Comments on: Matayoshi History and White Crane

By: Noah Legel

Noah Legel — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:54:00 +0000

Sensei Poage learned Hakutsuru kata from Hanshi Doug Perry, 9th-dan and head of the Shorinkan in the United States. From what Sensei Poage knows, Hanshi Perry learned it while on duty in Okinawa when he was in charge of the base there. The story goes that Hanshi Perry was asked for a favor by a friend of his (someone in Isshin-Ryu I believe), and that favor was to get his one-armed uncle a landscaping job at the base. Hanshi Perry invited the man in for an interview, had him demonstrate his work and hired him after determining he was qualified to do that job. Apparently this got him a lot of flak from the military, but word spread around the island and he began being invited to a lot of dojo. Sensei Poage isn’t sure what lineage the Hakutsuru kata that Hanshi Perry learned comes from, but he knows it isn’t Matsumura. He plans on writing up a list of all the kata he learned from Hanshi Perry that aren’t in the Shorinkan system and find out exactly where and how and from whom he learned them the next time he sees him

By: Noah Legel

Noah Legel — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:57:00 +0000

Sure thing, I’ll ask him tonight and see what he says

By: Theodore Kruczek

Theodore Kruczek — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:46:00 +0000

I have heard the same things about teaching the true application. The fact that Tadashi Yamashita is Japanese and grew up in Okinawa, makes me think Shinpo Matayoshi may have made an exception to his “only family” rule. I will look into the Shuri-ryu version of Hakutsuru and see what I can learn about it.

Please ask Sensei Poage for any information he knows about Hakutsuru. Shorinkan does not recognize this as an official kata, that I am sure of. I have never seen Kyoshi Bethea do it when I have trained with him, and he didn’t mention anything when I did it at a tournament he was announcing for. I would love any information he can give and will be happy to throw his bio/school information in the next post on the matter (would be some great free publicity – there are other readers from AZ). Thanks again Noah.

By: Noah L

Noah L — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:38:00 +0000

That is an interesting concept–Sensei Poage has said that the Japanese and Okinawans haven’t been willing (until recently) to teach the true applications to most kata to gaijin, and perhaps they have the same mentality about the kata themselves. Mr. England learned the Hakutsuru kata from Shihan Joseph Walker (Shuri-Ryu) and I’m not sure where he learned it, but I know that he had some of the application at least. Sensei Poage (Shorinkan) knows a version of Hakutsuru and I can mention this topic to him and see what he knows, if you’d like? I have class tonight.

By: Theodore Kruczek

Theodore Kruczek — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:08:00 +0000

If you notice that Shinpo Matayoshi’s Hakkucho follows the same pattern as mine, until it suddenly continues on. I have been told a few times that he would never perform the katas the same way because he didn’t want people learning it – this could be a wives tale, but it has some merit. Mr. England’s was probably a longer kata based on the same application. As for it being “karate-ized”, I think “Okinawan-ized” may be more appropriate. Shito-ryu’s version isn’t more of a “Karate” version, it was just influenced by the Naha-te of the time.

While I like knowing how to perform this kata (it either does great and terrible at tournaments), I want to better understand the bunkai behind all of it. If someone understand the application to White Crane techniques, then they can make a 10 minute kata too.

By: Noah L

Noah L — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:52:00 +0000

I’ve thought that the Hakutsuru kata was very interesting ever since I saw one of the Sandan’s back home run it during Sessen (a several-hour class during which we practiced every kata that Shihan Walker taught). The one that Mr. England ran at the time was similar to yours, but a bit harder, so I suspect it was “karate-ized” a bit from the original. His also took nearly 10 minutes to perform, and was taught to him in five parts. I hope to one day learn the kata, myself–it looks like it has a lot of interesting applications