Kyokushin karate, women and children, women in technology, personal fitness, writing, literature
Author: an Ichi Kyu
I study Kyokushin karate at a dojo in Burbank. I don't yet have permission to say more than this about my dojo. I am also a mother of two, both of whom have studied Kyokushin karate a year longer than I. They are instructors! My husband created the art posted on this site. I have his permission to use it, but he expressly asked me not to credit him as the artist. He's moved on to other styles, and doesn't particularly want a public association with this piece. I love this artwork, personally. And me? I work full time as a cloth and hair simulation artist, as well as a python coder, in the visual effects industry. I have roughly sixteen years experience in film and about four in television. I am 50; I suppose my decision to attempt the black belt test, along with creating this blog, represents my mid-life crisis. Wish me luck!
Tomorrow is the big day! Today I am not doing exercises, unless we do some during the karate Zoom class tonight. Sensei said our belts will not have IFK markings, but will have something to distinguish them as his style. So that’s interesting.
Karate as a sport started relatively recently. Masutatsu Ōyama founded his own dojo around 1956. He formally named his style Kyokushin in a ceremony in 1957. American football, in contrast, morphed from rugby around 1875, according to the History Channel’s on-line article on football. Shotokan’s founder, credited to Funakoshi by Wikipedia, lived from 1868 to 1957, to contrast with Oyama. For the first time this year, the Olympics included karate. Due to the pandemic, the Games have been rescheduled to the summer of 2021. While karate’s roots may be ancient, karate as a sport is relatively new. Kyokushin, itself, is as young as its founder.
Now that F and I are approaching our shodan tests, I see how fluid, and non-standardized these institutions are. Karate organizations are people, their approaches and interpretations of history. Even Oyama, in his book, sometimes argues with invisible colleagues over the merits of callouses or the practicality of certain skills. He occasionally laments the loss of more rare skills. He saw karate as changing, and changed it, himself.
So karate is international, with a long, illustrious history. Like Zen, small groups of individuals teach others one on one. Instructors and senpais transmit knowledge in a personal way, tailored to kohai. Yes there are standards, but these are subject to constant interpretation, evaluation, re-interpretation, re-discovery and refinements. There are tug-o-wars over authenticity, alongside both useful, and not-so-useful, innovations. Like any living art, it changes, growing up and out from where it started, but it still remains rooted in fertile soil.
I went through with my original plan but it wasn’t terribly practical. At 6:45am, I got up and did exercises. Sensei texted, too, and I spent some time answering. When I finished, I decided to go back to bed. Since I’d not gone to bed very early last night, getting up early was not the best plan. For tomorrow, I will go to bed early and wake up when I wake up. Rather than exercises, I’ll focus on kata and syllabus. We also have karate class tomorrow evening.
In one of my dreams, we had to move the shodan test to a small, outdoor concrete patio. It looked cramped and uncomfortable. I also dreamed about work but no longer remember those parts.
Sensei had scheduled a work-out for testers in the figure 8 park today. He wasn’t feeling well and decided not to come. Being ill also had him worried about COVID-19, so he texted the group he would get tested.
T offered to meet us in the park so we could still practice.T, TF, B and I met together. For her intensive Summer Honors English course, F has multiple essays due this week. She decided to sit out this one. That was probably a smart move on her part, because we practiced about three hours. We did a good amount of socializing, too. Still, we did the kata walk, and even did the syllabus walk. In addition, we went over Bo Sono Ichi and Ni. We also did the two ura katas we needed. B and T practiced Kanku. After B left, TF and I ran the Pinans again, to polish them, and T gave us tips to clean them up.
It was after 6:30pm by the time I got home, but I felt good about the practice, and it was just so nice to see TF and T, as well as B.
Good news: Sensei reported that his COVID-19 test came back negative. He even texted a photo, he was so happy. We were all relieved for him. It would be one thing to have to delay the shodan and nidan tests, but Sensei is not a spring chicken–contracting this illness at his age is pretty scary. Each decade of your life adds to the probability that you would have complications, and though he’s not elderly, he’s old enough that it is scary. Given what I know from my cousin’s experience with it, I’m scared of it, too. But, to the best of our knowledge, none of us have it.
