Kinjo Hiroshi: From Karate to Karate. 2011.

02born in Shuri 1919, Kinjo Hiroshi startet training in Todi in 1926.That is 85 years ago if I am not mistaken! EIGHTY-FIFE!!!! I believe… This man is so cool, he even has his own Homepage!

Kinjo Sensei has trained under Hanashiro Chomo, Chinen Sanda, Oshiro Choyo, Tokuda Anbun, Maeshiro Chotoku, Okuzato Shogen… That is, many direct students of Itosu Anko and some of the most important Bojutsu teachers of the era. I wouldn’t raise an eyebrow if he had trained under Chuck Norris, too.

In 1939 he was awarded the instructors diploma by Toyama Kanken of Shudokan fame.

And… in 1948 he was conferred to by Mabuni Kenwa “Itosu’s Ten Maxims” of Karate, handwriting by Itosu Anko himself.

In 1950 he established the Zen Nihon Karate-do Kenshukai (under the name Otomokai), still in existance today. In the Kanbukan Karate Dojo in Tokyo (founded 1945) from early on he expermimented with protectors and largely contributed to the first protector Karate championship in Japan in 1954. With the experience of having studied under a large nummber of Karate and Kobudo experts, he was an energetic author for some 60 years now. 

In 1959, together with influential karate man Konishi Yasuhiro, he became vice president of (the old) All Japan Karate Federation. Taught Karate at Yamanashi University, Ibaraki University, Shibaura technical college, and the Aritomokan.

That all was 50-something years ago. And recently, in 2011, he retired from his post as main instructor of  his Zen Nihon Karate-do Kenshukai.

Meanwhile, he wrote a huge amount of research-based articles and books. And it was Kinjo who found the famous picture identified as Itosu Anko, like 100 years after the latter had left this world.

I also have NO IDEA how he evaded being ranked like 10th Dan by like every Karate federation o this planet. I mean really, it’s arithmetics. For what reason for god’s sake would anybody deserve a 10th Dan when this guy here has “only” a 9th? The only reason might be that he said no.

Today I received Kinjō Hiroshi’s latest masterpiece, “From Karate (Todi) to Karate”. I didn’t work out much of it yet, but here’s the content, probably translated and published for the 1st time ever into English.

Kinjō Hiroshi: Tōde kara Karate made (From Karate to Karate). Nihon Budōkan, Bēsubōru Magajin-sha, Tōkyō 2011. 439 pp. 20cm. ISBN: 9784583104294.

Follow link for the Nihon Budokan Webite.

Cover

Cover

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter I: Resolving questions regarding “Tōdi”

1. Chinese martial arts are the continuous origin of “Tōdī”

What is “Tōdi”

2. Terminology for describing Tōdi

The “terminus technicus ‘Karate’” and its terminology in the Okinawan dialect

3. From what reason was there the framework of fourteen Kata?

The “Tōdī” that was invented for the purpose of school education

problematic issues with Karate as an education

4. The framework of fourteen Kata of “Tōdī”

The fourteen Kata of “Tōdī”

Itosu’s Ten Maxims

Chapter II: Concerning (disputes on) the Chinese martial arts (Chūgoku Kenpō)

1. About the names of the Kata What is Karate, and where should it lead?

The History of Karate

The problem with thinking of the Ryūha

Research on the names (designations) of important Kata

Looking at the perspective and mind-set of Karate-do in articles from about half a century ago

The intention of partly reprinting my theory from my serial publication “North and South”

Associations and reminiscences originated from the characters Pinan (Heian)

