance, and then when he is helpless, you attack." Iikubo replied: "From now on, you teach me." Iikubo soon retired as an instructor and Kano finally received his accreditation as a Kito-ryu master. Apparently, Iikubo was a vigorous fighter because every time he came to teach at the 12-mat dojo at Eisho-ji, training got a bit more violent than usual. And the tablets would come tumbling down!

A Chiding Buddhist Priest It seems the converted dojo adjoined the main hall of the temple in which the image of Buddha was located together with hundreds of mortuary tablets presented by various worshipers. And every time Jigoro Kano and his students practiced, these clay tablets bounced up and down and banged against each other, several falling to the floor. This went on until one day head priest Choshumpo rushed into the dojo and declared: "He may be young, but Mr. Kano is really an outstanding man. What a fine person he would be if he would only leave this judo alone." Despite the priest's occasional protestations, the practice sessions continued at Eisho Temple. Sometimes the training would be so rough the dojo floor sagged and even broke in some places. Nighttime would find the indefatigable Kano crawling under the floor with a lantern repairing the broken boards. The year before, in 1881, Kano had graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and soon secured a position as a literature instructor at Gakushuin (Peer's School), an exclusive school for the children of high-born Japanese. His instruction at the dojo had to be sandwiched between his work at the school and the preparation for the next day's classes. It wasn't unusual for him to keep going into the wee hours of the morning. He was tough on both his academic and his judo students, a disciplinarian of sorts. But he was also a very generous man, offering his judo students barley tea and rice mixed with lotus roots at the temple. He provided his poorer students with practice clothes-jujitsu-gi, which he even laundered for them. Priest Choshumpo finally came to the end of his tether and presented Kano with an ultimatum: "Either leave the temple or give up practice there." Being an enterprising young man, Kano made a deal for using an empty lot next to Eisho-ji and built a tiny training hall there measuring only 12 by 18 feet. But this was only a temporary move and Kano set up his next dojo in his own home in 1883. With 20 mats, it was the largest training hall up to this time. But 1884 was the key year when the Kodokan by-laws were drawn up. Kano declared, "Taking together all the merits I have acquired from the various schools of jujitsu, and adding my own devices and inventions, I have founded a new system for physical culture, mental training and winning contests. This I call Kodokan judo. " Randori and kata became firmly established and even made the subjects of lectures and debates as well as a part of education. But the big difference from jujitsu was the "do" in judo-finding the way. Kano saw judo, then, as a way of life. He saw it in terms of a sport, whereas jujitsu was merely another of the martial arts, a method of defense. The dangerous techniques of jujitsu were eliminated from the judo contests, but retained as part of judo's defense system. This especially applied to "atemi." Another essential difference from jujitsu was judo's application of "kazushi," a theory devised by Jigoro Kano during his jujitsu training and used so successfully against Kito-ryu master Tsunetoshi Iikubo. "Using a minimum amount of strength, it is possible to throw your opponent if you force him off-balance by breaking his posture." According to Kazuzo Kudo, kyu-dan director of the Kodokan and author of "Dynamic Judo," Jigoro Kano's "fame and greatness are based on this principle just as much as they are on him as the founder of judo." Fierce Rivalry Springs Up As might be expected, a fierce rivalry sprang up between judo and jujitsu. The martial art had been steadily declining toward the end of the 19th Century and its masters were getting desperate to hold onto their students who were beginning to trickle away

to judo. Kudo says reports of street fighting by judo and jujitsu students jealous of their own prowess were exaggerated. Critics claim jujitsu had a bad reputation for terror tactics by goon squads and it made rowdies out of youths. Among the now-famous pupils of Kano in those early days were Yoshitsugi Yamashita, who later taught judo to President Theodore Roosevelt; Tsunejiro Tomita, father of the noted author of the judo novel "Sugata Sanshiro"; Seiko Higuchi; Shiro Saigo, who became a student in 1884 at the age of 16 and developed into a kind of judo genius, especially noted for his "yama-arashi" and "harai-goshi"; and Sakujiro Yokoyama who was such a fighting demon he was known as "Devil Yokoyama." These students were Kano's judo stalwarts in the early contests with the police and other jujitsu dojo. The first "shiai" probably started informally in the Kodokan, but by 1884 the first Red and White Contest was inaugurated, continuing biannually until the present day. The following year the Kodokan won its first shiai-against the police, who had adopted jujitsu. "Kagami-Biraki," or Rice-Cake Cutting Ceremony, was instituted in 1884 and has been observed ever since on the second Sunday in January. By 1886, Kano changed the Kodokan once again from his home in Koji-machi to the Fujimi-cho residence of the Meiji Era magnate, Baron Yajiro Shinagawa. And it was here during the next three or four years that Kodokan judo achieved supremacy