Thursday, February 18, 2016

Kendokai Osaka Dojo Children's Practice

I love to watch children practice karate. In this day and age of smartphones and computer games, it's so gratifying to watch the children discipline their body and mind through karate.

Kendokai dojo is the official (or most popular, I'm not sure) karate of the Chongryon, the ethnic Koreans living in Japan with ties to North Korea. Founder Nakamura Hideo was originally from Pyong Yang and he was in a leadership position within the Chongryon organization.

Below is a video from Osaka dojo, led by Sensei Tokchu Kim. Osaka has the largest Korean community in Japan, regardless of their SK or NK affiliation. The children are practicing one of the basic kata which looks similar to heian level kata of shotokan or other shorin-ryu based karate system. One difference I noticed was that their front stance looks a little narrow, which puts mobility and reach over stability, from my view.

Notice the Korean sign on the background. Translated: "We will shine our place of learning with our very own hands." The set-up looks a little similar to North Korean schools replete with mottoes and yes, propaganda.



Friday, February 5, 2016

Nakamura Sensei's 1990 Demo

A Kendokai karate sensei in Ehime was so kind to send me a DVD of Nakamura sensei. Below clip is from the DVD, of Nakamura Sensei's breaking demo filmed in 1990. He would have been 77 years old then. Notice just how quick and crisp his techniques are. It looks like one of the technique he used was "Tora-Guchi", or the "tiger's mouth". The striking area is the space between your thumb and the index finger. The amount of conditioning necessary to pull this off would be astounding. The last punch he executes looks like a short-range punch thrown in kokutsu dachi (back stance), similar to the punch in Heian Godan kata.

Nakamura Sensei's 1990 Demo

Monday, February 1, 2016

Apology for 3 videos that failed to play

It came to my attention that 3 of the videos I had posted somehow failed to play. I've fixed the problem on those posts AND I'm listing all 3 of those videos on this post for your convenient viewing. An apology for the confusion I may have caused.

Osaka Demo Nakamura Sensei


Nagoya Demo Nakamura Sensei


Kuramoto Sensei Demo