I did not do exercises tonight given our pretty extensive practice session. For this evening and tomorrow, I need to focus on getting plenty of rest, not inadvertently injuring myself, and prepare for Saturday.
Oh, the “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” story from last night actually read like a joke: a cook in a monastery was in a great hurry. Along with the grasses and grains he grabbed for the evening soup, he inadvertently picked up a snake, and chopped it up along with his vegetables for the stew. The monks loved the stew: it was the best tasting soup they’d had in a long time. Everyone was happy until the head master pulled a snake head from his bowl and called the cook over, “What is this?” The cook, quick on his feet, grasped the snake head and popped it into his mouth, then bowed with a “Oh, thank you, Master!”
I set the alarm for 7:00am and was downstairs closer to 7:20 am. I did exercises, then rushed to be at a dentist appointment by 8:00 am. Upon returning home, I had time to stretch, clear dishes and write in my journal before clocking into work by 10:00 am.
At work, we had a “good-bye” lunch for our head of technology over Zoom. He’s really good, and my coworkers and I are all sorry to see him leave.
Yesterday, I called V, a work friend currently furloughed. (Actually I have posted pictures of her kumquats on this blog.) We discussed the departure of our supervisor. She speculated about the usual work politics issues, particularly given the current re-structuring our company is experiencing. She told me something I had no idea about, however. From an artist friend, she heard one of our business units is requiring digital artists to show up in person and work in the building. Actually, another work friend said he’d been offered a job at this business unit. He debated whether or not to take it for that reason. Moreover, she’d heard that the digital artists were given letters claiming they are “essential workers” that must be on-site. Given that our business unit is a rather large team of digital artists working from home, that’s simply not true.
According to V, the client who hired this particular unit pressured them into keeping the artists on-site for “security” reasons. Basically, they value the secrecy of their story, or the look of their characters, etc., above any risks working on-site poses to the health of artists and their families.
I don’t know what to say about the skewed values and lack of ethics at play there. From my perspective, it’s “bully” behavior. The effects house could refuse to work that way, and then the client would have to find someplace else to go. And if others are equally firm and ethical, there would be no where to go. That is one of the lessons of karate: you have to stand up to bullies. If you don’t, they’ll keep bullying.
Spider Lilies
Okay, on a less sad note, last night’s story from “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” was a good one. An emperor convinces a Zen monk, Kakua, known for being elusive and shy, to preach at his court. The monk appears before the emperor and his court. He takes out a flute, plays a single, brief note, and disappears. All the more reason to insist we do what we can to preserve life: it is over too soon.
I set the clock for 7:30am last night and rose closer to 7:45am, which was earlier than yesterday. Doing exercises first thing in the morning is challenging. I confess I did a bit of sweeping to warm up. It is nice to have them out of the way early.
It’s street cleaning day. The old purple car is in the driveway rather than on the street, giving me a chance to take a few pictures of our house. Actually, if you stand across the street from our house, you don’t see much of the house. The camphor tree has filled out once more and looks like a lollipop tree. It is flanked on either end by large spider lilies, also dong well. During the drought, we almost lost that tree, and very little grew next to it. Now it’s lush.
Sensei taught class, and we had a “ripening” promotion for L. L and I traded off calling kihon. Her feet are still healing, so Sensei had given her some modified exercises to do. Her modified version of 4th kyu syllabus was really cool. We should ask her to teach the rest of us! She did pass her promotion with flying colors (green being the primary one in this case.)
F and I got in exercises with L, while she did her requirements. After class, I made up the rest I “owed” for my rank. I also got in some kata practice during my lunch hour.
I did some thinking about that “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” story that I wrote about yesterday. The religious traditions I have studied more extensively, I admit, are heavily text-centered. Judaism, along with Christianity and, I believe, Islam, each put emphasis on their scriptures and written commentary. Writings may not influence so heavily other religious traditions. Some traditions emphasize the transmission of teachings or spirituality through experience and interaction. Zen Buddhism certainly seems to do this. So my bookish shock over the loss of old writings is probably a bias on my part. Shoju was intent on preserving another kind of tradition, and would not allow the honoring of things (old writings) to usurp the seeking and/or experience of enlightenment.
