In this chapter:
· The naming of ‘Wado’.
· The controversy of the ‘original’ registered list of Wado techniques.
· Why did techniques from the list disappear?
· The development of Wado paired kata and what it tells us about master Otsuka’s evolving Wado creation.
· Kumite Gata; the questions around the regenerated paired kata.
Next time:
Kihon Gumite, how they became the canon of Wado.
Ura no Gumite etc.
How Wado karate got its name and the story and meaning behind it is a tale often told. The relevant facts about this origin tale is to establish the background of Otsuka’s autonomy in a particular timeframe.
It was 1938 when a name (of sorts) was crafted; when the Otsuka group needed to describe themselves for a festival event, the Nihon Kobujutsu Ryusosai. At that time the name was, ‘Jinshu Wadoryu Karate-jutsu’.
It was there that Otsuka needed to name an individual as the ‘founder’ of the system. Out of expedience he stated that the founder was Akiyama Shirōbei Yoshitoki, the semi-mythical founder of Yoshin Ryu in the mid-17th century. In a previous article in this series I explained my theories behind Otsuka’s decision.
Along with the name, Otsuka was forced to pull together a list of kata (solo and paired). Many people have found themselves drawn towards this list, for various reasons. Some (like myself) see it as a historical snapshot, others as a kind of holy grail, I think they are looking for an ‘original Wado’ but the need to pin it down to a particular moment in time completely misses the point. Incidentally, I believe that this same mode of revisionist thinking is still happening, but has moved to a more modern era.
The list.
Why this is important.
If this short study is to maintain its focus of Otsuka’s development as a martial artist, then it is worth looking at this snapshot.
On various modern martial arts forums on the internet people have been scurrying around trying to look for the ‘original’ Otsuka techniques within the list that Otsuka submitted. Let me start by saying that there were a few versions of the ‘list’ and there have even been efforts to find the ‘original’ list (there is a belief that it was a handwritten document, as you would expect for the time).
Then there have been attempts to resurrect techniques and kata within Wado that don’t exist today (the solo kata Suparinpei is a prime example). These Doctor Frankenstein efforts have met with an appropriate mixed reception (my feelings – beyond the thought that it’s interesting - really, why bother? And what does it even contribute to your Wado?).
I have had several conversations over the years about this list; but the main ones tend to be ‘what happened to many of the techniques listed that are no longer practiced in any Wado Dojo?’ With an implication that Wado is somehow missing something by not including them.
To set the scene; I have a number of theories on the nature of this list and implications of the techniques that seemed to have been edited out. I might be wide of the mark, but I will put all the theories forward; even the ones that I don’t necessarily support.
Padding.
I have a suspicion that if you look at comparable lists of submitted and registered techniques from other schools at the time, there is a possibility that they all follow a similar layout and composition in terms of content. Meaning that there was a certain expectation, a benchmark of quality that had to be complied with. To me, there is a distinct possibility that some of the extra added stuff on Otsuka’s list was not exactly ‘core’ but it had to be designed in a particular way to add bulk to the document. This doesn’t mean that they weren’t practiced, just that they weren’t given priority.
The audience.
This seems to have been a big deal at the time, and it had been said regarding things like the sword defences, that Otsuka designed stuff with a particular audience in mind. The list clearly played up the very ‘Japanese’ aspects of its content, and played down all but the very necessary Okinawan influence (but interestingly kept the older Okinawan names for the solo kata while Funakoshi updated them to give them clearly Japanese-style names).
Let me look at some of the specific named techniques.
Simplified sample list: Ude Otoshi, Sei Otoshi, Eri Otoshi, Sode Otoshi, Ashi Guruma, Koshi Guruma, Kata Guruma, Hiki Otoshi (Tekubi Hineri), Karisute, Kinukugori (still included as part of Tanto Dori).
Some of the paired kata are clearly variations of judo standards. My feelings are that these techniques were ubiquitous and common to so many schools of judo that even schoolchildren would know them. So why have they become so talismanic to westerners? My answer to that question… one word… exoticism.
