WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG No 8 DECEMBER 2006House of the Pure Martial Arts

Fred Lohse is a practitioner of the Okinawan martial arts and chief instructor of the Kodokandojo in Boston which is dedicated to training of Goju-ryu karate do and Matayoshi kobudo. A

path in the martial arts that began with curiosity and evolved into discipline, overcomingobstacles and gaining insight. An introduction to a martial artist who embraces both armed and

unarmed diciplines.- By Lex Opdam -

Interview with Fred Lohse

Mr. Lohse, although we have met andtrained with each other in the past in theUSA and the Netherlands, would you beso kind as to introduce yourself to ourreaders?Yes, I would be happy to. I was born inMassachusetts, and much to my surpriselive there now. I have worked as a teacherand school administrator, and now workas a contractor in the Boston area. I startedtraining Goju-ryu karate and Matayoshikobudo in 1986, under Kimo Wall, while astudent at the University of Massachusetts.

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Matayoshi Shinpo. While living in Japan Ialso had the opportunity to practice JigenRyu Heiho in the dojo in Kagoshima, andUfuchiku kobudo under Masada Kei’ichi.I then spent some time traveling, andreturned to the states to do graduate workat Harvard University in Japanese Studiesand International Education. Since then, Ihave been training with Kodokan Boston,and on occasion with Gakiya Yoshiaki. Werun a small dojo here in Boston, practicingGoju-ryu and Matayoshi kobudo, and Iconsider myself lucky to have some greattraining partners and to have had suchfantastic and generous teachers.

Sensei Kimo Wall formed his own orga-nization in 1970 and called it Kodokan or‘School of the Old Way’ to honor his tea-cher Matayoshi. In the years that followed,he founded several schools in and outsidethe United States and began teaching in1981 for the Physical Education Depart-ment of the University of Massachusettsat Amherst.You entered Sensei Kimo Wall’s Kodokanin 1986 while you were a student. Did youever encounter the martial arts before thistime and what was your attraction to themartial arts?I had no martial arts training before that,except that in high school I used to “spar”with a friend who did Uechi-ryu. Weplayed around, but there was no methodto it. I knew nothing else about martial

arts except from movies and books. Pro-bably due to popular images, I was inte-rested in trying it out, but I’m not sure Iwould still be practicing if I did not happenonto a good teacher.From the first day in the dojo I knew Iwas hooked. The practice was so differentthan the images in the movies, and somuch more interesting.

I can imagine that your growing interestespecially in this early stage of your realexposure towards martial arts whenentering Sensei Kimo Wall’s dojo wouldchange to a different kind of catalyst forfurther and deeper study and practice.What did it mean to you when you startedwith the martial arts and what does it meanto you nowadays? Could you express inwhat way martial arts affected your life?When I started, it was just for curiosity,and to have a way to work out. It soon

“life is for living, not just thinking aboutthe possible future”

Kimo Wall.

After college, I moved to Japan and tooka job working for the Ministry of Edu-cation. I lived there for a little over twoyears, and practiced Higa lineage Goju-ryu and Matayoshi kobudo under Sakai

Ryugo (a student of sensei Higa and senseiMatayoshi in the 50s and early 60s), aswell as made periodic visits to theKodokan honbu dojo to train with

Ryugo Sakai and partner, Toguchi dojo, late 1950s.

