Post by fujicolt on Jan 27, 2011 22:51:16 GMT
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: SHIHAN YOKOTA
INTRODUCTION
I was aware of Kousaka Yokota Sensei but had never had any personal contact or direct knowledge of him until one of my students (Dod Watt) began to correspond with him over a year ago. Through this Yokota Sensei and I began to correspond and I can safely say it has been a thoroughly enjoyable and educating experience for me.
I have also found it to be quite an extraordinary experience, because Yokota Sensei, unlike any other Senior Ranked Japanese Sensei I have personally known, is particularly open and friendly.
Now, I do not wish to be misunderstood here. I have known many senior Japanese instructors who could be very kind and helpful but this is different. Yokota Sensei is not only very open and easy to chat to - he is also deeply inquisitive, has a fantastic sense of humour and is very humble and continually self effacing and modest about the extraordinary Karate career he has experienced.
He is also DEEPLY passionate about Shotokan Karate and holds some very interesting views on Karate, its development both historically and in the future, and his deep desire to facilitate an opportunity for the western world to know and practice true Karate that is Budo based and truly beneficial to its devotees.
It is also very obvious that Yokota Sensei has been a devout student of, and champion of, the developments made in Shotokan Karate by Asai Sensei and the devotion to true Budo instilled in him by Asai Sensei and Sugano Sensei.
Yokota Sensei is currently the Technical Director of the WJKA holding the rank of 8th Dan.
His profile on their web site simply reads as follows:
Yokota Sensei has extensive martial arts experience. Not only does he have over 40 years of Shotokan Karate experience, he has also studied other styles of Karate such as Goju-Ryu and Kyokushinkai, Judo and Ki. He has experience with weapons as well, and has studied the ways of Nunchaku and Sai to deepen and supplement his knowledge and experience in Karate-do.
Yokota Sensei started his martial arts training in 1960 when he was just 13 years old. He began his training in Judo by taking lessons at the Hyogo Prefecture Police station. At this Judo dojo, there was a student who also practiced Karate – he was practicing Judo to further improve his fighting skills. This practitioner impressed Yokota Sensei so much that even though he had been training in Judo for two years, Yokota Sensei switched his martial arts training to Karate. He joined the JKA affiliated Kobe YMCA Karate Club.
In 1973, Yokota Sensei moved to Philadelphia, PA and became a full time instructor at the ISKF headquarters as well as a personal assistant to Master Okazaki, 9th Dan, ISKF Chairman.
Yokota Sensei was one of the top competitors in the East Coast Regional tournaments in the 1970's. He returned to his hometown Kobe in 1981 to complete his instructor's training under the late Master Sugano, 9th Dan, JKA Vice Chairman. As soon as he returned to Japan, he entered the Prefecture tournament and became the champion that year, and again in the following year. He also represented his prefecture in the JKA All National Championship in Tokyo in 1981 and 1982.
After completing the JKA instructor's training, Yokota Sensei moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 to teach at an ISKF dojo in Mountain View (now defunct). He has also taught at UC Berkeley, San Jose State and De Anza College, as well as at a dojo in Redwood City (now defunct). He attained Go-dan (5th Dan) from JKA in 1994.
Yokota Sensei returned to Tokyo with his family in 1997. While he was living in Tokyo, he trained in Ki under Master Nishino, Grand Master of Nishinoryu Kokyuho for two and a half years. In 2000, he returned to the bay area and started the current dojo in San Jose. Yokota Sensei is a certified instructor as well as a certified examiner under Asai Sensei. Yokota Sensei received Roku-dan (6th Dan) from Master Asai in 2005 that made him the highest ranked IJKA instructor in the USA.
......However, I have come to know that the profile above is not a true reflection of this man, his experiences and intelligent and wise approach to the subject we all, here at OSS, are deeply interested in - Shotokan Karate.
Yokota Sensei kindly agreed to be interviewed exclusively for this forum and preparing it with him has been a joy for me. If I included everything we have discussed about karate in this introduction it would require a small book.
I have therefore made the decision to publish the interview in two parts such was the interesting, informative and sometimes controversial content of Yokota Sensei's answers. I believe that to have edited it to enable a one off publication would have been simply ridiculous as the content is, in my opinion, so interesting and readable.
