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John Sells
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by George Alexander

SOKE

KAISHU
ISA
UFUCHIKU-DEN

EIGHT LEVELS OF
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TRAINING
by Mary Bolz
by Mary Bolz

THE OTHER
WHEEL
by Rudy Crosswell

KOBUJITSU

OKINAWAN
JOURNEY:
A Legacy of the Past
by Anthony Marquez

UECHI
RYU
KARATE
by George E. Mattson
SELECTION & CARE OF
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by Bruce Heilman
by Bruce Heilman

GOJU RYUS
SEISAN KATA
By Glenard Grabow
By Glenard Grabow

BUGEISHA:TRADITIONAL MARTIAL ARTIST

ISSUE#1 1996 USA $6.00

KINAWAN
O
LEGACY OF THE PAST

A stor y about
finding the roots
you did not know
you had.
By Anthony Marquez

ven though I was born in America, a

large part of me considers home to
be a place called Okinawa. I can still
remember the good old days as a young
serviceman walking into a dojo for the first
time. I celebrated the 25th anniversary of
that day on April 5, 1996. I visited Okinawa
in August 1995 and participated in the PreWorld Championship, the precursor to the
World Championship scheduled to take
place on Okinawa in July 1997. This visit
changed my entire outlook on Okinawan
martial arts and, to a large extent, my future! I would like to share this experience
with you and I will start by providing some
background on my training and teachers.
Prior to arriving in Okinawa for the first
time in 1971, I was stationed in Japan with
the U.S. Air Force for four years where I was
heavily involved in the Yoshukai Karate and
Kobudo system headed by Yamamoto Mamuro. I requested transfer to Kadena Air
Force Base, Okinawa, and began a journey

The author, Shihan Anthony Marquez

stands in Sensei Isas dojo in Okinawa.
8

BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

SOKE KAISHU ISA

KANAGUSUKU UFUCHIKU DEN
RYUKYU KOBUJITSU
HOZONKAI KEIZU

(Tradition of Kanagusuku Ufuchiku

Kobujitsu Preservation Association)

t h a t
was to
last eight
wonder ful
years. During
that time, I was
honored to have
trained with some
of the best teachers available. My
first and only
Karate teacher in
Okinawa was the
late
Shinjo
Masanobu, founder
of the Shobukan GojuRyu Karate Dojo. From
Master Shinjo I received
a rokudan (6th dan). My
first Okinawan Kobudo
teacher was the late
Kina Masanobu. I met
Kina Sensei through
another ser viceman,
Robert Teller, who said
that Kina Sensei was an
excellent weapons practitioner. Kina Sensei
was a devout Christian,
the nephew of the legendary Kina Shosei. My
training with Kina Sensei lasted approximately
16 months. It was a
ver y gratifying time for
me. I had many late
night dinners at Kina
Senseis home with my
wife and found that he
was a very beautiful person. I learned two katas
from Kina Sensei,
Ufuchiku no Sai and Tonfa.
Unfortunately, he accidentally
drowned while swimming in
the ocean. Ironically, he was
an excellent swimmer, and every
Saturday after our workout he would go into
the ocean for his daily swim. I never received any rank from him.

My second
and last Kobudo
teacher was the late
Kanei Katsuyoshi,
founder of the Jinbukan. Master
Kanei was the
finest weapons practitioner I had ever seen. At the
time I began training with him,
he was the vice president of
the Okinawa Kobudo Association, which is headed by the
Matayoshi family. I was admitted into his dojo by a formal letter of introduction given to me by my Karate
sensei, Shinjo Masanobu.
Kanei and Shinjo Senseis
were childhood friends.
They both were Goju-Ryu
Karate students under
Toguchi Seikichi. I received a godan (5th dan) and Shihan certification from Master Kanei. I became
the US director of the Jinbukan upon
my return to the States . Again
tragedy was to follow my path for I lost
both of these wonder ful teachers in
1992 within a period of six months.
My 1995 trip to Okinawa had a
two-fold purpose, the first was to
take my team of 16 Kobudo and
Karate students to visit my old Hombu,
the Jinbukan, and see the man who is now
in charge of the dojo. The second was to try
to find a gentleman by the name of Isa
Kaishu. I had heard of Mr. Isa and seen his
photographs from my first weapons teacher,
Kina Masanobu. It was my understanding
that Mr. Isa was an old student under Kina
Sensei. During the time I lived on Oki-

