Introduction to Karate Expose, October 2006
Some time ago I replied on the site to an e-mail asking me to educate karate practitioners. At that time, I intimated that in a forthcoming article there was more to come with regard to the influence of the Japanese Emperor System and those militaristic, ultranationationalistic, fascistic, criminal and right-wing religious factions that supported it upon the development of the Okinawan and Japanese martial arts from the beginning of the 20 th Century to 1945 and arguably beyond.
I collected information regarding modern Japanese Budo (in which I include karate-do) and its usage as an indoctrinational tool in promoting the Emperor system from the beginning of the 20 th Century to the end of the Asian-Pacific War in 1945.
I also looked into the effect that this indoctrinational programme had upon training practices. By using endless repetition of oversimplified martial skills performed in a militaristic manner, the quasi martial art disciplines of this period functioned to enforce blind obedience and total compliance in those that practiced them.
The practices were also intended to evoke the ethos of the Samurai (loyalty, honour, duty, etc.—and most importantly, the shame ethos, or death before surrender) as the Japanese people had been led by popular fiction and indoctrination to believe it to be.
It is clear to me that all of this was done not for the purpose of turning practitioners into martial artists in the classical combative sense. Instead, over-simplified versions of the martial arts and those more superficial aspects of Bushido (loyalty, obedience and the warrior shame ethic) were used to evoke within their practitioners a sense of their invincibility, moral superiority, and spiritual readiness to sacrifice their lives in glorious self-annihilation (gyokusai) on the battlefields of Asia for their emperor and to obey the orders of their superiors, no matter how stupid or immoral. It was this blind obedience which was to lead to the countless crimes committed against peace and humanity by the Japanese in their occupied territories of Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, China and Southeast Asia from 1895-1945.
In the course of my research I have also probed the close ties that certain masters of Japanese budo and their students had with vying militaristic, ultranationalistic, fascistic and extreme religious groups (Omoto/Nichiren Buddhism), with secret societies such as the Black Ocean/Black Dragon and Cherry Blossom, and with the Japanese underworld of the Yakuza not only prior to 1945, but in some cases, after it. These ties made them complicit (to lesser or greater degrees) in the militaristic, economic and criminal activities of these factions within the occupied territories. And it was within the occupied territories from 1895-1945 that the Japanese committed some of the most heinous crimes against peace and humanity ever recorded.
All of this material makes for a tangled web of connections and associations, and it is for this reason that my complete analysis of modern Japanese Budo and its relationship to Japanese fascism has been so long in the making. I’ve had to find a way of avoiding incessant rewriting so as to accommodate new input and still get my main points across. In the end, I’ve decided that instead of attempting to include everything in a huge article, I will instead present my research in the form of articles, notes, internet links and brief commentaries, and let my readers make up their own minds. In this way, the document can be open-ended, and at least some of the material I have gathered can be made available immediately.
What the more open-minded reader has to understand is that unlike some historical gurus such as Harry Cook, I’m no academic (for which I’m eternally grateful) which means I don’t have to fulfil criteria which require me to provide countless references of documented evidence that somehow is supposed to validate what I am saying as truth. What I am putting together here is original work. It is not a citation of a citation of a citation. I don’t know what the complete truth about modern Japanese budo and its masters is; I’m still finding that out. But what I do know is very different from the truth according to the likes of Cook & Co. as expressed in their books, magazine articles and on-line commentaries.
I’m not a moral educator in the Funakoshi mold, by which I mean someone with little or no actual armed or unarmed combative experience who uses martial arts as ways of developing moral character rather than as ways of fighting. I don’t present myself as an arbiter of character (about which more later). First and foremost, I’m a martial artist who has had a lot of encounters, both on the streets and in challenges. Yet in the course of teaching what I know about fighting, I am constantly running into attitudes fostered by moral educators such as Cook. That is why I draw a distinction between Bujutsu in the classical combative sense and modern Japanese Budo. However, these educators do not draw such a distinction. They draw on Classical Bujutsu and in the case of karate, toudi kempo, to give credibility as fighting systems to what they do. But with the exception of Judo and full contact karate as practiced by Kyokushinkai, modern Japanese Budo systems have nothing to do with combat and everything to do with discipline.
Instead of laying down ‘truths’, what I do here is pose questions and consider both the facts about Budo, and their implications. For example, my opening article is about pederasty amongst the samurai, who (as in many ultra-macho male dominated societies from the times of the ancient Greeks) preferred boys of around 13 for their sexual gratification (and, some might argue, domination), approaching women in the main for breeding purposes.