However, to publish in one go would have made it too long to read and comfortably absorb fully in one sitting. Hence it has been divided into two parts.
This decision also allows you all the opportunity to ask for clarification or any further questions that you would like me to ask Yokota Sensei to answer - Yokota Sensei has very kindly offered to answer any questions you have in a part 3 - a very unique opportunity for you all, I hope you use it.
If, after reading part1 and part2, you have any questions - please contact me directly by the OSS forum Private Message facility.
I sincerely hope that you enjoy this exclusive interview as much as I have enjoyed working with Yokota Sensei in preparing it.
I am aware that Yokota Sensei spent a considerable amount of his own private time in working with me to prepare this nterview and I am very grateful to him for this and therefore extend my most sincere thanks on behalf of all the Members here at the OSS Forum.
So folks here it is.............................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
SHIHAN KOUSAKA YOKOTA 8TH DAN
Part One.
Interviewer: Steve Hyland
Publishers: Liam Watt, George Watt - OSS Our Shotokan Studies Forum.
Copyright reserved 2011.
Steve Hyland - Q. Sensei, you have taken an unprecedented step as a very Senior Ranking Japanese Instructor; in that you have made yourself accessible to Karateka worldwide via various avenues such as e-mail and FaceBook. I know that this has been a very popular development and we are all very grateful so thank you on behalf of us all but what made you take this extraordinary decision?
Kousaka Yokota Shihan - A. First of all I must confess that I have always been a rebel. When I was young I did not quite fit in with the protocols in Japan. My mother used to tell me that I was from the middle age Japan when I talked to her and shared my philosophy and my core values. Even though I did not fit in the modern day Japan it is true that I am very proud of the history of Japan and the culture we created over the centuries.
The Japanese people used to be not only polite and intelligent but also honorable and courageous. Yes if you visit Tokyo now you will find the Japanese people to be very polite, diligent and smart. But very unfortunately they have lost the core values, since the end of WW II, in other words, honor and braveness. Though I hate to admit, the modern day Japan, inclusive of both population and its government, is without its principle and guts. Some may disagree with me but the casual visitors will not be able to see what is really happening in Japan now.
Let me give you some examples: Sadly we now have young people whom have murdered their parents or siblings and it is common now as well as the reverse with the parents killing their own children. Many high school girls prostitute simply because they want to get some spending money though they may be from the well-off families. They commit crimes scamming the elderly who are trusting and ignorant of the risks. This is sadly very frequent and we read the articles about the new ways of carrying out these scams almost daily in the newspaper. The government officials are arrested weekly on receiving bribes and the gifts for making some special arrangements to the companies.
You might say "So what? We see those things in my country too." But let me tell you that those things were almost nonexistent and incomprehensible in Japan until the end of WWII or 60 years ago.
So you may ask, "OK, I understand that you do not like the modern day Japan. But what it got to do with karate and the question here?"
In short, I want to change Japan by educating the western world of true meaning of Shotokan karate and martial arts or Budo.
Let me explain further: When you think of Japan, what do you think first?
If you have never been to Japan before you would think of Toyota, Sony and Nintendo. Right? What does Japan do to contribute to the world now? It is through manufacturing the excellent automobiles, electronics and the electronic games.
But can you think of any cultural contributions by Japan? It is a hard question because these contributions there are not as apparent.
But you, the readers will immediately think of one thing, "Martial arts". Yes I believe Japan made a big impact on the western world with Karate, Judo, Aikido and Kendo. Judo became more of a sport event after it was introduced to the western world but it came from a martial art of Jujitsu. Regardless, Karate is definitely the most popular one of all. According to Wikipedia Web Japan (sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs) claims there are 50 million karate practitioners worldwide. In addition, the South Korean government in 2009 published an estimate that Taekwondo is practiced by 70million people in 190 countries. If you are familiar with the history of Taekwondo, it is a derivative of Shotokan karate.
With this scale of popularity, I can say the cultural influence of Budo has been significant to the western world.
As the western people practiced karate they became familiar with the values, not only politeness and etiquette but also self-respect, honor, courage, and perseverance.
