Tag: Matsumora

Matsumora’s Hara Story

Posted by Jeffrey M. Brooks on July 24, 2019 in Martial Arts Stories |No Comments

When Okinawa was absorbed into Imperial Japan in 1879 the Okinawan men were conscripted as laborers, the women and children were abused. All were intimidated, forced to abandon their native language and way of life. The new leaders did not believe they were taking Okinawa from the Okinawans. They thought they were taking Okinawa from […]

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Matsumora’s Grasp

Matsumora’s Grasp

Posted by Jeffrey M. Brooks on November 5, 2018 in Martial Arts Stories, Martial Arts Training, Okinawa |No Comments

空手に先手なし   ‘There is no first attack in karate’ means that we respond when the cause is just and the need is present. People think that Gichin Funakoshi used the “no first attack” idea to communicate to non-Okinawans that his karate was a cultivated art, for cultivated people. The presumption was that karate and other arts […]

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