over the rival jujitsu schools. Although he was a man of many interests, Jigoro Kano always thought in terms of judo. To him, a kyudoka was a judoman using a bow and arrow and a kendoka was a judoka with a sword. Once the Kodokan was firmly established, Kano's thoughts turned toward the spread of judo on a nationwide basis and eventually throughout the world. In fact, Kano went on his first overseas visit in 1889 to spread the good word about this new Japanese sport. In the latter 1880s Yajiro Shinagawa, a magnate of the Meiji Period, was appointed ambassador to England and asked Kano to take care of his house at Koji-machi while he was gone. The young judo master agreed, but was soon tempted into turning the house into a judo dojo. Thus, Ambassador Shinagawa's home became the next Kodokan, with 40 mats available for practice. Fortunately, Shinagawa was a generous and broadminded man. By 1892, there were still less than 100 judo students practicing at the Kodokan. Kano preferred tachi-waza (standing techniques), to ne-waza (mat work), at which he was less skillful and, thus, avoided whenever possible. Indeed, he had a tough time of it when he was forced onto the mat. To compensate for this, his assistants and students trained especially hard in ne-waza in order to beat jujitsu rivals. Ninety -one-year-old Saburo Nango, a nephew of Jigoro Kano and 18 years his junior, remembers doing randori with his uncle in those early years. "He was small, but a very good technician," Nango recalls. "He was also fast and very strong." Nango also occasionally thinks back to the first judo kangeiko when students ran from the dojo at Kami-ni-bancho to Toranomon and back again in the dead of winter-a distance of six or seven miles. The first kangeiko was launched in 1894, while the first shochugeiko (midsummer training) began two years later in 1896. Management of the Kodokan was handled by Kano himself until 1894 when a consultative body, the Kodokan Council, was set up. To say that Kano was busy would be putting it mildly. He usually rode to work in a ricksha as headmaster of Gakushuin, or Peer's School, but only after spending two hours instructing at hi s own Kobun Gakuen (a school organized by Kano for Chinese students). After work, he would go to the Kodokan and supervise the training. Then late at night, he would

prepare his lectures for the following day. Kano became headmaster of Gakushuin at the age of only 25. It customarily admitted only the children of the Imperial family and titled, upper-class families, but after Kano took over, enrollment was enlarged to include pupils from other social strata, including commoners. According to Kazuzo Kudo, Kano ranks along with Shain Yoshida as one of Japan's modern educators. As headmaster of both Gakushuin and the Tokyo Teachers Training School (the present-day Tokyo University of Education) off and on for more than a quarter of a century, Jigoro Kano laid the basis of modern education in Japan. He turned Gakushuin into a boarding school, allowing his students to go home only on weekends. He refused to go along with the commonly accepted notion that the highborn were inherently superior in mental potential and opened the doors to commoners-a revolutionary move at the time. He also had his students perform menial tasks in order to discipline them and teach them humility. Thus, the entire environment changed under Kano's administration, and not too surprisingly the parents of the students were full of admiration for the wonders being worked at Gakushuin. Unusually Strict with Students Nango remembers Kano as unusually strict. "When I was a student under him," Nango explained, "I had to get up at 5 o'clock every morning and help clean the rooms and the garden." Dr. T. Morohashi, today one of the leading professors of Chinese culture at Tokyo University, called Kano sensei a "confident and broad-minded president." When he entered Tokyo Teachers Training School in 1904, Kano was 44 years old. He called in a few of the students and asked them to speak their minds frankly. Noting the meager resources of the library, Morohashi insisted improvement of the library should take precedence over building a big dojo. Kano replied one could read anywhere, but one certainly couldn't practice judo any old place. Even at that, the next time he met with the vice minister of education, Kano pushed hard for a boost in the school library budget. Jigoro's feelings about education are summed up in a statement he made at the Kodokan's 50th anniversary in 1934. "Nothing under the sun is greater than education. By educating one person and sending him into the society of his generation, we make a contribution extending a hundred generations to come." Kano often was at odds with superior authorities in the field of education, but never once submitted a letter of resignation over the matter. That's because he never thought he was wrong! Dr. Morohashi also accused Kano of delivering boring lectures, recalling once when only three students showed up for one of his lectures. Kano was so angry he cried: "Everyone in this course is dropped! " It was in August of 1891 Jigoro Kano married Sumako, the eldest daughter of Seisei Takezoe-onetime ambassador to Korea. They had nine children-six daughters and three sons, including Risei, present head of the Kodokan and the All-Japan Judo Federation. Atsuko, Kano's youngest daughter, is the only other surviving child and is married to Masami Takasaki--an 8-dan judoka and Kodokan director. A typical "kokushi" father, Kano ruled his family with an iron hand; his word was law and disobedience unthinkable. The eldest daughter, Noriko, wrote of her reminiscences of her famous father. Tall and pretty with a well-shaped nose, she was the favorite of her parents and perhaps closer than the others to her father. Even at that, she writes: "When he returned home, he would go straight into the living room,