JOURNEY:

of Isa and provided us with his home address and phone number. We called this
number and to our surprise found Isa Sensei on the other end of the line. The translator then told Isa Sensei that there was
someone who was trying to find him. Isa
Sensei asked who was I and what did I
want? Through the translator, I told Isa Sensei that I was an old student of his sensei,
and ever since Kina Senseis death I had
wanted to find someone from this weapons
family and pay my respects. Upon hearing
that I was a student of his teacher, Isa Sensei thought that I must be a very, very old
man. It turned out that Isa Sensei was a
student of Kina Shosei, the uncle of my
teacher, Kina Masanobu. I made an appointment to meet with Isa Sensei the following day at 9:30 am.

A MEETING WITH DESTINY

Sensei Isas living room was partly converted into a very beautiful Buddhist shrine in
which he conducts daily services.
nawa, he was in Japan training to become a
Buddhist priest. Since Kina Masanobu died
while I was on Okinawa, I felt that my
weapons training was unfulfilled. The many
accounts that I heard of Mr. Isa always
stayed with me and I promised myself that
on one of my future trips to Okinawa I
would look him up.

THE SEARCH BEGINS

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome
when visiting Okinawa is affordable lodging.
I had problems finding hotel space for our
large group because there were many people on the island for the World Pre-Tournament. During the second day of the championship, I was very fortunate to bump into a
gentleman by the name of Dan Smith. I
found out through our conversations that
we had something in common, since he
had also trained in the Jinbukan. I mentioned that I was having difficulties finding
lodging and he said that his sensei in Okinawa had a lot of property and he would
ask if he could put us up for a few days. As
luck would have it, the sensei he was talking about was Shimabukuro Zenpo, the
head of Seibukan Shorin-Ryu. It being a
small world, one of my black belt students,
Angel Lemus from Los Angeles, is also a
Seibukan sensei. Shimabukuro Sensei is a
very wealthy real estate agent in Okinawa
and a very kind and generous individual. He

put up our team at no cost in a small double room apar tment near his office. We
found ourselves sleeping elbow to elbow,
which is a ver y good way to establish a
good camaraderie among your fellow students.

IN SEARCH OF ISA
After the championships were finished, I
was ready to look for Isa Kaishu Sensei. At
the time, I did not know his first name and I
didnt know if I had his correct address. As
a matter of fact, Angel had called me up
late the night before our departure to Okinawa and gave me an address for Isa Sensei that he found in Mark Bishops book,
Okinawan Karate: Teachers, Styles and Secret Techniques. I was very fortunate that
Mr. Shimabukuros office was right across
the street from where I was staying in Okinawa City. I walked into his office one day
and explained to his secretary that I was
trying to find a man named Isa. She then
looked up the name Isa in their version of
the Yellow Pages and found an address that
was about five blocks away. She then
asked Mr. Shimabukuros nephew, who
also works at the real estate office, to take
me there.
Upon arriving at the address in the
phone book, we found that it was not Isa
Kaishu Senseis dojo or home. It was a
Shorin- Ryu dojo but the sensei there knew

