Yasuhiro Konishi

Yasuhiro Konishi
Born	1893 Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Died	1983 (aged 89–90) Tokyo, Japan
Style	Shindo Jinen Ryu
Teacher(s)	Gichin Funakoshi, Choki Motobu, Kenwa Mabuni, Morihei Ueshiba, Chojun Miyagi, Chōshin Chibana
Rank	Sōke, Founder of Shindo Jinen Ryu
Notable students	Kiyoshi Yamazaki, Tokio Mao
Website	Japan Karate-Do Ryobu-Kai

Yasuhiro Konishi (小西康裕, Konishi Yasuhiro, 1893 - 1983) was one of the first karateka to teach karate on mainland Japan. He was instrumental in developing modern karate, as well as a driving force in the art's acceptance in Japan. He is credited with developing the style known as Shindo Jinen Ryu (神道自然流).

Early life

Yasuhiro Konishi was born in 1893 in Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan. His martial arts training began at the age of six, in Muso Ryu Jujitsu, which was followed by kendo when he was 13, and subsequently, Takenouchi-ryū jujitsu, a style characterized by strong punches and kicks, similar to those later employed in karate. In 1915, he entered Keio University in Tokyo where he became captain of the school’s kendo team.

Konishi's first exposure to te was through a university classmate named Tsuneshige Arakaki, who was from Okinawa. Konishi found te techniques to be similar to those he had learned in jujitsu, and although Arakaki was not a master instructor, Konishi was intrigued by the system. After graduating, Konishi entered the business world, but also continued coaching Keio University’s kendo club. The life of a “salary man” was not fulfilling for him, however, and with the encouragement of his wife, Konishi quit his job in 1923, to open his own martial arts center. Naming his dojo the Ryobu-Kan ("The House of Martial Arts Excellence"), Konishi provided instruction in kendo and jujitsu.

Training with Japanese Masters

In September, 1924, Hironori Ohtsuka and Gichin Funakoshi came to the Keio University kendo training hall. Approaching Konishi with a letter of introduction from one of the school’s professors, Funakoshi asked if he could practice Ryukyu Kempo To-Te Jutsu in the training hall. An inquiry like this would have been considered a “challenge” to Konishi at the time, and granting the request by an instructor from another system to teach in his school, unprecedented. Nonetheless, Konishi remembered his university friend Arakaki's kata demonstrations, and accepted Funakoshi's request in the interest of expanding his own knowledge.

Within a month of joining the Ryobu-Kan - and with Konishi's help - Funakoshi established a to-te club at Keio University, making it the first university karate club in Japan. Konishi, Funakoshi, and Ohtsuka were the principal instructors, and with the addition of te to Konishi's curriculum of kendo, jujitsu, and western boxing, modern karate-jutsu was born (although no names were yet applied to the emerging styles.)

As the Ryobu-Kan became more established, practitioners of what they considered "pure" jujitsu occasionally challenged Funakoshi to unarmed combat with the intent of demonstrating their disdain for karate and the superiority of jujitsu. Under the traditions of budō – the Japanese martial tradition - however, the master of a school or style could not be directly challenged. Instead, a challenge was first issued to a senior student, and if the challenger was victorious, he could then challenge the master. If the challenger defeated the master, he claimed the defeated dojo's sign as a trophy - a profound humiliation for the losing school - but one never experienced by the Ryobu-Kan. Acting as Funakoshi's senior students, Konishi and Ohtsuka were victorious in all the challenges they faced.

Training with Okinawan Masters

As karate gained popularity, a number of Okinawan masters began traveling to Japan, and because of Konishi's open-mindedness, many of these martial artists visited the Ryobu-Kan to exchange techniques and teach. Among them were Choki Motobu (Motobu-ryu karate), Kenwa Mabuni (Shito-Ryu karate), and Chojun Miyagi (Goju-Ryu karate). These three men profoundly influenced Konishi in various ways, and helped shape his own emerging style of karate.

Konishi considered Motobu in particular to be a martial arts genius, and trained with him as frequently as he could. A native of Okinawa, Motobu did not speak Japanese well, and was forced to rely on others to translate for him when he taught. A man of modest means, Motobu also had difficulty making ends meet on his visits to Japan. Konishi made every effort to assist him, however, and organized the Choki Motobu Support Society to that end, arranged seminars and training sessions for which Motobu was able to collect instruction fees, and frequently accompanied him to assist in explaining concepts and techniques.

Konishi did not train with Miyagi as much or as often as he did with other karate masters, but Miyagi presented him with a manuscript, "An Outline of Karate-Do", dated March 23, 1934. This document is considered a foundational work in the realm of karate, and was only translated into English in the late 20th century. Konishi trained extensively with Kenwa Mabuni, who resided at Konishi's house for ten months in 1927 and 1928, and the two men became very close friends. Mabuni was celebrated for the depth of his knowledge of kata, and Konishi later developed the kata Seiryu in collaboration with him.

The Influence of Morihei Ueshiba

In addition to training with fellow karate masters, Konishi also studied under Morihei Ueshiba, who would later found aikido, but who was teaching Daito-Ryu Aikijujitsu at the time. Konishi considered Ueshiba the best martial artist he had ever encountered, and having already studied karate for a number of years, was eager to get his thoughts on this new art. With that in mind, Konishi demonstrated Heian Nidan - a kata he had learned from Funakoshi - to Ueshiba. Ueshiba was unimpressed, however, and opined that Konishi should cease pursuing what he perceived to be ineffective techniques.