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became an important part of my schedule,but I doubt I could have said why, exceptthat it was fun. Difficult, painful, and ex-hausting, but fun. Nowadays it is still hardto explain, and the main reason is that it isstill fun. I enjoy going to the dojo, and enjoythe practice. It has taken a very large placein my life, and I feel like there is still so

Could you describe the way you wereinstructed by Sensei Kimo Wall in the firstfew years while being a student at theUniversity of Massachusetts? Were thereseparate lessons in Goju-ryu and Mata-yoshi kobudo and what focus did the les-sons have concerning kata and kumite?The training I started with would befamiliar to most Okinawan Goju-ryustudents. We trained 5 days a week, andsometimes informally on weekends. SenseiKimo ran every training session, assistedby a few seniors who had more expe-rience than us college students. In the lastyear I was there, classes were run by hissenior student, Sensei Giles Hopkins. Wedid warm-ups, calisthenics, lots of basicsand paired basics, lots of basic kata, and alot of work with paired sets Sensei Kimodesigned for Geki sai and a couple of the

Also, like the Higa dojo on Okinawa, wedid essentially no jiyu kumite, and we neverdid any sport application. In fact, my firstexposure to sport karate was in Japan- Ihad never really seen it before, and wasvery disappointed.The kobudo was less formal. Not every-one was interested, and training was eitherdone during regular classes, after class,on weekends, or on our own. Again, thefocus was on kata and paired sets, muchlike the karate.

You have lived in Japan for two years andtrained in different dojo’s while being there.Were there big differences in instruction ona social/cultural level when comparing themartial arts training you were exposed toin the USA and Japan?This is a huge question. The short answerwas that in the dojo, there were few dif-ferences. Sensei Kimo taught in a tradi-tional manner, and his instruction was verysimilar to what I had in Japan. There weresome differences, of course. Since I wastraining with adults in Japan (many with20 or more years experience), not collegestudents, and since Sensei Sakai did notuse Sensei Toguchi’s kata, we focused al-most entirely on supplementary training,body conditioning, basics, sanchin, classicalkata, and application of the classical kata.Like many dojo in Okinawa, there was

process has introducedme to people I wouldotherwise not have met,taken me places I wouldnever have gone, andhelped me learn thingsabout myself, others,and our world that havehelped me grow as aperson. In general, ithas made my life moreinteresting, and fulfil-ling place. Besides, it’sfun.

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“One didn't practice to "stay in shape,"but stayed in shape to practice.”

Fred Lohse, David Nauss, Kimo Wall, Liu Chang'i, Mike Piscitello,Watertown 1996.

Fred Lohse, tonfa, Amami Oshima, NHKtelevision demo, 1990.

Fred Lohse, kama, Kagoshima 1991.

much in it for me to learn. When I started,I needed the discipline (though I doubt Iwould have said that then!) and thediscipline still adds a great deal to my life,as does the desire to be continually lear-ning and growing. The process of pushingmyself to learn, of overcoming obstacleslike injuries, time constraints, and so onhas taught me a great deal about whatone can do if the desire is there. The Japa-nese terms seishin tanren and keiko sortof sum this up. They are difficult to ex-plain, but in general refer to the ideal thatthe sometimes difficult or painful daily pushto engage is more important than reachingany far-off goal. This reminder that life isfor living, not just thinking about the possiblefuture, is a good one.On a more straightforward level, I havealso made many great friends and donesome very interesting things because ofthe practice, and I feel in general that trai-ning has made me a more connected andaware person. Because I have focused somuch time over the years on training, andresearching what we do, it would be easyto say I was too focused on one thing, and Ihave certainly sacrificed other things todo it. Nevertheless, I have found that this

kata Sensei Seikichi Toguchi created- Gekiha dai ni and Kaku ha dai ichi. From thereit was work on the classical kata and somework with applications of them. It was auniversity dojo, and so most of the dojomembers had 4 years or less of training.Therefore there was less emphasis on classi-cal applications and more on basic kataand application, basic skills like punching,blocking and throwing, and so on. Theconnection between kata and applicationwas made very clear, from the first day.

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in rank, juniors don’tusually question theirseniors.This is normal in manywork and social envi-ronments, where thesenpai-kohai conceptis very clearly under-stood. This means thatstudents will work onwhat they are taughtinstead of constantlylooking to what is next.

standing of and ability with the content,though this methodology is more similarto an old-fashioned apprenticeship thanmost modern pedagogical theories.

