The Scorpion's Tale
Links and Notes
October 2006
The links below are just some of those I’ve managed to transfer from our old computer, which we have been having problems with. There many more to come. Some of the links I’ve had to leave in my original google as I had problems converting them to ‘current page.’
In order to get an idea where I’m coming from, I suggest you read these links, which cover a wide range of topics and make interconnections which you might not have previously considered. The accompanying commentaries on some of them are my personal views and have not been included with the intention of getting a conviction against Japanese budo and its masters in the court of Harry Cook, but simply to cast doubt on the traditions of Japanese budo as effective fighting systems, or on its masters regarding their moral integrity. In the same way that you don’t have to eat the whole of an egg to realize it’s rotton (your sense of smell, initial taste and even looking at it can tell you that), I personally do not need to know every thing there is to know about Richard Kim, for example, to realize that some of the things I know about him stink. I for one would not have shared his company, knowing what I do about him; but again that’s my personal view and you can take it or leave it. It’s up to you.
The commentaries to these links are ongoing, and as I get new information I will be updating them from time to time, as well as adding other links and commentaries.
http://www.shinto.nl/shinto_books/Extracts/Sasaki%20Masando%20-%20shinto%20and%20aikido.htm
Kokutai modern day interpretation by Masando Sasaki of Aikido, who still believes in Japan’s moral superiority and that the West one day will turn to Japan for moral guidance. Sasaki is a fine example of the lasting effect of indoctrination and probably still believes that Japan will one day rule the world—undoubtedly with the assistance of the Nakano School of Spies that he plans to revive. Sure, he’s an ultra-nationalist crazy, but within the mega-rich industrial and banking families, yakuza, government, business, education, the media, sport, and the martial arts, there are a lot of them about.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/03/17/IN225056.DTL
Straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak , and most of this took place before August of 1944 when Japan realized she was going to lose the war and the command went out from the Ministry of War to kill all prisoners of war, in groups or individually, and by any means.
http://www.eastplex.co.hur taslk/ronnie-colwell/asp/template.asp?tid=23
Arthur Tansley. Something you need to read, especially the bit about Yahara, a Shotakan legend, killing his dog to test or develop—I’m not sure which—his killer instinct or ability to remain dispassionate whilst killing a living thing. Makes you wonder what he’d have got up to if he had served in China. I wonder if Wikipedia will be updating his bio. I suppose as long as karate remains, from a combative perspective, academic as to whether its training methods work (with regards to acquiring that necessary mindset, athleticism, conditioning, skills, tactics, and strategies to fight a seasoned and experienced fighter of the likes of a Wanderlei Silva, who most certainly is going to fight back and kick the shit out of you if given half the chance ) then you are always going to find within its ranks those who test themselves on those who haven’t the ability or balls to fight back, or in games of tag in which in all probability they won’t get hurt, or on bricks and boards that never hit back. Or, for that matter, on dogs that are strung up.
Interesting thread, part of which includes a discussion on gay samurai and the dog slayer Yahara—oh, and Harry Cook trying to refute (on the basis that he can t find any proof) the assertion that Yoshitaka Funakoshi beat POWs to death. He claims that it couldn’t possibly ever have taken place—it’s interesting, though, that he’s been looking into this one for years. However, we know that 1) prisoners of war and civilians in occupied countries were used for martial arts practices (not to mention vivisections), 2) graduates of the Nakano School used American airmen to test their martial skills on, 3) there is a culture and history of violence within Shotokan (particulary within the universities) and 4) Shotokan was selected in 1942 to train Nakano recruits, with Yoshitaka and Egami Shigeru as the chief instructors. Therefore, I for one will keep an open mind, particulary when speculating by what means the military might have gone about determining why Shotokan was more effective than, say Ueshiba Morihei’s Aiki Jutsu. Did Yoshitaka or Egami do a kata or some bunkai for their military bosses—or did they do something else?
But the truth is, to japanophiles in the West it wouldn’t really matter whether such an incident took place or whether masters took part in other incidents similar to the August 10 th incident at Aburayama , because they would still continue to venerate the masters of the Japanese way and find some way of justifying what they did. There are a lot of guys in the martial arts who (like the followers of the Rev. Moon, who must rank amongst the biggest scumbags that have ever lived on this planet) have either been brainwashed or are in some form of self denial, so that even if Funakoshi Gichin himself turned out to be a serial killer, they’d still be telling us what a stand up guy he was. And as Frank Bruno would say, ‘You know what I mean, Harry?’
What I found difficult to understand when reading this thread was that there wasn’t an overwhelming condemnation of Yahara butchering his dog, nor of the kind of barbarity that takes place at Yahara’s former university, Kokushinkan, both in its karate and kendo sections. This university’s culture of bullying and violence has led to a number of deaths. Not that Kokushinkan is alone in the nurturing of violence and bullying—didn’t Shina a shotokan 6 th dan kill a junior at Takushoku in the 80s? And wasn’t it at this university that it was found that many of the graduates had experienced some form of bullying from those in the karate section?
Waseda is no different, though its culture of violence seems to be more directed towards young women who can’t fight back rather than at young men; a large number of graduates have been involved in gang rapes, which some teacher at the university has put down to the natural exuberance of young men. Probably the same exuberance exhibited by Japanese soldiers who systematically raped thousands of women and children before butchering them at Nanking between December 1937 and March 1938.
http://hadww.webdiva4hire.com/kenshinkan/tameshigiri_2.html
Nice piece on Tameshigiri and how Yamamoto Tsunetomo lamented in the Hagakure that the testing of blades on criminals was no longer practiced. This was done so as to not only test the blade but also the resolve of the man to kill dispassionately. The Hagakure, which was a favourite read amongst the officers of the Showa Era military, goes some way to explaining why so many civilians and allied prisoners whose only guilt was not being Japanese were cut down, often as part of competitions to see who could kill the most in a day. It might also explain why Yahara might have butchered his dog; it is not inconceivable that when Yahara was sharing the Furo with his student and friend Mishima Yukio, apart from speaking about literature, Japanese nationalism and martial arts they also may have spoke about the Hagakure and death. After all, apart from his writing and the aesthetics of the male body, Mishima was obsessed with death. Yahara, like Mishima, seems to have been equally obsessed with death and cultivating an indifference to it—why else kill your pet dog, drive your car at recklessly high speeds, or research and debate the intricacies of executing ritual disembowelment and show admiration for Mishima for taking such a course of action? Not to mention he had a couple of good friends who commited suicide We know that martial skills can be transmitted at an intuitive, instinctive level, but what about personality characteristics? Can we become infected by them unintentionally? Is it worth running the risk of becoming mentally fucked-up just to learn what you believe to be a superior form of karate? (Which, from my observation, as an effective form of combat at what ever level it is practiced, is way down the list)
http://www.geocities.com/chris_holte/Buddhism/IssuesInBuddhism/tanaka.html Nichiren Buddhism. This article is about Tanaka Chigaku, someone who was to inspire Ishihara Kanji, Kita Ikki, and a number of assassins. Nichiren isn’t the only thing Ishihara and Kita had in common: they were also both members of the Cherry Blossom Society, to which Toyama Mitsuru also belonged. Oh, and don’t forget Ishihara was big buddies with Yamaguchi Gogen, whom Graham Noble describes as a ‘patriot with a capital P’ and whose pastime at University seems to have been kicking the shit out of lefties. Mind you, this was a pastime in which many martial artists (with the approval of the CIA) engaged during Red purge of the 1950s and 60s.
http://www.geocities.jp/monthlynucleus/betsumiyadanro.html Origin of second Sino- Japanese war. Amongst the contributors was Ishihara Kanji, someone who believed in a war to end all wars using weapons of mass destruction in which Japan would annihilate Russia and the USA and rule the world. As I’ve said, Ishihara was a friend of Yamaguchi Gogen. I wonder how interested Ishihara was in the development of biological weapons at unit 731, or how commited Yamaguchi was to supporting Ishihara’s view of Japan dominating the world, and how he intended to go about doing it. Or, like Ishihara, was Yamaguchi also a big fan of Hitler? I just got this image of Ishihara sitting on some mountain top with the intention of destroying America by chanting (like Nichiren) namu yoho renge kyo for 53 days, and then after about 10 minutes changing his mind and deciding some form of weapon of mass destruction would be more effective.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1521072/posts
Unit 731. Disturbing read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
Japanese war crimes, speaks for itself
http://www.geocities.com/nankingatrocities/Tribunals/nanjing_02.htm
At least Mukai Tohiako and Noda Tsuyoshi got what they deserved for their part in the Nanking atrocities, whilst the main culprits, Prince Asaka (who gave the orders for the slaughter to begin) and his golfing buddy Hirohito (complicit in what was to follow) got off Scot free.
Mukai in two competitions slaughtered a total of 195 Chinese at Nanking with his sword, and Noda was close behind with 183. Yet neither came close to Captain Tanaka Gunkichi, who claimed 300 kills. It's not like Nanking was a one-off. Ito Samata's 81 Manchuria kills with the sword and Takayama Masakiuchi's 40 kills. Then you've got Narazaki Masahiko, part of a Nakano unit that tested their crossbow, karate, and Iai skills on prisoners of war. We know he killed American airmen with his sword. Interestingly, Takayama was somebody whom Nakamura Taizaburo, an Iai master of the Toyama school, greatly admired. Takayama claims that when he was stationed in China he only tested his cutting skills with the sword on animals. I have an interesting link on Nakamura in the next installment.
In addition to the above, there is much anecdotal evidence by Allied prisoners of war being used as part of martial arts demonstration. Also remember that daito ryu, aikijutsu, shindo, yoshin ryu, kendo, iai, judo, and karate were taught to the kempeitai (Army military police), the tokei kai (navy military police), the tokko (thought police), and the regular police as well as at the Nakano School, Toyama military school, and various military units. In light of all this, I find it amazing that many martial artists can't bring themselves to accept that Japanese martial arts practitioners were involved in the murder, execution, torture and beating of prisoners and civilians in those countries Japan occupied. They probably accept that that in Manchuria, China and Southeast Asia the Japanese commited some of the most henious crimes ever recorded in war--and on a grand scale might I add. But so many martial artists can't bring themselves to accept that skilled martial artists, whom they assume to have had high moral values, would have engaged in such crimes. They seem to think that if they did kill anybody with their sword or with their fists and feet, then it must have been a genuine act of self preservation in a time of war. Occasionally this might have been the case, but personally I believe that the practice of using the martial arts on prisoners and civilians was widespread, and I'll tell you why.
I think that in that the whole system of martial and military training within the schools and universities and the military and martial arts training within military units encouraged sadistic abusers. It also encouraged those who were abused to turn around become abusers themselves given the opportunity.
I believe it's generally accepted that Japanese budo was used as an indoctrinational tool along with other practices from the 1920s through to 1945 in order to instill loyalty, discipline, blind obediance, etc. The martial arts were no longer seen as fighting systems, but indoctrinal tools. Although they were no longer fighting systems, they still contained all the trappings to suggest they still were, including a heirachy in which juniors (within the schools, universities and military training establishments) deferred obsequiously to their seniors. The seniors beat those juniors who either hadn't the balls or the ability to fight back, or who accepted the beatings as part of dojo etiquette. This was done so as to reinforce this heirachy, and for some, to satisfy their sadistic pleasure. The juniors in this system knew that one day they would get to do the same beatings when they'd risen in the hierarchy. Beatings and other humiliating punishments, along with endless repetition of drills, were not only a part of army life but also par for the course for many of those who trained in the martial arts. There wasn’t that much to distinguish military and martial arts training, which not only included bowing in reverence to the emperor's portrait and chanting in unison various rescripts of loyalty and devotion to the emperor, but also engaging in choral chants of hatred for the enemy. In the case of the Chinese, the Japanese perceived their enemy as vermin. Because the martial arts were being used as indoctrinational tools, their effectiveness for fighting was largely academic. Their practitioners had no way of knowing whether they would work in real combat, though they were effective against those who didn’t fight back.