which meant on most days I would not see my father at all." Risei Kano remembers his father as broad-minded and a man with an international outlook. He learned judo techniques from his father at the home dojo, but simply wasn't the athletic type. Although Jigoro Kano was a strict disciplinarian, he also had an emotional, warm-hearted side. "He wept," Risei recalls, "when he heard of Noriko's death." Although Kano provided his children with fine training and a good education, he was so busy most of the time his family must have been lonely without him. "He left the children almost entirely to the mother," Noriko writes in her Recollections of My Father. Sometimes, all they would see of their father was when they lined up at the entrance of their home to welcome him back-" O-kaeri-nasai mase"-before he disappeared for the day into the living room. Commands Instant Obedience Those were the days of Meiji (1868-1912) when the father was a benevolent despot, when children were seldom seen and rarely heard, when they were not allowed to venture into the living room if he were there, when they were not allowed to take their meals with him, when they feared and respected rather than loved him and when his commands elicited instant obedience from them. Both Kudo and Nango remember visiting Kano at his home, usually in the morning. Kano was not always burdened with weighty matters, for Kudo recalls they often talked of trifling things. "Kano sensei never smoked, but he liked his sake and his face got red quickly when he was drinking." He refused to indulge in the Japanese tradition of exchanging sake cups with fellow drinkers and drinking from theirs. Since this custom was greatly admired in the rural areas, farmers invariably wanted to swap sake cups with Kano, but he considered it to be an unhealthy practice and grew angry when they asked him. Jigoro Kano only stood five feet, two inches but he weighed over 165 pounds. He had broad shoulders and chest and big calves. Kudo says "Shihan was so proud of his calves he was always pulling up his hakama to show them off." Kudo was also amazed at Kano's speed. "I was surprised at how quickly he threw me." According to Kudo, Jigoro Kano was always smiling, even when he was angry. "He laughed deeply when he was pleased." Takasaki, his son-in-law, confirmed this by saying Kano had a keen sense of humor, and although easily angered, he was also quick to laugh. Takasaki also remembers Kano liked sake, but knew his limit and usually stopped before he had too much. "If he over-imbibed, he invariably got sick." In his active days no one practiced harder than Jigoro Kano. He kept at it until he was a mass of wounds, barely able to stagger home. His judogi is on display at the Kodokan and is made of brown linen on the outside and cotton inside. He repaired it himself with kite twine. With the bottom in tatters, the judogi is discolored with oil and sweat-mute testimony to Jigoro Kano's strength and fierce fighting spirit. In 1907 Kano had the sleeves and pants of the judogi fully lengthened to cover the arms and legs and protect the elbows and knees. The jacket was also shortened. Thus, the judogi assumed the final form in which it is still used today. This was in sharp contrast to the early days when judoka wore shorts and a jacket that left half the arms as well as the knees and legs exposed. By the time Kano was 60 he gave up wearing a judogi, simply putting on a haori (formal shirt) and performing his kata in that way. The Kodokan officially became a foundation in May 1909, and two years later in April 1911 the Judo Teachers' Training Department was set up. Then in 1922, the

Kodokan Dan Grade Holders Association was organized, followed by the Judo Medical Research Society in 1932. When Kano called judo "a way of human development understandable by people all over the world," he was attempting to formulate an idea he had of organizing an international judo federation to spread interest in judo. By 1912, the Shihan had made no less than nine trips abroad to create interest in the new Japanese sport. By this time, many foreigners-mostly sailors and merchant seamen-were training at the Kodokan. Books on judo in foreign languages were being written. Thus, before the outbreak of World War 1, dojo had been set up in the United States, Britain, France, Canada and India as well as in Russia, China and Korea. A Russian by the name of A. Oshichenikov visited Japan in 1911 and spent six years training at the Kodokan. Before he returned home in 1917, he had been promoted to nidan. He not only proceeded to teach judo techniques to the Red Army and the secret police, but was also instrumental in organizing Russia's judo-like sport of sambo in the 1930s. Yoshitsuge Yamashita's staging of a worldwide jujitsu meet at the Japan Police Ministry in 1893 must have started Kano thinking along the same lines for judo. But first he had to spread it throughout Japan. Nango recalls Kano lecturing him along the following lines: "Japan is a small, mountainous and highly-populated country, short of resources, and so we Japanese must perform to the utmost of our ability. We must mutually support one another and make the best use of energy to keep