Pant, pant, boy I’ll have to think twice the next time I ever say, “I’ll write some short bios about the senseis up the line who helped bring karate down to us”. I’m getting close to finishing this term paper, though.

When asked who taught them karate, many practitioners have a tendency to cite the names of various famous senseis that they may have gotten a chance to listen and train with at a particular seminar. The real influence, however, is the first line instructor(s) who they trained with week after week, year after year. As you know, I’ve had the chance to train with a great many senseis over the years. The two who influenced and taught me the most are Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi and Sensei Ed Fujiwara. I was lucky enough to train with Funakoshi for about seven years, beginning in the rough old “special training” classes back in the early seventies. I began training under Sensei Fujiwara for a similar length of years beginning in the early eighties. Both share a lifelong love for the art, and yet, are extremely different, as individuals.

Funakoshi is a burly, powerful, naturally athletic, extremely charismastic Farrington HS grad, while Fujiwara is a slim, intellectual (looks like a dentist or admin type), who had none of the natural athletic gifts associated with karateka and graduated from Roosevelt HS.

Funakoshi was a swimming champion, first chair trumpet player, and Kajukenbo kumite champion before he ever stepped foot into a Shotokan dojo. Being a tough street-fighter and used to the rather brutal training from the kempo system, he found himself, instead, attracted to the quiet, humble attitude of the highly touted Japanese champion, Kanazawa Sensei and the gentle yet efficient way he ran his classes. It wasn’t until several years later, that he would discover that he was a 5th cousin of the founder of Shotokan, Gichin Funakoshi. With his natural abilities, he would become the reigning Hawaii champion in kata and kumite and place 2nd in both categories at the Nationals for several years running in the mid-sixties. He honed his skills by training under the first three great senseis appointed to Hawaii over a 10 year period by the JKA. The JKA was to later honor him, by appointing him as the first non-Japanese to become a Chief Instructor in America in 1969. He moved to San Jose in 1986 and today, is an internationally known instructor with many hundreds of dojos and clubs associated with his FSKA organization throughout the world.

By contrast, Fujiwara was slim and geeky, initially attracted to the martial arts as a means to strengthen himself and help him in defending himself. He would devote his extraordinary mental skills to help interpret and conceptualize karate into systems that would make the art more understandable. I consider him to be a true karate genius. Along the way, he would become an outstanding karateka in his own right. He would also have the privilege of become a life-long disciple of Asai Sensei (mentioned in an early note), visiting and staying with him each year in Japan for additional training from the late sixties up through the present. Unlike Funakoshi, he was never to become famous though he was the JKA Pacific Region Director during the eighties and later, was later, director of Tetsubukan International under Asai. He suffered a stroke some years ago from which he has since made a miraculous recovery, he maintains his devotion to the art and last year, began teaching ministry classes for Him at New Hope Mililani. (Praise the Lord!)

I learned more from these two fine senseis than I can ever describe or repay. A huge advantage they had over their own Japanese senseis, was….they could actually speak english as a first language and both are exceptionally articulate individuals. Funakoshi truly had first class techincal skills that I tried hard to emulate, while Fujiwara was a creative and analytical genius who truly fed my inquiring mind over the years. I will always remember his words, “We don’t just teach punching and kicking in this place…my sincerest hope is that you will learn universal principles of life that you can apply everyday, everywhere.” This is my deepest hope for all of you as well.

Just to show you that all isn’t martial arts…I’d like to finish with a few words about two other senseis who had impact to me as well. Ron Taketa was my sensei while I was a brown belt and was training me when I made shodan. Aside from his excellence at kata, he always demonstrated tremedous organizational skills and was a natural leader. I remember when we were trying to help him teach a kids class of about 100 students…somehow, he was always able to keep all of the kids in line, through his demeanor and discipline. He greatly influenced my teaching methods at a time when I was a green young black belt. Taketa taught for the Hawaii Shotokan group for many years, studying Tai Chi in later years. He no longer teaches karate, though I can’t blame him. He’s still using his leadership skills (and I’m sure, his karate principles), but in a different venue. For some years now, he has been the leader of one of Hawaii’s most powerful labor organizations, the Carpenter’s Union.

When I was a young Air Force officer in California, I was fortunate enough to become friends with a senior captain from Hawaii, Chet Sasaki. Besides being a scientist and missile officer, Chet (a native of Maui) was a sandan in kendo, a sandan in aikido, and a shodan in Shotokan. He had trained under some of the greats in the martial arts, including Tohei Sensei (aikido) and the famous Nishiyama Sensei (another JKA great). Through training one-on-one with Chet, I was able to gain better insights into the relationship between aikido and karate, and more perspective on biodynamics. Unfortunately, Chet stopped teaching many years ago. However, like Ron, he continues to use skills honed during his martial arts training….he is a project leader for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and has headed up some of our nation’s most important space exploration efforts, such as Galileo.

Wow! I’m finally pau!! All of the diverse senseis I have mentioned over these bio notes had a few things in common: they all shared a love and passion for the art, they cared enough about others to freely share what they knew, and each of us continues to benefit from their efforts. Sometimes knowing these things helps us really be appreciative for what we receive.