 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
White Crane Snow Tiger News – November 2005
In Search of Shaolin Master John Graham of Mobile Alabama has invited me to go to China with him. I met John only recently at the Black Belt Martial Arts Hall of Fame in Los Angeles. I’ve only known him a short time but he feels like a brother. He actually came over to our booth in California and introduced himself. During the conversation he said he went to China several times a year and trained with the monks at the Shaolin Temple. I thought to myself, ”Yeah! Right! Here is another martial arts nut job. Just be polite!” Several weeks after the Hall of Fame he sent me video of himself training with the monks! Oh Ye of little faith. I thought this guy is the real deal. Next weekend I went to his school in Alabama and we got to train together. He then insisted I go to China with him. The moon and the planets seemed to have lined up for this one.
We hope to do some fact-finding and locate the exact site. Its history is as follows: The flight of the Shaolin monks from the Manchus who were invaders from the north was the genesis of the second or Southern Shaolin Temple. According to legend, the Southern Shaolin Temple located in the Putien District near the city of Quanzhou in Fujian Province is where the southern Shaolin style was developed. The Southern Shaolin Temple known also as the “Nine Dragons Temple” became a center for revolutionaries who sought to overthrow the Manchurian hegemony and to preserve the last vestiges of the Ming Dynasty(1). According to legend, the Ch’ing emperor personally infiltrated the monastery under the pretense of learning Shaolin. This led to its demise. The Ch’ing Army was called in and the temple was destroyed. More likely the Emperor was persuaded by the Manchu officials to send an expeditionary force against the monks on a charge of sedition. Subsequently the temple was burned and only five monks survived the onslaught. As a result of this event the Anti-Manchu Triad Society was formed or Hung League as it was known with the battle cry, “Overthrow the Ch’ing and restore the Ming!”(2) Accordingly, the monks were scattered throughout Asia. This led to the further proliferation of the Shaolin style. The exact location of this temple has been a mystery for scholars and historians. But recent developments by several groups including the Fujian Province Archeologists Association indicate that they have found certain evidential matter that confirms approval of the construction of a southern temple at Putien. For more on this –Look for an article in an upcoming issue of Black Belt Magazine. While in China we are going to do several demos at the International Nan (Ch. Southern) Shaolin Wushu Federation Conference. This will take place over three days in Quanzhou City. One demo is going to be a sort of comparative analysis in that I will be doing tensho kata from Okinawa Goju Ryu karate tradition and Master John Graham will be doing san chien simultaneously. In this way the audience can see how Chojun Miyagi sensei changed the Chinese kata and also see the original form being performed at the same time. Hmmm. Should be interesting. I will also be doing the Okinawan white crane kata Hakutsuru from Kumemura Village. This should be very interesting to see as well since the form was originally Chinese and no doubt derived from the Fujian Whooping Crane system. Another purpose of our visit is to make a connection with the roots of Okinawan Shorin Ryu karate. To my knowledge this has not been done before. A number of people including Chojun Miyagi himself as well as Morio Higaonna sensei have traveled to Fujian in search of the mysterious and elusive Ryuryuko, (ch. Xie Zhongxiang) Kanryo Higashionna’s teacher. But no one has tried to connect Matsumura’s training in Fujian. Sokon Matsumura (1809-1898) is considered the fountainhead and organizer of modern karate. He put together the kata syllabus for karate and designed the nomenclature as well. He is known to have gone to Fuzhou in Fujian Province on several occasions as an envoy for the Okinawan King and is reputed to have trained at the southern Shaolin Temple. In the early 1860s Matsumura went to Fuzhou on another trip and brought back to Okinawa the Shaolin White crane master Iwah and together they trained many Okinawans (See Okinawa Island of Karate, George Alexander, Yamazato Publications, 1991.). Perhaps a record of this still exits. The Chinese have a culture that dates back thousands of years to the Shang Dynasty and are meticulous record keepers. 1860 is like last week to the Chinese. So we’ll see what facts we can uncover. During our conversations about China John Graham said to me, “I have a friend known as the smiling monk. He lives high in the mountains and his temple is above the clouds. Do you want to go up there? The road is rather treacherous.” I said, “Oh! Please! Of course I’ll go. Wouldn’t miss it.” I’m imaging that it’s going to be like visiting Pai Mei in Kill Bill Vol 2. As for treacherous, he was talking about the road. I don’t know at this point if we’ll be in a bus or on donkeys. But I’ll hang my video camera over the cliff and get a good shot going up the mountain. Once we’re up there--Who knows? Have tea and train! We intend to document all this in a DVD entitled “In Search of Shaolin.” Another event we have scheduled is a meeting with Mr. Li Yiduan. He is the leading historian on Fujian martial arts. We hope he will be able to shed some light on Matsumura’s trips to Fujian. Look for some new Chinese martial DVDs when we get back from China. I hope to make a connection or two there