Today, I’m attaching a short pdf (see link below) about something that we do all the time at practice but rarely discuss – the benefits of a strong kiai. This article is from Senpai Merle’s vast martial arts library. In it, I was surprised to learn that the incorporation of kiai into karate was not from ancient times. The Founder (Gichin Funakoshi) would focus most of his classes on practicing kata – in silence. This is the way katas were practiced in Okinawa in the past. Apparently, early Shotokan students at the university would hear kiais coming from the adjacent kendo/judo classes. Moreover, many of the karate students already had previous kendo/judo backgrounds. The Founder’s son (Gigo), who had a hand in modifying Shotokan into its modern form, had also practiced kendo. In fact, Nakayama Sensei (Chief Instructor of the JKA for thirty years) was likely also familiar with the kendo kiai. Nakayama had wandered into his first karate class by happenstance, while looking for the kendo class at Takushoku University – both his father and grandfather had been kendo instructors. So in time, the kiai was adopted into katas and general practice. Other aspects of modern-day karate that we [...]

Well, my late dad’s birthday is right around the corner.  If he were alive, he’d be 102 this year.  That got me to thinking (as usual) about life and about karate, haha. Dad was active and enjoyed a good life during his retirement years.  He had retired at 62 years old and everything went smoothly until he suffered a stroke when he was 74.  He recovered and lived, albeit at a slower pace until the ripe old age of 88.  I mention this because I recall the physical therapists and nurses who guided him through therapy would sometimes comment to me about how muscular he was for his age, especially his legs.  I guess medical professionals notice things like that.  When asked, he replied that he had spent 36 years as a milk deliveryman, carrying bottles and crates filled with milk or juice.  It’s interesting to me that so much of the muscle and strength he had built over his younger years were still visible in his 74-year-old body a dozen years after he had retired. When I was young, Dad had often advised me to find a career using my brain and not my body if I possible.  He [...]

Since HISKF started in 2001, I guess this must be the twenty-third time that I’m sending out New Year salutations to our group. Man, that’s a lot of celebratory notes eh? This time, I wanted to take an excerpt from one of my old New Year notes from back in 2011 (Hey, if the Star Advertiser can recycle old photos from their archives every day, why can’t I “regift” an old note? haha). Aside from wishes for a good new year, it also contained a short origin story about how your senseis ended up training in Karate-Do. Excerpt from New Year’s Note Dec 2011… Back in 1963, when I was just twelve years old, my dad had decided that I should learn the art of Aikido (not well-known then). I asked dad if I could invite a friend. After he said yes, I quickly called up my best friend from school and told him how neat it would be, to start training and learning a martial art together. In the few days before we joined, we sat in the living room of his home and weaved all kinds of fanciful scenarios of how our new-found skills would wow the girls [...]