We arrived at Isa Senseis home and

ironically enough it was directly across the
street behind Shimabukuro Senseis office
and two houses down. I believe now that
finding Isa Sensei was something that was
meant to be. For not only was Isa Senseis
house close to where I was staying, but
when I went to the first address which was
not Isa Senseis place and we were given
another address, I thanked the driver for
his help but that I wasnt interested in further pursuing this quest to find Isa Kaishu
at this time and that I would look him up on
my next trip to Okinawa. The driver was very
insistent on finding Isa for me and were it
not for his persistence I would not have
made this very important connection.
I never dreamed that I would actually find
something new in Okinawa during this trip,
something ancient and truly mysterious. I
thought I had seen it all. Nor had I considered the possibility of finding someone that
I could actually empty my cup and bow to.
My original intention was to find Isa Sensei
and to simply tell him that this American
still loved his teacher, practiced his katas,
and wanted to reestablish a family tie. That
is all I wanted to do. I really came to Okinawa to fill a void that I felt inside when my
teacher died. What happened from that
point on has changed the course of my
weapons training. It was the most enjoyable
meeting I have ever had with any Okinawan
master, and I have met many of them.
Upon arrival, I was welcomed into a
small and modest Okinawan home, as
most Okinawan homes are. Upon entering
the home, I found that half of the living
room was fashioned after some kind of religious shrine. I later found out that Isa Sensei had indeed become a Buddhist priest.
During the next three hours while I spoke
with him, several people came by and
asked for his religious services. They would
enter the home, light some incense, and he
BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

OKINAWAN JOURNEY:
LEGACY OF THE PAST
would of fer some kind of prayer. It was
strange to see him one minute talking to
me and the next minute performing a religious ritual, then resume our conversation.
Isa Sensei is a small Okinawan, about
120 pounds wet, has a very friendly disposition, and is very enthusiastic. There was
another gentleman there when I arrived, a
senior student of his. I later found out that
Isa Sensei had called him prior to my arrival
and asked him to be there because he
spoke enough English to act as an interpreter; his name was Tamai Moritasu. He
was a very educated person and very courteous. I struck up a great rapport with him
and he was to be instrumental in the following two weeks in helping to educate me and
my students in Isa Senseis teachings.
While sitting in his tiny living room, Isa
Sensei wanted to know what my story was.
I told Isa Sensei of my past experiences
and who my teachers were. I told him about
my old sensei, Kina Masanobu, and that
when he died I felt a void not only in my life
but also in my weapons training. I wanted
to find someone who had studied with Kina
Sensei and establish a connection so that
whenever I visited Okinawa I could train in
his weapons line. At this point, Isa Sensei
asked me what I had learned from Kina
Sensei. Kina Sensei was also an 8th degree black belt in Shorin-Ryu, but I only
studied weapons with him. I was very proud
that Kina Sensei had taught me what I believed to be two ver y rare Kobudo katas
from the Ufuchiku lineage, the Ufuchiku no
Sai and Tonfa. After mentioning this to Isa
Sensei, he looked straight at me and said
No, he never taught you Ufuchiku no Sai or
Ufuchiku no Tonfa. This caught me by surprise and I asked the interpreter to ask Isa
Sensei why he said this. His response was
that Kina Sensei never taught these katas
because he never knew them. Old man
Kina never taught him those katas. I know
those katas and I have not taught them to
anyone. Isa Sensei then explained to me
his relationship with Kina Masanobu. He
and Kina Masanobu were students of the
old man, Kina Shosei. The All-Okinawa
Karate Federation promoted both of them
to 8th dan at the same time. Isa Sensei
and Kina Masanobu were both eligible to
become third generation inheritors of the
Ufuchiku weapons system as passed down
by Sanda Kinjo, whose nickname was
Ufuchiku, police chief in Hogen, the old
Okinawan dialect. Kina Shosei chose Isa
Sensei to be the Ufuchiku family style
head, or soke.
This information really confused me because I had had everything backwards. All
at once I discovered that Isa was not a stu10

BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

Sensei Isa demonstrates the use of the metal Fan. Notice how he employs the straw hat
to conceal the weapon from an opponent.

dent of my teacher, I did not know the

Ufuchiku katas I thought I knew, and the
original reason for my being in Okinawa no
longer existed. I then thought maybe I
should leave and I felt very awkward. Isa
Sensei asked what else I knew and I said
that I had studied Goju under Shinjo
Masanobu and weapons under Kanei Katsuyoshi. He immediately gave me his condolences and said that he was very good
friends with both of them. He added that it
was ver y sad that both of them died so
suddenly and that Okinawa lost two of its
greatest martial artists.

