KOUSAKU YOKOTA
8th Dan Karate Do Asai Ryu Budo.
Founder of the ASAI organization (Asai Shotokan International Association)
Author of many books on Karate.
Can you introduce yourself ?
Here is a copy of the karate bio of mine. This is what I use for my books.
Shihan Yokota, 8th dan, was born in 1947 in the city of Kobe, Japan and has extensive martial arts experience of nearly 60 years. Not only does he have over 50 years of Shotokan Karate experience, he has also studied other styles of karate, Goju-Ryu and Kyokushinkai. He is also familiar with the art of Judo and Ki. He has experience with Kobudo (weapons) too; Nunchaku, Sai and Nanasetsubin (7 chain whip) to deepen and supplement his knowledge and skills in Karate-do.
Yokota started his martial arts training in 1960 when he was just 13 years old. He started taking lessons in Judo at the Hyogo Prefecture Police station, where he met a fellow student who also practiced karate. (This student was practicing Judo to further improve his fighting skills.) Yokota was so impressed by him that although he had been training in Judo for three years, he made the decision to switch his training to Karate. Yokota, thus, joined the JKA Prefecture headquarters in Kobe and started his training in Karate-do in 1963.
In 1973, Yokota moved to Philadelphia, PA where he was a full time instructor at the ISKF headquarters, as well as a personal assistant to
Master Teruyuki Okazaki, 10th dan, ISKF Chairman. Yokota was one of the top competitors in the East Coast Regional Tournaments in the 1970’s. In 1981, he returned to his hometown of Kobe to complete his instructor’s training under the late Master Jun Sugano, 9th dan, JKA Vice Chairman. While in Japan, Yokota competed in the Prefecture tournament and won the championship two years in a row.
He represented his prefecture and competed in the JKA All National Championship in Tokyo in 1981 and 1982. He was also chosen as one of the competitors for All Japan Sport Event in Shiga Prefecture in 1982.
After completing the JKA instructor’s training, Yokota moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 to teach in Mountain View. In 2001 he resigned from JKA after 40 years of membership to follow Master Asai (JKS). Yokota later received his Roku-dan (6th dan) from Master Asai, the Chief Instructor of JKS. After passing of Master Asai in 2006, he resigned from JKS to establish his own organization, ASAI (Asai Shotokan Association International). He is the founder and World Chief Instructor of ASAI.
Yokota is also a famous author who has published five books: Shotokan Myths (English, French and Portuguese), Shotokan Mysteries, Shotokan Transcendence, Karatedo Paradigm Shift and Karatedo Quantum Leap (all available from Amazon Books).
Yokota is 72 years old (2019), but he does not make his age as an excuse. He trains and exercises 3 to 5 hours every morning to keep him in shape and polish his karate skills. Yokota also travels around the world to teach Asai ryu karate and to promote budo karate to the members as well as the non-member karate practitioners.
Tell us your beginnings in the world of martial arts. How did you come to practice martial arts? By what art? Master ? Dojo?
I started my training in Karate in 1962 when I was 15 years old. Why I started karate involves a story which I must explain.
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My first experience in martial arts was with Judo. My father was a black belt from Kodokan (the headquarters of Judo in Tokyo). I think he got his sandan while he was attending his university in Tokyo. When I was about 11 or 12, I told my father that I was interested in martial arts. In fact I wanted to do Kendo or Kenjutsu but my father said I should pick up Judo so I did. The police station of our ward had a Judo program for the children. One policeman was our sensei. He was big and strong. He impressed us so much we were convinced that the Judo was the best martial art.
After a few years of training, one small young man (maybe he was an university student) joined the club. As he was totally new I could throw him easily. He was polite and very enthused. One thing I noticed about him was he would jump up right away after he was being thrown down. He was like a toy that was designed to hop up. When we are thrown, we normally rolled over into all fours (hands and knees on the floor) before we stood up again. However, he jumped up from the supine position (lying on his back) without rolling or using his hands.