and import some great martial arts styles such as, Pa Gua, Shaolin, Dog Boxing (I hear that’s big over there), White Eyebrow, Tai Chi and more. International Philippine Stick & Knife Fighting Championships John Potenza of Manalapan New Jersey recently returned from a tour of Japan and the Philippines. After demonstrating swordsmanship and training in Japan John flew down to the Philippines and won three gold medals in the Philippine International Stick and Knife fighting Tournament this month (He is a regional champion in this event in the US). John practices mixed martial arts, karate and kendo. John is also a third degree back in kendo and has trained with me for a number of years. Congratulations John on some incredible tournament victories. We’re proud of you accomplishments. You can email John at modern martial arts mm7@optonline.net Speaking of Swordsmanship--Look for our article in the December issue of Black Belt “Miyamoto Musashi—Japan’s Greatest Swordsman!” Battle of USA… Grand Master Yung Sung Lee one of the most accomplished martial artists I’ve ever met and one of the nicest guys in the martial arts. Recently hosted his Battle of USA in Washington, D.C. He has some terrific students and instructors. While we were there everyone was very friendly and respectful. The event was well attended and I got to talk with my good friend Rob Colasanti of NAPMA. Rob is a great speaker and on top of the whole martial arts scene. Gary Lee did a great job narrating our demo. We missed his son Garret. But Robert Debyl one of my students from Tennessee was there to help with the demo (John Potenza was in the Philippines). In fact, Robert volunteered his neck for a sword cut. He actually ducked at the last minute while attempting seppuku (Japanese ritual suicide) and the sword came down narrowly missing Robert’s neck. This made for a great demo especially for many of the Korean style martial artists who are not familiar with Japanese swordsmanship. The kendo demo (in bogu) was met with great enthusiasm as well. Any martial art where you can literally bash another man in the head as hard as you can and it’s considered normal behavior and perfectly ok is a great one! The purpose of the demo was to set the stage for a kendo tournament scheduled at the event next year. It was a real pleasure to smooze with some of the martial arts old timers that were there. And of course Grand Master Yung Sung Lee who is always a great host. Summer Camp Finally, I’m not only tardy but also remiss in my duty to report to you sooner the news of our summer camp this year. It was great training and great fun as always. We punched kicked, grappled and sliced our way through the weekend and culminated the training with a wild ride down the class five rapids of the Ocoee white water rafting River in Southeast Tennessee. We had classes in jujitsu, karate, pressure points (taught by Sensei Wojo of Chicago), kendo, iaido and kenjutsu. Hanshi Ken Penland taught a fabulous class in Tanto Jutsu–the samurai knife fighting techniques. No karate or Tae Kwon Do people were hurt when they cut bamboo with real swords. The only thing we didn’t do this year was Watermelon Kumite. We usually do this outside but we were rained out. What is Watermelon Kumite you might ask? It is where two opponent’s each strap on a watermelon to their stomachs and in karate fashion punch and kick at the massive fruit in order to smash their opponent’s watermelon to bits before he can smash yours. It makes for great fun, a handy desert and a rather violet activity. Sensei Randy Randolph, 4th Dan ISKKF (International Shorin Ryu Karate Kobudo Federation) is the defending champion. Motor Cycle Dave (David Peters, 4th Dan) is the strong second place winner. As we did not have the event this year sensei Randy is still the defending champ. We’ll see how many we can get into the fray next year and increase the competition. If you want to see pictures of this in Japan, look in Gogen Yamaguchi’s book. Action Martial Arts Hall of Fame Don’t forget Alan Goldberg’s Action Martial event in Atlantic City New Jersey at the Tropicana Hotel. January 6th, 7th & 8th. Contact number 1-718-856-8070. New Titles from Yamazato Productions
Coming Soon!
(1) Kit Kiew Wong, The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu, (Rutland, VT, Charles E. Tuttle & Co., 2002), p. 38. (2) Donn F. Draeger, Asian Fighting Arts, (Palo Alto, CA, Berkley Publishing Corp., 1974), p. 44. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2000 - 2008 World Black Belt Inc. All rights reserved - The World's first International Internet Martial Arts Community, where all Martial Artists come together and associate with the world's most skilled and respected leaders of the Martial Arts.
About Us |
Terms of Use |
Privacy Policy
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tomorrow morning at 0600 hours we blast off for China. I will be flying from Knoxville Tennessee to San Francisco to Beijing then on to Xiamen in Fujian Province. Xiamen is pronounced Shaw men in Chinese (pronounced Charmin, like the bathroom tissue in Alabama though). From Xiamen it’s just a short hour and a half bus ride to the city of Quanzhou where we will be staying. I mentioned this trip to my mentor Dr. Gordon Warner (This is Kendo, 1964) and he said don’t eat the chicken! Dr. Warner is ninety-three years old and lives in Okinawa. Sensei Chuck Merriman also gave me few tips about the trip. He visited Fujian with Morio Higaonna sensei. Quanzhou is the supposed site of the southern Shaolin Temple. I say supposed because there is some controversy as to which temple is the original southern Shaolin Temple.