But I don’t disavow my love and appreciation for old texts. Writings are, after all, communications from people, however imperfect. Someone somewhere decided to write something down, and because of this, we can hear voices that are two thousand years old. How cool is that?
Promotion week! In the past, the ichi kyu testing for shodan would do the “kata walk:” all the required katas, along with the flexibility test, on Tuesday night. Usually on Friday night, s/he would teach a course on self-defense, and demonstrate some techniques. Sensei is not likely to be on the Zooms for Tuesday for Friday night. T, however, could call on either TF, F or me to demonstrate techniques.
In the dojo’s distant past, probably under the IKO, I’m guessing, it could be the same day. So, after ten rounds of kumite, the ichi kyu may have to do the kata walk and break boards. Sensei seems to be planning something more along those lines, substituting a rigorous cardio work-out for kumite.
All the ichi kyus, after the dojo’s closure, have been teaching a lot over Zoom. None of us, unless we spar with family members, have really been able to practice kumite. Many of our students have little space for kata that travel, since they are doing what they can in bedrooms and living rooms. F, S and I are fortunate to have a back yard, and each other, for practice.
Once the pandemic ends, we hope to schedule a “make-up” ten round kumite match, or, in T’s case and possibly B’s case, a twenty-man or woman fight. I am not certain B will test for Nidan this Saturday, but I suspect she will help judge. I sure hope so. She is sharp.
This morning, I did exercises before cleaning. It was tough! My usual routine of cleaning first must get me moving and help my mind get going. For the next few days, I plan to get up a bit earlier, and start with exercises. Hopefully, by Saturday, F and I will be able to get up early and not have such a shock to the system. The actual test is scheduled early.
I also did jump-rope interval training and practiced the ura katas, along with Tsuki No Kata, Yonsu, and Gekisai Dai and Sho. D took the kids to the orthodontist, so they didn’t practice with me. Doing these kata in sneakers isn’t easy. I have better balance in bare feet. In the evening, I did my second set of exercises.
This week, I will also take some time off work, but not as much as I’d originally hoped. However, given I’ve been on reduced hours, and the reality that we may have more lay-offs, etc., I will work while I can.
Yesterday, we held our usual Sunday planning meeting for the martial arts club. One big topic of discussion: a Zoom sleep-over and movie being planned by the Youth Council. We also had a potential guest instructor join our meeting for a bit, and we spoke with him about teaching over Zoom.
D and I also had a bit of a debate over a story from “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” on Sunday. The story is called “What are you doing?! What are you saying?!” In a nutshell, a Zen master, Mu-nan, wants to give his successor, Shoju, a book containing commentaries from masters going back seven generations. Shoju politely declines the book, saying he is satisfied with the way he received Zen from Mu-nan, which was orally. Mu-nan offers again and Shoju persists. Finally Mu-nan insists, saying Shoju can use the book as a symbol of receiving Zen teachings. Shoju thrusts the book into burning coals as soon as he receives it. Mu-nan shouts, “What are you doing?!” Shoju responds, “What are you saying?!”
Of course the lesson is non-attachment to things, regardless of the age or quality of the thing. I get it. But it’s a hard story to hear in the days when ancient Buddha statues have been dynamited by extremists of other religions. Also, in my American culture, burning books calls up all sorts of bad connotations: censorship, close-minded people, Orwellian societal mind-control–similar to our views of those who blow up ancient statues. Surely, Shoju, knowing that destroying that book would cause pain, could have figured out a way to be free of its possession without setting it on fire?
F and I got up around 6:45 am to check on S. For him, it was the big day: promotion and/or confirmation for junior shodans. I cooked him an egg, packed a snack bag and filled a cooler with ice and bottled waters. F looked up 4th kyu syllabus for him and went over it with him, since he worried about not remembering it properly. I dropped him off at the figure eight park. Some kids were already running down the dirt path. While S joined them, I deposited his cooler and snack bag under a tree along the strip. I went home. In the car, I realized I’d forgotten to put sunscreen in his bag. Given how early it was, I hoped he would not need it.