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We all thought he was strange but did not ask him why, until he told us that he was leaving the dojo after about one year. So, after the last training I walked with him to the nearby station where he took a train to go home. During our walk, I asked him why he decided to quit after only one year. He said that he was really a Karate practitioner and wanted to learn Judo’s throwing techniques as well as the floor work (holding and pinning techniques). So I asked why he would quit as Judo was more devastating martial art than Karate. At that time, I had very little knowledge about Karate. Besides, we saw a movie called Sugata Sanshiro in which a Judo guy wins in a match with a Karate guy. So, we believed Judo was much better as a martial art.
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Surprisingly, he told me that he would tell me the truth as he was leaving the dojo. He said he respected Judo and learned a lot from Judo, but he definitely believed Karate was more effective in a hand to hand combat. I strongly objected and told him that I threw him many times and he could not do anything to me. He told me that was because he did not use his Karate techniques. At that time, I truly believed that I could grab and throw him before he could do anything. So, without a warning I grabbed (or tried to grab) his jacket to throw him. At that moment, to my great surprise I found myself knocked down on my back and staring at the guy who was standing over me with a shocked face. I did not know what had happened. I felt something hit me very sharp on my belly. The guy quickly apologized and helped me stand up. Apparently he kicked me in the belly and knocked me down. As the distance was so short and I was not expecting anything like this so I did not see his leg to move. It was like a magic.
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He told me that he did not kick me too hard, only enough to knock me down. In fact, he said he was surprised that I fell as his intention was not to knock down but only to push me away from him with a kick. He told me that he could have kicked harder to break a few of the ribs and to finish me with a punch to the face after the kick. He totally convinced me with this demonstration that Karate can be more effective in a hand to hand combat. I really wanted to learn Karate but I had to stay with Judo and wait one more year until I graduated from the junior high school. I was 15 at that time.
I searched for a karate dojo.
Now I know that Shito ryu is very popular in Kobe area but luckily for me I discovered a Shotokan dojo near the Kobe station. This dojo happened to be the prefecture honbu dojo of Japan Karate Association (JKA) headed by late Master Jun Sugano, 9th dan. I was a life time member of JKA and stayed there for 40 years. During that period, I had a very exciting experience of becoming a personal assistant to Master Teruyuki Okazaki (10th dan of ISKF) in Philadelphia for several years. However, Master Sugano was my mentor until his passing in 2000. I was re-connected with late Master Asai in the following year and I have been following his style of karate, Asai ryu ever since.
This is a summary of my martial arts journey up to this year. I have much to talk about Master Asai and Asai ryu karate so I would like to do that later on.
What were you like? What made you love martial arts? What pushed you and continues to push you to continue?
When I was growing up, I think I was a usual child, not much different from any other boys in the school or in dojo. As a boy I wanted to be strong and manly, sort of macho. I did not get in a fight when I was a kid. I had to use my karate skill a couple of times to defend myself when I was challenged during my university period but I did not hurt anyone.
If I ask myself why I have been practicing karate over half a century, I can only say, ‘’I just love karate’’. I always enjoyed training and never got bored or tired of it. I guess I am a lucky person.
I can share one interesting experience that may have pushed me or motivated me to continue. After 6 six months or so training, we had a grading examination. Those days, in the late 50s and early 60s, we tested only once a year. The students of all the dojo from the prefecture gathered at one place (usually a large gym at one of the universities). There were probably total of a few hundreds of them. Out of those, nearly 100 of them were trying for their first test. From our dojo we had about 15 white belt students participated and I was one of them. On that day, I came to the site a little too late. I was there just in time but did not have time to prepare myself. I did very poorly. All my white belt friends passed and I was the only one failed. It shocked me and I remember this incident clearly even now. I know this experience made me commit and told myself that I would never give up until I would make it to black belt. After 3 years I made to Shodan and it was a smooth sailing after that. I fell in love with karate so I had no fear of quitting or giving up.
This feeling was true until I became late 40s and was nearing the age of 50. I felt I had learned everything about Shotokan karate. I knew all 26 kata. I had participated in tournaments and had some excellent results. I moved to California in 1984 and was teaching karate over 10 years or so. I felt I was hitting a glass ceiling and could not see how I could improve myself. That was late 90s. In fact, I moved back to Japan between 1997 and 2000 to train, not karate but Kiko or Chi Gong which is a training of Ki or Chi. I lived in Tokyo and joined the very famous Ki school, Nishino juku in Shibuya. I practiced Ki and learned how to relax my body. This was a very good break from karate only life.