‘One didn’t practice to “stay in shape,”but stayed in shape to practice.’ Thisconcept is very unfamiliar in most Westernmartial arts dojo’s. What is your ownopinion on this matter and what expec-tations do you have when teaching martialarts to others in connection to this con-cept?Yes, it is a different concept. The idea isthat karate is martial arts, not a health club.The training is very physically demanding,but in practice one does pretty much onlykarate or kobudo. This can, at different times,be more or less aerobic, emphasize strengthmore or less, and so on. It certainly helps

keep one in shape, but three sessions aweek is not enough to keep one in reallygood shape. A student is expected tomaintain physical form. For strengthtraining, aerobic training, flexibility training,and so on, the student is expected to seehis or her weaknesses and improve onthem in their own time. The dojo is thereto practice the art, and the student has tobe physically prepared for this. If they arenot, they can participate, but they will belimited in how well they can learn, howthey progress, and what they can do in

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“students will work on what they aretaught instead of constantly looking towhat is next.”

Fred Lohse and Masada Keiichi, Kama Uchionbo kumi waza, Kagoshima 1992.

also very little emphasis on calisthenicsduring class training- we were expectedto keep fit and use supplementary equip-ment outside class time. One didn’t prac-tice to “stay in shape,” but stayed in shapeto practice.Of course training was very challengingphysically, but through karate technique,not simple exercises. The instruction wasvery detailed, and I also noticed that as mylanguage skills improved, my ability toreceive instruction did as well.One thing I did notice is that, perhaps againbecause it was an adult dojo, there waslittle military-style discipline, like I haveseen in many American dojo. We wouldeach start when we got to the dojo, andthere would only be a short group warmup when Sensei formally bowed in andstarted class. Then Sensei Sakai wouldhave different people work on differentthings, instead of training us as one group.Sensei Matayoshi often taught the sameway. You would spend a good deal of timeworking alone, with one partner, or just acouple of people. Instruction was verydetailed, and very personal. There wasalso less attention to class time. Trainingstarted when the first student arrived,sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 PM, andfinished with senior kata, application, or alecture, sometimes as late as 11 PM. I feelthat, in general, in Japan the discipline isexpected to come from the students, soinstead of pushing students who are goingsoft, the teacher will let them do as theywill and focus on the students who aretrying hard. Interestingly enough, you mightsay it is more individualistic.There was also less questioning. In Japanthe concept of respect is very clear. The stu-dents might ask questions if given theopportunity, but even when people are close

It also means that one does not askquestions unless given the opportunity,though Sensei Sakai was somewhat un-usual in that he would occasionally encou-rage questions, usually after a long trainingsession.While there are other differences, mostlydue to differences in culture, the final thingthat struck me was the reason most peoplehad for training. While our training wasvery hard, sometimes painful, and focusedon application, I never met anyone inOkinawa or Japan who said they had star-ted training for self-defense purposes. Themartial arts are one element of a largerset of social constructs in Japan. These“ways,” like chado or shodo, are pursuedfor discipline, self-development, andconnection to traditional values, as muchor more than for their content. This atti-tude was central to practice, in that acertain significance was attached to ritualand form of practice. Personally, I believethat these forms often lead to better under-

Mr. Higo, unknown, Matayoshi Shinpo, Fred Lohse, Okinawa 1990.

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the dojo. This is pretty much how we trainhere. Training is demanding, and someactivity outside the dojo is pretty much es-sential to improving, so that each trainingsession does not just break you down. Itry to keep in shape outside class, and in agood week will train or work out 2-3 times

and want to see other people enjoy whatyou do- you need to teach others to havepeople to train with, and to maintain yourart. I wound up teaching classes on occa-sion in my dojo in Japan, when none ofthe senior teachers were present, and Ihave been asked to do an occasional se-

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requires additional insurance and liabilitycoverage, and we have decided not to payfor that, and not to assume those liabilities.

