SPECIAL PREMIERE ISSUE!Featuring the World’s Most Knowledgeable

Practitioners in the Field!

OKINAWANJOURNEY:

A Legacy of the Pastby Anthony Marquez

UECHI RYU KARATEby George E. Mattson

SELECTION & CARE OFYOUR WEAPONSby Bruce Heilman

GOJU RYU’SSEISAN KATABy Glenard Grabow

OKINAWANJOURNEY:

A Legacy of the Pastby Anthony Marquez

UECHI RYU KARATEby George E. Mattson

SELECTION & CARE OFYOUR WEAPONSby Bruce Heilman

GOJU RYU’SSEISAN KATABy Glenard Grabow

BUGEISHA:TRADITIONAL MARTIAL ARTISTISSUE#1 1996 USA $6.00

ORIGINS OF KOBUDOby John Sells

KOBUDO: OKINAWA’SANCIENT ART

by George Alexander

EIGHT LEVELS OFKOBUDO

TRAININGby Mary Bolz

THE OTHER WHEELby Rudy Crosswell

ORIGINS OF KOBUDOby John Sells

KOBUDO: OKINAWA’SANCIENT ART

by George Alexander

EIGHT LEVELS OFKOBUDO

TRAININGby Mary Bolz

THE OTHER WHEELby Rudy Crosswell

SOKE

KAISHUISAUFUCHIKU-DENKOBUJITSU

SOKE

KAISHUISAUFUCHIKU-DENKOBUJITSU

8 BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

A story aboutfinding the rootsyou did not knowyou had.By Anthony Marquez

E ven though I was born in America, alarge part of me considers home tobe a place called Okinawa. I can still

remember the good old days as a youngserviceman walking into a dojo for the firsttime. I celebrated the 25th anniversary ofthat day on April 5, 1996. I visited Okinawain August 1995 and participated in the Pre-World Championship, the precursor to theWorld Championship scheduled to takeplace on Okinawa in July 1997. This visitchanged my entire outlook on Okinawanmartial arts and, to a large extent, my fu-ture! I would like to share this experiencewith you and I will start by providing somebackground on my training and teachers.

Prior to arriving in Okinawa for the firsttime in 1971, I was stationed in Japan withthe U.S. Air Force for four years where I washeavily involved in the Yoshukai Karate andKobudo system headed by Yamamoto Ma-muro. I requested transfer to Kadena AirForce Base, Okinawa, and began a journey

t h a twas tolast eightw o n d e r f u lyears. Duringthat time, I washonored to havetrained with someof the best teach-ers available. Myfirst and onlyKarate teacher inOkinawa was thelate ShinjoMasanobu, founderof the Shobukan Goju-Ryu Karate Dojo. FromMaster Shinjo I receiveda rokudan (6th dan). Myfirst Okinawan Kobudoteacher was the lateKina Masanobu. I metKina Sensei throughanother ser viceman,Robert Teller, who saidthat Kina Sensei was anexcellent weapons prac-t it ioner. Kina Senseiwas a devout Christian,the nephew of the leg-endary Kina Shosei. Mytraining with Kina Sen-sei lasted approximately16 months. It was aver y gratifying time forme. I had many latenight dinners at KinaSensei’s home with mywife and found that hewas a very beautiful per-son. I learned two katasfrom Kina Sensei,Ufuchiku no Sai and Tonfa.Unfortunately, he accidentallydrowned while swimming inthe ocean. Ironically, he wasan excellent swimmer, and everySaturday after our workout he would go intothe ocean for his daily swim. I never re-ceived any rank from him.

My secondand last Kobudoteacher was the lateKanei Katsuyoshi,founder of the Jin-bukan. MasterKanei was the

finest weapons practi-tioner I had ever seen. At the

time I began training with him,he was the vice president ofthe Okinawa Kobudo Associa-tion, which is headed by theMatayoshi family. I was ad-mitted into his dojo by a for-mal letter of introduction giv-en to me by my Karatesensei, Shinjo Masanobu.Kanei and Shinjo Senseiswere childhood friends.They both were Goju-RyuKarate students under

Toguchi Seikichi. I received a go-dan (5th dan) and Shihan certifica-

tion from Master Kanei. I becamethe US director of the Jinbukan upon

my return to the States . Againtragedy was to follow my path for I lost

both of these wonder ful teachers in1992 within a period of six months.