In 2000 I returned to California and decided to teach karate again. This was when I was re-connected with Master Asai. He was the Technical Director of JKA in the 80s so I knew him. I even participated in a few seminars in the 80s. He was excellent then but he was teaching only the JKA syllabus, thus not too different from what I had learned from Sugano sensei and Okazaki sensei. When I participated in the seminar in 2001, Master Asai had his organization, JKS and had started to teach his style around the world. I do not know how to express my feelings when I experienced his seminar. Before the event I thought we would receive the same type of training. I was so wrong. Almost everything we did was new to me. He was in his 60s and he was agile, flexible and powerful. Instantly I knew this was how I wanted to be when I hit his age. It has been nearly 20 years and I have not regret one day for my decision to follow Asai ryu karate. So, it is my life time mission to promote budo karate and introduce Asai ryu karate to the traditional karate practitioners around the world.
In addition to your practice as a teacher, do you have a routine at home?
I do not have a dojo any more. I retired from that 6 years ago. I have handed down my dojo, Byakkokan to one of my assistant instructors. Since then, I have been using my study room as my dojo. I train every morning for 3 to 4 hours.
In the afternoon, I communicate with the members of ASAI as well as the karate friends I have around the world using email and Facebook chat.
I also like to write short essays on various subjects. Most of the subjects are karate related but some are extended to larger scale including general martial arts, kinesiology, philosophy, Japanese culture, etc. I have a blog site in ASAI website (http://asaikarate.com/blog/) and I post my essays there for anyone who are interested. Some of the essays were translated to other languages (in fact about 10 languages) including French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Chinese and even Persian.
These activities keep me very busy every day. Then, 3 to 4 times a year I travel to different countries to do Asai ryu seminar. Indeed I have a very busy life for an old person.
What do you think the martial arts bring about physically, mentally and spiritually?
This is a very important point and an excellent question. I am very happy to share my thoughts and beliefs on this subject.
Many people practice karate for the physical benefits. However, they miss out on the mental and spiritual parts. I would like to share what I understand on those three important benefits of karate. Some of the people may know that we have 7 chakras in our body. Out of those 3 are most important.
One chakra is well known as Seika tanden located right below the navel. This chakra provides you the energy and power to your body. The benefit does not stop there. It increases the power of your immune system so that you will not get sick easily. I have not been sick including cold for more than 30 years. I do not suffer from any illness. I travel around the world without worrying about getting sick. When I visited Mexico and India, some of the people warned me not to drink the local water or some fresh food. I have visited these countries more than several times and I never got sick from their diet. The only problem I faced was some of the foods were too spicy for my taste. Other than that I can live there normally.
Lower chakra also keeps me young and strong. Last year on my 71st birthday I did 7,171 (seven thousand one hundred and seventy one) pushups. Two years ago, I did 7,070 (seven thousand seventy) situps. Incredible things become possible when the lower chakra opens up. I suspect that many of the readers may find some problem hearing this but it is true. I am the living proof.
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Another chakra is located between your eyes. In India they call this the third eye. By training karate, you will learn how to meditate during your karate training. This will stimulate your forehead chakra and one day it may open the door to this chakra. When this chakra is open your perception increases dramatically. You can keep your mental calmness even when you face some problems. In other words, you can harmonize your mind or spirit with the universe. You can decide what is right or wrong easily. In other words, you can be happy no matter what happens to your daily life. It may also improve your six sense such as prediction. This ability will not only help you in karate but also in self-defense. When I say self-defense I am not talking about not only against some rough people but also in keeping safety in your life including driving. Your mental sense will improve so that you will not have any car accidents or avoid other kinds of accidents.
