Konishi Yasuhiro; innovator and cypher. Part 2.

Karate master with the most impressive credentials.

In this part:

·       The kata within the system.

·       Development of new kata.

·       Ueshiba Morihei’s influence.

·       Ueshiba, Konishi and Otsuka together?

·       The ‘Taisabaki’ series.

·       ‘Seiryu’ kata, an invented form.

·       Politics of the times.

·       Identity and style of Shindo Jinen Ryu.

·       Why such a limited footprint in the wider karate world?

Development of new kata.

Both Konishi and Otsuka were keen to tap into additional sources to increase their understanding of the kata they had initially learned from Master Funakoshi. Reading between the lines they were not satisfied that they were getting all the information and so they took the opportunity of trying to fill in the gaps through Motobu and Mabuni.

A famous and often-referenced photo of; Funakoshi (standing left), Mabuni Kenwa (seated centre) and in Western clothes, Konishi (standing 2nd from the right).

For Otsuka, certain kata still held on to their secrets and instead of just dismissing them, over time, he adapted their usage to fit into the formulation of his Wado agenda. But Otsuka never seemed to consider inventing new kata; which to some commentators seemed to be the logical thing (there are those who say the innovations with Otsuka came through all the work he did on devising his paired kata). Otsuka seemed to be critical of adding a huge list of extra kata to his overall curriculum.

Konishi training with Motobu Choki.

A quick Google search suggests that Konishi’s Shindo Jinen Ryu has sixty-three kata listed in its system; sixteen of which are Kobudo (weapons) kata. Match that up with Otsuka, who was actually quite content with his core nine solo kata for the Wado school.

Konishi, was not averse to creating new kata; but it seems that his motivation to do so came from outside of Okinawan karate.

Intervention of Aikido’s founder, Ueshiba Morihei.

The story goes that Konishi had a connection with Ueshiba Morihei (1883 - 1969), a truly divinely inspired martial artist, also somewhat of a shaman and a mystic. In terms of martial arts of the Japanese tradition Ueshiba was almost on another planet.

The general impression we get of Ueshiba is that he was somebody who was ploughing a very lonely and insular furrow, in a very niche area; but this is incorrect. There was a cross-current involving other martial artists, through the sword and other traditions, so it doesn’t seem too far-fetched that there should be some relationship between Ueshiba and Konishi, or even Otsuka, but only up to a point. (a key facilitator might have been Kano Jigoro?)

In all writings about Konishi this relationship with Ueshiba seems unambiguous, and there are even mentions of Otsuka, Konishi and Ueshiba training together ‘almost daily’ says the Ryobukai source (see below). But I am not so sure, and what does that mean anyway?

What does seem rather odd is that the Otsuka camp, in all the retellings of his particular personal story, make no mention of any connections between Otsuka and Ueshiba (I have tried to tease this one out with those involved with the continuing Otsuka connections, but with no luck). Like all traditions, the retelling of the tale always includes some element of ‘curation’, so one has to be careful when trying to get to the bones of the matter, especially with all the time that has elapsed.

A couple of things to set context with Ueshiba:

Historically, the timeline tells us that Ueshiba finally settled in Tokyo from 1927 and stayed there all the way through to the war years. So, possibly, right place, right time?

It has to be remembered that he was ten years older than both Konishi and Otsuka, (he would have been around 45 to 50 years old at the time, and as some would say, in his physical prime; this was before he adopted the long wispy beard look, the elder shaman that he became).

Ueshiba; fierce and formidable martial artist in 1938.

With Konishi, the general story is that he showed Ueshiba the solo kata he had been working on with Okinawan karate, and Ueshiba was not impressed.

In Konishi’s 1976 interview published in Fighting Arts International magazine, he said, “I can remember showing him (Ueshiba) some of the Pinan kata, and he didn’t like them at all. In fact, he advised me to give them up. I asked him to give me a year to come up with something different. After a great deal of thought, I devised kata which I thought had better movement. After give or [take] six months, I showed them to him and he approved”.

In the Dave Lowry article on Konishi in Blackbelt magazine, he says that Ueshiba “encouraged him to create a karate kata that emphasized a formal system of footwork”.

An article on the Fighting Arts website by Omi Akihiro, has this to say about the kata, “The footwork, the body movement, and the applications ("bunkai") in these kata are based on both Karate and Aikido principles”.

Konishi named these kata, ‘Taisabaki’.

Here is the first of the series ‘Tai Sabaki Shodan’:

Tai Sabaki Shodan, is described by one of the current senior instructors of Shindo Jinen Ryu (Ryobukai), as, consisting of “a chain of actions, with no pause after each action”. Which seems to be one of its defining characteristics. To just describe it as such, you might conclude that it flows like a kind of speeded up Tai Chi; but no. Looking at it through my Wado lenses, the pauses seem quite similar in length to the way Wado kata are performed today.

Other sources suggest that the footwork is inspired by Aikido methods. Certainly, if viewed closely, the changes of angle show some interesting possibilities in terms of transition.

As for the name ‘Tai Sabaki’, I can predict that some Wado people can get hung up on this (you can see it in the comments underneath the YouTube video). But they have to be gently reminded that Wado doesn’t OWN the concept of Tai Sabaki; Wado has its particular take on methods of Tai Sabaki as ‘body management’ that are quite sophisticated and well developed. Tai Sabaki can be read at different levels of movement, from basic to advanced, it’s all over the wider spectrum of Japanese martial arts.

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