My 1995 trip to Okinawa had atwo-fold purpose, the first was totake my team of 16 Kobudo and

Karate students to visit my old Hombu,the Jinbukan, and see the man who is now

in charge of the dojo. The second was to tryto find a gentleman by the name of IsaKaishu. I had heard of Mr. Isa and seen hisphotographs from my first weapons teacher,Kina Masanobu. It was my understandingthat Mr. Isa was an old student under KinaSensei. During the time I lived on Oki-

SOKE KAISHU ISA KANAGUSUKU UFUCHIKU DENRYUKYU KOBUJITSU HOZONKAI KEIZU(Tradition of Kanagusuku UfuchikuKobujitsu Preservation Association)

The author, Shihan Anthony Marquezstands in Sensei Isa’s dojo in Okinawa.

OKINAWANLEGACY OF THE PAST

BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist 9

nawa, he was in Japan training to become aBuddhist priest. Since Kina Masanobu diedwhile I was on Okinawa, I felt that myweapons training was unfulfilled. The manyaccounts that I heard of Mr. Isa alwaysstayed with me and I promised myself thaton one of my future trips to Okinawa Iwould look him up.

THE SEARCH BEGINS One of the biggest hurdles to overcome

when visiting Okinawa is affordable lodging.I had problems finding hotel space for ourlarge group because there were many peo-ple on the island for the World Pre-Tourna-ment. During the second day of the champi-onship, I was very fortunate to bump into agentleman by the name of Dan Smith. Ifound out through our conversations thatwe had something in common, since hehad also trained in the Jinbukan. I men-tioned that I was having difficulties findinglodging and he said that his sensei in Oki-nawa had a lot of property and he wouldask if he could put us up for a few days. Asluck would have it, the sensei he was talk-ing about was Shimabukuro Zenpo, thehead of Seibukan Shorin-Ryu. It being asmall world, one of my black belt students,Angel Lemus from Los Angeles, is also aSeibukan sensei. Shimabukuro Sensei is avery wealthy real estate agent in Okinawaand a very kind and generous individual. He

put up our team at no cost in a small dou-ble room apar tment near his of fice. Wefound ourselves sleeping elbow to elbow,which is a ver y good way to establish agood camaraderie among your fellow stu-dents.

IN SEARCH OF ISAAfter the championships were finished, I

was ready to look for Isa Kaishu Sensei. Atthe time, I did not know his first name and Ididn’t know if I had his correct address. Asa matter of fact, Angel had called me uplate the night before our departure to Oki-nawa and gave me an address for Isa Sen-sei that he found in Mark Bishop’s book,“Okinawan Karate: Teachers, Styles and Se-cret Techniques.” I was very fortunate thatMr. Shimabukuro’s office was right acrossthe street from where I was staying in Oki-nawa City. I walked into his office one dayand explained to his secretary that I wastrying to find a man named Isa. She thenlooked up the name Isa in their version ofthe Yellow Pages and found an address thatwas about five blocks away. She thenasked Mr. Shimabukuro’s nephew, whoalso works at the real estate office, to takeme there.

Upon arriving at the address in thephone book, we found that it was not IsaKaishu Sensei’s dojo or home. It was aShorin- Ryu dojo but the sensei there knew

of Isa and provided us with his home ad-dress and phone number. We called thisnumber and to our surprise found Isa Sen-sei on the other end of the line. The trans-lator then told Isa Sensei that there wassomeone who was trying to find him. IsaSensei asked who was I and what did Iwant? Through the translator, I told Isa Sen-sei that I was an old student of his sensei,and ever since Kina Sensei’s death I hadwanted to find someone from this weaponsfamily and pay my respects. Upon hearingthat I was a student of his teacher, Isa Sen-sei thought that I must be a very, very oldman. It turned out that Isa Sensei was astudent of Kina Shosei, the uncle of myteacher, Kina Masanobu. I made an ap-pointment to meet with Isa Sensei the fol-lowing day at 9:30 am.

