I wanted to share a few thoughts on lineage, as it applies to karate-do. I’ve said many times before that the most important thing is your immediate instructor, his/her abilities as a teacher, knowledge, disposition, etc; coupled with your earnest efforts, which hopefully produce good results. However, one of the reasons I have devoted so many years to Shotokan Karate-Do is that I guess my own inclination is to like a traditional martial art with a history to it. As a result, I have spent quite a bit of time studying the history of our style, its famous instructors, etc. As most of you know, I began training in Shotokan right after I entered college, back in 1969. While I first began teaching in 1974, I also continued to train until about 1995 or so, stopping when I was about 44 years old. During this time, I was fortunate enough to have many excellent instructors, but four of them stand out in my mind: Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi, Sensei Ed Fujiawara, Sensei Ron Taketa, and Sensei Chester Sasaki. I trained under Funakoshi and Fujiwara for a combined period of about 15 years, with Taketa during my formative ikkyu and shodan years, [...]

The founder of what would be called the Shotokan style started life (as do so many of the martial arts masters), as a small and sickly child. Decended from Okinawan bushi, he grew up in the ryukyu islands (Okinawa). He learned Te the old way, through personal training, either one-on-one or in very small groups, at the homes of several Te masters, often at night. He would go to school or work during the day and then walk miles to and from his training, much of the time, on lonely trails in the dark. While he would grow up to become a school teacher and raise a family, he would continue to train in or teach Te for his entire life…living into his late eighties. He never sought the limelight, being very quiet and humble, but was very devoted to what would become Shotokan. And, although he was acknowledged as one of Okinawa’s leading Te experts, he was not a fighting champion such as Motobu Choki nor the best kobudo (weapons) expert like Mabuni Kenwa. Instead, he was considered to be the best educated, best speaking/writing (in Japanese), and highly respected sensei whom the Okinawan Te community felt would serve [...]

Sometimes students will ask me several related questions: What’s the difference between a black belt sempai and a black belt sensei? Or, What is the difference between a shodan (1st degree black belt) and a judan (10th degree black belt) and all of the dans in between? Or, I’ve heard that a red belt is higher than the highest black belt, does Shotokan have a red belt? Understand, I do not claim to be the ultimate authority on rankings in karate, but these are my thoughts. First of all, a sempai (or senpai) could be someone senior to you in the dojo/ministry. Conversely, a kohai could be someone junior to you in the training hall. I say could be, because in Japan, the sempai/kohai relationship is one of mentorship, like taking someone under your wing. Normally, I call the brown belts and above, the sempais of the dojo or ministry because they have an informal responsibility to help teach the color and white belts and to serve as good examples for all members of the group. The question comes up then, how does a sempai become a sensei? I usually reserve that title for a black belt who has actually [...]