Chapter 17. Karate, an alternative story.

1989, the year that EVERYTHING happened.

The political traumas.

·       Wandering into a political minefield.

·       The formation of the Wado Academy.

·       World Wado Cup.

·       Otsuka Hironori II Sensei shakes things up on a Bristol weekend.

·       Bristol, the aftermath.

·       Otsuka Sensei’s definition of ‘Wado’.

·       The continued fallout.

I was never intending to write about this as my take on it is bound to be incomplete. I wasn’t a player in the political karate ballpark, more of an innocent bystander who was just picking up the bits of information that circulated around at the time and via many phone conversations (naturally, pre-email, pre-WhatsApp).

Let me say at this point that I am pretty sure that Shotokan or Goju Ryu people have similar tales to tell, but that is for them to say. But there does seem to be a bit of a pattern.

Also, I am aware that Wado branches in the rest of Europe may have not been affected to the same degree, but I am sure they were affected nevertheless, and might well be wondering ‘just what did happen’?

Strangely, I hardly hear anyone talking about what went on in those years; it has slipped by as just another historical glitch. But the implications have rippled forward in time, although it may be just a footnote in the backwaters of traditional Japanese martial arts as they currently exist in the western European tradition. So, I have to base what I am writing on recall, but also, luckily, at the time, I did write down in quite a lot of the detail what I heard and what I experienced. These scribblings are based on both of those sources.

1989.

This was 1989 in the UK and I am pretty sure there were rumblings of discontent a few years earlier.

But 1989 definitely kicked it off.

In January ‘89 I attended a weekend training course with Suzuki Sensei in Slough, and, unusual for him, he sat us down and lectured us about his recent project.

Normally, on a Suzuki course it was sweat, repeat, sweat and more of the same. He said he’d been in Japan and made a video of his techniques (this must have been the ‘Essence of Wado-Ryu’ film, released in 1990). But, on this day, to his captive audience, he wanted to hammer home a particular point; he said, “I showed my technique to Old Boys who had trained with Otsuka Sensei way back, and they said “Yes, this is how Otsuka Sensei taught us”.”

I think I was puzzled by this interjection, what exactly was he getting at? Of course, his technique was a reflection of his teacher; why would it be anything else? Maybe he was just plugging sales of his new video? But, no, there was more going on here. Something that the rank-and-file members had only the vaguest of understandings about.

To give a little background.

Otsuka Hironori, the founder of Wado Ryu and Suzuki Sensei’s original teacher had died back in January 1982. It hadn’t caused the ructions back in Japan that you thought it might have done, because in the previous year the political turmoil had already happened.

There had been a major split in Japan between the old grandmaster and some of his senior students resulting in a parting of the ways. (Otsuka Sensei lost the right to use the name of his own organisation, the Wado Kai, and a new group had to be formed; it was called variously, the ‘Wado Ryu Karate-Do Renmei’ and later officially re-registered (tantalisingly) by its formal title of ‘Wado Ryu Jujutsu Kempo’, although, for convenience, now people just refer to it as ‘The Renmei’.

As I understood it, Suzuki Sensei had remained aloof and tied his allegiance clearly to the memory of the departed master. Besides, he was living half a world away.

As I had heard it, he felt some obligations towards the deceased master’s wishes and may well have visited him in his final days; but my understanding was that Otsuka Sensei’s health had declined to such a degree that how much of a meaningful conversation was able to take place is anyone’s guess.

The UK and the rest of Europe never really suffered any significant back-lash from the earlier political break and the demise of the old grandmaster. We all had Wado Kai Dan grade certificates through Suzuki Sensei right up until the Japanese split in 1981, my Nidan certificate (1980) was endorsed by the Wado Kai, while my Sandan certificate (1986) had the Renmei’s header at the top. So, to us, it seemed that business continued as normal.

1989, the year that EVERYTHING happened.

Then, in 1989, or there abouts, out of the blue it seemed a new ‘non-political’ almost independent Wado organisation was announced. (To me, it is unclear as to how this news was released, there were odd things happening the year before – see picture below).

But was this ‘Inside of’? ‘Separate from’? or ‘In addition to’? Suzuki’s UKKW?

This was not really made clear, at least among the circles I turned in.