You mentioned the sempai-kohai relation-ship. What do you expect from the studentsin the Boston Kodokan dojo where youinstruct and what kind of obligations in aspiritual sense do you have/feel towardsyour students and/or fellow martial artistsas human beings and as part of society?Well, another big question. As for what Iexpect of the students, that’s simple. Iexpect them to respect and listen to theirseniors and treat their juniors well. I alsoexpect them to train hard, and take chargeof their own progress. As for my obliga-tions, that is more difficult to say. I feel Ihave a responsibility to understand what Iam teaching as best I can before teachingit, to be honest with my students and trai-ning partners, and to push myself to keepimproving. I also believe it is necessary toteach responsibly. This means not to doanything that will damage a student, to treateach student as a person not just a face inthe dojo, and to have a plan for impartingwhat we do, not to be random with thestudents. We don’t live in Japan, so someof the social structures around the sempai/kohai relationship would be dysfunctionalhere. However, one element in that idealthat does carry easily is that the teacherhas much more responsibility than the stu-dent: the student just has to show up, dowhat he or she is told, and work on theirown to try to understand it. The teacherhas to keep improving him or her self, guidethe student responsibly through the material,

“The idea is that karate is martial arts,not a health club.”

Tsuken Akachu no eku di, Kagoshima 1991.

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David Nauss, Rich Cassidy, Cambridge 2001.

besides our classes. At other times, withvarious demands from work and family, Iwon’t do anything outside of class, if I evenmake all our classes. I have the same ex-pectations for myself that I have for thestudents, and feel a need (for many reasons)to try to keep my general physical levelup. I certainly feel I need to be in bettershape!

Could you tell us something about thesmall Kodokan dojo in Boston that yourun together with some other students ofSensei Kimo Wall and tell us your moti-vation to start teaching martial arts?The dojo was started by a few friends fromcollege, who wanted a place to train. Theystarted it while I was living in Japan, and Ijoined when I moved back to the area. Iwound up doing some of the karate andmost of the kobudo teaching over time.

There was no real motivation for this otherthan wanting to have a place to train, andto share. As my friends and I kept training,we wound up teaching new students. Ithink it just happens if you keep training

minar by people who are interested in whatwe do. Over time, I have found I enjoy theprocess of opening our art to someone whois interested, and motivated.I’m not interested, however, in teachingprofessionally. I think it makes keeping anopen mind about your training and kee-ping your focus on your training, not howto keep the bills paid, difficult. Besides, Idon’t really want my avocation to also bemy vocation. Now, we run classes 3 timesa week, for 2 hours, and the dojo is run asa non-profit: no one gets paid anything toteach (actually, the teachers pay dues aswell) and is open to adults who are inte-rested. We don’t have children’s classes.

Is there a reason for not having children’sclasses?Yes, actually a couple. First, children’s classesrequire a special skill set and require thatsomewhat different material be taught. Thegoals of the class are different. Since noneof us have taught children, we don’t reallyhave the skills involved. At the same time,children’s classes require time, and a greatdeal of effort. We all have full time jobs,and rent training space by the hour. There-fore, we prefer to train with adults, andbe able to train and push ourselves physi-cally. Finally, in the US teaching children

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have a plan, and in general keep eachstudent’s best interests in mind.On a different level, I don’t think that themartial arts impart any special respon-sibilities outside the dojo except perhapsan extra need to control one’s temper, andnot to be violent. Well, perhaps also a res-ponsibility to preserve and keep alive thearts we practice. But while it may not createa set of new obligations, martial arts trai-ning does not take away any of the obli-gations one has as a member of society.Being honest, honorable, and responsiblefor your actions, among other things, arepart of what any human being should do,and any disciplined practice should rein-force those ideals, not pretend to put some-one above them.