Japan independent." Here are embodied two of his key judo principles, "the best use of energy" and "mutual prosperity." Besides his association with Gakushuin and the Tokyo Teachers Training School (later known as Tokyo Education College), Kano was responsible for founding Kobun Gakuen, a special school for Chinese students which was attended by Sun Yat-sen. Just before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, the Chinese Premier invited Kano to visit China at the bequest of the Empress in order to lay the basis for educating young Chinese in Japan and thus strengthen China. Kano made a thorough study of the situation, communicating with Chinese officials by the written language of kanji which is used by both nations (although the oral language is completely different). School for Chinese in Japan Kano recommended Kobun Gakuen be set up in Japan, but suggested Prince Saionji be consulted first since he was the Japanese Minister of Education. This was done, and in 1902 Saionji asked Kano to organize the school using professors from Gakushuin and Tokyo Educational College. The Japanese government helped support the new Kobun Gakuen which educated several hundred Chinese during the seven years of its existence. Needless to say, judo was an integral part of the school's athletic activities. Although Kano was devoted to judo, he was interested in all of sports. Just as he laid the basis of modern education in Japan, he also became the father of modern sports in the country. In 1911 he founded the Japan Athletic Ass'n and became its first president. About the same time, he was named Japan's first member of the International Olympic Committee and attended the Fifth Olympiad in Stockholm in 1912-the first Olympics in which Japan took part. In promoting sports and physical education in Japan, Kano got a wealthy lawyer by the name of Kishi interested in sports, resulting in Kishi donating a great deal of money to the JAA. Today, the Kishi Kaikan is the headquarters for the JAA. Kano continued as JAA president until 1922, when he resigned and became honorary

president of that organization. Kudo entered the Kodokan in 1917 and started training under Kano the following year, continuing until the Shihan's death two decades later. He learned kata personally from Kano and sometimes joined with him in demonstrating kata. The stocky little kyudan, now 71, is one of the few judoka left who has received instruction directly from Jigoro Kano. Takasaki, who was captain of the Waseda University judo team, graduated in 1925 and immediately joined the Army's Imperial Guard unit. A short time later he received a telegram from Kano: "Your father has been looking for a good wife for you. What sort of woman do you have in mind for a wife?" "Less than three years later," Takasaki said, "I married his youngest daughter Atsuko." When the first AllJapan Judo Championships were held in 1930, 71-year-old Jigoro Kano's son-in-law, Takasaki, emerged the winner. Reminiscence of Nango Nango, 91-year-old nephew of the Shihan (Nango's mother was Kano's elder sister), also learned judo under Jigoro Kano. He studied judo for eight years and went as high as nidan. He still remembers doing randori with the judo master at the "Kano Juku" (dojo). In later years he lent financial support to the Kodokan and continued his close association with Kano right up to the time of his uncle's death. Nango's impressions of the Shihan were of a sincere, well-mannered man who didn't drink too much and was not especially humorous during the times they were together. He was strict and serious when dealing with children, Nango remembers, and attempted to be completely fair-minded. "Keichu Tokugawa, son of a former shogun, was treated no differently in judo training than any of Kano's other students." Kudo saw him as responding easily to others, not quickly angered-an apparent contradiction to the way Takasaki recalled him. He listened patiently to others, never interrupting them, and then won them over to his way of thinking by logical argumentation. Kano always fearlessly carried out what he thought was right, according to Kudo. He was extremely generous, Kudo recalls, and opposed to killing anything-even insects. Dr. Morohashi viewed Kano as a person with a many-sided personality. "He was a man of few words; once visited a hospitalized friend and spent the entire day with him without speaking a word." Other things Dr. Morohashi remembers: "He used to take an umbrella with him every day because he didn't like to worry about whether or not it would rain." "He also had the same lunch-soba (noodles)-every day simply because he hated to bother his head about such trifling matters as what he could eat." "And there were times when he was so poor that when he had to entertain important guests at his home he first had to go to the pawnshop and get his formal kimono out of hock." Although Kano was a confirmed patriot he was never a nationalist of the same ilk as Mitsuru Toyama or Morihei Uchida. In contrast, he took the internatioanI view and was a liberal, cut from the same cloth as Prince Saionji. In the last few years of his life Jigoro Kano concentrated on the educational and spiritual aspects of judo until the systems reached a level of intellectual and moral education as well as an athletic activity and method of combat. Actually, he referred to judo as a sport with the three aims of physical education, contest proficiency and mental training. Its ultimate object was "to perfect oneself and thus be of some use to the world around oneself."