A MEETING WITH DESTINYWe arrived at Isa Sensei’s home and

ironically enough it was directly across thestreet behind Shimabukuro Sensei’s officeand two houses down. I believe now thatfinding Isa Sensei was something that wasmeant to be. For not only was Isa Sensei’shouse close to where I was staying, butwhen I went to the first address which wasnot Isa Sensei’s place and we were givenanother address, I thanked the driver forhis help but that I wasn’t interested in fur-ther pursuing this quest to find Isa Kaishuat this time and that I would look him up onmy next trip to Okinawa. The driver was veryinsistent on finding Isa for me and were itnot for his persistence I would not havemade this very important connection.

I never dreamed that I would actually findsomething new in Okinawa during this trip,something ancient and truly mysterious. Ithought I had seen it all. Nor had I consid-ered the possibility of finding someone thatI could actually empty my cup and bow to.My original intention was to find Isa Senseiand to simply tell him that this Americanstill loved his teacher, practiced his katas,and wanted to reestablish a family tie. Thatis all I wanted to do. I really came to Oki-nawa to fill a void that I felt inside when myteacher died. What happened from thatpoint on has changed the course of myweapons training. It was the most enjoyablemeeting I have ever had with any Okinawanmaster, and I have met many of them.

Upon arrival, I was welcomed into asmall and modest Okinawan home, asmost Okinawan homes are. Upon enteringthe home, I found that half of the livingroom was fashioned after some kind of reli-gious shrine. I later found out that Isa Sen-sei had indeed become a Buddhist priest.During the next three hours while I spokewith him, several people came by andasked for his religious services. They wouldenter the home, light some incense, and he

Sensei Isa’s living room was partly converted into a very beautiful Buddhist shrine inwhich he conducts daily services.

JOURNEY:

10 BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

dent of my teacher, I did not know theUfuchiku katas I thought I knew, and theoriginal reason for my being in Okinawa nolonger existed. I then thought maybe Ishould leave and I felt very awkward. IsaSensei asked what else I knew and I saidthat I had studied Goju under ShinjoMasanobu and weapons under Kanei Kat-suyoshi. He immediately gave me his con-dolences and said that he was very goodfriends with both of them. He added that itwas very sad that both of them died sosuddenly and that Okinawa lost two of itsgreatest martial artists.

KARAMITIThen the most amazing thing happened.

Isa Sensei asked me if I had heard of“Karamiti” . I said no, I had not, and Iasked him what it was. Keep in mind thatwe were sitting in a very small living room. Iwas sitting across from Isa Sensei and hisassistant, Mr. Tamai, to his left. For thenext 20-30 minutes he proceeded to giveme a private demonstration of this thingcalled “Karamiti.” He asked Mr. Tamai toput his hand on his shoulder and in a flashhe took Mr. Tamai’s arm and put it in a jointlock that had his assistant in pain tappingout. Isa Sensei then pointed to his assis-tant’s wrist joint and said “Karamiti.” Thishappened so quickly that my eyes felt as ifthey had been deceived. I had never seen adisplay of speed such as this in my 25 plusyears of experience. I could clearly see theexpression of pain on Mr. Tamai’s face andI quickly ruled out the possibility of astaged display or gimmick.

Isa Sensei outdid himself for the nexthalf hour by demonstrating more intricatedisplays of this “Karamiti.” His assistantgrabbed, punched, kicked, swung, and justabout did ever y kind of attack possible

OKINAWAN JOURNEY:LEGACY OF THE PAST

would of fer some kind of prayer. It wasstrange to see him one minute talking tome and the next minute performing a reli-gious ritual, then resume our conversation.

Isa Sensei is a small Okinawan, about120 pounds wet, has a very friendly dispo-sition, and is very enthusiastic. There wasanother gentleman there when I arrived, asenior student of his. I later found out thatIsa Sensei had called him prior to my arrivaland asked him to be there because hespoke enough English to act as an inter-preter; his name was Tamai Moritasu. Hewas a very educated person and very cour-teous. I struck up a great rapport with himand he was to be instrumental in the follow-ing two weeks in helping to educate me andmy students in Isa Sensei’s teachings.