Sensei Kimo Wall (William James) startedhis Goju-ryu karate in 1949 in Hawaiiwhen he was six years old and continuedhis study of Goju-ryu on Okinawa in 1962.Did he ever mention to you who his firstGoju-ryu teacher was and in what wayhe was taught until he moved to Okinawain the service of the Marine Corps?He studied under Walter Higa and his sonSam Higa, who ran a store and the dojo inhis town. On Oahu there was also MitsugiKobayashi. He said that the classes wereidentical to those in Okinawa- junbi andhojo undo, kihon, kata, and kumite. In theHiga lineage there is no jiyu kumite, andthat was also the same. That dojo is nolonger open, I believe.

As I recall Mitsugi Kobayashi trained un-der Yukiso Yamoto (a Judo and Aikidoteacher) and while he was on Okinawain the 1950’s also studied Goju-ryu underSeiko Higa, one of the most senior stu-dents of Chojun Miyagi. What connectiondid both Walter Higa and his son Samhave? Were they connected to SeikoHiga?

Fred Lohse, Cambridge 2002.

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“The teacher has to keep improving himor her self, guide the student responsiblythrough the material, have a plan, and ingeneral keep each student's best interestsin mind.”

Kimo Wall, Chuck Brotman, bo versus sai.

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David Nauss, Fred Lohse, Cambridge 2002.

Walter Higa (no relation to Higa Seiko-the name is common in Okinawa), the fa-ther, was a contemporary of Higa Seikounder Miyagi Sensei. He immigrated toHawaii around 1930 with his family, ascontract worker in the sugar cane and pine-apple industry. Sam Higa learned from hisfather.

On Okinawa Sensei Kimo Wall startedstudying under the well known mastersSeiko Higa and Seiko Kina and later onafter the death of Master Seiko Higa in1966, he would receive instruction fromMaster Seiko Higa’s son Seikichi. In thedojo of Master Seiko Higa not only Goju-ryu was taught, but also kobudo by thefamous Master Matayoshi Shinpo. It wasin this dojo that Sensei Kimo Wall re-ceived his main Goju-ryu and kobudopractice. Could you tell us something ofthe experiences and practices of SenseiKimo Wall on Okinawa in the 60’s?I can relate some of what I know. Trainingunder Sensei Higa was done much as itwas years later. There were two classes-the regular class that ended at around 9PM and a seniors class that started then.Kata, application, kihon, etc. were the bulk

of training, with more application andadvanced concepts in the seniors class. Per-haps the biggest difference was that thedojo was open every day, and training ranfrom early evening till late in the night.Training under Sensei Matayoshi wasdifferent in those days. Sensei Matayoshihad recently returned to Okinawa, andwas reconnecting with many former trai-ning partners and students of his father.Sensei Kimo used to drive him around theisland (since he had a car) to meet people.He had not yet started his dojo, or finalizeda formal syllabus. Training was sometimesin the dojo of Sensei Higa (though TairaShinken also taught there) where SenseiMatayoshi was living, sometime outside

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“one thing I think is often difficult forJapanese or Okinawan instructors is thatit is sometimes very hard to communicatewith their Western students.”

Fred Lohse, David Nauss, bo versus sai, Cambridge 2003.

Kenichi Yamashiro, Shinpo Matayoshi, Fred Lohse, Kodokan dojo, Okinawa 1995.

the dojo, and sometime outside in otherplaces. Sensei Kimo would often train du-ring the day, when he was not at work onbase, and so often trained one on one. Sen-sei Matayoshi would at times focus on oneweapon for a month or more at a time,training every day. I also know that inkumi-waza Sensei Matayoshi would covermany techniques that are not in the kata.

What do you exactly mean with techniquesthat are not in the kata?I mean that there are many techniqueswith each weapon that are not in the kata-counters, throws, etc.. Particularly for theless common weapons like the tinbe orsansetsukon, the kata form a base, butwould have to be much, much longer to

He did teach Sensei Higa’s students, butI don’t know for how long, or exactly how.I don’t really know how the two teachersinteracted, except that Sensei Matayoshiwas living in the dojo when he came backfrom Japan, and Sensei Taira had beenteaching there before that. They wereboth friends of Sensei Higa. I believe thatin those days there was much more sharingbetween different teachers than now, butI was not there and so cannot really say.