Finally, the middle chakra located on the chest near heart is the one that is tied closely with your heart or love. Since karate is defined by some people as the art of killing, it may be difficult to relate karate training with love. Even though I am not a Christian, I respect and honor the words of ‘’Love your enemy’’ said by Jesus Christ. This concept is true and we must train karate to reach this level. In fact, it is not that difficult. When you train in your dojo, do you hate your dojo mates even when you are doing kumite with them ? Of course, not. You may attack your dojo opponents with full force but you are not doing it with hatred in your heart. I am sure you respect and honor your dojo mates, even if you do not feel like loving them. What you have to do is to expand this feeling even when you are facing an enemy in a real street fight or a self-defense situation.
If you can achieve this (loving your enemy) you are beginning to open your central chakra. However, you need to develop further. Your love does not stop at the people including your enemies. It must cover everything around you. In other words, you will drop the barrier around you and you will emerge with everything around you. This level is hard to reach but if you do then you will not feel the difference between yourself and the world around you. When you reach this level, you will achieve the total tranquilty and happiness. At this level, it will be difficult to differentiate karatedo and religion.
These are the three elements that are related to three chakras. I believe I have been successful with opening the low chakra but I need to work on the other two. I am not sure if I can ever achieve the full opening of all three chakras but it certainly emotivates me to train daily and take another step forward.
Do you have master references? Examples that have motivated you and still motivate you?
Definitely late Master Asai was and still is a motivator for me. When he passed away in 2006 at the age of 71 (my current age) his karate skill and knowledge were so much ahead of me. I do not know how many more years I will have to continue my training, but I am very happy to have him as my goal at this time.
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I also have a few other masters who are my models and examples. One is Tesshu Yamaoka, the 19th century samurai. He is a model because he died sitting up. He knew his time to go and he was sitting in a lotus position and meditated until he took his last breath. I am not sure if it is possible for me to do, but that is my last goal of my life.
Lastly, Seikichi Uehara is my model. He was the 12th Soke of Motobugoten Okinawa karate. He was definitely an expert in karate and kobujutsu but I have another reason why I follow his steps. Uehara sensei passed away in 2004 at the age of 100. Until the last year of his life he trained and taught karate. I may not become an expert and that is not my concern. Being able to train and teach unitil 100 (or even older) is something I hope I can achieve.
Seikichi UEHARA
Your definition of Sensei?
The literal meaning of Sensei in Japanese means a senior student. This means that a sensei is still a student who happens to be older or has a longer years in experience. I like this idea and we, sensei, must never stop learning and improving our karate.
My personal definition of sensei is a person who is a model to the students. In karate, a sensei must be able to demonstrate and show the techniques. He must be in shape and healthy. He must be a model not only in karate but also in life itself. He must be a model as an honorable citizen, friend, husband (wife), father (mother), etc. He must have the high standard of character and morale in every day of your life. This is a challenging task but I believe this is what a karate sensei must be like.
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You have worked methods on the art of ki as well as the method of breathing by Nishino Ryu Kiko Jutsu. For you, what is the importance of Ki and breathing in Karate and martial arts?
You come up with many excellent questions and points. Hats off to you.
I am again very happy to answer your question and talk about this important point. As this is so complex it will become a short book if I wrote everything here. So, I need to keep it to the summary and the main concepts on this important subject.
First of all, Ki and breathing seem to be, for many people, as two separate subjects or matters. Very interestingly, this is incorrect. These two are heavily and intricately twined or coordinated. As you know breathing is extremely important. If you stop breathing for more than two or three minutes you will die. Breathing provide the oxygen to the lungs and it will be carried througout the body by blood.
On the other hand, the matter of breathing is almost ignored or under rated. Why? This is because the action or behavior of breathing can be and in fact, done most of the time unconsciously. In other words, we do not need to ‘’think’’ or will yourself to breathe in our normal daily life. Thus it is taken for granted, until you run or swim a lot. Then you will be breathing hard and realize how important breathing is for you.
As we agree that breathing is important for us to live, I want you to remember that this is the only physical activity that is both conscious and unconscious. There are many physical activities or functions that are unconscious (meaning we have consciously no control) such as the heart beat, digestive system, immune system, etc.
Thus, breathing is very unique from that perspective. As we know that it will be functioning all through the night and we do not have to worry if it would stop while you are sleeping. When you get sleepy, you may automatically conduct a deep breathing in a form of yawning. On the other hand, you can control your breathing in a way of fast, slow, long or short depending on the situation.