While sitting in his tiny living room, IsaSensei wanted to know what my story was.I told Isa Sensei of my past experiencesand who my teachers were. I told him aboutmy old sensei, Kina Masanobu, and thatwhen he died I felt a void not only in my lifebut also in my weapons training. I wantedto find someone who had studied with KinaSensei and establish a connection so thatwhenever I visited Okinawa I could train inhis weapons line. At this point, Isa Senseiasked me what I had learned from KinaSensei. Kina Sensei was also an 8th de-gree black belt in Shorin-Ryu, but I onlystudied weapons with him. I was very proudthat Kina Sensei had taught me what I be-lieved to be two very rare Kobudo katasfrom the Ufuchiku lineage, the Ufuchiku noSai and Tonfa. After mentioning this to IsaSensei, he looked straight at me and said“No, he never taught you Ufuchiku no Sai orUfuchiku no Tonfa.” This caught me by sur-prise and I asked the interpreter to ask IsaSensei why he said this. His response wasthat Kina Sensei never taught these katasbecause he never knew them. “Old manKina never taught him those katas. I knowthose katas and I have not taught them toanyone.” Isa Sensei then explained to mehis relationship with Kina Masanobu. Heand Kina Masanobu were students of theold man, Kina Shosei. The All-OkinawaKarate Federation promoted both of themto 8th dan at the same time. Isa Senseiand Kina Masanobu were both eligible tobecome third generation inheritors of theUfuchiku weapons system as passed downby Sanda Kinjo, whose nickname wasUfuchiku, “police chief” in Hogen, the oldOkinawan dialect. Kina Shosei chose IsaSensei to be the Ufuchiku family stylehead, or soke.

This information really confused me be-cause I had had everything backwards. Allat once I discovered that Isa was not a stu-

This is the kamae or defensive postureused with the Ufuchiku Sai. Notice thatthe index finger wraps around the sai han-dle (A). The other sai which is in the cham-bered position is place outside and on top

of the forearm(B). Sensei Isahas per fectlyformed roundknuckle callous-es on bothhands. As amatter of facthis hands werephotographedand are consid-ered a nationaltreasure andare on display inthe OkinawanMar tial Ar tsMuseum.

Sensei Isa demonstrates the use of the metal Fan. Notice how he employs the straw hatto conceal the weapon from an opponent.

B

C

A

BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist 11

from various angles. Isa Sensei f irstdemonstrated from a sitting position, thenfrom a standing position. Isa Sensei calmlyand swiftly had Mr. Tamai at every turn facedown on the floor in serious pain in onejoint-lock technique or another. This manwas not only in pain, but he was totallydrenched in sweat. It was a funny sight tosee, for he was wearing a business suitand tie and he was punching and kicking infull force. I was sweating just watching. IsaSensei gave his assistant instructions tograb here or there, punch to the face or tothe body. However, he also allowed Mr.Tamai to attack at will with any techniquewhatsoever. The variations he used werecontinuous. To do this in a small enclosurefrom a distance of about 3 feet, not havingthe spaciousness of a dojo, was truly amaz-ing. Isa Sensei was in full control of thisman. He threw Mr. Tamai around the roomyet nothing was disturbed or broken.Throughout the demonstration, nothing wasoverdone, Isa Sensei was in complete con-trol putting Mr. Tamai in a position where

there was just enough applied pain to forcehim to tap out. I was to find out later howMr. Tamai felt when these same techniqueswere to be applied on me.

I wondered why he was even showingthis to me. In all my years of training undersome very notable teachers as well as hav-ing seen Judo, Aikido, Jujutsu, and Taijutsu,I had never seen anyone apply joint lockswith such ease and speed and afflict somuch pain in such a short time. I said tomyself at that moment, “I would love tostudy whatever this is!” I was so impressedby this small Okinawan master that my orig-inal reasons for visiting Isa Sensei werelong out of my mind. After he finished thedemonstration, Isa Sensei said this waswhat he called “Karamiti.” I told him that inthe time I had spent on Okinawa, I hadseen every style available; seen dozens ofdemonstrations; shot hours of video; evenmy Goju sensei, Shinjo Masanobu, had tak-en me to many private events, training ses-sions, and demonstrations that were notopen to the public, yet I had never seen norheard of “Karamiti.” So I asked him dozensof questions about its history, others who

Left: Sensei Isa shows a morepractical way to tie a rope to thekama. He said that this way issafer to use and when it isthrown. It will slice the opponentwith the sharp edge as opposedto puncturing with the tip. Middle:A deceptive move, ready to tokick the kama up at the oppo-nent. Right: The old way of carry-ing one kama was to slip it intothe obi. This keeps it hidden andit is ready to be pulled out foruse. With the string tied to theend of the handle, you could notemploy this technique.