What kind of relationship did Sensei Kimohave with masters Matayoshi and Higa?Although he was a foreigner, he seemed

to already have access to the inner circlesof Okinawan karate society in the 1960’s.I can relate some of what Sensei Kimohas shared with me. He came to Okinawawith a number of years of Goju-ryu trainingand a written recommendation to SenseiHiga, as well as experience in the Oki-nawan culture from his home dojo andthe town in which he lived in Hawaii. Thisgave him a number of advantages thatnot every serviceman training in Okinawain those days had. He was very active inthe dojo, helped with things like rebuildingit after a typhoon and such, and with hiswork schedule was able to spend a lot oftime in the dojo and with Sensei Mata-yoshi. He became close to both the Higaand Matayoshi families, and I know thesepersonal relationships were, and are, veryimportant to him. Other than that, I can’treally say much about his personal rela-tionships.

I can imagine, since you are a practicingMatayoshi kobudo artist, that it was anhonor and pleasure to train under Grand-master Matayoshi himself?It certainly was. Sensei Matayoshi andhis students were very generous to me,and the dojo in those days, with so manyseniors concentrated in one place, was anamazing place to visit as a student. Iconsider myself lucky to have been ableto train under Sensei Matayoshi, and thesenior members of the dojo when I visitedthere. Lest I be mis-interpreted, I have

contain all the information. Also, someweapons like the kyushaku bo or tekkodid not have kata.

You mentioned that kobudo master TairaShinken also taught in the dojo of masterHiga. Did he teach especially to the karatestudents of master Higa and in what waydid he interact with master Matayoshi’skobudo instruction and visa versa sinceboth were teaching at the same dojo butalso both taught differently?

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“A dojo must be welcoming, the peoplekind, and the expectations of the studentshigh.”

Sansetsukon kata, The Netherlands 1997.

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instance.In any case, Sensei Matayoshi was afantastic teacher, with an amazing depthand breadth of knowledge about theOkinawan martial arts. He was verygenerous with what he taught, and wasalways willing to take time to explainsomething, and to take questions from asometimes impertinent gaijin. He seemedto encourage similar behavior in hisseniors, and I was treated very well inthose days by Sensei Gakiya, SenseiYamashiro, Sensei Itokazu, SenseiKomura, and Sensei Nagai in particular.He was also a very nice guy. Very funny,very quick, and a gentleman. Again, Ididn’t know him that well, but well enoughto wish I had had more time to spend inOkinawa in those days.

In the article ‘Karate and Kobudo’ youhave written for this edition of theMeibukan Magazine, you clearly show theconnection between karate and kobudo.What would you personally advise peoplein our Western society who are lookingfor an Okinawan martial arts school inwhich to practice and study?

There are a number of things that wouldbe important, at least to me. The most im-portant thing in any dojo is the atmosphere.A dojo must be welcoming, the peoplekind, and the expectations of the students

high. People should enjoy being there. Ofcourse the training must be hard, but ifthe teacher or seniors are domineering,mean or surly, or the “feeling” of the dojoseems bad, then it does not matter howgood they are- it is not a good place totrain. Karate and kobudo are about lifelong practice, and I don’t think it’s a goodidea to dedicate yourself to an unhealthyenvironment.After that, as far as training goes, thereare a number of things I would suggestone look for. Credentials are a mixed bag.Some very skilled practitioners in the Westno longer have a direct connection to aspecific dojo in Okinawa, while some high-ly ranked and well connected people have

never been a “top student” of his- mostof my training has been under SenseiKimo, Sensei Sakai, and Sensei Gakiya -but due to my introductions, instruction,and experience in the system, I was ableto train in the Kodokan when I visitedOkinawa, and receive more than just basicinstruction in the system from SenseiMatayoshi. Of course, language abilityhelped here as well- one thing I think isoften difficult for Japanese or Okinawaninstructors is that it is sometimes very hardto communicate with their Westernstudents. While the base of training ispretty physical, there is a great deal ofinstruction that is verbal- imagine tryingto learn soccer or how to swim from acoach you could not understand, for

Sansetsukon bo kumi waza, Green StreetStudios 2003.