The heartbeat and beathing are correlated closely. In other words, when the heartbeat increases you will tend to have the faster breathing. On the other hand, when the heartbeat becomes slower, your breathing will also slows down. We all know this fact.
When you are in the excited emotional states such as nervous, scared, angry, etc. your heartbeat gets faster. Right before taking an exam, as you remember well, most of us get nervous. They advise to take a deep breath in order to calm ourselves down. It can not only slow the heartbeat down but also it can change your brain waves favorably. You may know that the brainwaves are devided in five major groups ; Gamma, Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta. When you are nervous your brainwave is at Beta (14-30 Hz). By breathing slowly or deeply, you can change the heartbeat as well as the brainwave down to Alpha (8-13 Hz). This breathing treatment is not only useful before an important meeting or examination but when you encounter any other challenging situations such as a street fight if you are a martial artist.
I can go much deeper in this part of the subject (breathing and brainwaves) but I will stop here with one advice. If you wish to be healthy and to stay energetic, train your breathing by reducing the number of breathing cycle. It is known that the average breathing cycle or respiratory rate is 12 to 20 breaths per minute. You can easily check this by looking at a watch or a clock. If your rate is around 12, you are doing ok but can be much better. By training you want to reduce it as low as possible. If you can come down to 4 times then you are doing really well. Normally, my respiratory rate is 4 times per minute, but when I train my breathing, I try to come down to 1 per minute. This means about 25 seconds of inhalation then 10 seconds of holding followed by 20 seconds of exhalation and 5 seconds of holding. This is not easy but can be done and also practiced by many zen monks.
Let’s touch on Ki. As this is also a very deep subject, I will only cover the surface. Even though I sound like a saleman, you can find a chapter in one of my books, ‘’Shotokan Transcendece’’ (Chapter 7 : What is Ki ? pages 107-120). If you are interested in this subject, please read my book.
In short, Ki is the universal energy that makes us alive. I say universal as all creation including not only the living things but the non living things like rocks, have the internal energy. Ki is the factor that is keeping us alive. Strong Ki makes our imune system strong and keeps us healthy. You can gain or exchange Ki with the trees in the wood. When I find an old but healthy tree, I stand by it to exchange Ki which purifies my Ki. You have heard that some of the precious stones and crystals give you energy and power. This is true. By meditation and martial arts training you can also gain or increase your Ki power. Ki exhists all through your body but you can rotate it through the body which can help you open your chakras.
I will not explain or talk in details of how to train Ki. You can get more information on Ki from the chapter of my book which I mentioned earlier. You will also increase your Ki by strengthening your body by training karate. In addition, training breathing will also assist in increasing Ki. However, if you wish to train Ki alone, I suggest you will find an instructor or an expert in this special art of Kiko or Chi gong.
What does the black belt represent for you ?
The color of a belt means very little to me. This is the same for the dan rank. The number means nothing to me. What means to me is what you can do with your body.
In other words, the karate skill one possesses is the only important thing to a karateka.
Attaining a black belt or shodan means that you have completed the preparation period. Now is the time to start serious training. It is only a starting point. Then after that the color of your belt means very little as at least in Shotokan it remains the same color. In other styles, they adopted the Judo trandition of wearing a red belt and a striped (red and white) belt for the high ranks. I do not like this Judo tradition and I am happy that in Shotokan the belt color remains black only. Some people put the lines on their belts. For instance 5 lines or stripes to show he is Godan. I oppose this notion too and I am happy that it is also not a part of Shotokan culture. If you are a high rank practitioner, he needs to show this with what he can do with his body. In the end, a belt can function only to keep you uniform in place and nothing more.
What is your vision of the martial way, BUDO ?
We are all aware that sport karate is dominating the karate world, at least in the visible one. With karate being in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it will become even more popular. I think this trend is a double edge sword. As a budoka I tend to see the negative side of this trend and I oppose this direction. At the same time, I will not spend my time and energy to oppose this trend, but rather, I want to focus on preserving budo karate. I know budo karate is the real karate and it must be preserved. In order to do this, a budo karateka like myself must excel his karate skill and be able to demonstrate budo karate in his 50s, 60s, 70s and older.
