Question for Oneya (and others)

[zim]

In the 60s there was a wado ryu connection but Hirano obviously changed direction.

http://vimeo.com/15902417


oneya

Great Video. Hawaii looks pretty nice right about now...

Thanks for that.

Cheers,

Chris

[wadoka]

I enjoyed watching that video.

[blackcat]

In the 60s there was a wado ryu connection but Hirano obviously changed direction.

http://vimeo.com/15902417


oneya

Surprised to see them wearing trainers - looks strange. Just like the American 'Black Belt' magazine people of the '70's.

It mentions Tsuchiya as partner to Hirano. Shiomitsu mentions someone by this name in his book 'Dynamic Kicking Method' as one of his instructors along with Hirano. Appreciate surname could be coincidence but he does mention a Hawaii connection. Same person?

Ben

[oneya]

There's that old penguin thigh slap again...

oneya

[blackcat]

In the 60s there was a wado ryu connection but Hirano obviously changed direction.

http://vimeo.com/15902417


oneya

Surprised to see them wearing trainers - looks strange. Just like the American 'Black Belt' magazine people of the '70's.

It mentions Tsuchiya as partner to Hirano. Shiomitsu mentions someone by this name in his book 'Dynamic Kicking Method' as one of his instructors along with Hirano. Appreciate surname could be coincidence but he does mention a Hawaii connection. Same person?

Ben

There I go getting mixed up again. Shiomitsu mentions Hirano and Nakano as his instructors. Tsuchiya was a name mentioned by Kono in the Wado World issue no.2. Kono said he visited Hawaii in 1967 and went to the Hirano - Tsuchiya dojo.

Ben

[mspain]

Hello, Ben

Tsuchiya was an instructor at JIKC in Honolulu. I don't know if he was a partner. He was junior to Hirano I believe. I think he also did well in the collegiate all Japan competition.

When Hirano died I know they were trying to locate Tsuchiya. I don't know if they ever found out where he is.

Clarice Tsuchiya instructed at JIKC. I have some certificates signed by her. Clarice is deceased. She died before Hirano. You can get some information on her at the Hawaii Seinenkai web site.

Mr. Shiomitsu visited with Hirano every year for a few years before Hirano died. There is now a dojo on Oahu under Shiomitsu Sensei's organization.

I was not involved when Otsuki Meijin was alive. However, I did attend a seminar by Toru Arakawa at the JIKC organization in the late 90's.

I have good evidence that Hirano did not allude to teaching Wado Ryu karate at least as far back as the early 80's - words from his own mouth. People from JIKC that call what they do Wado Ryu DID NOT get that idea from Hirano, I can assure you of that. I think mostly the dojos in mainland USA started calling it Wado.

I don't know the full story about HIrano because I was not there at the time things changed. I do know what happened while I was in that organization. I also have limited knowledge from current happenings.

Now that Hirano is deceased things are changing rather rapidly within that organization.

MSPain

[shep]

Hi Mike

When you say things are changing rapidly do you mean reverting back to mainstream Wado?

shep

[mspain]

Hi Mike

When you say things are changing rapidly do you mean reverting back to mainstream Wado?

shep

Hello, Shep.

No... There is no one in the organization that knows Wado. Not that I know of anyway. In the beginning Hirano taught Wado Ryu. He went to Hawaii to unite the dojos there. I think there were about 8. Then many things happened. I am not able to talk with first hand knowledge, so I will leave that alone.

There is one dojo, not in Hawaii, that I know of that actually says they now teach Shotokan. Most of the dojos in Hawaii say they teach Heiwado. That name, Heiwado, also was not put on the style by Hirano... it was invented by some of the students. Hirano called it karate. When something needed an official name, they called it JIKC karate. Hirano, as I mentioned, never, to my knowledge, called it Wado once he changed. He had his reasons.

Also, the JIKC organization throughout the USA is becoming more fragmented in my opinion. It seems to me that happens to most organizations with the death of a founder.

I have, in recent years, finally been able to make contact with people that knew Hirano and knew him when he was still doing karate. Interesting to hear their stories versus all the other stories out there.

I would be happy to answer any questions I can which I have firm knowledge of. I am not going to speculate or try to confirm or deny rumors if I do not have first hand knowledge.

In my experience in Hawaii, most of the "rumors" were started by the parents of the competition students. It is unbelievable what they could come up with and these were just parents, not parents which were students as well. I do know first hand that Hirano would no argue over rumors or similar things with anyone. He did not think it was worth arguing. As an example; one thing that sticks in my mind from Hirano, and I refer to it often is, regarding competition... "You have to be so good that there is no question of a judge or referee's call. Do not blame anything on biased judging. You must practice so much more than the other person that there is no question."

MSPain

[jacob]

If Wadoka wasn't in Spain at the moment I'm sure he would say

Let's not suffer topic-drift on this one.

I did post a Politic's tread a while ago!

This was about Fujii Sensei...

Jacob.