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Monthly Message: July 2003
Fellow Karate-ka:
July brings a newness to our dojo. It also brings the
beginning of a 5 year study and creation on my part that started with
the idea of writing an instructional type book on the traditional
martial arts of Okinawa. Little did I know at the time that it would
evolve into something as big as the start of our own style of karate.
Recently we celebrated the official beginning of the
style of Nahashu Ryu Karate Do in our class by a demonstration of what
is included in Nahashu Ryu by myself. I think that you noticed how
important that it is to me to keep things as close as I can get them to
the original sources. I am of course speaking of the official kata of
Okinawan Karate as approved by the Okinawan Board of Education. This is
foremost in my mind as we start our style.
There are no changes in the new style of Nahashu Ryu.
There are only the development of certain exercises, moving basics, and
sparing techniques used to designate our style from others. What makes
us so unique is that we study all the so called “beginner” kata from all
of the Okinawan styles and only then do we move on to the classical
kata. This ensures a strong foundation in our training up to first
degree black belt. There are 14 kata listed in our curriculum for the
rank of Shodan. By the time a student reaches this rank h/she has one of
the strongest bases in traditional karate that can be found. Look around
and notice the senior students in our school. You should notice some
superior training.
Another uniqueness of our style is that we teach in
the advanced Yudansha rankings as many kata from Okinawa as possible as
a celebration of the historical significance of the karate of this
Island nation. It is a strong desire of mine to make sure that my
students and myself first, know and practice the tradition of the kata
as they were intended. Therefore ongoing study is another unique aspect
of our new style.
A celebration of three new kata developed by myself
rounds out our uniqueness to the rest of the karate world. After long
hours of study and research I have developed these kata to celebrate the
three main cities in Okinawa where karate is said to have come from.
These kata are complete because they were developed with each Okinawan
style in mind with bunkai techniques first, kata second, and renzoku
third. There are also three stages of bunkai for each kata. I do not
claim to be any sort of master in my field. I claim only to be a
teacher. My goal is to preserve, promote, teach, and learn as much as I
can about karate and hopefully have a successor to the way of Nahashu
Ryu so that it can benefit others as it has benefited me.
You, my students, are the original members of the
Nahashu Ryu Karate Do style. Be proud and learn as much as you can. The
training never ends.
This is the way.
Sensei Dave
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