It was called the ‘Wado Ryu Karate-Do Academy’ and it seemed to be the initiative of Shiomitsu Sensei. We couldn’t figure it out, but initially, one of its driving factors was to facilitate the involvement of Otsuka Jiro Sensei, which inevitably indicated a closer tie to the Renmei in Japan. Optimistically, many of us saw this as a bonus to our training.

In the UK, a new badge started to appear; the Wado dove with the ‘Wa’ kanji in the middle. In the UK Shiomitsu Sensei registered it as an official trademark and maintains a legal copyright on the design. (The Wado ‘fist and dove’, as far as I know, has no copyright on it, hence it is used by everyone).

Take note of this photo from the 1988 UKKW summer course, look who is wearing the new design Wado badge.

Otsuka Jiro Sensei.

The only time I had seen the younger Otsuka before was in that fateful 1975 demonstration with his father, at Crystal Palace; where a casual slip of position left the older Sensei’s hand in the path of the descending blade of the sword.

But Otsuka senior had been dead seven years and his son was left to carry on the legacy; hereditary inheritance being a long-established Japanese martial arts tradition. Otsuka Sensei not only took his father’s position he also took over his name and became Otsuka Hironori II. (1934 - 2015).

The World Wado Cup – London.

At the end of August 1989 everyone who was anybody in the Wado universe seemed to be at Crystal Palace London for a two-day international event (teams from 36 countries competed). In the same room were the UKKW luminaries headed by Suzuki Sensei, all of our resident Japanese Sensei and Otsuka Hironori II Sensei and his son and heir to the next generation, Otsuka Kazutaka Sensei, assisting his father in demonstrations, which happened on the Sunday.

Whether this weekend was to be the catalyst for the following ructions I have no idea, but in some ways, it must have contributed to an already simmering situation.

I wonder now why I did not see the writing on the wall.

It was how I would imagine dealing with feuding parents intent on divorce. Looked at from the child’s perspective, with a vague understanding that the road might have been rocky earlier on, but then (hopefully) things will eventually settle down and everything returns to being rosy in the garden. Or at least you pray that this is the case.

The UKKW had had its fall-outs and hissy-fits before. Strong personalities have a tendency to rub each other up the wrong way.

Various characters had thrown their toys out of the pram from the early 1970’s onwards and had flounced off into the sunset never to be seen again. I remember people being blackballed by the top of the hierarchy; temporarily exiled. Someone once accused Suzuki Sensei of having a ‘Shōgun mentality’ and treating everyone as if they were part of his fiefdom; a clever analogy, I wish I’d thought of it.

But I suspect things were more complicated than that. If you are dealing with cultural and social differences things can get incredibly nuanced, and it has to be looked at in its own timeframe. I have mentioned earlier about the deferential instincts of the westerners towards the Japanese Sensei, I have no doubt that played a part and contributed to the communication issues that created gulfs rather than built bridges.

The first Bristol weekend with Otsuka Sensei.

Following closely on the heels of the championship; in September 1989 a big course was organised in Bristol headed by Otsuka Jiro Sensei and facilitated by the new body, the Academy.

This was at the Kingsdown Sports Centre. I had managed to get a good price on a hotel in the Clifton area and was determined to make a weekend of it. It ended up more significant and eventful than I initially thought it might be.

What Suzuki Sensei thought about all of this, I have no idea. Clearly, he had nothing to do with the event and, at that point, remained totally silent. (He was to speak up about it afterwards).

The two-day training was eventful. This was my first opportunity to train under the legacy authority of the Otsuka family. I wasn’t sure what to expect.

As I remember it, it was a watershed moment for me, but for the whole body of eager students who attended it was clearly also a polarising experience.

But my intention is to recount it from a personal viewpoint, with the idea of attempting to justify my opinions, as best I can. (Objectivity meets subjectivity).

Something very odd happened to all who attended; there was a kind of reality slip. It was as if we were all experiencing the same event but through an ocular distortion, like a Fresnel lens that enhances and warps at the same time. But the lens wasn’t with Otsuka Sensei, metaphorically we’d carried our own lenses in with us.

To put it in a nutshell, some people really GOT what Otsuka Sensei was doing, and others didn’t.