Al Gagne, plus two of his black belts, Gene Cazeault and Jeff Irzyk and
I went to visit
We arrived in Naha (the capital of Okinawa) at around 9 pm, collected
our luggage, caught a bus to Okinawa city (which used to be called Koza city
when I was there in the 1960s), checked into our hotel (the Sunrise), and went
to bed. The flight was a long 15 hours.
The next morning we all had breakfast, then headed out to see the
famous Shuri Castle. We took busses and
walked everywhere due to the high cost of taxis. During our last trip, in 2004, the Okinawans
were working on the castle and once again they still are. It's great to visit, though.
In one section of the castle you have to take off your shoes and no
photos are allowed because the flash can damage the artifacts. It is inspiring to see one of the actual
training locations of the famous Bushi Matsumura. You could almost feel the training going on
if you let your imagination run wild.
The whole visit eats up most of the day.
We stopped in one of the out-of-the-way soba shops for lunch, since I
like to eat in the same restaurants as the Okinawans. If you eat in one of the many
English-speaking restaurants, you will pay a much higher price for your
meal. It is hard to order because everything
is written in Japanese, and none of us could read or speak Japanese well. I still retained enough of the language to
ask for and order the few items I like to eat, like soba (a bowl of noodles
with a slice of fish and a slice of meat, pork or beef, and spring onions, on
top), fried rice, fish, shrimp, rice, meat and tea. Gene went wild over the soba and wanted to eat
in places like that the whole trip.
Gene and Jeff could not speak any Japanese when they arrived, but
caught on fast. They went and purchased an English to Japanese language book at
Tuttle Books, and once the guys had that, they really found that they could get
around by themselves. Each place we went
we had to ask the Okinawans for directions and help. They were very friendly, though, and once
they see you are trying to speak their language, they help in any way they can.
They will even stop what they're doing and either go with you or point you in
the right direction to be helpful.
The next day we all went to the Fukushuen garden. This is a replica of the actual Fuzhou
village in China. It commemorates the
relationship between the old Ryukyu Kingdom and China. It is truly something to see - breathtaking
is a good word. This was also the area
where the original 36 Chinese families settled on the island. The garden is a
scaled down version of it's sister village in Fuzhou.
Besides Shuri Castle and the Fukushuen garden, we visited Nakijin
castle, some karate dojos, Washita shops in Naha (a shopping district), both
Murasaki Mura and Ryukyu Mura villages, Chatan town - which is one of the most
modern areas on Okinawa, complete with a beautiful beach, American style movie
theater, shops, restaurants and cafes.
It even has a giant Ferris wheel.
We tried to go to see a different place each day.
I had wanted to hook up with Ed Gingras, a man that studied first under
Kise, than under Hohan Soken, Nishihara and other Okinawan karate masters. He'd been living and training on Okinawa
since 1971, and we had been writing, talking and emailing each other for over
35 years, but had never met face to face.
We were able to hook up on our third day. He is a tall, thin man, married to an
Okinawan, and was the prefect host and very knowledgeable about Okinawan
karate. He drove Al and me around to
some of the Karate dojos, most of which were closed for the night. Ed, Al and I talked about karate, the old and
the new that is on the Island.
I inquired about Nishihara Sensei, who we were planning to visit and
possibly work out with. Ed informed me
that Nishihara sensei had passed away a month or so earlier. Nishihara was Hohan Soken's nephew, and was
training with Soken Sensei the same time I was.
It is a shame to lose such a knowledgeable Karate-ka. Soken had told Ed that if he wanted to learn
his system of Shorin Ryu (Matsumura Seito) he should train under Nishihara. His death is a great loss to all of us who
trained under Soken.
Although we had planned to work out with Ed, Nishihara, and possibly
Shimabukuro, plus any others we could, it was not to be. Ed had closed his dojo and was in the process
of finding another location; Nishihara had passed away; and we did not meet up
with Shimabukuro until the last day on the Island.
During one of our many walks around Okinawa we came upon a karate
class, Moto-Bu Udon-Te, Ryukyu Royal Family Martial Arts, Seidoukan, Grand
master Taira Ryousyu, and we asked if we could watch his class. He welcomed us in and we watched for about 20
minutes. There were only two people on
the floor, and it must have been a private lesson. The master himself got up and threw the black
belt around the floor a number of times for our benefit. After a while we thanked him for letting us
watch and left. We were to find that
there are small dojo's scattered throughout the many different towns.
We went to visit the Kise /Isao dojo, which is in Okinawa City, down
toward Koza, on our second or third night.
As we came to the dojo, the kids class was just finishing up, and there
was to be an adult class after the kids, but there was only one adult who
showed up that night. His name was Paul Gruger. Paul was the prefect black belt host, in as
much as he welcomed us to the dojo, while Isao just sat there doing paper work
and ignored us the whole time. Paul
introduced himself and asked who we were.