F and I went back to bed for an hour. Promotion began at 7:00 am. I texted him at 8:30, to see if he needed anything (like sunscreen.) Closer to 9:00am, he answered to ask for a ride home. When I arrived, he was drinking a Gatorade from a friend, relaxing on the grass with his good buddies, N and G. L’s mom was there; NG, who is part of the Club’s planning group, arrived to pick up her son and his friend. I snapped a few photos of the kids.
S did well but, as soon as the test ended, he felt nauseous. Gatorade helped with that. He was perky by the time I arrived.
When we arrived home, I set up both computers: one in the yard and another in the dining room. F monitored while Sensei taught. Sensei asked me to lead kihon. I did. I planned to have us do twenties, until I heard that T and TF’s son, a very accomplished young karateka who had attended this morning’s promotion, was there in class! He impressed all of us with his tenacity and dedication. In his honor, I alternated twenties and tens during kihon, instead of doing straight twenties for everything. So as not to exhaust him further, we only did 10 of the kicking exercises and those done in kiba dachi. I did a little instructing, too. F, however, did a good job of catching problems. Sensei instructed, watched and gave everyone feedback. It was so nice to have in him class!
At the end of class, Sensei spoke about his interest in the “grandfather” of karate, Kung Fu. His own teacher in that style had an interesting comment, that Sensei shared with us: his teacher regards Japanese karate highly, but only has one issue with it: it emphasizes the “hard” arts and places less emphasis on the “softer” arts; for balance, we need these too.
While Sensei was telling us this, almost as if to emphasize his teacher’s point, he was caring for a bonsai.
Both F and S had studied bonsai with Sensei. This one actually belongs to our Senpai M, who had moved to New York. F has been caring for it.
Back in 2017, Sensei and his bonsai students put together a show. I’ll close with a couple pictures of Sensei’s bonsai, because he is truly a master.
And one more, just because I love the little Buddha statue under one of Sensei’s bonsai trees.
It seems appropriate to give Lao Tzu the last word, since he wrote about softness and hardness in Tao Te Ching . (According to Wikipedia, there’s some debate over authorship, compilation of the work and dates.) (Oh, and if you want a modern yet poetic recent translation of Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin’s translation is fantastic, and available over Amazon. I’m using publicly available sources, but I highly recommend her version.)
Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness. — Lao Tsu
Yesterday I took a late, long lunch for the workout in the figure eight park. The kids and I met Sensei and several of the youth who will be promoting tomorrow. We spread ourselves out on the green and wore masks.
On Sensei’s order, we ran relays, in sets of ten, to a marker in less than twelve seconds, I think. Then he lowered the time to about nine seconds. Anyone who needed more time would have to run another lap. We ran to the mark, then walked back. After each timed run, we had about thirty seconds to recuperate. During the second set, we had somewhat more time but could not stop moving until we’d reached the marker and returned to our starting position. In essence, he’d doubled the distance we had to run without doubling the time. Our starting position was in line with a tree where a lady sat with her dog.
Sensei noted that the dog looked like Benji. The kids had no idea what he was talking about, but the few grown-ups there, like me, knew exactly who he meant. Just in case you don’t:
Apparently, according to this video, it’s been remastered and you can purchase it! But for some history, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benji
Benji is totally seventies. And I must admit that the dog next to the lady under the tree did look just like the famed Benji from the seventies.
But back to to running relays: so the longer distance required a slightly different strategy: I took maybe two more seconds to run to the original mark and then jogged back.
It was really hot in the afternoon sun, which made the whole workout all the more strenuous. He started us out, by the way, with sixty tricep push-ups, sit-ups and squats, done as quickly as we could manage. We did the exercises before running relays. Afterwards, we practiced high rank kata, then ran the basic ones, including the kicking kata. Finally, we went over shodan and nidan syllabi. He asked for requests, so we ran Kanku for Senpais N and B, our highest ranking members. Here’s a video of Kanku published by the école TajRif de Karaté kyokushin Tetouan:
It is a beautiful kata, and one I do not know. I kept my distance and stumbled along. Also, given all the kata I do need to know for Saturday in a week, I resolved not to worry about it. But once I have the shodan test behind me, I’d love to really learn this kata.
We also ran the bo staff katas without bos, so that was interesting! And challenging.