KARAMITI

This is the kamae or defensive posture

used with the Ufuchiku Sai. Notice that
the index finger wraps around the sai handle (A). The other sai which is in the chambered position is place outside and on top
of the forearm
(B). Sensei Isa
has per fectly
formed round
B
knuckle callouses on both
hands. As a
matter of fact
his hands were
C photographed
and are considered a national
treasure and
are on display in
the Okinawan
Mar tial Ar ts
Museum.

Then the most amazing thing happened.

Isa Sensei asked me if I had heard of
Karamiti . I said no, I had not, and I
asked him what it was. Keep in mind that
we were sitting in a very small living room. I
was sitting across from Isa Sensei and his
assistant, Mr. Tamai, to his left. For the
next 20-30 minutes he proceeded to give
me a private demonstration of this thing
called Karamiti. He asked Mr. Tamai to
put his hand on his shoulder and in a flash
he took Mr. Tamais arm and put it in a joint
lock that had his assistant in pain tapping
out. Isa Sensei then pointed to his assistants wrist joint and said Karamiti. This
happened so quickly that my eyes felt as if
they had been deceived. I had never seen a
display of speed such as this in my 25 plus
years of experience. I could clearly see the
expression of pain on Mr. Tamais face and
I quickly ruled out the possibility of a
staged display or gimmick.
Isa Sensei outdid himself for the next
half hour by demonstrating more intricate
displays of this Karamiti. His assistant
grabbed, punched, kicked, swung, and just
about did ever y kind of attack possible

Left: Sensei Isa shows a more

practical way to tie a rope to the
kama. He said that this way is
safer to use and when it is
thrown. It will slice the opponent
with the sharp edge as opposed
to puncturing with the tip. Middle:
A deceptive move, ready to to
kick the kama up at the opponent. Right: The old way of carrying one kama was to slip it into
the obi. This keeps it hidden and
it is ready to be pulled out for
use. With the string tied to the
end of the handle, you could not
employ this technique.

Sensei
Ufuchiku
confiscated this
pair of Sai from
a bandit while
on police duty.
They were
passed down to
Sensei Isa by his
Sensei,
Shosei Kina.

from various angles. Isa Sensei first

demonstrated from a sitting position, then
from a standing position. Isa Sensei calmly
and swiftly had Mr. Tamai at every turn face
down on the floor in serious pain in one
joint-lock technique or another. This man
was not only in pain, but he was totally
drenched in sweat. It was a funny sight to
see, for he was wearing a business suit
and tie and he was punching and kicking in
full force. I was sweating just watching. Isa
Sensei gave his assistant instructions to
grab here or there, punch to the face or to
the body. However, he also allowed Mr.
Tamai to attack at will with any technique
whatsoever. The variations he used were
continuous. To do this in a small enclosure
from a distance of about 3 feet, not having
the spaciousness of a dojo, was truly amazing. Isa Sensei was in full control of this
man. He threw Mr. Tamai around the room
yet nothing was disturbed or broken.
Throughout the demonstration, nothing was
overdone, Isa Sensei was in complete control putting Mr. Tamai in a position where

Kanagusuku Ufuchiku, born may 7, 1829,

died October 13, 1920 at the age of 91.
He was employed by the last Emperor of
the Ryukyu Kingdom as a bodyguard and
was also the Shuri Chief of Police.

Shosei Kina, born January 5, 1882 died

June 9, 1981 at the age of 99. At the age
of 20, Kina began training with Ufuchiku
Sensei for 18 years until Ufuchikus
death.

there was just enough applied pain to force

him to tap out. I was to find out later how
Mr. Tamai felt when these same techniques
were to be applied on me.
I wondered why he was even showing
this to me. In all my years of training under
some very notable teachers as well as having seen Judo, Aikido, Jujutsu, and Taijutsu,
I had never seen anyone apply joint locks
with such ease and speed and afflict so
much pain in such a short time. I said to
myself at that moment, I would love to
study whatever this is! I was so impressed
by this small Okinawan master that my original reasons for visiting Isa Sensei were
long out of my mind. After he finished the
demonstration, Isa Sensei said this was
what he called Karamiti. I told him that in
the time I had spent on Okinawa, I had
seen every style available; seen dozens of
demonstrations; shot hours of video; even
my Goju sensei, Shinjo Masanobu, had taken me to many private events, training sessions, and demonstrations that were not
open to the public, yet I had never seen nor
heard of Karamiti. So I asked him dozens
of questions about its history, others who

knew the system, whether or not there was

a systematic way of learning it, and so on.
Isa Sensei said that it was getting late and
we should make another appointment to
continue. At that moment, I realized that I
had told my team of black belts that I would
return in half an hour and it was now four
hours later.