It's not difficult to see why a Japanese officer (or one of the rank and file under certain circumstances) might use what ever martial skills he might have possessed on a Chinese for whom he had no moral feelings. He might have done this either to test those s kills or simply because he was fucking deranged, although I suspect for both reasons. I remember some years ago watching a TV documentary on the Russian military, and one scene showed an NCO lining up new recruits and repeatably testing his karate skills on them. This is something I also saw in Japan at the Nipori dojo, not to mention what still takes place in some of Japan's top universities.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture the things that some crazy (like the Russian NCO or the equally crazy karate senior whom Arthur Tansley talks of at Kyokushinkan University) would have got up to with the full blessing of his superiors at Nanking in 1937. The idea of Japanese soldiers trying out their bayonet and martial arts sills on those who couldn't fight back, often because their hands were tied, is hardly surprising. From my experience, the Japanese martial arts not only attract sadists and bullies, but produce them by way of the abused becoming abusers themselves. The systems don’t have reality-based training methods in which each party is trying to take the other guy out. Ranks are not determined on fighting ability, but on grades. This dictates that juniors must defer to seniors even when fighting. In this way, you are encouraging the type of endemic bullying that is typical of many Japanese universities, where seniors beat juniors, even to death, and apparently with little remorse.
This is not to say that all Japanese martial artists were war criminals. But in a culture of sadism where beating those below you in the hierarchy was a part of the system itself, you end up with individuals who truly embody the definition of a bully: someone who hasn't the courage to pick on someone his equal. The only way he can feel good about himself is by beating somebody who can't fight back. Nanking is a very extreme example of this phenomenon.
http://www.aikidojournal.com/article.php?articleID=217 Shioda gozo An aikido life
Shioda Gozo, who according to some accounts began his military service in Shangai in 1937, though the later date of 1941 seems to be the date more favoured. What confuses me about the 1941 date is that Shioda entered Takushoku University in 1933 with the idea of doing two years of prepatory courses and then three years of regular courses, which makes five years in all. He would have theoretically graduated around 1938, but he claims to have graduated shortly after the Kobe plot, which was January 1940. In that case, what was he doing for the two years? He says he was playing Uke for Ueshiba Morihei, or was he doing something else?
When I read his life story there was something about it not quite right, but it could just be my suspicious mind. It’s just that whenever the world’s richest fascist turns up in the pages (you guessed it, Sasakawa Ryoichi) I start to pay extra attention. Shioda expresses deep gratitude to Sasakawa for putting up the money for his Koganei Honbu dojo and helping with the running costs. Was this simply because Shioda had helped Sasakawa in the ‘50s and ‘60s to break stikes, or did one of the Class A war criminals (with whom Shioda was acquainted by way of his father) recommend Shioda to Sasakawa, himself another Class A war criminal, when they were doing time together at at Sugamo Prison? Or was it something else?
Well, here’s my take on it all: Shioda seems to have come from a privileged background. His father, a famous pediatrician whose surgery was always full, had eleven male servants and Shioda at one time had twenty or so dogs. According to Shioda’s life story, his father Shioda Seichi had ambitions for his son to be part of the Japanese colonization of Manchuria and Mongolia. He even hoped that one day his son would marry the daughter of General Bajobab, a famous bandit /freedom fighter in Mongolia, and become king of Mongolia.
Shioda entered Takushoku university because it, like the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages, had a reputation for teaching foreign languages and all that would be required as an imperial administer. Graduates of Takushoku were often recruited as Nakano spies and intelligence officers. Nakayama Masatoshi was also a Takushoku graduate, for example, and although his resume suggests he was in China studying languages, this is only partly true: yes, he was an interpreter, but he was also an interrogator, which was not uncommon. Richard Kim did the same, although he received his training at the Kempeitai spy school in Shangai, whilst Yamaguchi Gogen, a graduate of Ritsumeiken University, which also trained so called Imperial administrators, also went on to work for military intelligence and possibly even the Black Dragon Society.
Although Shioda’s father introduced him to the martial arts by converting part of his house into a dojo and providing expert tutaledge in kendo and judo for the young Shioda, it wasn’t until he was aroud 18 in 1933 that he began studying Daito ryu Aikijutsu under Ueshiba Morihei at the Kobukan, a dojo where it is believed Black Dragon Society meetings took place. Ueshiba was probably connected to the Black Dragon Society through Yoshida Kotaro, a Black Dragon member and recruiter who had introduced Ueshiba to Takeda Sokaku, as well as through Deguchi Onisaburo, who was connected to Toyama Mitsuru, founder of the Black Ocean Society, and Uchida Ryohei, founder of the Black Dragon Society. Toyama and Uchida sponsored Deguchi’s Mongolian adventures, in which Ueshiba took part.
Interestingly, Shioda’s father helped fund the Kobukan—wonder if he ever turned up to any of its more secret meetings?
When Shioda started training at the kobukan it was after the first Omoto incident in 1921 but before the second in 1935. The Kobukan during this period would have not only served as a place where political activists and sympathizers could train, but also where students would be recruited and operations planned. According to Shioda, members of the public didn’t train at the Kobukan, the training being concentraded on the living-in students. With the financial support Ueshiba got from his sponsors and teaching at the Nakano school, etc., he didn’t need to open the doors to the public. Plus, the Kobukan had a political agenda, and outsiders would not have been welcome. It would have been difficult if not impossible to remain politically neutral or even practice at all, if you weren’t committed to the Omoto religion or some ultranationalistic cause. Ueshiba taught royal princes including Chichibu, who was head of the Golden Lily Operation to loot all of southeast Asia, and Takeda, who supervised the burying of the loot in the Philippines. Ueshiba also taught at the Nakano spy school, military police school (kempeitai) and the Toyama Army School and Army and Navy academies. Ueshiba didn’t just teach at these places, he was on friendly terms with the guys that ran them, not to mention police chiefs.of every description. Shioda not only occasionally assisted Ueshiba at the above mentioned, but even substituted for him when he wasn’t available. Not that Shioda would have been fazed by being in the company of royalty, militarists, and ultranationalists; the list of his father’s friends and acquaintances reads like the Who’s Who of war criminals and the political right. Here are just a few: Hata Eitaro, commander of the notorious Kwangtung Army; his brother Shunroku, Class A war criminal sentenced to life (whom I believe Shioda, Jr. referred to as ‘uncle’); Tojo Hideki, Class A war criminal who was sentenced to death; Koiso Kuniaki, Class A war criminal sentenced to life; Minami Jiro, Class A war criminal sentenced to life; Koiso Kuniaki, one time Chief of Staff of the Kwangtung Army and and governor general of Korea from 1942 to 1944, where he earned the title ‘Tiger of Korea’; Count Goto Shimpei, ultranationalist; and Okura Kihochiro, head of the Okura Zaibatsu
Oh, and Ueshiba himself, of course, who was only a class G war criminal.
Shioda, Sr. was connected even to members of the former Manchu Ching Dynasty; indeed, it was because of his connection that he was selected to act as a go-between in the marriage between Lady Saga Hiro (daughter of the Marquis Saga) and Prince Pujie (brother of the former Emperor of China Puyi, who had been installed as the chief executive/ emperor of the the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo by the Japanese from 1932 to 1945). The wedding was a sham: Puyi and Pujie were being propped up by the kempeitai and controlled by Doihara Kenji. Puyi had been set up as the Emperor of Manchukuo so as to make it appear to the League of Nations that the Japanese had nothing to do with the administration of Manchukuo, and when the time was right they planned to install Pu Yi as emperor of China under Japanese control.
Remember the Mongolian general Babojab whom I mentioned earlier? Well, Shioda Snr took Babojab’s two sons and a daughter into his charge when Babojab was killed in battle in 1916. Bajobab, a former bandit turned freedom fighter for Mongolian autonomy, formed an alliance with Manchu Prince Su (Su had inherited the allegiances of the tribes of inner Mongolia), the Japanese government , master spy Kawashima Naniwa, and Uchida Ryohei, leader of the Black Dragon Society. Within this alliance there was a strong relation ship between Prince Su and the spy Kawashima Naniwa; Su gave Kawashima his daughter, who had several names including Dongzhen (or ‘Eastern Jewel’). She was eight. Kawashima gave her an education and a Japanese name, Kawashima Yoshiko. When she was fifteen she was probably raped by Kawashima’s ageing father and when she was sixteen or seventeen also probably raped by Kawashima himself. In 1927 at the age of nineteen she married Kanjurab, the eldest son of Babojab. Shioda Snr, you’ll remember, was Kanjurab’s guardian and the marriage appears to have again been arranged so as to create closer ties between the puppet state of Manchuquo and Inner Mongolia, which Japanese wanted to control. Shioda Snr would have most certainly been party to this arrangement, which means he was in the company of some real heavies, not only including Kawashima but also in all probability Uchida Ryohei (who, along with Toyama Mitsuru, went on to sponsor Deguchi’s trips to Mongolia). The marriage didn’t last and Eastern Jewel went on to become a spy, about which much has been written. Shioda Snr. and possibly others even had plans to marry off Shioda Jnr to Babojab’s daughter, who was also in the custody of Shioda Snr., and so, as Shioda senior put it, Shioda Jnr would have become the king of Mongolia
When Shioda is relating his life story he is obviously proud of his father’s acquaintences and friendships as well as those of the ultra right with whom Shioda himself was acquainted . The thing that Shioda, Sr. and many of his friends and acquaintences like Deguchi, Ueshiba Toyama and Uchida had in common was the occupation and domination of Manchuria and Mongolia (a recurring theme amongst martial artists of this period, particulary those of Daito ryu and Aikijutsu who had Black Dragon ties), the success of which, as in Korea, was dependent initially upon the spy networks and activists within the Black Dragon Society.
The Black Dragon Society not only recruited members from politics, big business, extreme religious groups and the criminal underworld, but also, like the Nakano School of Spies, from the regional branches of the Butokukai and dojos such as Ueshibas, as well as universities. When at University, Shioda and his friends would often talk about becoming the leaders of Asia and even came up with the idea of opening a private leadership coaching school. They even found a sponsor: an ultranationalist by the name of Matsuda, who trained at the Kobukan. Matsuda seems to have been acquainted with a number of those young military officers who took part in 26 Feb incident, amongst whom was Nishida, a disciple of Ikki Kita (a political ideologist with extreme views that served as an inspiration to both those on the extreme right and extreme left; i.e., right wing socialism). Nishida, along with Ikki, was executed for his suspected part in the plot to bring down the government.