Kanagusuku Ufuchiku, born may 7, 1829,died October 13, 1920 at the age of 91.He was employed by the last Emperor ofthe Ryukyu Kingdom as a bodyguard andwas also the Shuri Chief of Police.

Shosei Kina, born January 5, 1882 diedJune 9, 1981 at the age of 99. At the ageof 20, Kina began training with UfuchikuSensei for 18 years until Ufuchiku’sdeath.

SenseiUfuchiku

confiscated thispair of Sai froma bandit whileon police duty.

They werepassed down toSensei Isa by his

Sensei,Shosei Kina.

knew the system, whether or not there wasa systematic way of learning it, and so on.Isa Sensei said that it was getting late andwe should make another appointment tocontinue. At that moment, I realized that Ihad told my team of black belts that I wouldreturn in half an hour and it was now fourhours later.

A NEW WEAPONS CONNECTION

During the meeting, I noticed that therewere dozens of weapons hanging on the liv-ing room walls. Isa Sensei had sai, kama,tonfa, nunchaku, etc. ... and they lookedold. As an ardent weapons practitioner, Icouldn’t leave without asking about them.He talked about each of them briefly andthen handed me a pair of very old and ex-tremely heavy sai and said Ufuchiku Senseiconfiscated them from a bandit. Until now,Ufuchiku was just the name of some katasand a picture of a man I had seen in historybooks. I was beginning to realize more andmore that this connection I was makingwith Isa Sensei was more than just anothermeeting with another Okinawan sensei. I

felt a bond with him. I felt I could trust andrespect him and, to my delight, I felt thesame in return from him.

Isa Sensei told me about his lineageand historical connection to Ufuchiku Kobu-jutsu. Isa Sensei was the third generationof the Ufuchiku line. He had inherited thewhole weapons system and Karamiti. Dur-ing the transmission ceremony, his sensei,Kina Shosei, had passed down to himthese sai that had belonged to UfuchikuSensei. Isa Sensei then told me a littleabout his martial arts experience. Isa Sen-sei began to practice Karate at age threeand was taught by his grandfather in thevillage of Shimabukuro. He had two teach-ers after that who were both students ofUfuchiku Sensei, Kina Shosei and Tokashi-ki Saburo. At age eight, he became a stu-dent of Kina Shosei of the same village.From Kina Sensei he learned Shorin-RyuKarate and Ufuchiku Kobudo. Kina Shoseiwas a very small man and a soft and kindperson.

Isa Sensei’s third teacher, TokashikiSaburo, was a ver y large and power fulman who was very strict and harsh in histraining. Tokashiki Sensei taught Isa Sen-sei the practical bunkai for the Kobudo andKaramiti systems. Tokashiki Sensei wasalso a student of Ufuchiku Sensei butthere are no pictures of him in any knownhistory books. This is because during oneof the training sessions that Tokashiki hadwith Ufuchiku Sensei, Ufuchiku accidentallycut his face open diagonally from foreheadto chin with a sword. Tokashiki survivedbut not without a ver y nasty scar. Afterthis, Tokashiki Sensei understandably be-came camera shy. He forbade any picturesbe taken of him. Once, Isa Sensei took apicture of him and Tokashiki Sensei rippedthe camera from his hands and proceededto tear it into pieces. Tokashiki Sensei ad-monished Isa to never do that again, andIsa wisely promised that he would not.

Isa Sensei began to show me picturesof him with Kina Sensei accepting the titleof third generation soke. Then he showedme a picture of a very lovely, nice lookingwoman dressed in traditional Okinawanclothing posing in a movement from aclassical dance. As I was looking at it, Iasked myself, “Why is he showing this tome.” Then Isa Sensei told me that it washim! He told me that he also has mas-ter’s rank in traditional Okinawan danceor “mai” and is the inheritor of that dancetradition as well. He then showed me an-other picture and a cer tificate. This pic-ture was of him and his dance teacher ac-cepting the title of soke and his master’scertificate.

12 BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

A VERY SERIOUS TALKTo understand what happened next, I

need to explain some feelings that I hadstirring inside me while all this was goingon with Isa Sensei. After the Pre-World-Championships, I was very angry and disap-pointed. The championships were a fraud, itwas the worst thing I had ever seen. Therewas systematic cheating on Okinawa’s partand a person had died during the competi-tion. It was a total flop and a disgrace.