I told Paul who I was and he responded.
"Coffman, Coffman, I know that name from some place."
I said, "I bet you do!" I told
him I had trained under Kise from 1960 to 1964 and gave him one of my
cards. He said he would give it to Kise
and that maybe Kise would contact us. I
laughed, and said I would very much doubt that.
Paul showed us around the dojo, and I began to think that maybe
Kise/Isao's association had changed and that maybe they were a good thing after
all. We thanked Paul, bowed to the
master's photos and left with a pleasant feeling.
Our second visit was not quite the same. We once again wanted to watch
an adult class. Al and I went to Kise's
dojo a couple of days later, again arriving after the kids class. This time there were six to eight
students. A man named Gerry Devries, a
Go-Dan under Kise, came out to greet us - the same man we spoke to during our
trip back in 2004. Gerry asked why we
had come to the dojo again, saying that whenever I come to Okinawa, Kise Sensei
gets upset, that I make him nervous, and why do I come to Okinawa? I told Gerry I do not come for myself, but
come for the students, explaining that they want to see the roots of their
karate as well as the dojo of Kise, just like every karate-ka wants to see the
birthplace of their karate.
Gerry asked why I wrote such a negative article about Kise during our
last trip. He stated that I misquoted
him, that I read between the lines as to what he had said, and suggested that I
had been mad and upset at the time. I
agreed I was up set, and said that Al and I had been treated poorly. Gerry wondered why I couldn't write something
good about Kise and his dojo, instead of something bad - or at least not write
anything at all.
I asked Gerry to tell me what was misquoted or where I had lied. He said he was not going to bother, that he
did not want to get into an argument. I
asked him several times to tell me where I misquoted him, but he refused each
time to correct me. I said, "Well then,
I guess it stands as written." I told Gerry
that he was right to defend his teacher and that he was welcome to write his
version of the story - good, bad, or indifferent - and that I would put it on
my website word-for-word. Again, though,
he refused.
I told Gerry I would add to the end of my message about our trip in
2004 that he thought I had misquoted and possibly lied about some of the things
he had said. I also told Gerry I would
write up this trip, send it to him for review, and he could make his comments
and/or corrections and I would place it on my site. Again he refused.
I told him all I wanted to do was to show the students the dojo and
Okinawa, that we were visiting other karate masters as well, watching the
different classes and just wanted to do the same with Kise. He said, you have seen our classes. I said, no, we have only seen the kids class
and we all know than an adult class is different.
When a visiting karate-ka comes to my dojo, I can't wait to get them on
the dojo floor, hoping to see another style of karate that is as good as or
better than ours. I want to see their
karate, and for them to see ours. I want
to see new techniques, different styles, experience their fighting - to see and
let my students see the many different types of martial art forms. I would have thought that Kise would want a visiting
student to see his karate as well.
This visit (again) did nothing but reinforce my belief that no matter
what, if you were a student of Kise sensei in the past, but for whatever reason
you chose not to remain a student/member of his, you are no longer welcome at
his dojo, you do not or have you ever existed. There are many, many students
such as myself that chose not to belong to his association but still have the
love and respect for the teacher we once knew. It is truly a shame that such a
great man has chosen this path.
Our last night on the Island we went to see Zenpo Shimubukuro , only
this time we called ahead to make sure he would be there. We arrived to see the last bit of the kids
class, with an adult class to follow.
After the kids class had finished, Shimabukuro Sensei came over to us,
and apologized for not recognizing me right away.
Sensei sat and talked to us for over two hours. He introduced me to his
son, a 4th dan with 27 years of training, his senior black of
35-plus years, as well as a black belt who was living on Okinawa from Japan's
mainland.
We talked about old times back when we both were young students and
about the many different karate instructors I knew back in the 60's. He told me that many were now dead - Nakamura,
Nishihara, Shiakawa, Kuda, Maishiro, just to name a few - and that others had
changed, and that the karate instruction was not like it was when we were
training in the 60's.
He said that he used to train his student using a shinai (bamboo
stick), but that he couldn't use that type of training any longer, and that he
has to watch the amount of contact used on the students. Things have changed, indeed. He said he is trying to put together a kind
of Karate center that would consist of a main karate training hall, a hotel
with low rates, and a karate museum, where all of the karate greats' burial
monuments would be located in one place.
He said that many visiting karate-ka come to Okinawa to see the burial
places of Okinawa's great masters, and that the emporium would be only for
karate students.
Shimabukuro sensei is the perfect model for Okinawa as well as for
karate. He is open, speaks wonderful
English, and is a gracious host and a strong karate instructor, willing to
welcome the many visiting karate students from around the world.
If any of you visit
James H. Coffman
Shorinji-Ryu 1960-
Matsumura Seito 1961-
7th Dan 1977-, Jikideshi