On the other hand, there seems to be a lot of mysticism and secrets about Karate. Because of them, I feel the true teaching and history have not been fully or correctly revealed or introduced to the western world yet.
Thus, I wish to replace those mysticism and secrets with the hard facts and the truth. I believe it is about time that the westerners acquire the comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of Japanese Budo including all styles of karate.
Yes, it is a huge project but someone has to start it!
Then you may ask, "That is great for the westerners but you said you wanted to help the Japanese. How does it work?"
I believe there will be at least two positive influences to the Japanese people resulting from the westerners having much better understanding of Budo. If the westerners fully recognize and understand the great amount of value associated, I hope the Japanese will;
Firstly; be proud that they exported such a valuable culture to the western world (the world that defeated Japan in WWII) and grow in their own self-respect and therefore want to promote Budo in Japan.
Believe it or not, Karate is not a popular activity among the Japanese youth these days. When I visited my alter mater a few years ago and dropped by at my old karate club I found only 10 members. I asked the captain where the new students were. He pointed to one student and said, "He is it". From the window of the dojo I could see a few tennis courts filled with the boys and girls. There were more than 100 and some of them could not fit in the place. This saddened me deeply.
So, this is the reason why I want to share what I have learned as an insider.
I hope to ensure that westerners realize that everything about karate can be explained logically and they must not blindly follow what they hear or read.
Q. Thank you for that detailed explanation Sensei. It may please you to know that I speak to many western Karateka of my generation whom started their karate in the late 60's or early 70's and they long for a return to the discipline and etiquette that was such a core element of karate back then. We all abhor the lack of it that can be seen in some modern day Dojo that claim to be teaching 'Traditional Karate'.
Especially concerning is the attitude and behaviour that is now seen at some modern Karate Tournaments.
What is your position regarding sport karate and do you feel it is losing it's BUDO element?
A. You may already know that I am not fond of modern sport karate as I have expressed my feelings in the articles I had written in the past.
A "tournament" is called Shi-ai in Japanese. "Shi" means test or experiment and "ai" means meet or match. So at shi-ai we experiment our techniques to see how they work and this is an occasion that should be an extension of your dojo training.
We obviously respected our opponents as they were our colleagues or helpers in an experiment or a test. Therefore it was very natural to show much respect to our helpers and it was easy to keep the etiquettes. In shi-ai, mere winning in a match was unimportant. We put much stress and focus on how you experimented as whether you lost or won. So what was important to us was if we could learn something from the experiments.
Under that attitude, we could try many different techniques to see if they would work. Therefore, we respected not only the opponents but all the people there including the referees and the judges as they are there to help you and to improve your karate.
We also respected the tournament site as it was an extension of our dojo.
I see the environment in sport karate in the western world these days has changed. The importance seems to be totally put on winning and not much on how you perform. I can see why the people could lose the etiquettes and respect (to the opponents, to the referees and to the place). You could also lose Budo element when you only focused on the result.
In Kumite you throw a technique that will give you a point easier than something that is effective in a real fight. For instance, I hear a kumite fighters these days keep their fists completely loose or open as they can punch faster (for not being tensed) but a punch with such a "fist" would not knock anyone down. But this technique gains a point, then it is considered as a "good" technique.
In Kata, a competitor would perform the movements to impress the judges with some dramatic moves but those moves may not work in bunkai. He may stop at a certain part of a kata un-necessarily to give that dramatic impression but a real fighting requires continuous movements.
One can learn a lot from participating in a tournament but he must know that sport karate is not Budo karate. If he recognizes this fact, participation in sport karate can be beneficial. But the real essence of Budo karate it must be learned from not only in a dojo but in your daily life and this is the truly challenging part.
Q. Please tell us a little about your competition days and if you had any particular heroes on the competition scene that you aspired to be like back then?
A. I was competing in 70's and early 80's. There were many super competitors or heroes then.
I liked Oishi sensei's quick ren zuki attacks. He was like a locomotive as he advanced so quickly. Tanaka sensei's kicks (famous mawashi geri) were also impressive. But these sensei were before my time so I never had the opportunities to face them in a shi-ai. I only did kumite in a dojo with them.