Our conversation turned to the subject ofrank. I told him that my rank was earned byworking and sweating very hard. I askedhim how he felt about people buying rankfrom Okinawan senseis. I told him that Oki-nawa had become a paper mill of high-rank-ing diplomas. Isa nodded in affirmation andsaid, “You’re right, some Okinawan senseishave sold out.” He said, “You train hard,you get rank,” it was as simple as that.What truly blew me away is that he saidthat no money would ever be exchanged be-tween us. He was not interested in money

for his lessons. It was at that very momentthat I made a deep connection with IsaSensei. I saw in him the old virtues that weall read about in the history books. I wasvery emotionally involved in the subject ofthis conversation. After losing both of myteachers who were truly great men, I wasnot sure if there was anyone left in Okinawathat I could call Sensei again.

However, as I sat in front of this manwho was being honest and open with me,showed no vanity about the fact that hewas a legitimate 10th dan, and had shownme more in half an hour than I had learnedin years, I thought, “Maybe there is some-one left on Okinawa worth following.”

THE KARATE AND DANCECONNECTION

After the talk about rank, the atmospherebecame relaxed and Isa Sensei began toexplain to me the connection between tradi-tional Okinawan dance and Karamiti. Hesaid Karamiti is what Karate used to look

OKINAWAN JOURNEY:LEGACY OF THE PAST

One of Sensei Isa’s top female students, shows the traditional use of the hairpin. It waseasily removed and used as a very effective weapon. The author gets the point of thedemonstration (far right).

Sensei Isa demonstrates a technique of hiding the short blade of the Tinbe behind theshield. In this case the shield also serves as a hat. Using the shield to block the blade issuddenly thrust into an attack.

BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist 13

like before it became what it is today. Therewere no such things as high, middle, or lowblocks; there were no horse, cat, or backstances, these were things that were devel-oped to create a system called “Te” or “Ti.”The old Karamiti was lost at the time thatKarate was openly introduced to the gener-al public. (Unfortunately, during this meet-ing I did not get into details with Isa Senseias to a timeline regarding this information.This is something that I plan to do the nexttime I meet with him.) Like weaponr y,Karamiti was studied to defend and pre-serve life. After the Meiji restoration andthe modernization of the country, people nolonger needed to protect themselves as inthe past. So, because the old ways of train-ing were too severe and painful for the aver-age person, this emphasis was gone. Peo-ple were rejecting the old ways and theteachers of the time had to consciously for-mulate a system that was easier and saferto learn. This has also happened in Ameri-ca. Very few people today want to pay theprice for that kind of training anymore. Theold masters had to water down the oldways and make it more consumable.

Isa Sensei then began to link the old Oki-nawan dance to the Karamiti. He said thatin the old days they couldn’t practice openlybecause of the Japanese ban on martial

arts in Okinawa. So they began to incorpo-rate Karamiti movements into the olddances and no one could tell that they wereactually practicing fighting movements andthus were able to teach it to future genera-tions. I had heard about this in histor ybooks and both my past teachers had men-tioned it, so this wasn’t new. However, noone had ever actually demonstrated this tome in the flesh. In later training sessions inhis dojo, Isa Sensei would show us a dancemove and he would ask his assistant topunch, then Isa Sensei would do the samedance move as a multidimensional de-fense. It had a block, a strike, a joint lock,and finally a takedown. It was incredible tosee a movement that was so smooth andbeautiful in a dance, applied by someonewho knew what they were doing, becomesuch an awesome and effective movementof personal defense. For the first time Icould actually see the connection betweenthe old Karate and the old dance. It was agreat connection for me because it filled avoid that existed in my personal training.This is something that my Goju sensei,Shinjo Masanobu, told me, saying that theold timers had a form of self-defense thatwas now lost in Okinawa. He told me hehad heard about it but he did not know it.Most if not all of the other senseis of hisgeneration in Okinawa did not know it ei-ther. He added, we do our bunkai from amodern perspective, we did not learn theold bunkai of kata. Those old techniquesdied with the past generations, everythingwe have nowadays we had to basicallymake up and do the best job we could withwhat we had.

