This current issue on how to strike is but the latest salvo in a very long war about Isshinryu. I’ll be honest, I didn’t train there and now, never will. My last formal training was outside in my instructor’s back yard during a pouring thunderstorm in the spring of 1979. He was finishig sharing Bo Shi Shi, so if you think me all wet for these comments you are right. No doubt in part created by the way Isshinryu was taught and spread throughout the world. From the beginning there was not a grasp of what that meant. The width of the world wide spread of the art which was set against a backdrop of a art created against traditions on an island 45 miles in length. No it is not particular to Isshinryu. Back in 1984 I met Shimabukoro Zenpo and had a conversation with him after a clinic. During which he explained then on Okinawa, there were about 100 Shorin dojo, 30 Goju dojo and 3 Isshin dojo. The actual numbers isn’t the point, I sensed the underlying message, from Okinawan concerns Isshinryu wasn’t very significant. Years later when discussing this with a friend in Shorin Ryu, who had been raised in Japan, he stopped me and stated, “What is important is that each of the 100 dojo are doing is entirely different from each other.” It is extremely possible another’s friends point of view that Isshinryu is just what took place in front of Shimabuku Tatsuo. And those changes he made from time to time were just what instructors did. What we did prove was we could continue to share in those studies from our seniors for life, which is an amazing testament to what Shimabuku Sensei created. But it is also probable that the highest organization always has been each dojo. We continue to share Isshinryu the name, the traditions as each instructor learned them. Respect for all who shared the system. But at the same time, where we have much in common, each of those traditions differed too for the same reason on Okinawa each of those othere dojo varied. Each senior saw things from their experience. At times they came together in this. At times they felt in necessary to try and control what Isshinryu was. I think Isshinryu is really our passion to continue to be Isshinryu. Perhaps it is better to embrace there are different visions of the art. Each dojo remains their own tradition. I realize I am outside of most of these traditions. I have not been able to travel and learn beyond what my own instructors shared. But that alone had driven me to do my best, and trust others trying to do the same.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 12:21:53 +0000
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