I faced Yahara, Kagawa and Yamamoto in the elimination bouts at All National in early 80's. They were all great fighters but I liked Yahara the most as he tried many different techniques and he did not seem to care if he won a match or not.
To your question, I must tell you that I was never really into shi-ai so I did not have a model who I particularly wanted to follow or imitate.
Q. After decades of training what motivates you to continue with daily personal training?
A. The day I cannot show my techniques would be the day I will retire. But I am not ready to retire yet. I have a formidable model, the late Asai sensei. I may never be able to reach his level but I will not give up my quest. I just go one day at a time and I believe in making improvement even at the age of 63.
Q. Sensei, for the first time in Shotokans history we have many Karateka of long experience whom are now way into their 50's 60's and 70's. As a man in his 60's what advice would you give to the 'older Karateka'?
A. Mind you that 50's and early 60's must not be classified as "old". I will be 64 this year and I know my age is not old.
I am sure I am blessed with this health but we must not use our age, especially if you are younger than 60, for an excuse for not training or having improvement in your karate skills. I believe we can always improve regardless of the age. The training methods and contexts may change but you can train not only to keep up but to improve. We must be creative and always experiment.
Q. Can you kindly give us all an idea of what your personal training regime consists of?
A. I simply turn all my activities into karate training. My training is done during all my awaking time. I spend a lot of time in mental attitude and ki development. Relaxing my body and staying flexible are probably the second most important in my exercise.
Q. What is your opinion regarding children studying karate?
A. I think it is good for them to have some exposure if a dojo provides "real" karate. Stay away from a commercial establishment which is more like a day care center where the children will have fun.
Even though I am terrible with teaching children I taught childrens classes for for one year. I found it was impossible to keep their attention if there were more than 4 or 5. So I believe a class must be small (max 6 students per instructor) if you expect your child to learn something even at a good dojo.
Q. It is very obvious from your Articles, Book and general correspondence that you are very willing to challenge myths and traditional approaches etc, does this not cause difficulties for you with the 'old school' in Japan?
A. They probably do not like what I write but I am pretty optimistic. Most of the Japanese sensei do not read the materials in English so I expect only a few have noticed my activity. Even if they heard about this, I no longer belong to JKA or JKS so they will probably say "He is an outsider so what he writes is not our concern".
I also waited until both of my sensei, Sugano and Asai, are gone before I started to write. I did not want to do anything that may be deemed disrespectful to my Sensei. My criticisms are not about the Instruction I personally received and I wish to be very clear about that. My concerns are about general developments or lack of them.
Q. I am aware that on top of a busy teaching schedule you hold down a full time job. How do you ever find time for yourself?
A. As I sleep only 5 or 6 hours so I have plenty of time for myself. Even during my full time job, I sometimes switch my head (thinking) to karate matters. I also take advantage of business travels and use the time for my own enjoyment.
Q. Would you ever consider making karate your full time occupation?
A. I love practicing and teaching karate. I do not know when but I hope someday I will be able to transition my life to devote only to karate. I am sure some day it will happen.
Q. Sensei, do you realise that most westerners are aching to retire at the age of 63!
Was it Asai Sensei that made you develop such a youthful attitude for a man of an age that would be considered, by most people in the west, to be 'too old' to be doing a rigorous activity such as Karate Do?
A. May I remind you that I do not have a youthful "attitude". LOL!
Seriously; I honestly feel that I am physically and mentally young (some people may say immature LOL).
I can only thank my parents for my health and this gift. Of course, Asai sensei had a great impact on keeping the body young as he was very flexible until he was 70 years old.
Asai Sensei's achievements are my goal and I will continue my training to catch up with him. I wish that he were still alive and could show me the way into the ages at 80's and 90's.
--------------------------------------------------
I hope you all enjoyed Part One of this exclusive interview. Part Two will be published soon - in it Yokota Sensei discusses Kata, his Sensei, gruelling 8 hrs/6 days a week training regimes, blood and sweat soaked Dojo floors, his hopes for the future and much much more - watch this space - Steve Hyland.[/i]
PART 2 HAS NOW BEEN PUBLISHED AND CAN BE READ HERE -
ourshotokanstudies.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=interviews
INTRODUCTION
I was aware of Kousaka Yokota Sensei but had never had any personal contact or direct knowledge of him until one of my students (Dod Watt) began to correspond with him over a year ago. Through this Yokota Sensei and I began to correspond and I can safely say it has been a thoroughly enjoyable and educating experience for me.