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“Some very skilled practitioners in theWest no longer have a direct connectionto a specific dojo in Okinawa, while somehighly ranked and well connected peoplehave very poor skills. ”

Meibukan Magazine is searching for serious andreliable submissions for theirSPECIAL EDITIONS

MEIBUKAN MAGAZINEP.O. Box 8, 6663 ZG, Lent, Netherlands

Email:submissions2007 Ameibukanmaga.orgMeibukan Magazine wants to present

articles related to a main subject in everySpecial Edition. We are looking out forsubmissions which have a diversity inarticles that vary from history, leadingpeople, masters, philosophy, science,interviews etc. which should give the

reader insight and information on the mainsubject and are applicable to our mission

statement.The author(s)/organisation(s) who provide

the submission for a special subject arealso welcome to promote their

organisation/school and are welcome tosubmit an article about their organisation.Such an article must be strongly related to

the main subject. After submitting thearticles as described above, and after anagreement with Meibukan Magazine forpossible publication in a Special Edition,the author(s)/organisation(s) are welcometo submit promotional material like book/DVD reviews (from the publisher or anindependent known writer). In principlethere is no limit towards the number of

book/DVD reviews, but depending on theamount of articles and author(s)/

organisation(s), Meibukan Magazine willdecide the exact amount of promotional

material that will be placed.

For more details go towww.meibukanmagazine.org

At the moment we are looking forin-depth articles about Uechi-ryu,Shorin-ryu, Goju-ryu and others.

Please do not send full articles with the firstcontact. Send an email with a synopsis of

what you are proposing! If it is of interest,we will contact you to send the actualmaterial. Include in your email a short

summary of your background andcredentials.

Fred Lohse, David Nauss, bo vs sai, Cambridge 2003.

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For more information on the Kodokandojo please visit:

www.kodokanboston.org/index.html

Lex Opdam, Editor-in-chief ofMeibukan Magazine

interviewed Fred Lohse inSeptember 2006.

organization. However, I would also makesure both the teacher and the seniorstudents demonstrate good skills, andattitude. The seniors in some ways aremore important, because if the teacher isgood but cannot teach, there is limitedopportunity in the dojo for a student. I wouldalso look for a well-rounded dojo. Not

surprisingly for me that means both armedand unarmed techniques are taught, bothinclude a full range of kihon, kata, and pai-red work, and the seniors are skilled in both.

One of the difficult things in the West isthat there is something of a lack of goodkobudo instruction. However, there aresome teachers who learned in the 60s and70s still teaching, and a number of youngerteachers studying with good kobudoinstructors now who are passing on theart. Particularly with the kobudo instruc-tion, I would be sure to check on the tea-cher’s connection to his martial lineage,and length of study. Finally, I would lookat how the dojo is run. If it is an Okinawanart, the customs and language should bepart of training. The classes should be or-ganized but not overly rigid, the studentsshould know how the dojo works, theyshould demonstrate proper reigi, or eti-quette, and the dojo should be proud of itsconnection to their teachers, and to Okina-wa and its martial heritage.

very poor skills. Therefore, I would lookfor a connection to Okinawa on the partof the dojo, one with many years of history,not just a couple of years as part of a large

Ryuichiro Sakai, Fred Lohse, Ryugo Sakai, Ryudo Nagata, Kagoshima 1992.

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