Kano taught kata until a very old age, sometimes demonstrating its techniques with his assistants. His method of teaching judo varied according to the age and experience of the student. Although he stopped doing randori at a much earlier age, he continued to stress it over kata. His idea was to have the students engage in free practice and assimilate kata naturally. Kudo once asked Kano his reaction to proposals for dividing judoka by weight classifications for tournament competition. Kano replied, "now a small man can easily throw a big man, but if small men want to be classed by weight, I'm willing to give the proposition favorable consideration." Opposed Subsidies Kano was opposed to the idea of government subsidies, but felt if the Kodokan rejected it, other foundations would not be in a position to receive grants. To keep from hurting the chances of other groups, he agreed to receive a subsidy although it was quite small. The Shihan was actually short of money and sought financial aid from the Kano clan in Naha. The Kodokan, then located at Suidobashi, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1934 at an impressive ceremony held in the presence of an imperial prince and with highranking members attending from all over Japan. It was at this time Jigoro Kano presented cash gifts to the memorial plaques of each of his departed teachers and voiced gratitude for all they had done for him. The money eventually went to the families of those instructors. As a member of the International Olympic Committee, Kan attended every Olympic Games from the Fifth Olympiad in 1912 in Stockholm to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, including the 10th Olympiad in Los Angeles in 1932. Kudo asked Kano if judo should be included in the Olympics and the Shihan replied: "If the IOC asks Japan to include it, then Japan will consider it." In 1913 Jigoro Kano, accompanied by Takasaki and S. Kotani, now international secretary of the Kodokan, went to Geneva to offer Tokyo as the site for the 12th Olympiad in 1940. In 1935 Kano received the Asahi Prize for outstanding contributions in the fields of art, science and sports. Three years later he went to an IOC meeting in Cairo and succeeded in getting Tokyo nominated for the site of the 1940 Olympics at which judo was to be included as one of the events for the first time. It turned out to be the Shihan's crowning achievement although a cataclysmic world war was to force its postponement for another quarter of a century. On his way home from that momentous conference on board the SS Hikawa Maru on May 4, 1938, Jigoro Kano died from pneumonia. He was 78 years old. Another dream-an International Judo Federation, plans for which Kano revealed in 1933-came true in 1952. Today, more than six million persons practice judo in over 30 countries around the world. In October of 1969 thousands of judo fans watched the sixth World Judo Championships in Mexico City-vivid proof of Jigoro Kano's prophetic statement, "When I die, Kodokan judo will not die with me because all things can be studied if these principles (best use of energy and mutual prosperity) are studied." By Andy Adams Black Belt, February-March, 1970

Gichin Funakoshi

Several burly budomen, standing on the dock on a sparkling, sun-drenched morning in May of 1922, scanned the passengers crowding down the gangway. Soon everyone had disembarked and disappeared. The husky martial arts men scratched their heads in bewilderment. Was the man they were waiting for still on board? They looked around again. The only person who remained was a gentle looking little man in a tattered kimono who was standing alone, glancing quizzically at them. Could it be? Could this tiny, moustachioed man possibly be the powerful budo giant they had been led to expect? He stood hardly more than five feet tall. He was even smaller than judo's founder, Jigoro Kano, who was only 5' 1" and weighed a mere 130 pounds. But it was true. The diminutive man with a wart on his brow moved toward them, smiling and bowing. He intended to stay only a week in Japan. Little did he realize at that time that he would never see the sandy shores of his Okinawan homeland again. The arrival of Gichin Funakoshi was inauspicious, to say the least, and no one seriously expected anything to come of his visit to Japan. At 51, the mild-mannered high school teacher from Naha was already well past his prime. But how were they to know that Gichin Funakoshi was destined to become the Father of Japanese Karate and would set in motion the forces of a littleknown martial art which would one day sweep the world? Funakoshi was born of poor parents in Naha in 1871. Like Kano, born 11 years earlier, he was such a weakling in his youth that he spent much of his time dreaming of building up his puny body. At 13, he began to study karate, which was taught at that time in all the schools from primary through college. The two main styles, according to Makoto Gima, a student of Funakoshi, were Naha-te and Shuri-te. Although Funakoshi was associated with the Shuri-te, those who knew him agree that he made a thorough study of both main schools plus other related styles, such as gojuryu, uechi-ryu and shito-ryu. Funakoshi's first sensei was Yasutsune "Anko" Itosu. Later, he studied under Matsumura. Funakoshi became so skillful at karate that he was chosen to teach it to the reigning King of Okinawa. Before Funakoshi left the island, he had already risen to the position of chairman of Shobukai, the martial arts association of Okinawa. In May 1922, the Japan Education Ministry organized the first All Japan Athletic Exhibition of Ochanomizu in Tokyo. Wanting the event to be as comprehensive as possible, the ministry decided to include karate. As the province's leading practitioner,