In the evening, I went back to work and worked until about 8:45pm. I really did not want to do my remaining forty exercises. I even went as far as asking my daughter F, who is actually my Senpai in karate since she started over a year earlier than me, if I could skip.
She asked if I’d had enough water, worried I might be a bit dehydrated after that workout. So she told me to drink more water and dodged the question. I persisted. She suggested tackling the easier exercises first, and leave off push-ups if I was that tired.
F was willing to let me off, but her hedging and the fact that I even felt like I needed to ask permission were all signs that I really should do the exercises. I was about nine days out from my own test. I took her suggestion, had a bit of water, and tackled squats and sit-ups first. Once those were done, I felt good, and tackled the remaining chest push-ups. Funny how much resistance the mind can put up to something that really took little time. Forty is, after all, less than half of one hundred!
This morning, I did exercises right after making a coffee. I went out and bought bottled water for tomorrow’s junior promotion, and I texted Jessica.
We have karate class tonight. The junior promotion tomorrow will be early in the morning.
For some reason, I was more tired than usual today. I had really vivid dreams, though. My sister and I were staying with cousins in Beebe, Arkansas. Our oldest cousin was pregnant in the dream, and we were celebrating. C, my sister, had built a kind of wind chime out of string and an umbrella. She spun it. I untangled the strings from the spokes, while it was moving. In the dream, I was so fast, I could do it, and just like in the Matrix, the spokes of the spinning umbrella appeared slow enough for me to straighten the string attached to chimes. I credit my super-dream speed to karate.
Dreaming of a childhood home, though, usually makes me introspective. Interrupted sleep, which probably makes the memory of dreams possible, is, most likely, the tired factor.
Nevertheless, I did exercises this morning and after work. During the forty chest push-ups in the morning, (following the required sixty tricep ones), I went to my knees early, after fewer than fifteen. Yesterday I had managed to stay up for half. Once again, I used pebbles to keep up with the count for one hundred sit-ups, and that worked out better today: no long pauses, and it kept me on track. What is there to say about squats with alternating punches, other than I’m still doing them? In the evening, I did manage to stay on my toes and fists for the sixty chest push-ups, but as soon as I was on the mat to do the forty tricep ones, I went to my knees early, too. I did not do regular sit-ups but my usual lower ab exercises.
I asked my husband, right after the second set of push-ups, “When do you think this will get easier? I’ve been doing this for a year, and it’s still not easy.” He had no answer. To be fair, I supposed doing twenty push-ups is easier now than a year ago. Actually I’m not certain about that: hopefully I’m at least faster.
I am still reading a tale from “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” before bed. Last night’s tale was interesting, and short. A monk named Gasan said, “Those who preach against killing any sentient being are right…. What of those who kill time…. [And] what of the one who preaches without enlightenment? He is killing Buddhism!”
My life has been non-stop karate for roughly four days, but as an ichi kyu just days out from my test, that’s appropriate. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
I did exercises this morning. In order to keep track of sit-ups, since I messed up the count yesterday morning, I held 5 little stones in each hand and dropped one after each set of ten. At first, the actual dropping of stones probably gave me too much of a rest as I figured out the logistics, but it did help me keep the count.
During class, I did forty push-ups, sit-ups and squats, so I only had to do sixty afterwards. At ten o’clock at night, I did my last sets of sixty.
During my lunch break, I practiced my bo staff kata and my two ura katas, along with Saifa. F has an exam tomorrow, and her second summer school class has started, so she didn’t practice with me. Yesterday, however, she was a trooper.
Tonight, Senpai TJ taught with DJ as our monitor. My son S and I setup the older laptop outside on a table in the back yard. We also have a flood light set up to turn on, once it gets dark. We have a flood light because, long ago, my my husband bought it to use as a night time light for a short film he worked on years ago.
During class, Senpai covered Gekisai Dai. Initially, S and I seemed to be on different sides from each other the whole time, but we figured it out by the time Senpai called on us to demonstrate. Once we were spotlighted on Zoom, we got it together.
Here’s an awesome video posted by karate35, that I often use as reference for that kata:
We also had a guest instructor join us, but for observation. He is the father of one of F’s buddies from choir. Several months back, Sensei invited him to teach a self-defense class, and it was cool to learn techniques from a different style.