The Kodaha (imperial way faction, amongst whose members was Araki Sadao, someone who was right of Attila the Hun, see link ) was behind the plot and even Prince Chichibi was said to have been involved. Matsuda also had a brother who was a confidant of Prince Konoe Fumimaro, who shortly after taking office as Prime Minister in 1937, allowed the extreme militarists to expand military operations in China without government interference and announced the beginning of a new order in Asia that would later become known as the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Konoe also seems to have had the full support of the Editor in Chief of the Asahi newspaper, Ogata Taketora. Ogata was an influential figure in the Black Dragon Society, and on Toyama’s death he was made chairman of the funeral committee. A number of writers for the Asahi newspaper were part of a Konoe government think tank called the Showa Studies Society.They supported Konoe, and with the assistance of the Kodaha faction and others (who were responsible for a number of assassinations) they attempted in 1944 to assassinate Tojo Hideki. The assassination plot was discovered, and if my my memory serves me right (I’ve lost the link) I think I remember reading in one of Oyama’s many bios that a military espionage group training at the Butokukai which Oyama was a part of were investigated and a number of the group arrested on suspision of being part of the plot. Whether it’s true or not I don’t know, but it seems to tie in.
Whether either of the Matsudas was Matsuda Hosaku, I don’t know, but it would be interesting to find out, as many Daito ryu/Aikijutsu practitioners of this period, including Takeda Sokaku, had ultranationalistic and Black Dragon connections. Matsuda apparently chose the term ‘shido juku’ which I believe could translate as warrior-scholar or leader-way coaching school, for the name of the private school that was to be run by Shioda and his friends. Uncle Shunroku inscribed the calligraphy for the school name board. What actually went on within this school is not clear, but it definitely wasn’t a boy scout club with patrons like Matsuda (an ultranationalist with political and possibly even Kodaha faction and Black Dragon connections) and a general who rubber-stamped kempeitai atrocities across Asia. There’s a nice photo of Shunroku with his kempeitai buddies in Hiroshima 1945; he doesn’t look too happy, though. Guess by he realized he was going to be on the losing side and might have to get out the white kimono (see Kempeitai by Raymond Lamont Brown).
What we do know about the Shido School is that one of its graduates (Uraoka, whom Shioda met when he was in China) became a member of the secret service for an agency associated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was set up to deal with the political organization of foreign territories—in other words, kill everybody who isn’t in favour of the chosen leadership of collaborators. At least it had one successful graduate! Somebody else who seems to have been acquainted with members of the 26 Feb incident was Maj Ito Samata, an ultranationalist and officer at the Nakano School with whom Shioda formed a close relationship. Shioda claims this came about through his visits to the Nakano School, where he taught its recruits Daito ryu Aikijutsu, as well as through Ito’s visits to the Kobukan to see his friend Ueshiba. Ito, according to Stephen Mercado in his book The Shadow Warriors of Nakano, was a hot-head who claimed to have cut down 81 spies and bandits while serving in Manchuria—another example, I suspect, of tameshigiri against the the innocent and unsuspecting. Ito was classmate to some of the officers who took part in the 26 Feb incident and was probably himself connected to or inspired by the Kodaha faction (see link below) but because of his hot temper and and being a trouble maker, he was shipped off to Manchuria before the incident took place.
Interestingly, Ito’s patron was Lt. Gen. Ushiroko Jun, one of the three men to whom Shioda was asked to deliver letters shortly after he arrived in China (the others being general Wachi Takagi and Cho Isamo). At the time of his association with Shioda, Ito had a flea in his bonnet with regards to the British involvement in helping prevent Japan from conquering China by sending supplies down the Burma Road to the nationalist forces of Chang Kai Shek, and he often spoke of his concerns to Shioda whenever he and his friends visited Ito’s house. Ito also revealed to them one day his plan to seize the British consulate with a number of students and some members of the Hineji regiment. They intended to secure documents that would be proof of British involvement and force diplomatic staff to pubicly confess to Britain’s invovment in Japanese affairs, thereby turning Japanese public opinion agaist Great Britain and fuelling Japanese nationalism. According to Shoida’s version of the plot, his part was to come after the documents were seized. He and a friend were to take the documents to Prince Konoe Fumimaro. Now, Konoe didn’t serve his second term as prime minister until July 22 nd 1940 , so this raises the question: why take the documents to him? Was he connected to the plot? And, as in the 26 Feb incident, was it Kodaha-inspired ? According to Shioda, he had been instructed by Ito to assemble with the rest of the group, which included members of the Hineji Regiment, at the Minatowagawa Shrine near Kobe Station at 5am on the 5 th January 1940—a little conspicuous, don’t you think? But when Shioda and his friend turned up, there was nobody there except the the Kempeitai, who arrested them. Ito had been betrayed and had been arrested by the Kempeitai at a hotel in Kobe on the 4th jan 1940, the day before.
Shioda’s father’s friend, Hata Shunroku (who was Minister of War at the time) with the assistance of Lt. Gen. Tanaka Shizuichi (an old acquaintance and head of the Kempeitai within the Tokyo and Yokohama area) got all the charges against Shioda and his friend quashed, as well as those brought against Ueshiba, who was also suspected of being part of the plot. Lt. Gen. Tanaka in 1937 was head of Kwantung Army Kempeitai and in 1944 in the Timor theatre responsible for the torture and mass executions of the resistance within this region. At the end of the war he shot himself in the heart; otherwise that would have been another class A war criminal Shioda had been associated with.
Ito was forced to go on the reserve list as a result of Shioda’s involvement in the Kobe incident, and when Hata became Commander in Chief of the China expeditionary force in March 1941 he decided to pack Shioda of to China as his personel secretary. By this time Shioda claims he had graduted; interestingly, shortly after arriving in China, Shioda against Hata’s wishes insisted on visiting Lt. Gen. Sakurai, who was recovering in hospital after attemting to commit suicide. Why, we’re not told. Sakurai would later go head to head with Lt. General Bill Slim in Burma; maybe he’d had a premonition that he was going to get his ass whipped. But the real question is: what was a university graduate against the express wishes of the Commander in Chief of all China (who’d even lent Shioda his car and two trucks of soldiers) doing visiting a top Japanese general? Unless, of course, Sakurai was a friend of his father’s or they were exchanging imformation on behalf of an interested party.
That’s more or less Shioda’s version of the Kobe Incident. Mercado’s version in The Shadow Warriors of Nakano is slightly different, in that he doesn’t talk about members of the Hineji Regiment taking part in the plot but a number of students (‘He had planned with a number of the students to seize the consulate’). Like Shioda, Mercados has Ito being arrested at a Kobe hotel by the Kempeitai the day before the operation was to take place, but it’s what happened the next day according to Mercados that’s interesting: ‘The kempeitai alerted to the plot took Ito into custody at a Kobe hotel on January 4, 1940 and rounded up his students at a neareby Shinto shrine. The army avoided bringing attention to its covert traing centre by compelling Ito to go quietly on the reserve list. The two (emphasis mine) students involved with him were quietly sent on oversas assignments.’ According to Shioda there was nobody else at the shrine on the 5 th and according to Merdcado, nobody else was arrested other than Ito and the two students. Mercados makes no mention of the 47 members that made up the group of which shioda talks, but even if there were more involved in the plot, the only people arrested according to Mercado were Ito and the two students. The two students that Mercado mentions were in all probability Shioda and his friend and the reference to the two students being sent on overseas assignments fits with what we know happened to Shioda, but not in the context he has chosen to use it. Mercado is referring to Nakano students being sent overseas, not university students (in other words, those training under Ito).
Shioda, with his father’s military and ultranationalistic connections (not to mention his own—don’t forget Matsuda and Ito with possible Kodaha connections, and also being a student at Takushoko university, which had a reputation for recruiting spies) as well as fluency in Chinese and probably French and to boot being a Daito ryu Aikijutsu expert, had all the makings of becoming a spy suited to operating in China and Southeast Asia, alone or with a unit. It makes less sense to imagine him teaching daito ryu aikijutsu or whatever to 1 st and 2 nd lieutenants at the Nakano, or later, living the life of Riley, fights and all, whilst serving in China, Taiwan, southern Borneo, the Celebes Islands and French Indonesia (where apart from running a zoo of some 300 animals, many of which he gobbled up along with his dinner guests before being posted to some other exotic location) where he didn’t do much but some minor work for the Kyowakai by teaching the locals to parlez-vous Japanese. If Shioda’s version of events is true, it would have been a bit of a waste of his many abilities. And, I suspect, a big disappointment to his late father.
Was Shioda a Nakano spy or someone working for military intelligence—or for that matter, the Kodaha faction? I don’t know, but it seems a possibility that he sure knew or was associated with a lot of guys that were. And if he was any of these things it might go some way to explaining the missing years, and why Sasakawa sponsored Shioda as he did that other spy and Toyama protogee, Nakano Michiomi (more commonly known as Doshin So).
A twist to the story is that when meeting up with his Kobe friend later in China Shioda was told that the Kempeitai and secret police were looking for him as they believed he was in disguise and was going to assasinate Wang Ching Wei, a former associate of Chiang Kai Shek. Wang had broken away from the nationalist party to lead the collaboration regime installed by the Japanese in 1940. Shioda dismisses this as a rumour, which it very well might have been, but you have to ask your self why Shioda, as someone who by his own account had just graduated from University, should be cast in the role of assassin? And what would be the purpose of killing Wang and which militaristic political or criminal faction would gain personally? I’m going to see what I can dig up with regards to Shioda’s connections to Matsuda and who was Matsuda connected to. If Shioda was a spy then the question is, why all the false leads? What was he hiding? If he wasn’t a spy, then he was still an ultranationalist of some kind in that you can’t associate with some of the guys he did both prior to 1945 and after (such as Sasakawa) with out catching a busload of fleas.
Sasakawa for example, along with Kodama founded a number of anti-communist organizations. He also become a member of the Butoku kai in 1954 and headed several martial arts organizations, which like his buddy the Rev. Moon, he used as a front for criminal and ultra right wing activities, as well as recruitment centers for srike breakers. Interestingly, Sasakawa was in some way hooked up to Miyazato Eiichi of Goju ryu fame; in 1972 Miyazato lost his position as chief insructor with the Naha police department for his association with Sasakawa as well as the Yakuza. Martial artists in Okinawa, as in Japan, have historically been used as muscle by criminal organizations—which shouldn’t be suprising when you consider that in the 1970s prostitution was Okinawa’s biggest growth industry, and something Sasakawa was involved in. Indeed, he once planned on setting up the world’s largest brothel on the island of Lubang in the Phillipines. However, that plan had more to do with the recovery of the billions in Golden Lily loot that had been buried there (with the assistance of his pal Kodama and the Princes Chichibu and Takeda, Ueshibas old students) than with supplying rich fat fucks with underage girls or boys.
For the moment that’s all about Shioda but I’m sure something else is going to turn up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodoha Imperial way faction /Kodoha faction Nakano seigo
Is worth a look as is Araki Sadao, a guy who seems to have his finger in a lot of pies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asahi_Shimbun
Asahi Shimbun, which had links to Black Dragon and in the case of the Osaka branch to Ueshiba Morihei, who taught at its offices from 1932 to 1936, and Takeda Sokaku who taught there from 1937 to 1940.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Shogunate military socialism worth a look
http://www.answers.com/topic/takushoku-university
Tokushoku University or Takudai during the war, like Ritsumeikkan, trained what is termed ‘Imperial administraters’ and like Yamaguchi (a graduate of Ritsumeikan) many of its graduates went on to work for military intelligence.