Funakoshi was the obvious choice. The Japanese budomen, tremendously impressed by karate, immediately set out to persuade Funakoshi to stay and teach the dynamic martial art to Japanese youth. Jigoro Kano Intercedes Hoan Kosugi, a well-known painter, and Shinyo Kasuya, professor of German literature at Keio University, quickly befriended the Okinawan budoman. But perhaps the most persuasive factor in his decision to remain in Japan was the personal intercession of Jigoro Kano. Kano was collecting all available material on the martial arts and wanted to include karate. Kano finally convinced Funakoshi that he was the one best suited to spread karate in Japan. Funakoshi was also influenced by the poem he had composed while sailing to Japan: Who should revive, restore and spread the true essence of karate? Perhaps it is I who have been chosen. If so, then I swear before the gods that I will take the initiative in leading the great renaissance of karate. It was not an easy decision for Funakoshi to make. He had a wife, three sons and a daughter in Okinawa. Although he and his family were poor and his children became independent at an early age, he still had his roots in Okinawa. Embarking on a new life at his age would have dismayed most men over 50, but Funakoshi, Eke Kano, was a special breed of man. Home for Funakoshi in Japan over the next few years was Meishojuku, a small gymnasium attached to the dormitory for Okinawan students. With Makoto Gima, Funakoshi gave many demonstrations that led eventually to instructing at the Kodokan and the Butokukai Martial Arts College in Kyoto. Funakoshi's first two years in Japan were tough going. Although he taught karate to Okinawan students at Meishojuku, he had to work part-time to make ends meet by commercially utilizing his knowledge of calligraphy. Friends like Kosugi and Kasuya also helped out during those early lean years. The first big breakthrough came in September 1924 when Funakoshi helped organize the first college karate club at Keio University. He served as the chief instructor, and Kasuya as president. Two years later, a second karate club was set up at IchikoState High School (now part of Tokyo University). By 1927, he was teaching at three more schools: Waseda U., Takudai U. (Takushoku) and Shodai (Tokyo Commercial College). Hosei U. became the last school to join Funakoshi's string of college karate clubs in 1931. All during the years at Meishojuku, Funakoshi lived alone; a maid came and cooked from him. "Funakoshi was very poor when he was living there but he never complained," explained Masatomo Takagi, a student of the Okinawan master and presently the chief secretary of the Japan Karate Association. Takagi recalls that Funakoshi's youngest son, Yoshitaka, was working as a x-ray technician at Tokyo University at the time, and his other two sons were also in Japan. Among Funakoshi's students at Meishojuku was the grandson of Japan's famed samurai hero, Takanori Saigo. In fact, Kichinosuke Saigo was so overwhelmed by karate that he moved near the gym to devote as much time as possible to study the "new martial art". Other students included members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

Kata Basis of Teaching Funakoshi concentrated almost entirely on teaching kata. He brought 15 kata compiled from various styles, and developed some himself. Although he taught a little kumite, his approach to karate was based on the following precept: "Once you have completely mastered kata, then you can adapt it to kumite." Hironori Otsuka, a student of Funakoshi and founder of the Wado-ryu, explained that the closest thing to karate in Japan when Funakoshi arrived was the atemi (technique of striking the vital parts of the body) found in jujitsu. Otsuka, who became a master of the Shindo Yoshin-ryu at age 29, recalls, "there was an amazing similarity to Funakoshi's karate. In fact, he was astonished when he saw me demonstrate atemi and was sure I had been practicing karate." Nearly half of Funakoshi's instruction periods were given over to lectures. He especially emphasized that "karate begins with courtesy"-a principle he both preached and practiced. Isao Obata, a former student of Funakoshi, said Funakoshi also stressed the importance of toughening each part of the body until it was as hard as iron. "He constantly beat himself with an oak staff to drive home his point to his students," said Obata. "A makiwara (straw-padded pole) was used to toughen the hands and feet." Masatomo Takagi recalled that even in his 50s and 60s Funakoshi was agile and unusually strong, especially in defense. He said he was never able to penetrate Funakoshi's defense during training, no matter how hard he tried. He remembered once at Meishojuku when he caught the master dozing. Takagi decided to sneak up on him. But the instant he attacked, the little Okinawan sprang into the air, cocking his arms while still in motion and effectively blocking the assault. Otsuka claimed that he finally became acting master at Meishojuku when it became too much for Funakoshi alone to handle. "Because the students sometimes got bored with studying nothing but kata all the time," he recalls, "I began putting more emphasis on kumite." Otsuka explained that the type of kumite he taught was based on "ippon" (one step) and "sanbon" (three step). Actually, it was almost like kata with one man applying the technique and winning (tori), and the other receiving the technique and losing (uke). The difference between the two types of kumite is that ippon attacks are delivered on the first step and sanbon on the third step. In 1930, when