I believe that any honest karateka today

can look at the curriculum he or she hasbeen practicing for the last 10 or 20 yearsand say that something is missing. Analyz-ing what Isa Sensei had just told me aboutteachers taking a form of training andrepackaging it to make it more palatable tothe general public rang a bell in my head. Iput two and two together and realized thatwhat the old Okinawan masters did backthen is what some GIs did upon returning tothe U.S.A. after their tour of duty. We (non-Orientals) have been told by our Orientalteachers that we were not to change thekatas or anything else. However, they them-selves did what they told us not to do. WeAmericans have been doing this for years.We’ve done it for lack of information or be-cause we only received the “tip of the ice-berg.” Let’s face it, most GIs were in Oki-nawa one or two years, and there’s somuch (or little) one can learn in such a lim-ited time. Let’s not forget to also acknowl-edge that as in ever y culture, there arecharlatans, and Okinawa is not immune tothis human condition. Some Okinawanteachers who had very little training sold usAmericans the Okinawan equivalent of theLondon Bridge.

Isa Sensei continued to tell me that itwas foolish for today’s modern practitionersto practice 20 or 30 years worth of highand middle blocks. At face value, thesetechniques are not applicable in the realworld. Eventually, we would have to find away of defending ourselves in a system thatwas not so enclosed with such limited pa-rameters.

In later training sessions, Isa Senseiproved everything he told me by actuallydemonstrating every point to me. He askedme to demonstrate my Goju, which I did,and he said that my Goju was very strong,

A very lovely looking Sensei Isa dressedas a woman with makeup during a tradi-tional Okinawan dance demonstration.

Kaishu Isa seated next to his danceteacher as he receives his masters cer-tificate for Traditional Okinawan Dance.

The authorgives thetraditionaldance ashot.

14 BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

“good kihon waza.” However, he added thatthis was no good for fighting. So I askedhim to please show me, and so he did. Henot only demonstrated on me, but on theother six members of my group. Thesemen varied from 5’ 6,” 135 pounds to6’6,” 285 pounds. Keep in mind that weare all seasoned Goju practitioners thatare in excellent cardiovascular condition,and are physically very strong as a resultof good Goju training. After Isa Senseiquickly dispatched me, he then took everymember of my group from the smallest tothe biggest and did the same with them.He would tap certain areas on their bodiesand these big strong men would turn intojelly and then he would put them into ajoint lock and take themdown to the floor. It wasvery interesting to see thatthese techniques workedon everyone, it did not mat-ter your size, weight, orstrength. I shot hours ofvideo of Isa Sensei effor t-lessly applying dozen ofvariations of these tech-niques. I can cer tainly saynow without any hesitationthat the void in my trainingis no more. I have foundwhat I was looking for andit puts me right back in theplace I’ve been before, thatis, coming full circle, I amnow ready to learn the oldways, so I am a beginneronce again.

THE REST OF THETRIP

I spent two weeks train-ing with Isa Sensei. We be-gan around 8 PM andtrained until 2 or 3 in themorning. During the day, hewas busy tending to hispriestly duties, and I keptmy other appointments. I decided to posea question to all the other senseis that Imet: “Have you ever heard of Karamiti?”The responses I received were very inter-esting. When I met with Nakamoto Masahi-ro Sensei, he said he teaches it in his dojoand he gave me a little demonstration ofhis form of Karamiti, but he was nowhereclose to Isa Sensei’s proficiency. When Iasked Matayoshi Shinpo Sensei, he saidhe had never heard of it. Shimabukuro Zen-po Sensei said that Karamiti was a veryold form of Karate that his father,Shimabukuro Zenr yo (founder of theSeibukan), was very familiar with, but he

himself was not. This was confirmationfrom other sources of what Isa Sensei hadtold me: some senseis had never heard ofit, others had heard of it but didn’t know it,and still others know some it and teach it.

FEEL THE PAINBack with Isa Sensei at his dojo, he used

his senior student as a guinea pig todemonstrate most of the techniques. Wewere very grateful to Mr. Tamai for he gaveof himself freely and without complaint tothe abuse he received for those two weeksfor our benefit.