A NEW WEAPONS
CONNECTION
During the meeting, I noticed that there
were dozens of weapons hanging on the living room walls. Isa Sensei had sai, kama,
tonfa, nunchaku, etc. ... and they looked
old. As an ardent weapons practitioner, I
couldnt leave without asking about them.
He talked about each of them briefly and
then handed me a pair of very old and extremely heavy sai and said Ufuchiku Sensei
confiscated them from a bandit. Until now,
Ufuchiku was just the name of some katas
and a picture of a man I had seen in history
books. I was beginning to realize more and
more that this connection I was making
with Isa Sensei was more than just another
meeting with another Okinawan sensei. I
BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

11

OKINAWAN JOURNEY:
LEGACY OF THE PAST
felt a bond with him. I felt I could trust and
respect him and, to my delight, I felt the
same in return from him.
Isa Sensei told me about his lineage
and historical connection to Ufuchiku Kobujutsu. Isa Sensei was the third generation
of the Ufuchiku line. He had inherited the
whole weapons system and Karamiti. During the transmission ceremony, his sensei,
Kina Shosei, had passed down to him
these sai that had belonged to Ufuchiku
Sensei. Isa Sensei then told me a little
about his martial arts experience. Isa Sensei began to practice Karate at age three
and was taught by his grandfather in the
village of Shimabukuro. He had two teachers after that who were both students of
Ufuchiku Sensei, Kina Shosei and Tokashiki Saburo. At age eight, he became a student of Kina Shosei of the same village.
From Kina Sensei he learned Shorin-Ryu
Karate and Ufuchiku Kobudo. Kina Shosei
was a very small man and a soft and kind
person.
Isa Senseis third teacher, Tokashiki
Saburo, was a ver y large and power ful
man who was very strict and harsh in his
training. Tokashiki Sensei taught Isa Sensei the practical bunkai for the Kobudo and
Karamiti systems. Tokashiki Sensei was
also a student of Ufuchiku Sensei but
there are no pictures of him in any known
history books. This is because during one
of the training sessions that Tokashiki had
with Ufuchiku Sensei, Ufuchiku accidentally
cut his face open diagonally from forehead
to chin with a sword. Tokashiki sur vived
but not without a ver y nasty scar. After
this, Tokashiki Sensei understandably became camera shy. He forbade any pictures
be taken of him. Once, Isa Sensei took a
picture of him and Tokashiki Sensei ripped
the camera from his hands and proceeded
to tear it into pieces. Tokashiki Sensei admonished Isa to never do that again, and
Isa wisely promised that he would not.
Isa Sensei began to show me pictures
of him with Kina Sensei accepting the title
of third generation soke. Then he showed
me a picture of a very lovely, nice looking
woman dressed in traditional Okinawan
clothing posing in a movement from a
classical dance. As I was looking at it, I
asked myself, Why is he showing this to
me. Then Isa Sensei told me that it was
him! He told me that he also has masters rank in traditional Okinawan dance
or mai and is the inheritor of that dance
tradition as well. He then showed me another picture and a cer tificate. This picture was of him and his dance teacher accepting the title of soke and his masters
certificate.
12

BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

Sensei Isa demonstrates a technique of hiding the short blade of the Tinbe behind the
shield. In this case the shield also serves as a hat. Using the shield to block the blade is
suddenly thrust into an attack.

One of Sensei Isas top female students, shows the traditional use of the hairpin. It was
easily removed and used as a very effective weapon. The author gets the point of the
demonstration (far right).