I have also found it to be quite an extraordinary experience, because Yokota Sensei, unlike any other Senior Ranked Japanese Sensei I have personally known, is particularly open and friendly.
Now, I do not wish to be misunderstood here. I have known many senior Japanese instructors who could be very kind and helpful but this is different. Yokota Sensei is not only very open and easy to chat to - he is also deeply inquisitive, has a fantastic sense of humour and is very humble and continually self effacing and modest about the extraordinary Karate career he has experienced.
He is also DEEPLY passionate about Shotokan Karate and holds some very interesting views on Karate, its development both historically and in the future, and his deep desire to facilitate an opportunity for the western world to know and practice true Karate that is Budo based and truly beneficial to its devotees.
It is also very obvious that Yokota Sensei has been a devout student of, and champion of, the developments made in Shotokan Karate by Asai Sensei and the devotion to true Budo instilled in him by Asai Sensei and Sugano Sensei.
Yokota Sensei is currently the Technical Director of the WJKA holding the rank of 8th Dan.
His profile on their web site simply reads as follows:
Yokota Sensei has extensive martial arts experience. Not only does he have over 40 years of Shotokan Karate experience, he has also studied other styles of Karate such as Goju-Ryu and Kyokushinkai, Judo and Ki. He has experience with weapons as well, and has studied the ways of Nunchaku and Sai to deepen and supplement his knowledge and experience in Karate-do.
Yokota Sensei started his martial arts training in 1960 when he was just 13 years old. He began his training in Judo by taking lessons at the Hyogo Prefecture Police station. At this Judo dojo, there was a student who also practiced Karate – he was practicing Judo to further improve his fighting skills. This practitioner impressed Yokota Sensei so much that even though he had been training in Judo for two years, Yokota Sensei switched his martial arts training to Karate. He joined the JKA affiliated Kobe YMCA Karate Club.
In 1973, Yokota Sensei moved to Philadelphia, PA and became a full time instructor at the ISKF headquarters as well as a personal assistant to Master Okazaki, 9th Dan, ISKF Chairman.
Yokota Sensei was one of the top competitors in the East Coast Regional tournaments in the 1970's. He returned to his hometown Kobe in 1981 to complete his instructor's training under the late Master Sugano, 9th Dan, JKA Vice Chairman. As soon as he returned to Japan, he entered the Prefecture tournament and became the champion that year, and again in the following year. He also represented his prefecture in the JKA All National Championship in Tokyo in 1981 and 1982.
After completing the JKA instructor's training, Yokota Sensei moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 to teach at an ISKF dojo in Mountain View (now defunct). He has also taught at UC Berkeley, San Jose State and De Anza College, as well as at a dojo in Redwood City (now defunct). He attained Go-dan (5th Dan) from JKA in 1994.
Yokota Sensei returned to Tokyo with his family in 1997. While he was living in Tokyo, he trained in Ki under Master Nishino, Grand Master of Nishinoryu Kokyuho for two and a half years. In 2000, he returned to the bay area and started the current dojo in San Jose. Yokota Sensei is a certified instructor as well as a certified examiner under Asai Sensei. Yokota Sensei received Roku-dan (6th Dan) from Master Asai in 2005 that made him the highest ranked IJKA instructor in the USA.
......However, I have come to know that the profile above is not a true reflection of this man, his experiences and intelligent and wise approach to the subject we all, here at OSS, are deeply interested in - Shotokan Karate.
Yokota Sensei kindly agreed to be interviewed exclusively for this forum and preparing it with him has been a joy for me. If I included everything we have discussed about karate in this introduction it would require a small book.
I have therefore made the decision to publish the interview in two parts such was the interesting, informative and sometimes controversial content of Yokota Sensei's answers. I believe that to have edited it to enable a one off publication would have been simply ridiculous as the content is, in my opinion, so interesting and readable.