Funakoshi was almost 60 years old, he moved out of Meishojuku and took up lodgings with his youngest son Yoshitaka at a house in Koishikawa. His new base of teaching karate was set up at nearby Yushinkan, a kendo dojo belonging to Hakudo Nakayama, a well-known kendo master. The Yushinkan had a hardwood floor and was more than twice as large as the Okinawan student gymnasium. Funakoshi shared the dojo with Nakayama. The decade of the 30's brought momentous changes in karate. Unlike judo, karate was similar to most of the other martial artseach style claiming superiority to all others. The rivalry in karate schools on Okinawa now spread to Japan. Chojun Miyagi came to Japan in the late 1920's with his goju-ryu, followed by Muneiomi Sawayama in 1928 with kenpo. Kenwas Manbuni arrived in 1930 with shito-ryu, while Hironori Otsuka branched out from Funakoshi and set up his own system called wado-ryu. In His Father's Footsteps According to Otsuka, Yoshitaka Funakoshi, the youngest of the three sons, was the only one who followed his father's footsteps, although he lacked his father's dedication to the art. Yoshitaka relieved his father as instructor at the Waseda Karate

Club in the early 1930's. Then in 1935, Funakoshi finally realized his dream of opening his own dojo. He and Yoshitaka set up a 5-mat hardwood floor dojo in the Meijuro section of Tokyo, naming it Tokyo Shotokan. Both men lived upstairs and taught karate downstairs. The name Shotokan was finally adopted by the students to distinguish it from other styles that were springing up in Japan. Perhaps the most important work Funakoshi accomplished was during the 30's when he systematized karate kata and techniques, incorporating a code of ethics and discipline found in the other Japanese martial arts. This codification forged the bonds that would one day transform karate into a mental and physical discipline which would rival judo in "finding the way." He published three books on the subject-the second and the most important one of which, Karate-Do Instructions, was published in 1939. Aided by his son Yoshitaka, Funakoshi continued teaching karate throughout the rest of the decade at the Mejiro dojo as well as at the college clubs he had organized. When the war broke out, the number of students gradually decreased because of the draft. Misfortunes fell thick and fast starting in 1944. First the Mejiro dojo was destroyed by a bombing raid. A short time later, his youngest son, Yoshitaka, died from tuberculosis. The war was taking a serious turn for Japan at this time and most of the civilians on Okinawa were evacuated to the Japanese mainland to prepare for the approaching battle for the island chain. Funakoshi's wife was among the Okinawa evacuees who were removed to Kyushu. Funakoshi joined her and lived out the rest of the war with her in a small hamlet in Oita Prefecture. They were poor, but their needs were few and their life was simple. Unlike Jigoro Kano, Funakoshi had never been a "family man", but perhaps he finally realized some measure of domestic tranquility during these last few years with his wife. She died just after the war in 1947 and Funakoshi returned to Tokyo to live out the last few years of his life. At 76, wrinkled and white-haired, he was still amazingly hale and heartly. He moved in with Giei, his eldest son, and began picking up where he left off in a semi-retired sort of way. Karate, along with the other martial arts, was banned immediately after the war by the occupation authorities, but the ban was lifted in 1948. Although Funakoshi was approaching 80, he began to teach karate again at Keio and Waseda. Meanwhile, in 1949, the Shotokan School of Karate was formally organized by some of Funakoshi's former students who set up a dojo in the Yotsuya section of Tokyo. A room in a movie studio building was used as the training hall. The Japan Karate Association was concurrently established with the dojo, and Funakoshi was named as honorary chief instructor of the organization. Obata was made chairman and Kichinosuke Saigo, a former student of Funakoshi and an influential politician at that time, was president. "Funakoshi sensei's only real pleasure in those days was to visit the dojo at Yotsuya," said Takaga of JKA. "But his family didn't want him to go out because he was so old." According to Isao Obata, a longtime karate sensei at Keio University, Funakoshi had no real connection with the Yotsuya dojo. "He sometimes visited there, but the dojo was a JKA setup," said Obata. The new Shotokan school began to fall apart before long. The Old Boy clubs of Hosei and Takudai quit first, then Waseda walked out in 1953, and finally Obata took his Keio club and went his own way in 1954. The JKA organization managed to survive, however, and eventually emerged as one of the largest karate schools in Japan. Most of Funakoshi's former students remember him as a mild, gentle and friendly person. Takagi recalls that the Okinawan master always shook hands and put his arm