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/sitemap/index.php/t-6812.html
JKA Interesting that Saigo Kichinosuke the first president of the JKA was a former student of Funakoshi Fichin. Saigo was a wealty and influential politician and the grandson of of the last of the samurai, Saigo Takamori (also known as Saigo Kichinosuke) who in 1873 resigned from the Meiji government because his former allies refused to back a his plan to travel to Korea in the hope of being assassinated so as to provide Japan with the excuse to attack Korea and subjugate its people. Saigo lead the Satsuma rebellon in 1877 in which after being badly injured he ordered one of his comrades to cut off his head. Although this was the end of the samurai, Saigo’s cause to occupy Korea was taken up by the Black Ocean Society. One wonders if Saigo held the same ulta-conservative views as his grandfather, and if he did what was Funakoshi doing in his company? Though you can see why the JKA Imperial administrators might have been happy to have him around . Apparently the old boys of Keio couldn’t stomach the likes of Nakayama and Co, but I see that Nishiyama Hidetaka is listed as the Director of Administration. I’ve always wondered why Richard Kim hooked up with this guy. Did they have something in common other than karate?
Voltairenet Kodama Yoshio This article tells of Kodama’s association with Sasakawa and involvement in looting drugs and the anti communist league, as well as how in 1960 he organized the breaking up of the Ampo demonstrations using gangs of Yakuza veterans and ultranationalists. It’s no big secret that martial artists were recruited to help break up leftist meetings—indeed Oyama Mas is said to have killed a man on such an occasion. Whether that story is true or not, what is true according to Jon Bluming is that Kurosaki Kenji was hired as muscle along with others to ensure that the 1964 Olympics went without incident. Whether Kodama organized security at the Olympics isn’t certain, but on a number of other occasions involving foreign dignitaries he did ensure that there weren’t any left-wing demonstators about to spoil the occasion.
Kodama was also associated with Toyoda Takeshige, head of the ultra nationalist Youth Martyr League. Toyada, often referred to as the Hitler of Japan, was involved in strike-breaking, intimidation and kidnapping. There is a photo of him and his followers training in the martial arts on Corbis dated 1954. Their stances seem reminiscent of Goju kai. I wonder who was training them at the time. Could it have been the same guy who Kodama trained under? According to the Seagraves in Gold Warriors, Kodamas fingers were knobbly from karate practice and he could crush a larynx with them.
http://ejmas.com/jalt/jaltart_abe_0600.htm Sport & Fascism Japan including the martial arts. One you should definitely read along with this article entitled ‘Sport and Politics: the Case of Japanese Sport in the Interwar’ which I’ve lost the web link to.
See editor’s notes re: Nishikubo Hiromichi, who was making the argument in 1914 that the Japanese martial arts should no longer be referred to as bujutsu but budo, in that they should not be seen as combative arts but as a means of instilling loyalty, obedience, etc in schoolchildren so that they would be willing to sacrifice their lives for the emperor.
In 1919 Nishikubo, an ultranationalist who became the head of the Bujutsu Senmon Gakko, which he promptly renamed Budo Senmon Gakko. This important change in emphasis as to the meaning of the Japanese martial arts was soon to be supported by the Butokukai; in other words the practice of the martial arts had more to do with the following of the Imperial Way than the way of the warrior.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article30028.html This article tells of Sasakawa Ryoichi’s private armies, his association with Kodama and Moon, the World Anti- Communist League, being a member of the Butokukai in 1954 along with other rightists and class A war criminals, as well as presiding over several martial arts organizations. Nice photos of him with Mussolini and Pope John Paul, though he’s probably got more in common with the current Pope (who, I believe, was a member of the Hitler youth and whose recent comments about Islam are sure to find favour amongst the ultra right of Bush and Co.). Sasakawa, a billionare philantrapist who in later life gave genourosly to good causes as well as to victims of left wing terrorism, apparently got pissed-off when he realized that his money wasn’t going to buy him a Nobel Peace Prize as it had bought him everything else in life by way of bribes. Now, I know the world of politics stinks—even the so-called good guys often smell of shit—but with Sasakawa we’re talking about a class A war criminal who even dug his own grave in anticipation of being executed. In postwar Japan Sasakawa was involved in gambling, prostitution, drug-trafficking and dealing, gun-running, money laundering, intimidation, extortion, blackmail, and sponsoring right-wing terrorists in Southeast Asia and South America. A Nobel Peace Prize? But you never know, he might end up getting one posthumously. Why is it that the self-aggrandizing elite of this world, no matter how evil, corrupt, immoral or insincere they are, they still expect to have their cake and eat it? Rather than, as in the French Revolution, getting what they so richly derseve—namely the chop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militarism-Socialism_in_Showa_Japan
Sasakawa and Ishihara get a mention, Ishihara’s in his connection to the Cherry Blossom Society and Sasakawa as a fascist.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon6.html This article is about Moon, Sasakawa, drugs, arms trafficking and the ultra right wing connections of Moon and Sasakawa. Just to remind you, sasakawa was the head of Wuko whilst Moon is currently using the martial arts as a front for more sinister activities—he even got himself hooked up with Jhoon Rhee. Wonder what that’s all about
http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/japdeny/tokyo_trial.html The failure of Tokyo War trial. Ishihara Kanji, the guy whose Mukden plan allowed Japan to ‘legitimately’ (if that’s the word) occupy Manchuria. This occupation was to fuel the militarism that eventually lead to the Asian Pacific War, but was not even brought to trial. Sasakawa and Kodama, however, do get a mention, and like many of Japan’s war criminals, they not only got off scot free but went on to continue as they had before the war, becoming part of the ruling elite (minus of course Tojo Hideki and a few other scapegoats). Notable amongst those to escape justice were Hirohito, who had been complicit in Japans aggressive stance in Asia, and his golfing buddy Prince Asaka, who had ordered the Imperial Japanese Army Kempeitai and criminal elements to slaughter 300,000 men, women and children, including babies, at Nannking. Matsui Iwane took the blame and was hung. Interestingly, it was Uncle Hata Shunroku, Shioda’s friend, who took over from Matsui as commander of the China expeditionary force in 1938 and whose troops, including his buddies in the kempeitai, were responsible for commiting countless more crimes against the Chinese.
http://abelashes.com/page19.html cherry blossom society
This article tells of the reasons for the creation of the Cherry Blossom Society and Ishihara’s involvment in the Mukden Bridge Incident. The Cherry Blossom Society was linked to the Black Ocean/Black Dragon Society by way of Toyama Mitsuru and Uchida Ryohei
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuru_Toyama
Toyama Mitsuru founder of Black Ocean
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_political_figures_in_early_Showa_period
List of political figures in the early Showa period; couple here you might want to click on to or just follow up on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Blossom_Society
Cherry Blossom Society includes amongst its members Toyama Mitsuru and Cho Isamu, one of the founders, who you might recall was one of three recipitents of letters delivered by Shioda Gozo on behalf of Hata Shuroku
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:sXoFGkZoICgJ:japanfocus.org/200.html+KYOWAKAI+SOCIETY+SECRET+&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=5 Community and identity in north east Asia.
Kyowa kai or Concordia Society was an organ of the Japanese military whose claimed purpose was to bring about coexistence and mutual prosperity of the five races of Manchuria (Japanese, Manchurians, Mongolians, Chinese and Koreans) but whose real purpose was to replace local culture, customs, beliefs and language with those of Japan, as well as recruit from the local populace informers, spies, etc. to assist with intelligence regarding the movements of the Kuomingtang , local bandits, Russian troops, and local dissidents. The martial arts dojos set up throughout the network of the South Manchurian Railway and sponsored by the Black Dragon Society were not only used to to train kempeitai military personnel and Japanese nationals, but also to recruit and train those locals who were sympathetic to the Japanese cause. As an officer of the Kyowakai, Yamaguchi Gogen would have had contact at some level with the kempeitai or the Black Dragon Society; in other words, you couldn’t fart in Manchuria without them approving it or knowing about it.
The Kyowakai, like the installing of drug addict Henry Pu Yi, was a sham created so as to give the impression to the rest of the world and the people of Manchuria that the Japanese were there to protect Manchuria’s natural resources, the south Manchurian railway, and its people from the Kuomintang, local warlords and Russian communists, when all along it was out to expooit all of these. This is nowhere more true than in the opium trade; Manchuria was responsible for 90 percent of the world’s heroin, which Kodama on behalf of the Black Dragon and Japanese government had an invested interest in. Manchuria was also the intended base from which to dominate China and install the puppet Pu Yi as its emperor and launch attacks on Russia and the USA with weapons of mass destruction.
It’s no coincidence that Unit 731, which was involved in creating biological weapons, was based in Manchuria. The Concordia Society was fine if as a Manchurian, Mongolian, Chinese, Korean, or Russian Jew, you followed the Japanese line. Otherwise, courtesy of the Kempeitai, you would have been murdered, tortured, or forced into prostitution or slavery. Or, worse still, become a guest of Ishii Shiro, head of Unit 731 (who by all accounts received regular visits from Sasakawa when they both were imprisoned at Sugamo). Ishii, incidently, like Sasakawa got off scot-free and even went on a lecture tour of the United States. I see the death count in Iraq is getting close to 7oo,ooo, though I doubt Bush or Blair on account of the deaths and misery they have caused will ever have a sleepless night. Their kind, like Sasakawa and Ishii never do. What a fucking world we live in.
http://www.willamette.edu/~rloftus/moremilitarism.html Japan’s Dark Background.
Black Ocean, Black Dragon and more.
http://www.koryubooks.com/library/kfriday2.html Historical foundations of Bushido. Karl Friday exposes the myth of bushido. Good piece, so read it.
http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2005/2005-2.html Muscular Christianity, its use in the development of the character of those leaders of the British empire.
Muscular Christianity also seems to have influenced the Christian morality of Nitobe’s samurai aswell as the character -building purpose of Kano Jigoro’s judo, and which was to influence other forms of Japanese budo in their support of Japanese imperialism. However, the Prussian form of education seems to have had the greater influence, as Japanese militarism gained momentum. This is probably due to Japan sharing the same need as in Prussia: to produce loyal, obedient soldiers and compliant workers through precision drilling and teaching by rote. Rather than citizens with high moral values through engaging in enlightening education and conversation and ‘manly sports’.
http://www.gettingit.com/article/56 Semen warriors of New Guinea.
Interesting parallel to the Spartan, Roman and samurai practice of butching-up boys and reasons why. Also graphically describes this process. It’s one thing to know that the samurai were gay but quite another to know what they might have got up to in private with an adolestent male dressed up as a girl, including, it’s said, Musashi Miyamoto. There is also a parallel to be drawn with certain Taoist/Buddhist practices in which semen, it was believed, could be channelled up the spine to nourish the brain. Which I suppose gives a whole new meaning to fucking the brains out of someone—or should that be into someone? The actual practice of redirecting semen to the brain came from the belief that by pressing on the point between the anus and the scrotum (i.e., the uretha) that semen was directed along the spine to the brain, when in fact it was simply directed to the bladder when it was cleared the next time you pissed. Another one of examples where a method of producing chi has been created around a belief rather than fact.
http://www.stthomasu.ca/~parkhill/cj01/irepam.htm Secrets of gay Japan
In an e mail from Joseph Svinth he reminded me that the samurai being gay was common knowledge. Well, Joe, when I first started training in the martial arts and for many, many years after, it wasn’t common knowledge to me at least. But those Japanese who I was training with most certainly knew about it but they weren’t telling. I suppose it was just another one of those unspeakable truths, amongst the others being the fact that Japanese modern budo with the exception of judo and kyokushinkai are a load of bollocks, and none more so than karate. Joe Svinth also advised me in good faith, I assume, to contact Harry Cook and Co. with regards to certain imformation. He obviously didn’t know that I wouldn’t piss on these guys if they were on fire.
http://www.americanpolitics.com/20030821Bisbort.html bushido bushito by Alan Bisbort speaks for itself
http://www2.gol.com/users/friedman/writings/Manchukuo.html Manchukuo constructing the past with refs to Ishihara
http://www.users.bigpond.com/battleforAustralia/JapWarCrimes/Denying_truth.html Japan’s refusal to acknowledge its war guilt and atrocities. Couple of nice quotes from a number of Japanese bigwigs concerning atrocities commited by the Japanese in China sort of along the lines of ‘it never happened’ and a couple of interesting links within the article itself.
http://ec.hku.hk/kd96proc/authors/papers/miyawaki.htm linguistic imperialism or the removal of national identity and the creation in occupied territories of third rate Japanese citizens on par with the burakumin. The article has a couple of interesting links.
http://www.gojuforums.com/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=-1&TOPIC_ID=402&REPLY_ID=2582
Steve Morris flawed genius. This link misbehaves so if you can't get it, google 'steve morris flawed genius'
Usual bollocks about, as Gary Naybour once put it, my having ‘the brain of Einstein and the strength of a gorilla,’ or was that the other way around? And about who did I ever fight.