However, to publish in one go would have made it too long to read and comfortably absorb fully in one sitting. Hence it has been divided into two parts.
This decision also allows you all the opportunity to ask for clarification or any further questions that you would like me to ask Yokota Sensei to answer - Yokota Sensei has very kindly offered to answer any questions you have in a part 3 - a very unique opportunity for you all, I hope you use it.
If, after reading part1 and part2, you have any questions - please contact me directly by the OSS forum Private Message facility.
I sincerely hope that you enjoy this exclusive interview as much as I have enjoyed working with Yokota Sensei in preparing it.
I am aware that Yokota Sensei spent a considerable amount of his own private time in working with me to prepare this nterview and I am very grateful to him for this and therefore extend my most sincere thanks on behalf of all the Members here at the OSS Forum.
So folks here it is.............................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH
SHIHAN KOUSAKA YOKOTA 8TH DAN
Part One.
Interviewer: Steve Hyland
Publishers: Liam Watt, George Watt - OSS Our Shotokan Studies Forum.
Copyright reserved 2011.
Steve Hyland - Q. Sensei, you have taken an unprecedented step as a very Senior Ranking Japanese Instructor; in that you have made yourself accessible to Karateka worldwide via various avenues such as e-mail and FaceBook. I know that this has been a very popular development and we are all very grateful so thank you on behalf of us all but what made you take this extraordinary decision?
Kousaka Yokota Shihan - A. First of all I must confess that I have always been a rebel. When I was young I did not quite fit in with the protocols in Japan. My mother used to tell me that I was from the middle age Japan when I talked to her and shared my philosophy and my core values. Even though I did not fit in the modern day Japan it is true that I am very proud of the history of Japan and the culture we created over the centuries.
The Japanese people used to be not only polite and intelligent but also honorable and courageous. Yes if you visit Tokyo now you will find the Japanese people to be very polite, diligent and smart. But very unfortunately they have lost the core values, since the end of WW II, in other words, honor and braveness. Though I hate to admit, the modern day Japan, inclusive of both population and its government, is without its principle and guts. Some may disagree with me but the casual visitors will not be able to see what is really happening in Japan now.
Let me give you some examples: Sadly we now have young people whom have murdered their parents or siblings and it is common now as well as the reverse with the parents killing their own children. Many high school girls prostitute simply because they want to get some spending money though they may be from the well-off families. They commit crimes scamming the elderly who are trusting and ignorant of the risks. This is sadly very frequent and we read the articles about the new ways of carrying out these scams almost daily in the newspaper. The government officials are arrested weekly on receiving bribes and the gifts for making some special arrangements to the companies.
You might say "So what? We see those things in my country too." But let me tell you that those things were almost nonexistent and incomprehensible in Japan until the end of WWII or 60 years ago.
So you may ask, "OK, I understand that you do not like the modern day Japan. But what it got to do with karate and the question here?"
In short, I want to change Japan by educating the western world of true meaning of Shotokan karate and martial arts or Budo.
Let me explain further: When you think of Japan, what do you think first?
If you have never been to Japan before you would think of Toyota, Sony and Nintendo. Right? What does Japan do to contribute to the world now? It is through manufacturing the excellent automobiles, electronics and the electronic games.
But can you think of any cultural contributions by Japan? It is a hard question because these contributions there are not as apparent.
But you, the readers will immediately think of one thing, "Martial arts". Yes I believe Japan made a big impact on the western world with Karate, Judo, Aikido and Kendo. Judo became more of a sport event after it was introduced to the western world but it came from a martial art of Jujitsu. Regardless, Karate is definitely the most popular one of all. According to Wikipedia Web Japan (sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs) claims there are 50 million karate practitioners worldwide. In addition, the South Korean government in 2009 published an estimate that Taekwondo is practiced by 70million people in 190 countries. If you are familiar with the history of Taekwondo, it is a derivative of Shotokan karate.
With this scale of popularity, I can say the cultural influence of Budo has been significant to the western world.
As the western people practiced karate they became familiar with the values, not only politeness and etiquette but also self-respect, honor, courage, and perseverance.