In the west, give it a Japanese name and it becomes somehow magic. Add to that the possibility that these very same techniques don’t feature in the same way in western wrestling, and the gilt edge continues to shine. (As an aside; look how techniques in BJJ are developing their own nomenclature).
Try this experiment… think of working with basic English translations of some of the kata names on the list:
· Koshi Garuma = Hip wheel throw.
· Kata Garuma = Shoulder wheel throw.
· Ude Otoshi = Arm drop.
With English names they are not so special. The techniques themselves are not rocket science, but various schools have added nuances to them to fit in with their stylist principles. You could add complications if you so wished.
Currently nobody has found any pictures of Otsuka Sensei ever teaching these techniques in any Wado class. Clearly, if you wanted to, you could graft these techniques on to the end of Wado paired kata.
Here are a couple of examples of contemporary Japanese Wado teachers doing just that.
· Suzuki Tatsuo Sensei’s own take on the knife defences (Tanto Dori) the ones that are not included in the Otsuka (filmed) canon. One, in particular, has a takedown at the end that is clearly mentioned as a ‘technique from judo’.
· Otsuka Hironori II would sometimes teach the standard Kihon Gumite and add extension throws onto the end; quite often Kote Nage variants. But these were not intended to replace the standard Kihon Gumite, almost as if they were not that important, just something you could do. The only contradiction that I can think of where he explained a single comprehensive sequential paired kata, that I had never seen previously, or since, which was a set-up to a single quite spectacular throw, to which he explained, “Study this technique (kata) it contains everything you need”.
Some western Wado instructors have fancifully added judo throwing techniques to the paired kata, that’s their choice, but I have to wonder, what do they think paired kata are for, how are they meant to work?
What they are not are choreographed fight scenarios. If you want to learn Koshi Garuma or Seoinage then just practice Koshi Garuma or Seoinage, no need to add it at the end of a string of techniques, unless there is something about the string that is meant to set up the throw. But really; why such an elaborate series of hits prior to the throw? But, that’s not kata thinking, it’s choreographic thinking. And some of the hits actually work against the set-up of the throw!
Another potential reason the techniques have not survived – transcendence.
This is yet another possibility; one of a few options worthy of consideration. It is on the furthest edge of all possible logical answers.
I will cite a couple of examples from Japanese Budo for my audience to chew on.
Ueshiba Morihei and Aikido.
Anyone who knows anything about the early history of Aikido founder Ueshiba Morihei’s development as a martial artist will know that he started out as a classical jujutsu/judo guy, and as such learned the standard repertoire of all of the grappling schools (including the kata Koshi Garuma and Seoinage), but he didn’t perform or teach these techniques, even though they must have been hard-wired into his system, but he didn’t need them. (This is ‘transcendence’).
Instead, he absorbed a certain dynamic that contained the leverage and positions of these techniques without the kata needing to be utilised in literal form. In reality, the technique happened in free-flow, in an almost anticipatory manner; it became a line of movement, a set of vectors that acted as a continuum that, if you wanted to, you could superimpose Koshi Garuma or Seoinage on top of. But, that exercise in itself would be pointless, a mere academic exercise, as the opponent would be ‘done for’ as a matter of course.
Of course, you could add to that Ueshiba’s manipulation of Aiki and everything associated with it; but I want to keep this theory grounded in pure technique.
Kato Ukei of Kito Ryu Jujutsu, also seemed to have transcended technique. His refined ability verging on the supernatural. Also, Takeda Sokaku of Daito Ryu appears to have gone beyond mere technique.
These examples line up uneasily with what we know of Otsuka Sensei’s intentions; particularly if we consider that ‘transcendence’ only applies to the most refined masters and not to the teaching curriculum developed to allow students to scale the hierarchy of martial arts competence.
But, there might be something in it if master Otsuka developed a ‘vision’ for his student’s progress outside of his own personal degree of mastery.
Further theories…