I will also use the Scorpion’s Tale page to reply to those who have criticized my ‘negative attitude’ towards Japanese Budo and its masters and methods, as well as towards the current crop of reality-based self-defence gurus. Their remarks have appeared on various traditional martial arts and reality-based self-defence forums. Judging from the often personally insulting nature of the hostile conversations about me on these forums (music, incidentally, to my ears) I’ve succeeded in touching a sensitive nerve within the martial arts community. This is a nerve which I will, whenever the occasion suits, continue to tweak.
My most valued possession, apart from my family, is my knowledge of fighting and fight training methods—not books. I value knowledge that comes as a consequence of action over the ability to repeat and reference (often uncritically) what somebody else has thought. My job as a martial artist is to teach people how they might go about teaching themselves and others to become more accomplished martial artists in their own right rather than becoming some master’s clone. My job is not to use the martial arts as a tool to mold anybody’s character. Character is as character does. Whatever character is developed through my method is the consequence, not the objective, of men who respect each other engaging in gruelling and punishing workouts and full-contact training because they enjoy it. It is not the consequence of being told when, where and how to move or breathe, or religiously chanting in unison the precepts of a dojo kun whilst kneeling before the portrait of some long-dead master; that’s brainwashing, whichever way you want to look at it.
When I hear some Japanese master or his Western clone going on about how Japanese budo produces men of high moral character, I think back to the ‘30s and ‘40s when that same budo was used (along with other indoctrinational methods within the Japanese military and education system including Okinawa, courtesy of military fascists like Araki Sadeo) to convince soldiers, sailors and civilians alike that they were morally superior to all other people in the world and that foreigners were vermin who deserved to be brutalized. This indoctrinated belief goes some way to explaining why Chinese babies were tossed in the air and bayoneted for fun during the rape of Nanking in 1937.
This is a crime among many others for which Japan has never apologized in any significant way. Which is not surprising when you consider how Japan ’s foreign and national policies, financial markets, industry, big business, local government, education and the media are still manipulated if not actually controlled by powerful ultranational families, individuals and the Yakuza, much as they were before the war. Indeed, members of the Diet, particularly LDP members along with the current Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro, still visit the Yasukumi Shrine to honour Japanese war dead, including war criminals. You just have to look at the patrons of the major martial arts organizations in the postwar period in particular to find Class A war criminals, ultranationalists, right-wing politicians, and fascists, including Sasakawa Ryoichi. (I’ll have more on him later.)
Ironically, this idea of ‘moral superiority’ continues to translate into a contempt for others, even in the modern day. When it comes to exemplifying honour and good character, the martial arts organizations worldwide have a track record which is littered with examples of corruption. One loses count of how many times masters and senior representatives have been caught with their hands in the organizational till, or have abused their power to fleece their students or to gain sexual favours. The latter seems to be particularly prevalent in the West. And yet they still wear the persona of superiority.
One wonders why the moral arbiters within the martial arts never point their fingers at these guys, considering that some of them should be locked up, particularly those sexual predators and deviants within the martial arts of the West. It is no big secret about these guys. But to call them to task would be rocking the boat of the Good Ship Lollipop.
After reading the biographies of certain Japanese masters of the pre and postwar period, it’s notable how little information is given about their political sympathies and activities, both during the war and after it (other than that which makes them out to be patriotic heroes or saints). The information presented by the historians about the masters of Japanese budo is often inconsistent with regards to the political climate in which they were active as martial artists, both during the war and after it. If I was to take at face value what’s been written about them by the pro-Japanese camp, there would be little to write about them other than what stand-up guys they all were and how they are a credit to mankind. But this is not surprising. Their resumes, like those of many ultranationalists, militarists, and fascist activists/sympathizers, were doctored from the end of hostilities in 1945, and this has never been corrected. This is true in the same way that Japanese accounts of the rape of Nanking bear no resemblance to the testimonies of the survivors or observers. Indeed, some Japanese claim the Nanking incident was to liberate the Chinese from Western oppression—killing over a quarter of a million people doesn’t sound like liberation to me. And that was only part of their ‘policy of liberation’ throughout Southeast Asia . The number of innocent dead adds up to millions.