On the other hand, there seems to be a lot of mysticism and secrets about Karate. Because of them, I feel the true teaching and history have not been fully or correctly revealed or introduced to the western world yet.
Thus, I wish to replace those mysticism and secrets with the hard facts and the truth. I believe it is about time that the westerners acquire the comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of Japanese Budo including all styles of karate.
Yes, it is a huge project but someone has to start it!
Then you may ask, "That is great for the westerners but you said you wanted to help the Japanese. How does it work?"
I believe there will be at least two positive influences to the Japanese people resulting from the westerners having much better understanding of Budo. If the westerners fully recognize and understand the great amount of value associated, I hope the Japanese will;
Firstly; be proud that they exported such a valuable culture to the western world (the world that defeated Japan in WWII) and grow in their own self-respect and therefore want to promote Budo in Japan.
Believe it or not, Karate is not a popular activity among the Japanese youth these days. When I visited my alter mater a few years ago and dropped by at my old karate club I found only 10 members. I asked the captain where the new students were. He pointed to one student and said, "He is it". From the window of the dojo I could see a few tennis courts filled with the boys and girls. There were more than 100 and some of them could not fit in the place. This saddened me deeply.
So, this is the reason why I want to share what I have learned as an insider.
I hope to ensure that westerners realize that everything about karate can be explained logically and they must not blindly follow what they hear or read.
Q. Thank you for that detailed explanation Sensei. It may please you to know that I speak to many western Karateka of my generation whom started their karate in the late 60's or early 70's and they long for a return to the discipline and etiquette that was such a core element of karate back then. We all abhor the lack of it that can be seen in some modern day Dojo that claim to be teaching 'Traditional Karate'.
Especially concerning is the attitude and behaviour that is now seen at some modern Karate Tournaments.
What is your position regarding sport karate and do you feel it is losing it's BUDO element?
A. You may already know that I am not fond of modern sport karate as I have expressed my feelings in the articles I had written in the past.
A "tournament" is called Shi-ai in Japanese. "Shi" means test or experiment and "ai" means meet or match. So at shi-ai we experiment our techniques to see how they work and this is an occasion that should be an extension of your dojo training.
We obviously respected our opponents as they were our colleagues or helpers in an experiment or a test. Therefore it was very natural to show much respect to our helpers and it was easy to keep the etiquettes. In shi-ai, mere winning in a match was unimportant. We put much stress and focus on how you experimented as whether you lost or won. So what was important to us was if we could learn something from the experiments.
Under that attitude, we could try many different techniques to see if they would work. Therefore, we respected not only the opponents but all the people there including the referees and the judges as they are there to help you and to improve your karate.
We also respected the tournament site as it was an extension of our dojo.
I see the environment in sport karate in the western world these days has changed. The importance seems to be totally put on winning and not much on how you perform. I can see why the people could lose the etiquettes and respect (to the opponents, to the referees and to the place). You could also lose Budo element when you only focused on the result.
In Kumite you throw a technique that will give you a point easier than something that is effective in a real fight. For instance, I hear a kumite fighters these days keep their fists completely loose or open as they can punch faster (for not being tensed) but a punch with such a "fist" would not knock anyone down. But this technique gains a point, then it is considered as a "good" technique.
In Kata, a competitor would perform the movements to impress the judges with some dramatic moves but those moves may not work in bunkai. He may stop at a certain part of a kata un-necessarily to give that dramatic impression but a real fighting requires continuous movements.
One can learn a lot from participating in a tournament but he must know that sport karate is not Budo karate. If he recognizes this fact, participation in sport karate can be beneficial. But the real essence of Budo karate it must be learned from not only in a dojo but in your daily life and this is the truly challenging part.
Q. Please tell us a little about your competition days and if you had any particular heroes on the competition scene that you aspired to be like back then?
A. I was competing in 70's and early 80's. There were many super competitors or heroes then.
I liked Oishi sensei's quick ren zuki attacks. He was like a locomotive as he advanced so quickly. Tanaka sensei's kicks (famous mawashi geri) were also impressive. But these sensei were before my time so I never had the opportunities to face them in a shi-ai. I only did kumite in a dojo with them.