Well, the truth, is with the exception of a few guys I haven’t a clue who I’ve fought in past. All my fights of any consequence have been in barrack rooms, brawls in bars and on the streets and at the 9 Earlham Street Gym. Because the 9 Earlham Street Gym was an open gym located close to Cambridge Circus, anybody could train there and over the 10 years it was open we had thousands of visiters, and not all friendly. Sometimes I was sorting guys two or three times a week. That’s a lot of fights in 10 years. These guys wern’t the legless drunks which some doorman might have to deal with on a Saturday night, and have gained a fighting reputation for doing so. These guys were sober and could fight and would have kicked the shit out of me if given half the chance. Did I know their names? Course I fucking didn’t, but what I know is that there were a fucking lot of them. One who I sorted out on the stairs I didn’t even get to see his face because he was wearing a crash helmet at the time.
I suppose the only guy I’ve ever fought with an international reputation was the MMA fighter Paul Jenkins and I dropped him in a couple of seconds on the day before my 61 st birthday, and that was two years ago. I might have got to fight Ticky Donovan for real in the early Seventies when I challenged him in a Belgian café to come out side, but he refused. With regards to who was my best student, well it certainly wasn’t Floyd Brown; he didn’t train with me full time, nevertheless he was still a pretty good fighter and was world-ranked in Muay Thai and kickboxing. He even won some NHB contest in Canada.
Of all those guys who trained under me on a regular basis, the most notable were Mark Tobin, Vince Jauncey and Glen Muldoon. And of course Tom O’Shaughnessy, somebody you seriously wouldn’t want to piss off. Sure, I’ve had a lot of fighters with great potential, but for whatever reason they didn’t last with me for very long. This includes the moderator of the thread, Gavin Mulholand and his associates Dan Lewis and Stuart Gent. However, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mulholland for saying I was the best karate man he’d ever seen. Even though as he points out I don’t like being associated with karate anymore it’s nevertheless taken as a compliment coming from him. And if you’re reading this, Gavin, say hello to Dan and Stewart from me.
http://ejmas.com/jalt/jaltart_friday_0301.htm bushido or bull
Says it all but I doubt it will be accepted as truth by the millions of wannabe samurai out there who truly believe they are practicing the real thing and not the bullshit. In other words, none of this article applies to them. Why is it within the non-contact martial arts that it’s the guys of the other styles that are always the dufuses when in truth they are all dufuses, it’s just that some are bigger dufuses than others.
http://www.answers.com/topic/japanese-nationalism Japanese nationalism
Interesting links to the Imperial Youth Federation and Imperial Youth Corps as well as the education of children during war. Though not completely accurate with regards to the type of martial used in schools, it does give some idea of what was going on in Japan within the education system. Some smartarse on some forum in response to my reply to Norris’s letter which kicked this whole thing off had somehow convinced himself and even managed to convince those others on the forum that my references to the indoctrination of school children using the martial arts as well as other methods was a load of bollocks. Well, if this guy would take 5 mins to prise his head out of his arse and read this article as well as those of a similar nature on this links page, he might consider that the next time he opens his mouth it might be a good idea to not only put his brain in gear but be more infomed as to what he’s talking about.
http://www.8bm.com/diatribes/volume02/034/692.htm] homo sexualty and the samurai. A funny perspective on gay samurai.
http://www.westernbuddhistreview.com/vol3/homosexuality.html homosexuality in the Japanese Buddhist tradition .
Boys as young as five being used for sexual pleasure by some enlightened monk. I suppose that’s an all too common downside to religion both in the East and the West, particularly if you’re young and vunerable and have been entrusted to the care of a monk or a priest with some form of sexual perversion and who keeps telling you that what you are about to receive is in the name of God. However, religious institutions aren’t the only place where the young are vulnerable to perverts, and over the years I’ve heard a lot of stories from a lot of different sources (and, significantly, they are all about the same people) about abuse of this nature. There are obviously those who know more than I do, and if they wanted to do the martial arts world a favour they ‘d drop the dime on these guys. But they don’t, probably because if they did the shit would realy hit the fan, particularly within one organization. I just love those moral arbiters out there who are always going on about my foul language and violent ways, but I tell you what: I’d rather share the company of someone of a similar personality to myself than the company of some martial arts pervert or, for that matter, some martial arts moral adjudicator who, when it really counts, keeps his mouth shut to save his own arse, at the expense of the young and vulnerable.
http://www.tokyo.to/backissues/june99/out/out.html Are you worthy to be a samurai? This writer seems to suggest that man-with-boy love ended at the beginning of the Meiji period, which theoretically means a number of famous martial arts masters of this period could have been gay—any ideas who?
http://www.geocities.com/bjcjap/roots.html the beautifull way
Gives us a clue as to how the special bonding that existed between a lord and his young male sword bearer might of lead out of love to the sword bearer dying for his lord in battle, and around which much of the mythos of devotion to one’s lord to the point of dying for him might be centred.
http://members.aol.com/matrixwerx/glbthistory/samarai.htm the way of the samurai More on gay samurai; couple of interesting links.
http://www.androphile.org/preview/Culture/Japan/japan.htm the beautiful way of the samurai
Finally we know what the way or do really means and it ain't got anything to do with things martial but things anal.
http://karatenomichi.ru/articles/interview/9.html interview with Yahara Mikio the dog slayer and Mishima Yukio, karate teacher. Like Mishima, Yahara seems to have a death wish and obsession with dying like a samurai; he seems to have shared the furowith Mishima on a number of occasions. I wonder if he also shares the same ultra right wing poltics.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393045374 Japanese contract breaking
Japan is for the Japanese. It’s a closed shop, so foreigners beware: even if you can speak their language, have a Japanese wife, can use chopsticks and are completely absorbed in their culture (including things martial), in the eyes of many Japanese, and within her institutions, you’re still a gaijin. In other words, you’re someone beneath the level of the burakumina, a class of untouchables in Japan. Not that this simple fact seems to make any difference to the growing numbers of japanophiles within the martial arts, who, it seems, just love being shit on by superior human beings.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/55a/459.html emperor’s last stand
Fascism in Japan, article about the ultra right and the Yakuza
http://www.collegenews.org/x2957.xml Thomas Conlan on the samurai myth Thank god for people like Conlan, as I can’t stand the likes of historical gurus like Cook who dig up the bones of the past and rearrange them to suit their personal or political agendas. Personally, I don’t want to know what Funakoshi had for fucking breakfast and what a morally stand up guy he was, or about his technique or fighting philosophy (as he couldn’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag). What I’d rather hear about is why, in the full knowledge of how the Japanese had murdered, tortured or beaten all those who were in opposition to annexation and replaced Okinawan culture, language, and even their names with those of Japan, Funakoshi even considered going to Japan in the first place. Let alone staying there when his level of human worth to the Emperor was that of a burakumin. Well, I suppose it’s one step up from being a gaijin, or Chinese (who the Japanese considered to be vermin—which goes some way toward explaining why they slaughtered Chinese civilians in the hundreds of thousands and never showed any remorse).
Funakoshi was known to have given his blessing to his students when they went off to war, but historians like Cook never seem to speculate as to whether any of Funakoshi’s students took part in the rape of Nanking or any other atrocity—or, for that matter, whether Funakoshi endorsed Japan’s policy toward military domination of Asia and eventually the world.
On the basis of the ultranationalist and militarist and possibly even Black Dragon members with whom Funakoshi was acquainted and the militaristic, fascistic climate of the thirties, Funakoshi must have seemed a collaborator—particularly in the eyes of some Okinawans. I’d rather keep my mind open as to who Funakoshi really was instead of blindly accepting, as many do, Cook’s version of him.
http://www.zenshin.org/english/textbook_appeal.htm Fascist textbooks in the school room
Education in japan is still being influenced by the ultra right, and with the recent testing of a nuclear device by the North Koreans, it looks like in the classroom things aren’t going to get any better. In fact, Japanese politics is probably going to move further to the right (if that’s possible). Talking of the ultra right, did you know that Sasakawa Ryoichi started off as a blackmailer? In the days of the thought police he used to make money by threatening to report anybody (with lots of money, that is) who wasn’t as far to the right as he was, which means even in Japan during the fascistic period of the thirties he made a lot of money! Once a rat, always a rat.
My personal memories of Sasakawa are of him as the honoured guest at the some of the matial arts events I attended when in Japan. His opening address was like Hitler rallying his storm troopers, and to see the masters of all the styles flitfing around him at these events was like watching flies buzzing around a piece of rotting meat. At the time I hadn’t a clue who he was—he definitely wasn’t a martial artist even by karates standards (indeed Funakoshi on a good day could have probably whipped him)— and so I couldn’t understand why all the top masters were being so deferential to him. Now over 35 years later I finally know why: namely, because they were all passionate anti-communists, and Sasakawa the most anti-communist of them all. In his own words, he was ‘the world’s wealthiest fascist’ and in Japan, like anywhere else in the world, money talks.
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:dfPHJn4R1uAJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima+mishima+yukio&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1 Mishima Yukio wikipedia
http://blogs.ebay.com/swjmax Lightning in the Void An alternative view of Musashi Miyamoto, and one that’s likely to be closer to the truth than the sanitized versions of him.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0767904974 The Seagraves’ Yamato Dynasty expose on Japanese corruption past and present
http://www.voltairenet.org/article30068.html The Golden Lily Operation involving Toyama Mitsuru, Uchida Ryohei, Kishi Nobusuke, Kodama Yoshio, Sasakawa Ryoichi. Oh, and I almost forgot—Emperor Hirohito himself.
http://www.cyberessays.com/History/29.htm An essay on the Meiji strategy for economic growth
http://anarchy.translocal.jp/non-japanese/manipulated.html Japan a Manipulated Society by Kogawa Tetsuo
Japanese budo as advocated by Nishikubo Hiromichi in 1914 was to become a useful tool in the manipulation of the minds and emotions of Japanese school children. With the possible exception of Daito ryu the martial arts of this period in Japan were no longer seen as practical combatives and more as a means of instilling the fighting spirit of the samuai and a reworked code of bushido that empasized patriotism, loyalty blind obedience, death before surrender and the warrior shame ethos. Japan at the beginning of the Meiji Era not only used as a model the Prussian system of government but also its military science and training methods as well as its education system.