A VERY SERIOUS TALK

To understand what happened next, I
need to explain some feelings that I had
stirring inside me while all this was going
on with Isa Sensei. After the Pre-WorldChampionships, I was very angry and disappointed. The championships were a fraud, it
was the worst thing I had ever seen. There
was systematic cheating on Okinawas part
and a person had died during the competition. It was a total flop and a disgrace.
Our conversation turned to the subject of
rank. I told him that my rank was earned by
working and sweating ver y hard. I asked
him how he felt about people buying rank
from Okinawan senseis. I told him that Okinawa had become a paper mill of high-ranking diplomas. Isa nodded in affirmation and
said, Youre right, some Okinawan senseis
have sold out. He said, You train hard,
you get rank, it was as simple as that.
What truly blew me away is that he said
that no money would ever be exchanged between us. He was not interested in money

for his lessons. It was at that very moment

that I made a deep connection with Isa
Sensei. I saw in him the old virtues that we
all read about in the history books. I was
very emotionally involved in the subject of
this conversation. After losing both of my
teachers who were truly great men, I was
not sure if there was anyone left in Okinawa
that I could call Sensei again.
However, as I sat in front of this man
who was being honest and open with me,
showed no vanity about the fact that he
was a legitimate 10th dan, and had shown
me more in half an hour than I had learned
in years, I thought, Maybe there is someone left on Okinawa worth following.

THE KARATE AND DANCE

CONNECTION
After the talk about rank, the atmosphere
became relaxed and Isa Sensei began to
explain to me the connection between traditional Okinawan dance and Karamiti. He
said Karamiti is what Karate used to look

The author
gives the
traditional
dance a
shot.
Kaishu Isa seated next to his dance
teacher as he receives his masters certificate for Traditional Okinawan Dance.

A very lovely looking Sensei Isa dressed

as a woman with makeup during a traditional Okinawan dance demonstration.
like before it became what it is today. There
were no such things as high, middle, or low
blocks; there were no horse, cat, or back
stances, these were things that were developed to create a system called Te or Ti.
The old Karamiti was lost at the time that
Karate was openly introduced to the general public. (Unfortunately, during this meeting I did not get into details with Isa Sensei
as to a timeline regarding this information.
This is something that I plan to do the next
time I meet with him.) Like weaponr y,
Karamiti was studied to defend and preserve life. After the Meiji restoration and
the modernization of the country, people no
longer needed to protect themselves as in
the past. So, because the old ways of training were too severe and painful for the average person, this emphasis was gone. People were rejecting the old ways and the
teachers of the time had to consciously formulate a system that was easier and safer
to learn. This has also happened in America. Very few people today want to pay the
price for that kind of training anymore. The
old masters had to water down the old
ways and make it more consumable.
Isa Sensei then began to link the old Okinawan dance to the Karamiti. He said that
in the old days they couldnt practice openly
because of the Japanese ban on martial

arts in Okinawa. So they began to incorporate Karamiti movements into the old
dances and no one could tell that they were
actually practicing fighting movements and
thus were able to teach it to future generations. I had heard about this in histor y
books and both my past teachers had mentioned it, so this wasnt new. However, no
one had ever actually demonstrated this to
me in the flesh. In later training sessions in
his dojo, Isa Sensei would show us a dance
move and he would ask his assistant to
punch, then Isa Sensei would do the same
dance move as a multidimensional defense. It had a block, a strike, a joint lock,
and finally a takedown. It was incredible to
see a movement that was so smooth and
beautiful in a dance, applied by someone
who knew what they were doing, become
such an awesome and effective movement
of personal defense. For the first time I
could actually see the connection between
the old Karate and the old dance. It was a
great connection for me because it filled a
void that existed in my personal training.
This is something that my Goju sensei,
Shinjo Masanobu, told me, saying that the
old timers had a form of self-defense that
was now lost in Okinawa. He told me he
had heard about it but he did not know it.
Most if not all of the other senseis of his
generation in Okinawa did not know it either. He added, we do our bunkai from a
modern perspective, we did not learn the
old bunkai of kata. Those old techniques
died with the past generations, everything
we have nowadays we had to basically
make up and do the best job we could with
what we had.
I believe that any honest karateka today