Not every practitioner of Japanese budo is interested in the way budo’s practices were affected by its use as an indoctrinational tool from the 1920s to 1945 through its militaristic dissimulation within the schools, colleges, universities, naval and military academies and agencies such as the butokukai and butokuden—nor, for that matter, may they be interested in the political sympathies and activities of budo’s masters (before, during, and after the war). It’s something a lot of practitioners don’t want to talk about.
But, unfortunately for them, I do.
Like I said, I don’t know the exact truth and probably never will. ‘Facts’ can be interpreted in many different ways. What I present here is my own interpretation of budo’s involvement with Japanese government agendas of (roughly) the Twentieth Century.
For example, think about this. From 1868 to 1945 the Kokutai (or national polity) determined Japan ’s international policies. Central among the Kokutai’s tenets were the assertions that the Emperor was divine, that Japan was the sacred island at the centre of the world protected by a pantheon of gods, that the Japanese people and her institutions including the martial arts were superior to all others, and that it was the divine duty of every Japanese, by their self-sacrifice on the fields of battle and giving of their greatest efforts in the workplace, to bring all the nations of the world under the rule of the emperor.
It’s only common sense to infer that anybody given the authority to teach the martial arts in Japan from the 1920s to 1945 (when Japanese Nationalism/Fascism and Anti-Communism were at their height) would have been required to be fully supportive of the Kokutai. By teaching martial arts, I mean teaching within the educational system, the naval and military academies, the police and military police, and even in the Nakano School of Spies. In some cases these individuals were made the head instructors of their martial art systems during the height of Japanese fascism. And if after the war, those persons then received, for example, from the Emperor Hirohito himself the Blue Ribbon of Merit for services rendered, would you still believe them to be politically innocent?
Even in post-war Japan the country was still run by the far right and gangsters, a practice condoned by the Americans due to the perceived threat of communism. Consider also that Hirohito was complicit in the crimes against peace and humanity committed by the Japanese (so much so that many believe he, his uncle Prince Asaka who ordered the rape of Nanking, and many others should have been hung instead of only the sacrificial few). Because, let’s face it, during the period in which the Kokutai was in force, if you weren’t fully supportive of these tenets, you’d be getting a visit from the Tokko (thought police), or the Kempeitai (military police). Both of these organizations were expert in murder and torture; and to top it all off, some budo masters had close connections with them.
***
A couple more points before I conclude this introduction.
I read a lot of stuff about myself on the forums that is used to undermine what I have to say about the martial arts, particularly karate and reality-based self-defence and their masters and bullshit methods. This is no surprise to me. Vicious rumours have been circulating about me ever since I decided to sever my links with the Yamaguchis way back in the early Seventies. There were rumours going around that I’d been involved in bank robbery, had been in prison, had beaten up my students—had even thrown one out a window—and that I’d starred in pornographic movies.
By the mid-Eighties I had more or less completed nearly fifteen years of intensive research into the Fujien fighting traditions and their historical connections and influence on Goju-ryu and Uechi-ryu. I had accumulated a body of knowledge that included such things as Pu-Tim-Tun-Tau (float-sink-swallow-spit); shaking, whipping, jumping, and jerking energies, etc.; and the seizing, striking, locks and choking methods of the Fujien systems, as well as their training methods. I had even brewed and experimented with herbal remedies for removing bruising and conditioning the musculoskeletal structure internally and externally.
I decided to give a series of seminars to feed this information back into the karate community, in the hope of changing the way karate was practiced for the better. At the time I was sharing a large property at Bourne Hill House with Erika Dubow and she started to receive phone calls late at night that were abusive and threatening. She was told that if I was to turn up at these seminars, I was going to be sorted out on the basis that the only person who had the right to teach Goju-ryu was Higoanna Morio. I ignored the threats, and needless to say, nobody turned up to carry them out. I wonder why?
By the early 1990s after watching countless fight videos I had nailed the concept of entry/breakdown and finish with regard to strategically and tactically taking on different stylistic types. I now understood how this concept had been translated within the kata in various ways. I had also simplified the concept of how the body folds, unfolds and re-folds; twists, untwists, and retwists, up/down/left right (a refinement of pu-tim-tun-tau) so as not only to produce power, but also evasions, absorptions, etc. More importantly, I had also arrived at one of the central concepts of my method. I had understood precisely what was essential to producing a dynamic equilibrium of change on the feet and on the ground within the chaos of a violent exchange. I had understood what was also essential to producing that all-important destructive, repetitive power by which to end the fight. This critical insight which underlies my method resides in ensuring that one does not try to fight in an overly stylized or consciously organized way. On the contrary, what is needed is a purposeful intent to cause a specific effect or prevent one and the ability to entrust yourself to the unconscious mind to organize those inherent reflex and bequeathed behavioural patterns that are the foundation of all human motor skills into a response.
