The history of human beings is one of strife. Men fought against the ferocity of nature and threats from animals. As time passed men fought among themselves… Sometimes to secure territory and resources… sometimes for supremacy and power… Where can the cause be found? I do not hesitate to say that it is because the man has not been faithful to the teachings of Buddha and Christ. Though there are differences in the teachings of Buddha and Christ …they agree on what is to be done for the happiness of mankind…
– Asahina Sogen, Roshi, from Zen, 1954
Sakiyama Sogen understood true karate do. He was a longtime student of Miyagi Chojun, founder of Goju Ryu. You can see it here, in his sanchin kata. As abbot of Kozenji temple near Shuri Castle on Okinawa, he was teacher and mentor to generations of Zen practitioners. Visitors came from around the world to practice with him. Among them were Nagamine Shoshin and other prominent karateka. While his karate lineage is well known his Zen lineage is not.
Sakiyama’s Zen teacher was Asahina Sogen, abbot of Engakuji, the leading Rinzai temple in Japan.
Sakiyama told me about Asahina:
His whole body and mind were filled with a passion to make something out of his disciples. He radiated intense energy. One day, after we finished with an important conversation inside Roshi’s room, I bowed, preparing to leave. At the moment when I raised my head, suddenly he hit me. I thought my eardrum was broken. At that moment a second blow came. I couldn’t understand what happened. My mind went blank. This was the first time I could really call Asahina Roshi my father from the bottom of my heart. I deeply felt the respect, intimacy and trust implied in the word ‘father.’ Roshi, who raised me, departed for the eternal journey less than a month later. It is impossible for me to express my feelings of gratitude toward my late Roshi….”
(quote from the book True Karate Dō)
That meeting was dokusan, or sanzen, face to face meeting with the Zen teacher, usually during a period of sustained meditation. The ritual form is strict. But the exchange between student and teacher is open. It is a presentation of the condition of the mind of the student or a test of it. The teacher may observe, or probe, or challenge. The student is immersed in practice, all day every day for an extended period. The contact is highly charged. It may be a matter of life or death.
Which was how Sakiyama described it to me: as “combat with real swords.” Shinken shobu – 真剣勝負. That was the training experience he had with Asahina.
Sakiyama spoke about Asahina’s traditional Zen teaching method: linking “seishin-koitsu” and “kyogaku-kaishi”. Seishin 精神: a condition of intense concentration of the mind, cultivated through years of continuous ardent, resolute practice. Kyogaku-kaishi: enlightenment through shock. The shock may be a word or a gesture. It might be the sound of a pebble, launched by a broom while sweeping the Zendo courtyard, resonating against a tile. The shock may be a pair of strikes to the head, painful, stunning, with no recovery time between. The morning star shining red and gold at the horizon might do the trick, if your mind is right, right then.
This kind of intensity in practice and skill in teaching is uncommon. Sakiyama’s union of inner practice and karate practice is also uncommon. It remains an inspiration. He tried to share what he had with whoever came seeking.
Sakiyama Sogen radiated intense energy.
An American monk, one of Sakiyama’s students, recalled:
“Several of us were learning how to strike the wooden han with a mallet. One of the monks struck it methodically, as Sogen stood by his side.
Sogen said: ‘Many ideas about Zen! . . . but no Zen!’
We were terrified of him. And we loved him for it.”
Unaccustomed to this kind of teaching technique, it is mystifying. What comes through is that cultivation of presence of mind, sharp focus and clear intention are requisites of fruitful practice.
Carmen Blacker, a leading British scholar of Japanese culture and language, visited Engakuji temple and trained with Asahina Roshi just after World War II. She described the silence, the stillness, the otherworldly sound of the chanting in the zendo, the monks’ advice that sanzen with Asahina Roshi could be like shinken shobu – combat with real swords.
Recalling her experience at Engakuji temple, Blacker wrote that she had been
“…fascinated by the stories of the ancient patriarchs answering the earnest inquiries of their disciples by kicking them, slapping them, pulling their ears, bellowing in their ears, or merely remaining silent. And the disciples, oddly enough, instead of being bewildered or incensed by this treatment, were often enlightened as a result of it. For, so I understood, if one thought long enough and hard enough about clapping one hand, or ones face before one was born – if one went on long enough against the stone wall – eventually one would set up a fearful tension in one’s mind; one could neither go forward or back. In that state what one needed was a sudden jolt or shock; one was trembling on the edge of enlightenment, and needed that extra push to send one over…”
She recalled her training with Asahina:
“…we all sat in absolute silence in the room at the entrance… the atmosphere was charged with extraordinary tension, and I could see Miss Oki in front of me trembling. When my turn came, I followed the instructions, made one prostration on the threshold of Roshi’s room and another in front of him. I had been told not to speak unless the Roshi spoke. He said I must concentrate my whole mind on Mu, so that everything else than Mu ceases to exist. Like this – and suddenly his face became lost in concentration. Then he jangled the bell, and I bowed and retired…”
-from The Collected Writings of Carmen Blacker, Routledge
The samurai culture that came to power in the 16th and 17th century needed to change the job description of its leadership cadre as soon as the war was over. Samurai who dealt in death, led troops in battle, rose to power through courage, cunning and force, by killing people and taking their stuff, suddenly became administrators and civil authorities. They did not all know how to do that.
The shogun, almost immediately, found it necessary to admonish the samurai leadership to cool it, to rein in the lavish lifestyle, to quit shaking down their people, and return to the ethos of service and discipline. He saw that the values that led to victory would be needed for the next phase – to restore order, to consolidate power, and promote stability.
The military virtues of discipline and purpose needed to be recovered, reformulated and focused on the new role and the new world. From bu to bun. From war to civil administration. That ethos was embodied in the culture and practice of Zen.
Enduring harsh conditions, sitting in lotus position 18 hours a day in the deep winter cold of a Rohatsu Sesshin for example, had a strong connection to Japanese ascetic religious traditions. This was an ethos of warrior-like endurance reminiscent of the practices of Shugendo 修験道, “the way to spiritual power through discipline”, and of the Yamabushi 山伏, mountain ascetics.
Those practices valorized complete devotion: a thousand days standing on a block in a hole on a mountainside; ceaseless year-round pilgrimage; hanging over a cliff, suspended by your ankles in the sturdy grip of two good friends; sitting under freezing mountain waterfalls, and other extreme exertions: tests of strength and will, aimed at purification, spiritual power or inner freedom. These shared something with the ethos, methods and values of Rinzai Zen.
Anyone of intelligence can see that mankind has reached the limit of the use of violence… there has been unbelievable progress in scientific knowledge. While moral intelligence has lagged far behind…
We can never tell when death will come… anyone who does not solve the problem of life and death lives with bomb in his hands…
… so even in sleep or sitting on chair, exertion in concentration and the purification of your mind should continue. If the intensity of this exertion persists, you will be sure to attain enlightenment…
– Asahina Sogen, from Zen, published 1954, Sakane Printing Company
When Asahina met aspiring Zen practitioners from around the world, he would occasionally hit them, to see. When he met Albert Einstein or visitors from beyond the world of Zen, he was pleasant and engaging. Sakiyama was just like this.
Relationships form. They end. It is a good thing to meet such people. Even when your paths diverge, you draw something from them, you leave something with them, and the world is stronger for it.
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Post copyright © 2026 Jeffrey Brooks, MountainKarateNC.com, Yamabayashi Ryu, Mountain Karate Dojo, in the mountains of western NC.
Photo 1954 Sakane Printing Company
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read True Karate Dō by Jeffrey Brooks
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling. Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series