The Prussian compulsory education system came about as a result of Prussia losing to Napoleon at the battle of Jena in 1806, during which it was determined that Prussian soldiers failed to obey orders given by their superiors in that they acted independently. To Prussia, war was a business. To address this failure of troops to obey orders, a program of compulsory education was begun in 1807 and in place by 1819. It was essentially a two-tier system: the upper tier facilitated for the upper classes (which made up about 5 percent of the population whowere destined to become the country’s leaders), whilst the lower tier, which the children of the lower classes were foced to attend, made up the remaining 95 percent of the population. The children of the lower tier were taught what to think and when to think it and when to stop thinking and start thinking about something else—or, to put it simply, they were being brainwashed to become patriotic, loyal and obedient soldiers and compliant workers (or, if you prefer, cannon fodder and slaves for the state).
Although the Japanese had originally used the French model for military science and training methods, following Prussia’s victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Yamagata Aritomo opted for the Prussian model. Indeed, the Prussian military code was to inspire the Tokusho or Soldiers’ Code of the Japanese Army.
An important aspect of Prussian military training from the perspective of the martial arts was close formation precision drilling, not unlike that of Nazi Germany or, more currently, North Korea. Observers of the Prussian goose step have described it as ‘kicking nature in the teeth’, transmitting a clear message of unity, discipline, obedience and athleticism. Because Japanese schools shared the same purpose as those in Prussia (i.e., to produce patriotic, loyal, obedient soldiers and compliant workers—as Japan became more militaristic Japanese boys even wore school uniforms modelled on the Prussian military), children not only engaged in mindless repetitive learning by rote of what they were required to think and when to think it and when to start thinking about something else, but they also regularly engaged in military drilling and military gymnastics.
There are those who seem to think that Okinawa was exempt from this indoctrinationa program—wrong. The Okinawan educational system was under Japanese control even to the extent that if school children were caught speaking in their local dialect they were forced to wear a placard around their neck reminding them to speak in Japanese. At the beginning of the twentieth century when Itosu Ankoh (probably inspired by the by rise in Japanese militarism and nationalism following Japan’s military success against China and Russia) wrote a letter to the Japanese Ministry of Education and War espousing the benefits of using kempo toudi jutsu for preparing schoolchildren for military service and producing loyal subjects of the Emperor, the Japanese/Prussian system of education was already in place in the Okinawa. Not that it would have mattered if it hadn’t been, because Yabu Kentsu, who had served with distinction in the Japanese army as both a sergeant and an officer during the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) would have drawn on his army experiences when teaching Okinawan school children toudi. As a sergeant Yabu had spent many hours drilling men in close formation to a barked-out command and repetitive military beat, and would have done the same to Okinawan schoolchildren, not to mention delivering the occasional cuff around the ear, as Japanese sergeants were prone to do if the soldiers got it wrong.
Indeed, Yabu is probably responsible for the over-simplification of toudi. Some aspects of toudi were removed because they were considered dangerous, but beyond that, much of which was essential to toudi being a combative system prior to its introduction into the educational curriculum concerned the trasitions within a move or from one move to the next, which reflected the tactical dynamics of various entries, breakdowns and finishes. This would have necessarily been removed so as to accommodate everybody moving in the same exact, prescribed way to a barked-out command and regulated military beat. Indeed, the military beat itself would have been contradictory to a fighting system, in that fighting is not only about getting in synchrony with your opponent’s fighting rhythms (which are usually broken) but also being able to syncopate upon them. Fighting rhythm is more an individual response based upon your and your opponent’s respective rhythm and timing—quite the contrary to the kind of mass participation synchronization as exemplified by the South Koreans when in their thousands they demonstate the over-simplified movements of tae kwon do. Sure, it’s great for unifying the masses under one command, but it’s got nothing to do with fighting.
By the time Funakoshi took toudi to Japan proper, it had already undergone the first stage of military dissimulation by way of Yabu Kentsu, as would other shuri, naha, and tomari variants within Okinawan schools. Following Funakoshi’s arrival in Japan, toudi was to undergo further military dissimulation within the schools, colleges, universities and military and naval colleges. It would also be altered by the addition of elements of budo, which by the time of Funakoshi’s arrival was already becoming a tool for indoctrination into the Emperor system. Funakoshi would have been fully aware of this, and of the purpose for such indoctrination: to produce patriotic, loyal, obedient soldiers and compliant workers. Whether under command of their superiors or on their own initiative (but always in the name of the Emperor, which absolved them of any personal responsibility), these indoctrinees were to go on to commit some of the most heinous crimes ever recorded in war.
What you have to remember is that it’s not a big step from forcing men to move en masse with exact precision in a prescribed way and to a regulated beat, to making them think and feel in a prescribed way. This is particularly true when the movement has no other purpose than to ‘get it exactly right’ and repeat it over and over again in unison with other men. The tool of toudi itself became flawed from a combative perspective through being altered by this military process; but that didn’t stop it from being effective in producing patriotism, loyalty, and obedience. These three military virtues, when combined with the concept of gyokusai (glorious self annihilation on the battlefield) and the shame ethic (you had to consider the dishonour that would be brought upon you and your family should you fail in your expected duty to die for the Emperor) made for a dangerous cocktail, particulary when spiked by soldiers’ chanting in unison their hatred of their enemies (particulary the Chinese).
Military-style drilling is still being used within the Japanese martial arts. Drilling can be an effective way of learning a move or a chain of moves, alone or with a partner, provided that the rhythm of the drilling practice is representative of real fight-time, and not military time. Naturally it’s also essential when drilling to ensure that the move or chain of moves has been shown to work at the highest level of reality-based open competition (and is tested by the individual practicing the move in a realistic, competitive environment within the gym or dojo before talking it to the competitive mat or using it on the streets). But drilling a move simply to adhere to a prescribed method is pointless, as is repetitively practicing a move you have assumed to be effective because your sensei tells you so, never having tested it under realistic fighting conditions. We all know that a left hook works, but that doesn’t mean we all, in unison to a command, repeat it over and over again in exactly the same prescribed way. Depending on the situation, the individual, his opponent’s stylistic/physical type, etc., a left hook is always going to have variants, and you won’t know what those variants are unless you fight.
Fighting is an individual thing. Fighting moves can’t be practiced en masse—if they are then they are no longer fighting moves. While I’m on the subject of military-style drilling, let me add that for me there is little to distinguish between the mass formation precision bayonet displays of North Korea and the mass formation precision kata displays of South Korea. Neither have anything to do with fighting in the real sense of the term, but both have everything to do with patriotism, loyalty, blind obedience and total compliance. Of course such demonstrations produce a sense of national unity and pride—important ingredients in times of war—but they have nothing to do with fighting itself.
Does that mean that if you’re engaging in similar military-style drilling down at your local dojo that the training is all part of a sinister Japanese or Korean plot to indoctrinate you and control the world? Of course not. But if you, along with others, are blindly accepting when, where and how to move your hands and feet, for example, in unison from someone you accept as an authoritive figure, then it won’t be long (if it hasn’t already happened) that you will be willingly doing things and believing things that you might have previously looked on as being ridiculous. In which case, you’ve already been brainwashed. Not necessarily in a sinister way, but a way in which your mind is no longer your own—it’s somebody else’s.
Think about it.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers156.html right wing lunatics
Humorous alternative view of the right-wing politics of Japan. Trouble is, while the Japanese people might not take these guys seriously, those who count within Japanese finance, industry, politics, local governments, and the media do. We’ve got more than our fair share of right-wing lunatics in the West—people like Bush, for example—but being a right-wing lunatic didn’t prevent him from getting the votes and taking office and being able to wield the kind of power he can. Let’s hope he doesn’t decide to take the same course of action against North Korea as he did against Iraq. What an arse hole.
http://vikingphoenix.com/public/JapanIncorporated/ultranationalists/kodama1.htm Japanese ultra nationalists and yakuza 1895-1945
http://au.geocities.com/mahikari2002/index.html Golden Lily. Unfolding the mystery of the billions of dollars in gold stolen from Asia.
http://www.okinawan-shorinryu.com/okinawa/ linguistic imperialism. Use of the Hogan fuda dialect disgrace tags in Okinawan schools
I wonder how many fuda tags Funakoshi Gichin as a school teacher hung around the necks of Okinawan schoolchildren in his efforts to turn them into loyal and obedient soldiers and compliant workers of the Emperor. Those who had opposed the annexation of Okinawa by Japan were murdered, tortured or beaten by the Japanese military, and their culture, customs, beliefs, language, and even their names, were replaced by those of Japan. What’s always puzzled me is why Funakoshi and other Okinawan masters, in full knowledge of this, willingly travelled to Japan to teach kempo toudi jutsu in its various forms to the Japanese. They accepted the change of toudi to karate and the suffixing of karate with do (which at that time had nothing to do with a spiritual way and everything to do with indoctrination), and to boot they tolerated being treated like third-class citizens by the Japanese. Were times so bad on Okinawa that it was better to be a third-class Japanese Somebody than an Okinawan Nobody?
What they most certainly knew was that the simplified forms of toudi that they were teaching were being used as part of a indoctrinational program into the Emperor system. Funakoshi and his contemporaries were knowingly supporting a system that in the 1930s and 1940s was to become more and more militaristic, fascistic and intolerant of those who didn’t support it, not only in Manchuria, China and Southeast Asia, but also in Japan.
http://vikingphoenix.com/news/stn/1997/pirn9708.htm yakuza sex drugs ultranationalists and secret societies
http://www.feltd.com/domo3.html The Prussian education system, which was to become the model for Japanese education and the creation of loyal and obedient soldiers and totally compliant workers. Even the Emperor system itself was based upon the system of rule in Prussia and the complete domination of the people by the state.
http://histclo.usanethosting.com/schun/country/jap/schunjap.html Japanese school uniforms. The Prussian connection (i.e., peaked caps, high collars and brass buttons.) I don’t know what they’re wearing now, but Prussian military-style uniforms were still being worn by boys when I was in Japan in 1968, but I just couldn’t figure out why. Now I know and so do you.
http://www.ldolphin.org/seagrave.html secrets of Hirohito’s billions
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/tesla/esp_tesla_7a.htm Telsa doom weapons article about ultra-right wing religious loonies in which another loony, Ishihara Kanji, gets a mention as does Unit 731.
http://www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/publish_db/1997VA/english/03.html War by Solid Objects. Ishihara’s wet dream, everybody else’s fucking nightmare
http://www.users.bigpond.com/battleforAustralia/foundationJapmilaggro/JapModern.html Meiji period reforms after 1867
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg33403.html exerpt from Lords of the Rim by Sterling Seagrave imformative read
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/0007/01.htm war responsibility Yamaguchis mate Ishihara gets a mention with regards to his final war theory
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520209001 Male Colours. Book about gay monks and samurai, read reviews.
http://www.crisscross.com/jp/book/259 pederast and woman-hater Musashi takes a beating
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n22/john04_.html Looting of Asia. how Kodama and Sasakawa got rich
http://www.bstkd.com/JudoHistory/HistorySix.htm History of Kodokan The influence that muscular Christianity had upon Kano, who seems to have been an anglophile, and the military’s influence on the competition rules of judo and subsequently other martial arts. (this link is acting up so we've pasted the article here.)
http://mensnewsdaily.com/blog/2004/12/muscular-christianity.htm Muscular Christianity said to have influenced Nitobe Inazo’s vision of the samurai. Nitobe apparently read better English than he did Japanese. Someone else (apart from Kano Jigoro, that is) who is said to have been influenced by muscular Christianity was Itosu Ankoh. The claim is based upon Itosu’s reference, in a letter to the Ministry for Education and War, to Wellington’s statement that the battle of Waterloo had been won on the playing fields of Eton. Wellington’s alleged statement would have been in reference to the turning of boys into men by engaging in tough contact sports (or, in Kano’s case, judo) and not by engaging in some contact-free marching–by-numbers martial art.