This came as a blow to Konishi, who was committed to karate but also greatly respected Ueshiba's opinions. Still believing that karate held tremendous value, Konishi felt he had the responsibility to develop it, and asked Ueshiba to allow him to continue training in karate with the intent of improving its techniques to a level that would make it acceptable to his teacher. After many months of research and experimentation, Konishi created a kata he named Tai Sabaki (“body movement”). This form was rooted in the fundamentals of karate but also incorporated principles found in Ueshiba's teachings. A notable difference from most karate kata was the fact that, although Tai Sabaki contained no complex movements, it was an unbroken chain of actions, performed without any complete stops. After seeing his student demonstrate it, Morihei Ueshiba remarked, "The demonstration you did just now was satisfactory to me, and that kata is worth mastering." Konishi would later developed two more forms based on the same principles, and he named these three kata Tai Sabaki Shodan, Tai Sabaki Nidan, and Tai Sabaki Sandan.

Formal Acceptance of Karate in Japan

Established in 1895, the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai ("Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society") is the governing Japanese governing body for budō. It is tasked with encouraging, promoting, and standardizing all martial disciplines and systems in Japan, and in the early part of the 20th century, it not only set the standards for ranking individual martial artists, but signed all certificates of membership.

Already a member of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai because of his kendo and jujitsu training, Konishi felt strongly that karate should become part of Japanese education, and petitioned to have karate officially recognized as a martial art. However, while the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai continued awarding titles in judo and jujitsu, karate was not acknowledged until 1935. With eventual recognition, however, came kyoshi ("master instructor") rankings for Konishi, Miyagi and Sannosuke Ueshima (the founder of Kushin-Ryu karate).

The Naming of Shindo Jinen Ryu

The Dai Nippon Butoku Kai required that all budō have distinct names, and Konishi encouraged his contemporaries to name their individual styles. Taking the Japanese words for "hard" ("go") and "soft" ("ju"), Chojun Miyagi named his style Goju-Ryu, since it blended hard and soft techniques. Kenwa Mabuni, who had studied under Okinawan Anko Itosu and Kanryo Higashionna, combined the first kanji from each of their names and called his style Shito-Ryu. For Hironori Ohtsuka, the study of budō placed one in harmony ("wa") with the universe, and his style became known as Wado-Ryu. Sannosuke Ueshima rooted the name Kushin-Ryu ("Sky-Heart") in the concept of harmony between the universe and the individual. Students convinced Funakoshi to name his style Shotokan, after Shoto ("Pine Waves"), his pen name.

For himself, Konishi believed that if one lives a moral life, then one is naturally following the divine way. Extending this idea, he posited that, if training in karate in a natural way leads one to mastery of one's body, knowledge and experience are vastly increased, and the foundation for naturally living a moral life is established. For this reason, and at the recommendation of Morihei Ueshiba and Shinto scholar Danjo Yamaguchi, Konishi named his own style Shindo Jinen Ryu Karate-Jutsu ("godly, natural style, complete empty-handed way").

In 1938, in recognition of his role as one of the pioneers of Japanese karate, and because of his efforts to advance the art, the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai appointed Konishi chairman of the committee that screened all licensing applications for karate.

Seiryu Kata

During the 1930s, the Japanese government was largely controlled by the military, and around 1935, the commanding general of the Imperial Japanese Army approached Konishi and asked him to develop self-defense techniques for women serving in the Japanese Government Railways. At the time, Konishi, Ueshiba, Mabuni and Ohtsuka were training together almost daily, and Konishi asked Mabuni to work with him on delivering what the government had requested.

Together, the two men developed a kata incorporating significant elements of their respective styles, Shindo Jinen Ryu and Shito-Ryu, as well as feedback from Morihei Ueshiba, who advised them on changes intended to more closely tailor the techniques included in the form to the needs of women, for whom it was being designed. The kata that resulted from the collaboration between these three masters - Seiryu - includes core principles from karate, aikido and jujitsu, and became part of the training regiment for female railway workers.

World War II and Karate

With Japan embroiled in World War II, the continued evolution and refinement of karate plateaued as many practitioners enlisted to fight for their country. With Japan's surrender in 1945, however, the nation's male population returned, only to encounter a prohibition on the practice of all martial arts (with the exception of sumo) that had been ordered by Douglas MacArthur, commander of the Allied Occupation. As life slowly returned to normal, MacArthur's ban was lifted, and Konishi worked diligently to revive the practice of both kendo and karate.

Later Recognition

Like Morihei Ueshiba, Konishi used budō training in his personal quest to build character while creating harmony between body, mind, and art. He believed karate and Zen are different aspects of the same thing, and expressed that conviction in a short poem:

Karate is

Not to hit someone

Nor to be defeated

It is to avoid trouble

While less famous than many of his contemporaries outside of Japan, Konishi is today recognized as one of history's most significant budō masters. He was a successful businessman, teacher, and political activist, who strove to bring respectability to martial arts, and his efforts are a major reason that karate enjoys the position it does today. Konishi died in 1983.

See also

• Shindo Jinen Ryu
• Japan Karate-Do Ryobu-Kai

Sources

• Ancient Okinawan Martial Arts, Volume 2: Koryu Uchinadi by Patrick McCarthy [Book]. Boston, MA: Tuttle Publishing. 1999
• Japanese Karate, Volume 1: Shindo Jinen Ryu. [Motion Picture]. Thousand Oaks, CA: Tsunami Productions. 1998
• Japanese Karate, Volume 2: Ryobukai and Shotokan. [Motion Picture]. Thousand Oaks, CA: Tsunami Productions. 1998
• Japan Karate-Do Ryobu-Kai Instructors Manual. 1996

External links

• Japan Karate-Do Ryobu-Kai website