In sport karate, you will retire when you pass as young as 30 years old. They become coach and they think their karate training days are over.
They get fat and out of shape. They can coach by words but unable to demonstrate with their body. Many young people get a wrong idea about their karate instructors. They believe their karate is better than that of the instructors. In budo karate that is not the case. No matter how old you get, an instructor can demonstrate his techniques and can perform better than the young ones. Of course, to be able to do this every instructor must train daily and improve his or her karate skill every and each day. We must make our body like a sword and we must polish the sword daily to keep it sharp.
I do not think too many people are committed to do this. It is much easier to be a coach or a fat sensei. At the same time, budo karate will not disappear as long as we have one expert budo karateka to demonstrate the real karate. I am far away from that level now but I will continue to train daily to reach that goal.
What is the place of KATA in Karate and Japanese martial arts ?
This is a very good question and an important one. Kata is a very unique heritage we have in the Japanese culture. We have this not only in martial arts but also in other trades. Therefore, it is naturally extremely important for karate. I am aware that some karate practitioners and even the instructors claim that kata has no value or practicing it a waste of time. I am afraid that they are missing a major and very important part of martial art. For a sport karate, kata may be only one kind of competition item. They may not see the relationship between kata and kumite. It will be totally different when you practice budo karate. The full explanation is very complex so I will stop here.
I have written a full chapter on this particular subject also. You can find Chapter 5 (pages 41-70) in the same book, ‘’Shotokan Transcendence’’. The title of the chapter is ‘’The reasons why we must preserve our kata ‘’. I go pretty deep in this subject. I believe this chapter will provide you much information if you are interested in the subject of kata.
What is the place of salutes, Reishiki ceremonial in the martial arts ?
My belief about learning karate is a ‘’whole package’’.
This means the practitioners need to embrace the entire culture of karate including the reigi saho and other rules, etiquette, customs, etc. So, the ceremonial and salutes are only the small part. What this karate culture can cover is very comperehensive and wide. I will not cover all the parts and the details as they will take up too much space. I want to bring a few examples to show what I mean by karate culture. One good example is the respect to dojo. First of all, we take our shoes off at the outside of the door or entrance. We line up the shoes in a very organized way and the heel side is pointing to the dojo.
We, the budo practitioners, must think about the ‘’if’’ situation of disaster when we need to exit the dojo in a hurry. You can wear the shoes faster if they are lined up nicely and if they are poinging out to the street. This is a very miner thing but we do this in almost all the dojo in Japan. In the foreign countries like Mexico and Brazil, I find a ball court outside as a dojo. The floor is either concrete, cement or artificial lawn. There is no formal entrance and many people walk around with the shoes on. I am aware of the challenge but the instructors must teach all the students to take off their shoes and line them up nicely at one place during the training period.
Another fine point of respecting dojo is that we clean the dojo thoroughly before and after the training. Most of our dojo have the wooden floor so we do the wet rag wiping. All the students and even the instructors line up and wipe the floor with the wet rag before the training. Many dojo do the same after the training too, expecially in the summer.
I hope the western practitioners will study the total culture and appreciate it. When they understand and accept that karate training is more than just kicks and punches, I am sure that they will find new perspective and appreciation for this art.
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Many non-karate practitioners think Shotokan karate is a rigid, outdated and ineffective discipline
what can you answer them ?
I am happy to answer to this question. There are three claims about Shotokan karate here. They are rigid, outdated and ineffective. Let me respond to each point as they are all very different aspects of Shotokan.
A : Is Shotokan karate rigid ?
Unfortunately, many practitioners look that way. Many of them practice or learn the techniques incorrectly. This is mainly because Shotokan karate emphasizes on ‘’kime’’, or tension to make power. Many including the instructors misunderstand this and they end up over emphasizing on the tension part. In order to get power or to increase the speed, they tense which works as brake. In the end, the movements look jerky, rigid and not smooth at all. On the other hand, if you observe the performance, both kata and kumite, of the top level Shotokan instructors and competitiors such as Asai, Yahara, Osaka, Kase, Naka, etc. you will see the smooth and very natural movements in their techniques. So, the rigidness is not from Shotokan but from the poor teaching by the instructors.