But Itosu’s reference within his letter as to how toudi could be used to prepare children for their military service to the Emperor was written around the time when Japan nationalism and militarism were riding high as a result of Japan’s victories over China and Russia, and he was obviously making a pitch with regards to the contribution that toudi (like kendo and judo) could make to support the growing Japanese military machine. But unlike muscular Christianity, kempo toudi jutsu as practiced by the schoolchildren of Okinawa was to contain no elements of rough contact, and its purpose would be purely disciplinary.
Whilst it could be argued that Okinawa, like Korea and Manchuria, was a victim of Japanese hegemonisation, some Okinawans seem to have been supportive of being ruled by Japan. Particularly within the toudi jutsu community this applies to Yabu Kentsu, who joined the Japanese army despite being exempt. He was promoted to sergeant, fought in Manchuria during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and before his discharge was promoted to lieutenant. On returning to Okinawa he assisted Itosu with the introduction of toudi into the Okinawan educational system, which like Japan’s was based on the Prussian model. Remember, it was probably Yabu’s familiarity with repetitive Prussian close formation precision drilling and moving en masse to a barked-out military command that was to influence the development of toudi within the Okinawan school system. And it’s no coincidence that despite being discharged as an officer, Yabu was known as ‘The Sergeant.’ Sergeants in the Japanese army were notorious for beating recruits (with loving kindness, of course)—bentatsu. Indeed, it seems Yabu might very well have killed a man with an open palm strike in this way. Significantly, Yabu’s uniform and sword were kept in a place of honour in Shuri castle as a mark of his achievement—hardly the gesture of a people who were anti-Japanese.
In all probability, Yabu created the toudi prototype that would find its way to Japan by way of Funakoshi Gichin, where it would undergo futher military dissimulation within the schools, colleges, and military and academies with the sole purpose of supporting the Emperor system ( producing loyal and obedient soldiers and compliant workers). Funakoshi would have been fully aware of this despite the claims to the contrary.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Performing martial-inspired movements in much the same way as a rifle drill to a barked-out command and military beat not only leads to the removal of the natural dynamics of movement and distorts or removes from the kata those essential transitions between its entries, breakdowns and finishes, but also produces the wrong sense of time and rhythm. Everybody within a class moving at the same exact time in exactly the same prescribed manner has nothing to do with producing a fighting man and every thing to do with instilling discipline within the ranks and blind obedience, not to mention suitable subjects for brainwashing. Fighting is about learning to synchronize with one’s opponent’s rhythm, which is usually irregular, and to initiate or retaliate with syncopated moves upon that rhythm. Fighting is not about remaining in synchrony with those about you or with a military beat. But no matter how many times I say this, nobody seems to get it. Kata is an individual thing, and like shadow boxing should be representative of the fight you are going to need to strategically and tactically fight in all its dimensions.
Whatever Funakoshi had originally been taught in secrecy, one on one, was flawed even before he took it to Japan. And if you logically apply the principle of shu ha ri, then any modification or refinement such as Ohtsuka Hironori and Konishi Yasuhiko are said to have made to toudi would have been equally flawed. It’s simple logic: if what you are copying is flawed then any modification of that will be flawed. But the biggest flaw in toudi, both in its original and modified forms, is that it had no form of randori or shiai as in Kano’s judo—or for that matter as in Western boxing and wrestling, in which you test your mindset, conditioning, athleticism, strategy, tactics, and fighting skills. Like the jujutsu forerunners of Kano’s jujutsu/judo, the practitioners of toudi undoubtedly believed that the fighting skills of toudi were too dangerous to practice at full power. That’s why the earlier jujutsu systems lost to Kano’s team of jujutsu players. If you can’t practice what you consider to be dangerous moves at full power against someone doing the same, then how will you know how to apply such moves in realistic situations? It’s better to eliminate the so-called dangerous stuff or devise ways by which these moves can be performed safely and realistically(i.e., the tap-out rule, the use of boxing mitts, gloves, protective equipment, mats) than to delude yourself that you are a deadly fighting machine, when the only fighting experience you’ve had is in bunkai, a choreographed display, or point-fighting game of tag.
Interestingly, toudi even in its modified form had all the elements of modern MMA (i.e., stand-up open and closed, throws, takedowns, ground & pound, locks and chokes) and what did the so-called masters come up with as a combative testing ground? A game of fucking tag. One suspects the will wasn’t there to come up with anything more realistic, probably because the masters didn’t dare put their reputations on the line. Better to appear to be a killing machine than have everybody find out you’re really a wuss. But hey, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The modern systems of budo with the exception of judo were never intended to be combatives but ways of instilling discipline, obedience and compliance. It might interest you to know that when I switched to full-contact fighting in my Earlham Street gymnasium in the early 1970s, it only took a couple of months for the fighting to resemble modern MMA. That didn’t occur by my design but simply because everyone brought to the melting pot their different fighting skills and training methods, which included boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, judo, jujutsu and wrestling. Necessity truly is the mother of invention. Of course engaging in a process of trial and error in this way even with tap-out rules etc. still results in injuries, but better to suffer an injury within a controlled environment than have the shit kicked out of you in the uncontrolled environment of the street simply because you followed the example and took the advice of some karate master who’s never had a fight in his life.
There is an assumption in karate that the processes of trial and error has already taken place and by analogy why would you want to reinvent the wheel? As Harry Cook put it, you wouldn’t learn to fly a plane by trial and error. Well the wheel of karate doesn’t work and so it has to be reinvented, and if Cook was teaching me to fly the plane of karate, I for one would fucking bail out, or better still, throw him out and take control. For which the karate world would be a better place.
http://ejmas.com/jcs/jcsart_svinth_1202.htm
Budo ban following Lt General Tanaka Ryukichi’s orders in 1942 to make martial practices more combatively realistic. And as Japan began to lose the war and the threat of an Allied invasion grew daily, karate practices did take a more realistic approach to fighting. However, this had nothing to with teaching the deadly secrets of karate, but simply putting two guys together and letting them get on with it. Whilst this tougher approach to training continued after the war (as a result of the communism threat and the need for reliable muscle to break up left wing demonstrations and strikes), with the exception of a few hardcore dojos it wasn’t long before karate practices were again placing emphasis on kata and non-contact kumite and masters were being sent out to teach the world of the superiority of the Japanese way. You know: the Emperor being divine; the islands of Japan being sacred and being protected by a pantheon of deities; the Japanese race being morally superior to all other people of the world; her institutions including those martial also being superior; and that it was the sacred duty of all Japanese to bring the whole world under the divine guidance of the Emperor (even though, according to the Americans, Hirohito was no longer divine). Well I suppose if the Japanese couldn’t conquer and dominate the world through war they had to come up with other ways.
http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/articled1.htm karate in the war
How karate towards the end of the war was adopted by the Nakano School—you know the spy school. When Japan realized it had lost the war and was facing an imminent invasion, they used Allied prisoners of war to test the martial skills of their guerrilla units. Naturally with the hands of the prisoners tied so that they had no chance of fighting back. Some got caught and got punished, like Narazaki Masahiko of kendo fame, who tested his cutting and stabbing skills, and Yamamoto Fukuichi who tested his karate, on bound prisoners. I wonder how many, though, got away with it. Narazaki, despite being imprisoned for his war crimes, went on to become highly respected figures in the martial arts world, particularly in France and Belgium. Ninth dan, I think he was.
http://seinenkai.com/articles/noble/noble-books1.html
Impressive list of names in the foreward of Ryukyu Toudi Kempo book by Funakoshi Gichin, someone whom many claim was politically neutral. Wonder if he ever ran into Uchida Ryohei as I hear they lived on the same street.
http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/articlec.htm
Motobu Choku’s success over some unidentified Western boxer is only proof that karate worked for Motubu against this particular guy, although it isn’t actually clear how he beat him. It most certainly isn’t proof of karate’s effectiveness, and there are enough examples of its ineffectiveness in NHB/MMA arenas around the world. If you are a believer in Motubu you shouldn’t be religiously practicing naihanchin in what you believe is the manner of Motubu or debating as to whether you do this with your foot or that, but fighting, because that’s what he liked to do best. I do, though, like what Motubu had to say about Funakoshi, and from my experience with the Funakoshi types out there who (like Funakoshi) can’t fight and (again like Funakoshi) sure have a lot to say about fighting I can see exactly where Motobu was coming from.
http://www.art-of-war.tv/Profiles/Profile%20Kenji%20Kurosaki.htm article about Kurosaki Kenji.
In the early '60s Thai boxers challenged the Japanese to a contest with or without gloves. The Japanese accepted and got hammered in the first contest and subsequent contests. Amongst those who accepted the challenge was Kurosaki Kenji, who had already become a legend in Kyokushinkai and was (from a karate perspective) as real as you could get. But not, apparently, real enough when it came to fighting the Thais. However, to his credit Kurosaki, unlike many of his Japanese counterparts, decided to travel to Thailand and learn Thai boxing at its source. Though he didn’t make it as a fighter, he did as a trainer and produced some great champions at his Meijiro gym, including Toshiro Fujiwara. Kurosaki’s Muay hai experience helped to develop kyokushinkai into a more reality-based system and one from which a number of succesfull K1 fighters were to emerge. However, kyokushinkai would be more reality based if head shots with the hands, clinches and knees, takedowns, throws, ground and pound, locks and chokes were allowed—not to mention getting rid of the katas, etc. But if that were to happen the kyokushinkai worldwide membership would drop, millions would be lost and the Yakuza, who have connections with a number of individuals within the kyokushinkai, wouldn’t be very happy. And these individuals would be losing more than their pinkies.
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg16605.html Inside the League. Sasakawa’s and Kodama’s connections with ultra right. Sasakawa not only had his own private army before and during the war, which he used for extortion and looting, but also after the war, which he used for strike breaking , the intimidation of leftists and polititions who weren’t far enough to the right, and other ultra right wing and criminal activities. One of the best sources of recruitment for Sasakawa’s private army was through the kendo karate, shorinji kempo, aikido and anti-communist organizations that he was president of. These organizations, whose collective membership was in the millions, could also have been used to launder dirty money. It’s no big secret that Oyama, who was often seen in the company of Sasakawa, was referred to as Mr. 10 percent, and it’s not difficult to figure out why.