around him when they met. "He wasn't bossy, but when he was teaching karate, he was very strict." Takagi related that whenever he accompanied Funakoshi around Tokyo, the latter always stopped before the Imperial Palace compound to pray for his Emperor. And when they passed Yasakuni Shrine, Funakoshi paused to pray for the war dead. Takagi couldn't figure out why the Okinawan sensei invariably clapped his hands, bowed his head and murmured a prayer, Shinto-style, in front of the Kodokan. "Why do you, a master of karate, pray for the Hall of Judo?" Takagi finally asked. "I am not praying for the Kodokan," Funakoshi replied, "I am praying for Jigoro Kano." He never forgot that when he arrived in Japan, poor, little-known and nearly friendless, such an important and famous man as Kano had personally asked him to teach karate in Japan and had even arranged for him to occasionally hold classes at the Kodokan. Takagi said that Funakoshi always had a great respect and an innate sense of courtesy when dealing with others. Otsuka remembers Funakoshi as somewhat reserved, perhaps because of his Okinawan birth. Like others from the island chain south of Japan, Funakoshi resented being called a Ryukyuan, preferring to be known as someone from Okinawa Prefecture. "He didn't drink, smoke, gamble or play around with women."Otsuka recalls. "He was the kind of man who never made enemies." Outside of karate, his two main interests were calligraphy and composing Chinese poems. He was convinced that living a good, clean life created a character best suited for the study of karate. He educated his students by trying to get them to fulfill their own potential. Otsuka claims that when he was working closely with Funakoshi, he noticed that the master "simply wasn't a good organizer. He lacked leadership ability. Of course, he was good-natured, but in many ways he was as helpless as a baby." Otsuka also said that he heard the reason Funakoshi never returned to his home in Okinawa was that he had accumulated many debts there. But. since Japan had become the center of karate activity, there was no reason for Funakoshi to go back to Naha. Mas Oyama, founder of the Kyokushinkai style of karate, trained at Funakoshi's dojo in Mejiro for a year and a half around 1938. Referring to Funakoshi's teaching, the burly Korean insisted, "It's not karate. What he taught me was etiquette and exercise. Too slow," Oyama added disdainfully. Oyama described Funakoshi as "soft and gentle, good for teaching karate to little children like he did in Okinawa. But he's not a real karateman. It was all kata with the old man. "Yoshitaka same way." But Oyama hastened to add that, after his trip to Osaka, everything changed with the son. "Yoshitaka took 10 of his best kumite men down to Osaka and fought with Goju men there. All lost. Even Funakoshi's son was beaten in his match with Chil Soo. Everybody saw all the great Funakoshi men lose. If it happened exactly as Oyama said it did, then it must have been the first karate shiai ever held, however unofficial. According to Oyama, Yoshitaka changed completely after that traumatic loss of face in Osaka. "After that, Funakoshi's son became a real karate fighter." Oyama said "Very strong, I like. He used to tell me 'karate is kumite."' The only trouble was that the son didn't teach enough for Oyama's taste. Oyama finally threw in the towel after 19 months of lectures about courtesy and teaching slow-motion exercises for an hour every day with 10 other students for a rather high fee. Oyama reckoned that Tatsuo Yamada, now dead, was Funakoshi's top student. According to Oyama, he was a cut above Otsuka and Hiroyuki Konishi, after whom

came men like Obata, Takagi, Nakayama and so forth. The inability of Funakoshi and Oyarna to get through to each other indicates the deep cleavage between the Okinawan master's philosophical approach and the Korean's practical approach. "The ultimate aim of the art of karate," Funakoshi once said, "lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants." To Funakoshi, karate was more than the mere mastery of techniques; it was the attainment of physical and mental fitness through programmed exercises and training. He focused on teaching students to seek knowledge and truth through karate and attempted to give them a well-rounded education. The Japan Karate Association takes credit for introducing freefighting in 1951 and for holding the first official shiai in 1958. Otsuka, however, maintains that the first karate tournament was held three years earlier by the student league which he helped to organize. If, indeed, the first karate shiai was staged in 1958, Gichin Funakoshi was spared the pain of seeing something he thoroughly disapproved of. The aging Okinawan master died in 1957 at the age of 86. A few years later, his last son passed away too, but his daughter, Mrs. Tsuruko Morita, now 70, still lives in seclusion on the outskirts of Tokyo. Today, numerous organizations claim to be Funakoshi's successor. Takagi is firmly convinced that his JKA is the legitimate heir to Funakoshi's famous karate style, pointing to the Okinawan master's intimate association with the postwar Yotsuya dojo and his honorary position in the shotokan association organized before his death. Obata, onetime JKA chairman, agrees that the JKA was originally set up by students of Funakoshi, but points out that as it became more and more commercial, the sensei's karate principles gradually got lost in the shuffle. Obata feels that the true spirit of Funakoshi's karate is being kept alive today by the college karate clubs of Keio, Waseda, Takudai, Hitosubashi and Hosei. At the JKA hombu in Suidobashi, the old Kodokan, numerous mementos of Funakoshi decorate the walls: a large photograph of him taken shortly before his death, a bronze head plaque, a framed calligraphy, "Have the Right Heart" (or "Be True to Your Own Heart"). There is also a list of five Funakoshi admonitions: "Seek perfection of character, be faithful, endeavor, respect others and refrain from violent behavior." A tiny memorial Shinto shrine for offering prayers to the departed spirit of Funakoshi also stands in the hombu. But perhaps the essence of Funakoshi's approach to karate is best summed up by the inscription on his monument in the famed Engakuji Zen Temple in Kita-Kamakura: "There are no offensive techniques in karate." By Andy Adams Black Belt, October, 1971