B : Is Shotokan outdated ?
This is a strange claim as this style was created by Gichin Funakoshi in the early 20th century, less than 100 years ago. The other styles such as Shorin ryu, Uechi ryu, etc. are older than Shotokan, so this claim must not be from comparison to the other karate styles. I assume this comes from the sport karate competitors. Due to the rules of the competition, karate in both kata and kumite has changed since early 80’s. I was in the first All Japan Karate (WUKO) tournament in 1982 where the competitors from all five traditional styles gathered and competed. I remember how different the competitors from other styles looked. After 30 years of competition by the competitors from the different styles, now they look very similar and cannot identify their styles any more. If they consider the modern day competition karate is in, then it is true that Shotokan (and other styles) are outdated. As far as I am concerned, the real karate is budo karate and sport karate is only a game. If you practice Shotokan karate in a budo way, then I believe it is by far not outdated.
C : Is Shotokan ineffective ?
I have to ask a question to those who claim this. I do not understand what they mean by ‘’ineffective’’. I have to assume that they mean it as a self-defense tool. If this is so, I have to ask them another question. Do they believe sport karate or the other hand to hand martial arts are effective in a street fight ? Can they (the average practitioners) fight effectively when an opponent has a knife or a gun ? Even without a weapon, how about if they face more than one opponents ? I can confidently say that none of the hand to hand combat arts are any better than Shotokan karate. If you wish to learn an art or self-defense tool, I suggest them to buy a gun. You can practice kenjutsu (Japanese sword fencing) and a fighting ability with a real sword may be helpful. On the other hand, you cannot carry a real sword in the street so I am not sure how helpful it can be in a sudden situation out in the street.
What karate can teach you for self-defense is not punches and kicks. It teaches you to be confident and a positive attitude so that the criminals and bullies will not find attractive to attack. It also teaches you to be careful and make wise decision as to where to go and how to go. You will wisely avoid the dark streets and empty parking lots. It also teaches you to be courteous and also keep the calm mind so that you will not pick a fight. Those are the true self-defense teaching.
I also want to add that self-defense in a street fight is only a minor part of total self-defense. The bigger part is defending against yourself. In other words, you need to learn how to stay healthy and to avoid the accidents of all kinds. You tend to have more physical injuries from the sports activities, auto accidents, or just falling down than a street fight. In addition, you make yourself sick by catching a cold or getting ill. By practicing karate (regardless of the styles) properly, you can avoid most of the accidents and illness. Once again I wrote a chapter on this subject in the same book, Chapter 9 : ‘’What is the complete self-defense ? (pages 131-146). If you happen to purchase a copy of this book, you can read all these chapters and more that may be related to your interest.
Tetsuhiko ASAI
The style of karate at ASAI is based on Funakoshi/Nakayama JKA style Shotokan with the advanced techniques developed by Master Tetsuhiko Asai which we call Asai ryu karate.
The world famous Master Asai trained White Crane Kung Fu in Taiwan when he stationed there as a dispatched JKA instructor in the 70’s. After learning the techniques from this style, he combined the long distance fighting method of Shotokan and the short distance fighting method of White Crane Kung Fu. He also trained kobudo (Okinawan weapons) such as sai, nunchaku and 9 chain whip. Asai ryu karate is the advanced version of Shotokan karate.
En 2013 vous créez votre organisation nommé ASAI (Asai Shotokan Association International), pouvez-vous nous en parler ? Quel est son but, les raisons de sa création, ses particularités ?
I am very happy to introduce my organization, ASAI. Here is the general information about the organization which I send to the membership candidates. I think this document will suffice instead of I re-write it.
“ASAI (Asai Shotokan Association International) is a non-profit organization founded by Shihan Kousaku Yokota, 8th dan in 2013. Yokota chose the name of ASAI for the organization as he wished to keep the name of late Master Tetsuhiko Asai (1935 – 2006), one of the greatest Shotokan masters in karate history. This organization is also the first and most successful karate organization that utilizes the internet tool for communication and its promotion.