Isa Sensei was ver y careful when he

demonstrated on me. Heused ver y little pressure,and I wanted more becauseI know that to learn some-thing properly one must feelit. Specially when it came tothis form of training. I laterfound out Isa Sensei felt ob-ligated not to shame me infront of my seniors. It wasver y gratifying to meetsomeone that practiced dojoethics like Isa Sensei. Hedidn’t want to toss mearound so he told me tostand behind the videocam-era and shoot. That’s why inmy videos you mostly seeClay Al l ison Sensei whostayed with me when therest of the group returned tothe States. Allison Senseiwas so amazed with what hesaw that he asked me if hecould stay after the maingroup left. Mr. Allison isabout 6’-3” tall and weightsabout 220 pounds of solidmuscle. It was amusing to

see him tossed around for the next weekand a half by someone one third his bodysize. Isa Sensei was literally playing withhim and yet I could clearly see that Mr. Alli-son was in pain every time. At times, a partof me wished that I could be out there onthe receiving end. But then, another part ofme said, I really don’t want to be out there,so stay behind the camera. During thistime, Isa Sensei not only gave us a thor-ough demonstration of Karamiti but he alsotaught us some of the basics of Karamiti,which I still practice. These exercises showyou different blocks, strikes, and footworkthat prepare you for the actual Karamiti.

OKINAWAN JOURNEY:LEGACY OF THE PAST

Weapons rack in Sensei Isa’s dojo displays a large variety and selection.

Sensei Isa’s senior student Tamae watches as Isa Sensei place Mr. ClayAllison in a position which he became very familiar with.

BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist 15

During this training period, we also spentabout half the time training with weapons.Isa Sensei again demonstrated a depth ofknowledge on the proper “realistic” usageof weapons the likes of which I had neverseen. He was just as knowledgeable withweapons as with Karamiti, and he provedevery point that he spoke of with physicalexamples. This type of training made me re-alize that without this knowledge, anyweapons training is very crude and mislead-ing to the practitioner. Isa Sensei said thatthe Ufuchiku system has over 25 weaponsand about 100 weapons katas. I have beeninvolved in weapons for a long time and Icould think of about 13 weapons, so Iasked him if he could show me the 25 andhe did. He showed me some ver y oldweapons that I had never seen before and Iphotographed each of them. He said thateach of these weapons had katas to gowith them.

Isa Sensei told me that most practition-ers nowadays know only a fraction of theknowledge that is available not only inweapons, but also in the empty hand meth-ods. Every day a piece of history dies withsomeone. He asked me if I learned every-thing that my Goju sensei knew? I told himno. He said like both of my teachers thatdied so young, there have been hundredsof Okinawan martial artists that took to thegrave many of the old techniques andkatas. This void of information is becominggreater from one generation to the next,and what happens is that the new genera-tion of Karate instructors, lacking thisknowledge, fills in the gaps with their owninterpretations and passes this on to the

next generation, thus the face of Karate inOkinawa today looks nothing like it did 100years ago. The sad thing is that the oldways will be lost with this next generation,according to Isa Sensei.

THE FUTURE LOOKSBRIGHT

This experience has refueled my thirstfor new knowledge and has motivated meto work harder than I have ever done. Ithas also shown me that my original suspi-

cions were correct about a void in mytraining. There is so much to learn thatone cannot truly say that he or she hasreached the top. The moment you stoptraining and researching is the momentyou stagnate and die. We as mar tialar tists have the burden of seeking theknowledge that is already lost and beinglost everyday. I found my “holy grail” ofKarate and Kobudo by meeting Isa Sensei.I learned a lot and I have been diligentlypracticing. I made a promise to Isa Senseithat I will return to visit him and discussour future relationship and to do a lot oftraining. I will also gather historical infor-mation that I will put to use in part two ofthis article. Stay tuned for more!

The author Anthony marquez sitswith Sensei Isa with the entirecollection of 25 weapons used inthe Ufuchiku system.

Shihan Anthony Marquez is the Directorof the Kokusai Ryukyu KobujitsuKenkyukai ( International R yukyuKobujitsu Association) and the ChiefInstructor of the Tanzenbukan OkinawanGoju-R yu Dojo based in SouthernCalifornia.

For more information please contact:Kanagusuku Ufuchiku KobujutsuHozonkai KeizuSoke kaishu Isa1-2-5 KubotaOkinawa CityOkinawa, Japan

Shihan Anthony marquez1000 Alosta Ste. HGlendora, CA 91740818-963-9959