Again I approached the karate community. The first course, organized by Alun Jones, was a great success, even though a couple of 5 th and 6 th Dans were made to look like complete wallies. The second and third courses, organized by Simon Oliver, were also a great success, and it looked like I was going to be able to achieve my goal of changing the way karate was practiced and perceived. However, as with most things in my life, things don’t always go according to plan. The word had gone out amongst the Shotokan, Goju-ryu and Wado-ryu organizations that if anybody attended my courses, they would be banned. At the next course, a handful who were unaffiliated turned up. After that, nobody.
It’s pretty obvious why the karate organizations did what they did. Those who had attended my seminars now probably knew more about karate kata application and natural body dynamics than their so-called masters. And that’s the reason (for those guys on the Uechi-ryu forum in the States who had a lot to say about my character) why I formed the Toudi Kempo group and made it a requirement that you didn’t practice karate and that there was some membership commitment. I didn’t want my information going out for free to karate groups. But you know what? I needn’t have bothered. Despite putting out much of my method on these seminars as well as giving it to students who eventually were to leave me, as well as the hundreds of visitors who came to Horsham, I don’t seem to have had any real influence on karate whatsoever, despite often being described as ‘Britain’s greatest karate man’.
Today, if you go on a seminar that purports to be progressive or ‘reality’driven’, what do you get for your money? Double and triple hips, wave punches and kicks, hitting some statically-held foam pad, demonstrations of dropping some stooge with a pressure-point strike in what is claimed to be a 'realistic' combative scenario, and the latest: Target Focusing and Batman moves. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. But hey, what the fuck do I know with regards to fighting, and the generation and practical application of power? I’m just some asshole con artist, ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,’ according to some Uechi-ryu website, or ‘a skidmark on the underpants of the martial arts,’ according to another.
I suppose the most damaging and insulting claim that has been made about me is that I am a racist. Am I a racist because I dare to challenge the assumptions of many martial artists of the combative effectiveness of Japanese Budo? Or suggest the close connections of its masters (many now dead) with ultra-right wing organizations? Or say that, although the players have changed on the stage of Japanese politics, the theme of the script remains the same; i.e., the superiority of the Japanese way? Or am I a racist because I refused to be compliant to the wishes and whims of some master who expected my respect because he was Oriental and I wasn't? My attacks are directed at a political breed, not an ethnic group. My open scorn for the Japanese masters is founded on my personal knowledge of them--it is in no way a contempt of the Japanese people as a group. I've said elsewhere on the site that there are some great Japanese fighters out there.
The rumours and misrepresentations are still coming back to haunt me. I recently considered doing a course for Anthony Pillage in Coventry , until I saw the poster they were going to use to advertise me. It was designed like an Old-West Wanted: Dead or Alive poster, with a silhouette that was supposed to be me because they didn’t have a picture. It said, ‘Wanted, people brave enough to train with Steve Morris. May God have mercy on your souls.’ What the fuck’s that all about? I’ve never bullied, beaten, or knowingly intimidated ANYBODY in my classes, ever. With the exception of those who have openly challenged me and I’ve had to drop.
I never made this thing personal. Certain individuals within the martial arts community did, and judging from the personal nature of talk about me on the forums, they still are. That’s why I’m pissed off and will remain so for a very long time to come. It’s because of these assholes that I can’t make a living and they still do, despite the fact that (from my personal recollections as well as the video documentation I have of them) they haven’t a fucking clue.
I want to make it clear that the art of ripping people off is not restricted to the karate community. With the advent of MMA karate has had to scramble to justify its existence, and it has been discredited by plenty of people other than myself. You’d think I’d be happy about that—and in a way I am. However, the discrediting of karate in some circles has created a vacuum, into which has rushed the new breed of Reality Self-Defence Gurus. The snake oil men who will promise you everything and give you nothing.
But don’t worry. I’ll be setting my sights on those guys too. I’m lining them up, and there are a whole bunch of them.
What you will read from here on out will be an ongoing, growing series of articles and notes that reflect my personal views of the sham the martial arts have become.
So enjoy…or not, as the case may be!
--Steve Morris
continue reading: Don't Drop the Soap
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