I called him last night. He wanted to check out our Zoom classes. He had no idea about teaching over Zoom, however, so I suggested he observe a class.
Initially he had trouble because he was not terribly familiar with Zoom. DJ let him into the class, but we weren’t sure at first who he was. His video and sound were off and he showed up under a strange name. He couldn’t chat us or figure out how to unmute to speak to us. DJ, cautious, sent him to the waiting room. I texted him on my cell. He confirmed that he was, in fact, our mystery guest, so we let him back in. By the end of the class, he figured out how to turn on his video and unmute his microphone. After class, he talked with a few of us, and confided that this was his first Zoom session ever!
After speaking with our guest instructor, Senpais SF and T graciously offered to go over promotion requirements with S and myself. We drilled shodan syllabus as well as first kyu. I accidentally kicked S during the spin kicks at the end. Later, S somehow got me on the head while practicing one of the kata. At some point, we stayed far enough away from each other to have enough space to work, and far enough back from the computer that we could still be seen on camera.
Afterwards, we practiced several kata. I’m embarrassed to admit I could not remember Pinan Sono San during lunch. I had to look it up, so I asked Senpais to review that one.
Senpai TF has recently injured her rotator cuff, so we talked abut that for a bit. Sensei had warned me not to go too low for push-ups, and to keep my elbows in, in order to hit the triceps. During one of our recent training sessions with him, he had each of us (F, S and me) demonstrate how low we go, to make sure we were not going low enough to irritate the shoulder joints.
I shared that information with TF. I suspect her push-ups are too deep. Initially, when you stop going low, it feels like cheating. However, if you keep your elbows tucked in and you stop just before your elbows line up with the bottom of your rib cage, you can work those triceps well without injuring your shoulders. That, at least, is the idea.
Soon, the kids and I will veg out and watch an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation. It’s not as funny as Buffy, but still entertaining.
This morning, I got in my exercises. I focused on the shodan requirements: sixty knuckle, “tricep” push-ups on my toes, one hundred squats and one hundred sit-ups. I also did my usual forty “chest” push-ups on the mat, and was able to stay on my toes for about twenty. For sit-ups, I decided to do them like I will need to for the test: one hundred straight, and not mixing in other kinds of ab exercises. I lost track of the count. Honestly I was worried that might happen. This evening, I do sixty “chest” push-ups on my knuckles then move to a mat for forty tricep ones, and it was hard to do any of the last forty on my toes. I did my usual mix of lower abs, however, instead of regular sit-ups.
During lunch, F and I did intervals and alternated jump rope with other things, like jumping jacks or burpees. Burpees are hard. I suspect we will be doing those for our test, since Sensei warned it would include some Tabata training. Afterwards, we practiced kata.
Friday night’s class went well: Senpais T and TF taught. T is an excellent instructor, as well as TF. They are a real karate power family. Sensei taught on Saturday. He covered both the shodan and nidan syllabi. I really needed to practice those, but I admit that the hook heel kicks, particularly since you need to execute them then bring your foot back to the starting pose, require significant skill. I sure hope I can grow into those, but I have my doubts. This middle-aged body of mine finds high kicks challenging, let alone hook or spin kicks.
Saturday afternoon, after karate class, Sensei also held a seminar on the history of our dojo, karate politics, and basically running a dojo. It was very useful; we also discovered we have a colorful history. The Burbank dojo had links to both Don Buck, who established his own style, and, through Shihan Brian Bastien, Shihan Bobby Lowe.
On Sunday, we had our usual organizational planning meeting. Tonight we also met to go over the teaching schedule.
I see F pacing the hallway, probably waiting for me to finish up here.
Though meditation week is over for me, I want to close on some notes I made about meditation from Friday. I wrote about how the days felt like they were running together. Perhaps this is because the days are so alike during quarantine, or because I’m getting older, and simply experiencing time differently?
I certainly value time differently. What is the value of ten minutes? Ten minutes to write or meditate, or minutes to talk with grandparents and children over the dinner table; ten minutes to find a good place for a plant, and put it in the ground; ten minutes do to exercises (or a bit more); ten minutes to text a good friend or relative, just to check in. Ten minutes can mean so much: peace, accomplishment, connection, rest, recognizing beauty.