During the war a close relationship existed between many prominent martial artists and ultra right secret societies and criminal organizations, and because many of those who were in positions of power during the war remained in power after the war and no program of re-education took place as in Germany, the same associations continued between martial artists and the ultra right and yakuza. In the West there is rarely any political or criminal association with those who practice the martial arts. In Japan, where anti communist feelings run high and whereever there is money, there are the Yakuza. It’s the norm rather than the exception. I suppose for some Westerners the idea that the master of their tradition was connected to the Black Ocean/Black Dragon societies or currently to the Yakuza is exciting, if that’s the word. Without ever fully understanding the implications of what these connections have meant and still mean in terms of the taking of life and the causing of human suffering.
http://www.kyokushincanada.com/LegalMatter_Kyokushin.htm
Battle for power the Yakuza v the Oyama family
http://www.jonbluming.com/nieuws.html
for more about the fight for control of the kyokushinkai read August 9th 2006 regarding Matsui and Midori. Sounds like a double act. interesting bit about how Oyamas body was cremated without the family’s permission. I wonder if Sonny Chiba will be doing the film version.
history gay men japan lots of refs
http://www.society.webcentral.com.au/patrick.htm Thinking Outside the Box
Many of the writer's arguments are similar to my own with regards to karate's development over the centuries, both in its so-called traditional forms and in its more modern ones. Karate's development has been dependent on a number of factors, but of overriding importance is the manner in which, during the ultranationalistic, militaristic and fascistic period of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, karate (along with other forms of Japanese budo) was used as an indoctrinational tool to instill patriotism, loyalty, obediance, and compliance as well as martial spirit--but not, I hasten to add, martial skills in its practitioners within the education system and military. The fighting skills of the warrior were obsolete as far as modern warfare was concerned, and so the government weren't interested in producing warriors in the classical Okinawan or Japanese mold. They wanted to produce men who were spiritually ready to lay down their lives on the battlefields of Asia and obey orders, no matter how stupid or immoral. In order to instill discipline, blind obedience, and the willingness to die in glorious self-annihilation on the battlefield, toudi\karate training became militaristic with quasi-religious undertones. It is this flawed militaristic quasi-religious model that was to become the model following the end of the Asian Pacific war in 1945 upon which other adaptations, both within Japan and in the West, were made.
In our current times, karate can be whatever you want it to be, from aerobics to Power Rangers. Even in its more ‘serious’ forms it has completely lost touch with reality, and so it’s easy to see why someone as passionately involved in karate as McCarthy is would divorce himself from the world of make-believe that many karate practitioners live in and attempt to give karate the credibility he obviously believes it deserves.
I tried to do the same twenty years ago with what I referred to at the time as ‘putting the Fujian tiger back in the skin.’ McCarthy seems to be trying to put back into karate what he believes has been taken out or distorted over the course of time. He engages in this process through researching old manuscripts like the Bubishi, watching old film footage, talking to the old masters of Japan, Okinawa and Fujian, and so forth. My conclusion from attempting to do the same was that, apart from the fact that no one was really interested at that time (even Harry Cook), it was impossible to prove anything about these old methods. There is no actual proof that the fighting traditions of Okinawa in their older forms or those of Fujian were combatively effective. Everything we know about them is a matter of folklore and anecdotal evidence. There is nothing to indicate that they would work in our current time against the very best fighters in the world (i.e., those of MMA, or in the case weapons, against an experienced escrima or kali practitioner). In the knowledge of this, there was no point in continuing my research. Why try to justify the training methods of something that hasn’t been proven to work in a realistic and contemporary fighting environment such as MMA simply on the basis of anecdotal evidence, or on the choreographed display of some so-called master?
Why McCarthy and the likes of Cook continue to chew over the technical details of kempo toudi jutsu (in whatever form) and the particular alleged actions of some dead master is beyond me, given the illuminating light of MMA. A fight is a fight, whether with or with out weapons. And the best representations of these in our present time are the Filipino systems, simply because they have been proven to work in a knife culture, and MMA, simply because it has been proven to work in virtually anything-goes unarmed combative scenarios and situations. From a combative perspective, everything else is academic and a waste of time, including the classical martial arts systems of Okinawa (if that’s the term) as well as those of Fujian.
From the clips I’ve seen of them (though I have seen Cook live if that’s the term), McCarthy and Cook’s training methods and fighting skills bear only the most superficial resemblance to the weapon training methods of the Philippines or the stand-up and ground training methods of MMA. Both of these martial arts adapt their training methods to what works and what can, with a measure of safety, be worked in practice at full power. In other words, if you can’t practice a move at full power on a training parter in technical\ situational drills, situational \ conditional play fighting and less restricted competitive fighting, you’ll never get the opportunity to use it for real and determine the level of its effectiveness. Most importantly, within the experimental environment of the MMA/kali gym, new skills and training methods are being created daily. People who practice MMA, for example, aren’t stuck in a time warp like McCarthy and Cook , trying to justify the traditional training and fighting methods of Okinawa.
The principle of shu ha ri is a great one, provided you are using moves and training methods that have been proven to have worked in a contemporary environment, and you use these successes for future adaptations and refinements. However, if what you might term the fundamentals are flawed (in the case of karate this means they are unproven at best) then any future adaptations or refinements you might make upon them will also be flawed. This is a principle so simple as to seem obvious, but it is one which the likes of McCarthy and Cook haven’t realised yet. Nor do they understand that the principle of shu ha ri is a dynamic one. It only makes sense when applied to a training method, fighting skill, etc. that has been proven to work and not when it is applied to one that is assumed to work because some Okinawan master said so in the past—or the present, for that matter.
McCarthy and Cook, the Okinawan Traditionalists with a capital T, often reference the Fujian traditions so as to gain some idea as to how the kempo toudi jutsu traditions of Okinawa might have once been practiced. Readers of this site will already know what happened in 1993 when I questioned the masters of those Fujian traditions that might have been influential upon the development of toudi (such as the dragon, lion, tiger, crane, etc.). I asked them whether they believed there was any similarity between their respective practices and the kempo toudi jutsu of Okinawa. They said that although historically connected, the practices of Okinawa only resembled those of Fujian in a superficial way and that the practices of Okinawa had ‘no essentials’. They were devoid of any internal or external essentials and therefore they had no objectives.
When I asked the Fujian masters what they thought about the way the sanchin form (in which the internal and external essentials of Fujian boxing are embodied) was practiced on Okinawa, they burst out laughing. They laughed even more when I asked them what they thought about the way the sanchin form was practiced in Japan. These masters were in a good position to judge Okinawan karate as they had acted as hosts on numerous occasions to those masters of Okinawa, Japan and the West (including McCarthy, who had travelled to Fujian in search of karate’s roots). Interestingly, I showed Yap Leung (a Five Ancestoer/Emperor fist sylist) a video of McCarthy (he'd already seen Cook and wasn’t impressed) performing a Fujian-derived Okinawan form in which McCarthy seemed to attempt to demonstrate shaking/vibrating energy. Yap just shook his head in bewilderment. Was McCarthy's performance a refinement of the Fujian-derived forms, his personal rendition? Or had he simply failed to comprehend and physically express those energies that are among the energies which characterize the Fujian animal traditions, and without which all you have is skins and feathers? What Yap found incomprehensible was that even at this time (some ten years or so ago) McCarthy was considered to be amongst the world's leading authorities on karate.
But what I find incomprehensible is that if McCarthy and Cook are so interested in retuning karate to its traditional roots, and if they are occasionaly critical of others for not doing the same, why don’t they make somebody of Yap's technical ability in Fujian boxing a technical director in their respective organizations? Surely a move like this would assist in this process. After all, the Fujian systems are an important element in the development of kempo toudi jutsu. If they have already done something similar, it sure doesn’t show in their respective performances. I find it perplexing. These guys claim to be returning karate to its roots, which were heavily influenced by Fujian boxing. But there's nothing in what they do to suggest that they have picked up on those essential energies that characterize--indeed that identify--the Fujian systems. Indeed, even after ten years' practice, I wouldn’t mind betting that if Cook was to take on Yap again in knocking hands his two arms would end up looking like the two giant black puddings that they did the first time Yap and Cook met. And this was no fluke; both arms were severely swollen and literally black and blue with bruising. And I suspect that Cook, as before, still wouldn’t want to know how Yap did it.
But somehow, in this area of expertise, everybody seems to feel they have to defer to Cook's and McCarthy's opinions. I'm probably going to be called an asshole for daring to question these guys' authority.
Yap was in a good position to judge McCarthy’s performance, even on video, as Yap has had the benefit of training with and observing two of the world’s leading masters in the Fujian tradition: Chee Kim Thong and Yap Cheng Hai. Fujian traditions reflect within their practices the various ways in which one might go about mobilizing, enhancing and refining the energy arising from our most primal drives. They address that necessary emergency psychological state of mind and the development of physical readiness to deal with an emergency. They involve the energy systems of the body and those inherent reflex and behavioural patterns from the adaptation of which all human motor skills are derived, including fighting. But—and this is a big ‘but’—the Fujian practitioners have no realistic ways of testing whether what they practice really works, apart from the occasional challenge. That doesn’t mean that those practicing such systems can’t fight when push comes to shove. It’s just that, like the majority of martial artists, they have know way of knowing from a personal perspective if what they practice really works against a dangerous antagonist.
Dangerous is as dangerous does. You are only as dangerous as what you can realistically use in some form of competition: fighting in the gym, dojo, or fighting arena. The more punishing and competitive your fight training and competitions are, then the greater your sense of what works for you and what doesn’t, both strategically and tactically.
The writer talks about one-on-one instruction being lost in the militarization of karate, but one-on-one instruction is only beneficial if you’re passing on your combative experiences and those gained from your informed observations of reality-based combat, and from training other fighters of different psychological and physical types. It is of no benefit if what you are passing on isn’t going to be tested by the pupil in some form of reality-based competition, even though you might be or have been an experienced fighter and trainer yourself.
When I watch some clips I have of McCarthy and Cook performing kata, they are only wearing the skins and feathers of the animals they are pretending to be. They don’t know how to consciously address within their training the essential, inherent, reflex and bequeathed behavioural patterns so as to enhance them in a tactical way. Unlike the animals they pretend to be, they also do not know how to entrust the unconscious mind within an emergency situation to process the organization of these patterns in response to the implication of a cue so as to produce a needed response. S. Higgins wrote, ‘Movement is inseparable from the structure supporting it and the environment defining it.’ The successful movements of combat have been defined for us, and indeed are still being defined, by the Filipino weapon systems and MMA. Our only real problem, therefore, is the devising of training methods that will enhance the neuromusculoskeletal structure and that necessary mindset to fight the fight we anticipate we will need to fight. We must do this against different psychological, physical, and stylistic types within many different fight scenarios and situations on the feet and on the ground. But in order to enhance the neuromusculoskeletal structure in a tactical and dynamic way, we not only must understand the structure itself, the various tactical skills, and the laws and principles of force and motion, but also marry them in such a way that they are complementary to each other and natural.
When I look at McCarthy and Cook, it’s obvious (to me, at least) that they are unable to move as a dynamic, reflex whole in a functional way, as an animal would. As I often put it, as one part reflexively zigs, another zags. When I watch McCarthy and Cook perform kata it’s pretty clear that they are obsessed with form. But there is no such thing as perfect form, only what works best for you at the time. In a fight, in the real sense of the term, you simply haven’t got the time to evaluate all the information, devise the perfect plan, and act decisively with the perfect technique. In a fight, no two situations or opponents are ever exactly the same. You are always having to adapt those inherent fundamental patterns of movement that are the foundation of all motor skills within the chaos of the exchange at an unconscious level in response to the implication of cues. When facing a situation you have never encountered before, you can spontaneously adapt to it. But the key is this: you adapt to the situation and not the other way around. You do not attempt to adapt the situation to your perfected form.
Form is the consequence of what you have to do, not the way you have to do it. That’s why so many karate guys obsessed with form come unstuck in a violent chaotic exchange.
But hey! It seems like a man’s credibility is based on the number of students he has. If that’s the case, then judging from the number of students I’ve got compared to what McCarthy and Cook have got, what the fuck do I know?
...to be continued...
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