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SHOTOKAN KARATE MAGAZINE ISSUE 85 OCTOBER 2005
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| ISSUE 85 FEATURES | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| EDITORIAL. TSUTOMU OHSHIMA – 'STRICT EYES'. Interview By Jose Fraguas THE SENSEI CULT. By Mike Clarke. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. NAKAYAMA'S LEGACY: THE HOITSUGAN SEMINARS. By Aaron Hoopes SWEEPING TECHNIQUES By Nathan Scarano. SPEED AND EXPLOSIVE MOVEMENT.By John Holdsworth WALL TRAINING – (Part Two).By Timothy Hanlon and Ann Davenport. FINDING YOUR OWN WAY.By John Cheetham. |
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| Cover Story Sensei Tsutomu Ohshima Chief Instructor to SHOTOKAN KARATE AMERICA |
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EDITORIAL By John Cheetham I am very proud to feature in this edition of SKM an interview with one of the most senior Shotokan masters in the world. Tsutomu Ohshima is the Chief Instructor to the largest Shotokan group in America, the SKA (Shotokan Karate America). Ohshima was the first senior Shotokan instructor to reside in the USA, (1955) even before the JKA contingent of Nishiyama and Okazaki who arrived in 1960/61 respectively. Ohshima sensei came through the Waseda university group and was never involved with the JKA movement, who's idea was to develop competition, in fact, in complete contrast to the Waseda/Keio groups. A special thank you to my friend Jose Fraguas (CWF Enterprises Los Angeles) for conducting the interview for SKM. As many older masters are sadly passing away it is vitally important that we hear the words of this last generation of karate pioneers. They are our last direct link to the past and we must treasure such people who actually trained under Master Gichin Funakoshi the founder of Shotokan karate-do, at some time in their youth. Still actively training and teaching to this day, even in his mid- 70's, we need to listen carefully to what Ohshima sensei has to say, because some of the concepts he talks about in his interview are extremely thought provoking and fundamentally different from today's modern, sport orientated approach to karate training. The technical and tactical principles and especially the budo philosophy of traditional karate-do must be preserved at all costs for future generations even if new ideas and concepts do emerge as time passes – which is natural. Modern concepts of course have their place, and some feel that traditional karate is a dinosaur. I feel extremely sorry for those people because they are missing the overall picture, as Ohshima sensei clearly describes with a burning passion. Traditional Karate has molded Ohshima's entire life and is the art and tradition he continually tries to preserve. I personally think this interview is a gem! The beauty of SKM being apolitical, is that we can feature everyone from the many various factions within the Shotokan karate family, without bias! Mike Clarke's article may possibly rattle a few cages, especially amongst professional karate instructors. I do see Mike Clarke's point though – especially regarding the 'quality' of instruction. But I feel that many of today's professional instructors (in Traditional Karate that is) are doing a great job teaching the art and trying hard to maintain traditional training standards, concepts, values, etiquette and discipline and are still changing many lives for the better. The late Kase sensei said that to become a professional karate instructor was all he ever wanted to be. Had it not have been for such professional instructors, I think many of us would probably not be training today. Karate has been a 'business' for many years. In truth about 80% of people practice karate as a twice a week hobby/sport and not as a way of life! However, I firmly believe two nights of traditional karate practice is far more life enhancing than say two nights of circuit training, squash or similar sports. Good health, good training. Editor. |
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