2. Chinese martial arts the Shaolin temple

Chinese martial arts with its history of thousands of years

3. Classification and bird’s-eye view of the Chinese martial arts

Southern fist and northern leg

4. Evaluation criteria of the Kata competition (tournament, bout, contest) in China

Chapter III: The History of Ryūkyū-Chinese relations

1. Ryūkyū and China, and then Japan

Beginning of the relationship between Ryūkyū and China

The tributary relationship of China and Ryūkyū

2. From the triangular position of Sanzan to the unity of the kingdom

The Chinese Kaiki becomes minister of the country Ryūkyū

3. China and the 2nd Royal Line of the Shō Family

The 2nd Shō Family, last royal line of the Ryukyu Kingdom

The History of friendly relations between Japan and Ryūkyū

From Chinese martial art to “Tī”

The Satsuma invasion of Ryukyu

4. The transmission of Chinese martial art About the periodization of “Old Ryūkyū”

Concerning “Ryūkyū Kenpō”

The acceptance (reception) of Chinese martial arts (Tōdī)

Looking at Chinese martial arts in the “Ōshima Hikki”

Shed light on “Tōdī” Sakugawa

The Royal Navy’s “The Voyage to the Korea and the Ryūkyū Islands”

Kenpō from a picture drawn in the “Nantō Zatsuwa”

The Relationship between the Sanshin of Ryūkyū and the Sanshin of Amami Ōshima

5. The existence of Tōdī described in the document “Program of various arts together with three six nine”

Chapter IV: Matsumura Sōkon, breathes new life into Tī

1. Matsumura Sōkon, spearhead (standard-bearer) of Suidī

  • Matsumura Sōkon’s Suidī
  • Matsumura Sōkon’s idea of man
  • Matsumura Sōkon’s spirit and technique of Suidī
  • The rare talent Arakaki An’kichi’s “Rotation Ball”

2. The consistency of Suidī built by Matsumura

  • The four Kata discovered by Matsumura
  • The path to “Tori-te” as the origin of the Kata of Tī

3. The reconstruction of “Kata” to/as an effective practical skill

  • The outer form of the four Kata
  • The sixteen techniques (skills) developed (or deployed) in the four Kata

Chapter V: From Suidī to Tōdī

1. The History of Okinawa until the birth of “Tōdī”

  • The approximately forty years from Hanseki Bōkan to the birth of “Tōdī”
  • Particulars on why the abolition of the feudal domains and establishment of prefectures in Ryūkyū was delayed by eight years compared to Japan proper [1871]

2. Okinawa’s national characteristics projected on the history of “Tōdī”

  • What does it mean for the completion of the “Karate”
  • Already in the closing years of the Meiji era the designation of “Karate” was seen

3. The historical context of the creation of “Tōdī”

  • “Tōdī” and the educational system after the abolition of the feudal domains and establishment of prefecture
  • An article on “Karate” was published in the Ryūkyū Shimpō newspaper
  • The episode until the invention of the Pinan Kata

4. Instruction in “Karate” before its adoption into school education

  • The route from “Suidī” to “Tōdī”
  • Search for the order of operations leading through [the process] from “Suidī” (“Shuri-te”) to “Tōdī”
  • How did the technique of “Suidī” become “Tōdī”?

Chapter IV: From “Tōdī” to “Karate”

1. The background of the period of “Itosu’s Ten Maxims” and its points of contact with Itosu Ankō’s ideological background

  • The Honourable tenets
  • “Tōdī’s” course towards confusion while becoming popular
  • The departure of the founder of “Tōdī”, Itosu Ankō, toward his journey

2. “Tōdī” crossing the sea to the mainland

  • Tokuda Antei’s Memorandum
  • Concerning (the disputes of) Funakoshi Gichin’s going to Tōkyō
  • The “Outline of Kenpō”
  • About the “Twenty Articles of Karate”

3. In the range between Educational Tōdī and Budō Tōdī

  • Concerning educational Tōdī
  • The turn towards a compulsory junior high school Budō from the year 2012

4. From Tōdi to Karate, by whose hand was it renamed?

  • The Tōdī Symposium
  • Looking back on the Tōdī Symposium

Epilogue: Karate’s way to go

  • Postscript
  • Bibliography
  • Chronology

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