can look at the curriculum he or she has

been practicing for the last 10 or 20 years
and say that something is missing. Analyzing what Isa Sensei had just told me about
teachers taking a form of training and
repackaging it to make it more palatable to
the general public rang a bell in my head. I
put two and two together and realized that
what the old Okinawan masters did back
then is what some GIs did upon returning to
the U.S.A. after their tour of duty. We (nonOrientals) have been told by our Oriental
teachers that we were not to change the
katas or anything else. However, they themselves did what they told us not to do. We
Americans have been doing this for years.
Weve done it for lack of information or because we only received the tip of the iceberg. Lets face it, most GIs were in Okinawa one or two years, and theres so
much (or little) one can learn in such a limited time. Lets not forget to also acknowledge that as in ever y culture, there are
charlatans, and Okinawa is not immune to
this human condition. Some Okinawan
teachers who had very little training sold us
Americans the Okinawan equivalent of the
London Bridge.
Isa Sensei continued to tell me that it
was foolish for todays modern practitioners
to practice 20 or 30 years worth of high
and middle blocks. At face value, these
techniques are not applicable in the real
world. Eventually, we would have to find a
way of defending ourselves in a system that
was not so enclosed with such limited parameters.
In later training sessions, Isa Sensei
proved ever ything he told me by actually
demonstrating every point to me. He asked
me to demonstrate my Goju, which I did,
and he said that my Goju was very strong,
BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

13

OKINAWAN JOURNEY:
LEGACY OF THE PAST
good kihon waza. However, he added that
this was no good for fighting. So I asked
him to please show me, and so he did. He
not only demonstrated on me, but on the
other six members of my group. These
men varied from 5 6, 135 pounds to
66, 285 pounds. Keep in mind that we
are all seasoned Goju practitioners that
are in excellent cardiovascular condition,
and are physically very strong as a result
of good Goju training. After Isa Sensei
quickly dispatched me, he then took every
member of my group from the smallest to
the biggest and did the same with them.
He would tap certain areas on their bodies
and these big strong men would turn into
jelly and then he would put them into a
joint lock and take them
down to the floor. It was
very interesting to see that
these techniques worked
on everyone, it did not matter your size, weight, or
strength. I shot hours of
video of Isa Sensei effor tlessly applying dozen of
variations of these techniques. I can cer tainly say
now without any hesitation
that the void in my training
is no more. I have found
what I was looking for and
it puts me right back in the
place Ive been before, that
is, coming full circle, I am
now ready to learn the old
ways, so I am a beginner
once again.

Weapons rack in Sensei Isas dojo displays a large variety and selection.

THE REST OF THE

TRIP
I spent two weeks training with Isa Sensei. We began around 8 PM and
trained until 2 or 3 in the
morning. During the day, he Sensei Isas senior student Tamae watches as Isa Sensei
was busy tending to his Allison in a position which he became very familiar with.
priestly duties, and I kept
my other appointments. I decided to pose himself was not. This was confirmation
a question to all the other senseis that I from other sources of what Isa Sensei had
met: Have you ever heard of Karamiti? told me: some senseis had never heard of
The responses I received were very inter- it, others had heard of it but didnt know it,
esting. When I met with Nakamoto Masahi- and still others know some it and teach it.
ro Sensei, he said he teaches it in his dojo
and he gave me a little demonstration of FEEL THE PAIN
Back with Isa Sensei at his dojo, he used
his form of Karamiti, but he was nowhere
close to Isa Senseis proficiency. When I his senior student as a guinea pig to
asked Matayoshi Shinpo Sensei, he said demonstrate most of the techniques. We
he had never heard of it. Shimabukuro Zen- were very grateful to Mr. Tamai for he gave
po Sensei said that Karamiti was a ver y of himself freely and without complaint to
old for m of Karate that his father, the abuse he received for those two weeks
Shimabukuro Zenr yo (founder of the for our benefit.
Isa Sensei was ver y careful when he
Seibukan), was very familiar with, but he
14

BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

demonstrated on me. He
used ver y little pressure,
and I wanted more because
I know that to learn something properly one must feel
it. Specially when it came to
this form of training. I later
found out Isa Sensei felt obligated not to shame me in
front of my seniors. It was
ver y gratifying to meet
someone that practiced dojo
ethics like Isa Sensei. He
didnt want to toss me
around so he told me to
stand behind the videocamera and shoot. Thats why in
my videos you mostly see
Clay Allison Sensei who
stayed with me when the
rest of the group returned to
the States. Allison Sensei
was so amazed with what he
saw that he asked me if he
could stay after the main
group left. Mr. Allison is
place Mr. Clay about 6-3 tall and weights
about 220 pounds of solid
muscle. It was amusing to
see him tossed around for the next week
and a half by someone one third his body
size. Isa Sensei was literally playing with
him and yet I could clearly see that Mr. Allison was in pain every time. At times, a part
of me wished that I could be out there on
the receiving end. But then, another part of
me said, I really dont want to be out there,
so stay behind the camera. During this
time, Isa Sensei not only gave us a thorough demonstration of Karamiti but he also
taught us some of the basics of Karamiti,
which I still practice. These exercises show
you different blocks, strikes, and footwork
that prepare you for the actual Karamiti.

The author Anthony marquez sits

with Sensei Isa with the entire
collection of 25 weapons used in
the Ufuchiku system.

During this training period, we also spent

about half the time training with weapons.
Isa Sensei again demonstrated a depth of
knowledge on the proper realistic usage
of weapons the likes of which I had never
seen. He was just as knowledgeable with
weapons as with Karamiti, and he proved
every point that he spoke of with physical
examples. This type of training made me realize that without this knowledge, any
weapons training is very crude and misleading to the practitioner. Isa Sensei said that
the Ufuchiku system has over 25 weapons
and about 100 weapons katas. I have been
involved in weapons for a long time and I
could think of about 13 weapons, so I
asked him if he could show me the 25 and
he did. He showed me some ver y old
weapons that I had never seen before and I
photographed each of them. He said that
each of these weapons had katas to go
with them.
Isa Sensei told me that most practitioners nowadays know only a fraction of the
knowledge that is available not only in
weapons, but also in the empty hand methods. Every day a piece of history dies with
someone. He asked me if I learned everything that my Goju sensei knew? I told him
no. He said like both of my teachers that
died so young, there have been hundreds
of Okinawan martial artists that took to the
grave many of the old techniques and
katas. This void of information is becoming
greater from one generation to the next,
and what happens is that the new generation of Karate instructors, lacking this
knowledge, fills in the gaps with their own
interpretations and passes this on to the

cions were correct about a void in my

training. There is so much to learn that
one cannot truly say that he or she has
reached the top. The moment you stop
training and researching is the moment
you stagnate and die. We as mar tial
ar tists have the burden of seeking the
knowledge that is already lost and being
lost ever yday. I found my holy grail of
Karate and Kobudo by meeting Isa Sensei.
I learned a lot and I have been diligently
practicing. I made a promise to Isa Sensei
that I will return to visit him and discuss
our future relationship and to do a lot of
training. I will also gather historical information that I will put to use in part two of
this article. Stay tuned for more!
Shihan Anthony Marquez is the Director
of the Kokusai R yukyu Kobujitsu
Kenkyukai (Inter national R yukyu
Kobujitsu Association) and the Chief
Instructor of the Tanzenbukan Okinawan
Goju-R yu Dojo based in Souther n
California.
next generation, thus the face of Karate in
Okinawa today looks nothing like it did 100
years ago. The sad thing is that the old
ways will be lost with this next generation,
according to Isa Sensei.

THE FUTURE LOOKS

BRIGHT
This experience has refueled my thirst
for new knowledge and has motivated me
to work harder than I have ever done. It
has also shown me that my original suspi-

For more information please contact:

Kanagusuku Ufuchiku Kobujutsu
Hozonkai Keizu
Soke kaishu Isa
1-2-5 Kubota
Okinawa City
Okinawa, Japan
Shihan Anthony marquez
1000 Alosta Ste. H
Glendora, CA 91740
818-963-9959
BUGEISHA: Traditional Martial Artist

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