Sensei Kuramoto's Punch

Sensei Kuramoto Nariharu is one of the top students of Sensei Nakamura Hideo. He's a literal human weapon, with thoroughly conditioned hands, feet, etc, even his head. He has broken clay sewer pipes with his headbutt. His karate is not about fancy techniques, but a solid foundation on the kihon, basics. I really like the sand makiwara he is using in this video. Very solid, but offers enough resilience to use safely. I couldn't understand most of what he was teaching in this video, but he seems to be stressing the importance of hitting with the strong portion of the fist.

Re-Posting Osaka Demo 1987

For some reason, the earlier posting of Osaka Demo 1987 didn't work. Here's another posting.

Apology for a number of unavailable videos and a very nice video

I've learned that a number of videos on my blog are no longer available. Some of them were linked to my facebook page but for some reason are not opening up. Also, one of the Youtube contributor to the video has deleted the content. But I did find one very nice video that includes very interesting footages of Nakamura Sensei and Kendokai Karate. Enjoy!

The opening caption reads, "Different styles of karate are not important. Karate is karate." This quote of Nakamura Sensei sums up his philosophy.

"Transfer-Training", "Movement Training", "Ido-Gekko"

It goes without saying that kihon practice is vital to improving one's karate. Without kihon, you have no karate. Kihon can be practiced while standing on the same spot, or by moving up and down the dojo floor. Sensei Lee Young of Kasugai dojo has been posting a lot of videos of Kendokai karate training routine, and recently he posted many "ido-gekko" or "transfer-training." These are great for learning to move one's core and executing techniques with the proper timing.

Nakamura Sensei's Osaka Demo

Unfortunately, the video of Nakamura Sensei's Osaka demo that I posted earlier seems to not work. It was linked to my facebook video but it does not open.

Fortunately, someone was so kind to post an identical video on Youtube.

His techniques are beyond fast; they are invisible due to the speed. It was reported that the photographers could not capture the moment of the impact, saying that his hand disappeared.

Kendokai Karate 1987 Osaka Demonstration

This has to the best thing that happened to this blog yet. Someone was kind enough to upload the first official demo of Kendokai karate that took place in Osaka back in 1987. The video includes speech by Nakamura sensei, some intense training footage (kihon, kata, kumite both jiyu/yakushoku kumite), and of course the demo itself. Amazing demonstration by the famous Kuramoto sensei is at around 18:44 mark. His segment was widely seen on Youtube previously. Kata demonstration by Ishiyama sensei who is the current president is seen at around 23:47 mark. Of course, the highlight is the great Nakamura sensei's demo at around 26:03 mark. Sincere thanks to the person who uploaded this video!

2013 All Japan Korean School Karate Tournament

Below is a video highlight from 2013 All Japan Korean School Karate Tournament. As I've written earlier, Nakamura Hideo sensei was born in Pyong Yang had deep ties with North Korea. So it's little surprise that the ethnic Korean schools in Japan (Chong Ryon specifically, with ties with Pyong Yang. They use the traditional name for Korea, Choson) follow the Kendokai dojo curriculum.

Just from casually observing, I could tell these kids have put in long hours of hard work. They are at or near their physical peak. I though the group kata performance was quite impressive, moving in unison with precision and speed. Kumite featured full-protection helmet with mask, which allows face punch but of course they are not beating each other into submission; it's still point-based kumite. I don't see any problem with it since kendo does the same thing; full protection gear and points awarded for decisive attacks. All in all, I thought the performance was not too different from most traditional karate, such as shotokan and shito ryu.