I faced Yahara, Kagawa and Yamamoto in the elimination bouts at All National in early 80's. They were all great fighters but I liked Yahara the most as he tried many different techniques and he did not seem to care if he won a match or not.
To your question, I must tell you that I was never really into shi-ai so I did not have a model who I particularly wanted to follow or imitate.
Q. After decades of training what motivates you to continue with daily personal training?
A. The day I cannot show my techniques would be the day I will retire. But I am not ready to retire yet. I have a formidable model, the late Asai sensei. I may never be able to reach his level but I will not give up my quest. I just go one day at a time and I believe in making improvement even at the age of 63.
Q. Sensei, for the first time in Shotokans history we have many Karateka of long experience whom are now way into their 50's 60's and 70's. As a man in his 60's what advice would you give to the 'older Karateka'?
A. Mind you that 50's and early 60's must not be classified as "old". I will be 64 this year and I know my age is not old.
I am sure I am blessed with this health but we must not use our age, especially if you are younger than 60, for an excuse for not training or having improvement in your karate skills. I believe we can always improve regardless of the age. The training methods and contexts may change but you can train not only to keep up but to improve. We must be creative and always experiment.
Q. Can you kindly give us all an idea of what your personal training regime consists of?
A. I simply turn all my activities into karate training. My training is done during all my awaking time. I spend a lot of time in mental attitude and ki development. Relaxing my body and staying flexible are probably the second most important in my exercise.
Q. What is your opinion regarding children studying karate?
A. I think it is good for them to have some exposure if a dojo provides "real" karate. Stay away from a commercial establishment which is more like a day care center where the children will have fun.
Even though I am terrible with teaching children I taught childrens classes for for one year. I found it was impossible to keep their attention if there were more than 4 or 5. So I believe a class must be small (max 6 students per instructor) if you expect your child to learn something even at a good dojo.
Q. It is very obvious from your Articles, Book and general correspondence that you are very willing to challenge myths and traditional approaches etc, does this not cause difficulties for you with the 'old school' in Japan?
A. They probably do not like what I write but I am pretty optimistic. Most of the Japanese sensei do not read the materials in English so I expect only a few have noticed my activity. Even if they heard about this, I no longer belong to JKA or JKS so they will probably say "He is an outsider so what he writes is not our concern".
I also waited until both of my sensei, Sugano and Asai, are gone before I started to write. I did not want to do anything that may be deemed disrespectful to my Sensei. My criticisms are not about the Instruction I personally received and I wish to be very clear about that. My concerns are about general developments or lack of them.
Q. I am aware that on top of a busy teaching schedule you hold down a full time job. How do you ever find time for yourself?
A. As I sleep only 5 or 6 hours so I have plenty of time for myself. Even during my full time job, I sometimes switch my head (thinking) to karate matters. I also take advantage of business travels and use the time for my own enjoyment.
Q. Would you ever consider making karate your full time occupation?
A. I love practicing and teaching karate. I do not know when but I hope someday I will be able to transition my life to devote only to karate. I am sure some day it will happen.
Q. Sensei, do you realise that most westerners are aching to retire at the age of 63!
Was it Asai Sensei that made you develop such a youthful attitude for a man of an age that would be considered, by most people in the west, to be 'too old' to be doing a rigorous activity such as Karate Do?
A. May I remind you that I do not have a youthful "attitude". LOL!
Seriously; I honestly feel that I am physically and mentally young (some people may say immature LOL).
I can only thank my parents for my health and this gift. Of course, Asai sensei had a great impact on keeping the body young as he was very flexible until he was 70 years old.
Asai Sensei's achievements are my goal and I will continue my training to catch up with him. I wish that he were still alive and could show me the way into the ages at 80's and 90's.
--------------------------------------------------
I hope you all enjoyed Part One of this exclusive interview. Part Two will be published soon - in it Yokota Sensei discusses Kata, his Sensei, gruelling 8 hrs/6 days a week training regimes, blood and sweat soaked Dojo floors, his hopes for the future and much much more - watch this space - Steve Hyland.[/i]
PART 2 HAS NOW BEEN PUBLISHED AND CAN BE READ HERE -
ourshotokanstudies.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=interviews