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ASAI is non-political and we open the door to all karate practitioners of any organization and the karate styles. Its objective is to provide the advanced karate concepts and techniques to those who train budo karate. Though the management of ASAI does not prohibit or reject competitions we consider them as only a small part of karatedo.
The organization is aware that there are numerous number of Shotokan practitioners who do not belong to any international organizations for whatever the reasons. ASAI welcomes them as we offer a “home” to those who wish to train with the world class instructors and to improve their karate skills.
ASAI is also unique that it provides dan recognition to the legitimate diplomas that are issued by JKA and its lineage organizations such as SKIF, ISKF, JSKA, WSKF, JKS, Karatenomichi, etc.
ASAI has a Technical Board, ASAI Shihankai that is consisted of the senior experts in karate. The members are Kousaku Yokota (8th dan), Yuji Kamihara (9th dan Japan), Michael Johnson Ph D (7th dan USA), Sinval Bittencourt (7th dan Brazil), Ali Baher Oskuie (6th dan Iran), John Lovatt (7th dan UK) and Andrew Nightingale (6th dan UK).
ASAI is extremely successful despite its recent establishment because of the credibility and legitimacy of the instructors and management team as well as the high level of karate skills. We have the members in more than 40 countries around the world and we are expanding consistently.”
You are the author of several books, including '' Shotokan Myths '', '' Karatedo Quantum Leap ''.
Do you plan to write more?
Yes, I have published 5 books so far. They are ‘’Shotokan Myths’’, ‘’Shotokan Mysteries’’, ‘’Shotokan Transcendence’’, ‘’Karatedo Paradigm Shift’’ and ‘’Karatedo Quantum Leap’’. They are all available from Amazon Books.
My first one, Shotokan Myths, came out in 2010 and it has been translated to French and also in Portuguese. It will be translated and published in Spanish next year.
I am in the final phase of my sixth book which is slated to come out either towards the end of this year or early next year. I plan to start the Asai ryu kata books very soon, so you can expect that many more books will be published in the future.
What are your projects ?
For the next five to ten years, I have two specific projects.
One is to expand ASAI to the different countries and hold the seminars to introduce Asai karate in many new countries. The other project is to publish books on Asai ryu karate as I have mentioned earlier. I receive many requests for them as the Asai ryu kata such as Junro, Joko, Kakuyoku, etc. are becoming better known and practiced. However, we do not have any textbooks for those kata. JKS has published a book on Junro last year but it is only in Japanese. We need to have the textbooks explaining not only the steps but also of the meanings and the bunkai for them. I also see the short coming of the books with the still photos. I have an idea to create a book that can overcome that short coming. The only problem that is preventing me from doing this is a lack of a professional photographer in my area. A professional guy who understands karate or at least the moving art to take the pictures. This is a must. I am sure we can find one if I was able to hire and spend thousands of dollars. I am not in that financial condition so I am looking for someone who is willing to do it on a volunteer basis. I need to be patient but I am sure I will find one in the future.
Beside those two projects, I may consider a video blog project. Many people have suggested that I can reach out to thousands of people if I have a video blog where I can provide some useful information. If I become successful then that will work as an advertisement for my books and our organization. Conceptually I understand what I need to do but I am still hesitent on this project, simply because I am not good at talking to the camera. I have no problem talking to the real people at the seminars but doing a short clips talking to the camera is different. I need to think about it and decide if I want to jump into it or not. If I ever decide to do this, you will find me at my video blog program on Youtube.
A word for the end? Something to add ?
I want to thank you for providing this opportunity to introduce myself and my organization, ASAI. I hope I will have an opportunity in your country to share Asai ryu karate in action. If anyone or any organizations are interested in having a seminar I will be more than happy to do so. You can reach me at my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/shihan.yokota) or write to me at asai.karate@yahoo.com. I look forward to hearing from any karate enthusiasts. I look forward to meeting you all. Oss
CONNECTIONS:
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Blog: asaikarate.com/category/asai-blog-french/
Site Asai Karate: http://asaikarate.com/
YouTube chanel: https://www.youtube.com/user/KossYokota/videos
