History Archives - Barrie Ryusei Karate Club

First Copies of New Ryusei Karate Manual Published

August 16, 2013 By Peter

Some advance copies of the new Ryusei Karate-Do kyu belt technical manual have been published. This new manual includes a translation of the original Japanese manual, created by Ken Sakamoto-Sensei. It also includes illustrations of basic techniques, kata and bunkai created by Kambiz Miranbigi and Rick Going of Ottawa Ryusei Karate-Do. And finally there is a DVD of technique created in Japan, with footage of kata and bunkai being performed by Sakamoto-Sensei and other senior Ryusei instructors.

Copies of the manual are being sent to dojo in Canada as well as our dojo heads in the U.S., Japan and Australia. We’ll take advance orders from the dojo and then do a print run in late September or early October.

The manual will serve as an invaluable aid to students, serving as a reference to help them remember and understand the technique they learn in the dojo. The manual is published in a binder, so that when new illustrations of the black belt kata and bunkai are created, the new pages can be added without having to purchase a separate manual.

Discovering the pain of practice in 1969

April 17, 2013 By Peter

This picture was taken shortly after I joined Higashi School of Karate, in 1969, at the age of 12. I’m sitting in front at the far left. Beside me is Betty Tunicliffe and in the back row, far right, is her husband, Ernie (both sadly dead now; two of the nicest people I have known). I forget the the names of the rest of the group, except for Paul, second from left, standing in the back.

The dojo was in Tor0nto on Eglinton Avenue East. The space was originally a bowling alley. As you can see in the picture, the gutters were boarded over when it became a karate school.

In those days, Higashi-Sensei was not far removed from his competitive career, so his training was intense and sometimes over the top. Classes never ended on time and involved hundreds and sometimes thousands of repetitions of techniques and calisthenics. One week we did so many pushups that my friend Eric couldn’t lift his arms. So to eat, he got an old arrow shaft and tied a fork to the end of it. That way he could feed himself from his plate while keeping his elbow on the table.

Karate is Not a Martial Art

September 14, 2012 By Peter

barrie karate sensei talks martial art — On the feudal Japanese battlefield you would see swords, spears, bows and arrows, and other weapons. No one by choice would fight empty handed. A scene from the movie *13 Assassins.*

Karate is not a martial art. Neither is judo, aikido and many other of the, uh, whatever-they-are arts. OK, fighting arts.

Strictly speaking, ‘martial’ is something that pertains to war. So martial arts are war arts.

In feudal Japan, martial arts would include systems using swords, spears, bows and arrows, even later guns and other weapons.

A samurai on the battlefield would not willingly give up his weapons. If he, through really bad luck, lost his long sword, short sword and knife, he might resort to last-ditch grappling. This is where some of the first ju jitsu moves came from.

An Early Form of Henshuho

June 12, 2012 By Peter

Here’s an interesting video circa 1970, showing U.S. karateka demonstrating “the 30 moves of Chito-ryu.” Many of these correspond to what we practise today in Chito-ryu and Ryusei karate as Henshuho, which contains 28 techniques. Henshuho is the sequence of self-defence moves created by Tsuyoshi Chitose, the founder of Chito-ryu, containing strikes to vital points, throws and joint attacks. Henshuho is used, or should be used, as the key to understand many of the bunkai or kaistetsu (explanations) of techniques in Chito-ryu kata.

This is the video’s description from YouTube:

Re-creating Bruce Lee’s One-Inch Punch

June 4, 2012 By Peter

Here is quite a good and believable demonstration of fajing, or the explosive delivery of internal energy, by Stephen Hwa, who teaches taijiquan at the University of Buffalo and in Fairport, New York. He shows the “one-inch punch” made famous by Bruce Le (see below), who at the 1964 Longbeach championships knocks someone into a chair, without any windup, his fist starting an inch away from the target.

Master Hwa shows how it is possible to generate this power using the taiji “hollow-fist punch.” He explains that other people have recreated this but using “external” or purely muscular power. In his demonstration, he has his fist pressing against the pad held to another person’s midsection, while someone else holds onto his bicep and forearm, to feel his muscular contraction.

Reanimating an Old Jujitsu Text

April 24, 2012 By Peter

In 1905, jujitsu pioneer Sadakazu Uyenishi and his students issued the Textbook of Ju-jutsu. It was partly illustrated with “cinematographics” produced by the Gaumont Film Company. Here it is reanimated for the first time in more than 100 years. The video was uploaded by the Bartitsu Society, a group devoted to British self-defence pioneer Edward William Barton-Wright (1860-1951). His Baritsu art was derived from forms of Japanese jujitsu and was promoted through a series of well-publicized challenge matches, pitting Barton-Wright’s Japanese and Swiss champions against exponents of various other combat sports.

[via Brian Buirge]

Tuesdays & Thursdays