Itosu Yasutsune - 'The Most Powerful Punch of all Time'

In 1905, Itosu the Okinawan karate master defeated a Japanese judoka less than half his age. He had reached the seventy-fifth year of his life. An old man ready for the grave. Yet there were still those who wished to steal the old master's fame by defeating him at a time when his physical powers had visibly waned. While his physical strength had undeniably diminished, his will recontented as strong as a lion: a tribute to his late teacher, Bushi Matsumura. To some, the outcome of the match proved that Okinawan karate was more than a match for Japanese judo. Judo was derived from the feudal Japanese martial arts. There were many Japanese and Okinawan officials attending the match.

Itosu had been challenged by a Japanese policeman. This particular policeman also happened to be a judo champion. Itosu at first declined the challenge, citing a number of good reasons. He was involved in teaching in the schools and he explained his reluctance to use what he considered first and foremost a killing art, for a mere sporting display. However, Japanese political pressure forced the old master to demonstrate his skill.

A large crowd - both Okinawan and Japanese - had gathered to see the match. Cultural chauvinism reared its ugly head. All of Itosu's students were present. It was to be a living lesson for them, one that they would carry to their graves. The younger man entered the ring and tried to make a fool of the old Okinawan. He thought to have an easy time of it. He grabbed Itosu's gi, attempting to apply a hold on the aged karateka. Someone shouted. The Japanese froze. Itosu's response was immediate. He drove his hard old fist into the stomach of the Japanese with sufficient force to render him nearly unconscious. The blow had been accompanied by the kiai - the fighting shout of the Okinawan martial arts, in which air is suddenly expelled from the lungs by a hard rapid contraction of the stomach muscles. The judo man writhed helplessly in pain at Itosu's feet. Taking pity on him, Itosu applied a kiatsu, a first aid application by pressing one of the shiatsu points, and relieved him. Right until the end of his life, Itosu always contenttained that karate was a matter of character and not pugilistic skills. This demonstrated the exceptional power of karate on both a mental and physical level. The audience left with this firmly etched in their minds.

The Japanese began to take karate seriously after that demonstration of power in the punch of a seventy-five year old man. The event became well known. It sent ripples through the martial arts world. Karate began to expand its horizon. From being a secluded art, it came into the open. Public demonstrations took place with regular frequency resulting in invitations to the Okinawan practitioners by prominent Japanese officials or thinkers. In this way, karate spread throughout Japan and became accepted in the closed world of the Japanese martial arts. Now karate began to take its place along with kendo or judo.

But if the punch had failed - then what? Karate would have been discredited. Itosu would have been humiliated. All Okinawan karate would have received a numbing blow from which it might never have recovered.

The time for expansion was right. In 1905 the Japanese had defeated the Russians in a naval battle at Pt. Arthur. One of Funakoshi's instructors, Azato - no mean student of geopolitics, had predicted the conflict before it happened. Feelings of self-congratulatory nationalism ran high in Japan. The martial arts were not left unaffected. They were seen as evidence of Japanese cultural achievements and in keeping with the samurai past of which the pre-WWII Japanese were so proud. Judo and Kendo were a reflection of that past.

If karate could do this for an obscure 75-year old man, then the benefits for young men would be far greater.

Itosu's victory had startled the Japanese and impressed them sufficiently to allow karate into Japan. More than that, it gained a secure new home and the admiration of many Japanese. In Okinawa itself, karate was sufficiently well thought of to incorporate it into the national school system. This had been accomplished in 1902. What the end result would have been if Itosu had lost is a matter for speculation. Stung by defeat, Okinawan school officials might have withdrawn karate from the school system and replaced it with tried and proven judo!

All the various schools of Okinawa might have perished for lack of interest. Shorin-Ryu, Goju-Ryu and Uechi Ryu - schools of regional influence - might have been left with only a handful of martial artists with which to carry on their traditions of the past. There would have been an exodus of young men to Japan for judo instruction. They would have returned to Okinawa fully convinced that they had been shown a superior art.

No less a personage than Crown Prince Hirohito had witnessed a demonstration of karate in the great hall of Shuri Castle in Okinawa. Although this event took place in 1921 - and Itosu had died in 1915 - his spirit was much alive in Okinawa. It could be seen in the teachings of Funakoshi, and other Okinawans who had been trained. Itosu had gained a reputation in his long life that had brought him fame throughout the length and breadth of Okinawa. Although no tavern brawler himself, he had nevertheless emerged victorious from a number of conflicts which had been thrust upon him.

There are stories demonstrating his strength and courage. How he had wrestled a bull to the ground; defeated club wielding town bullies as the 'challenger's rock', breaking the local champion's arm; took on a trio of armed bandits in the forest while himself unarmed, rendering them hors de combat, breaking one bandit's neck after disarming him, kicking one in the face and another one in the crotch. Stories abound about how he had punched through a thick wooden panel of his house gate to grab a sneak thief who had tried to unlock it from without.

In feats of daring demanding raw courage and great strength, he took after his master "bushi" Matsumura, who also had to overcome many hurdles in his growth as a great martial artist. Like Itosu, Matsumura had been apprenticed as a small boy to a superb martial artist - in Matsumura's case - Tode Sakugawa. His father had taken the boy there to serve his apprenticeship under the master. From generation to generation the tradition continued with little thought of making an impression on the outside world. The great martial artists were indifferent to fame and fortune. Inner achievement was more valued than outward success. In this they followed the path of Buddhism which also stressed the superiority of the inner life and the folly of the world at large.

In Okinawa the martial arts had thrived for centuries, but they had been regional of nature rarely displayed outside the island. Itosu had broken through that. But it had not been his intent to gain fame for himself. He did it out of an inner sense of duty. Not pride. The next generation of Okinawan martial artists would reap the reward. But if Itosu had lost his fight with the Japanese policeman, martial arts in Okinawa might well have returned to their regional roots - perhaps something quaint to be sought after by Japanese tourists to the island.

Karate would have recontented an Okinawan curiosity and would have recontented as Shuri-te and Naha-te instead of branching out to become Goju-Ryu, Uechi-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu and Shoto-kan in Japan, where Funakoshi taught. Although Funakoshi did not call it that, his students gave it that name to signify that karate had become Japanese.

Gichin Funakoshi came to Japan in the 1920s, standing on the shoulders of the Okinawan masters before him. He was carrying on a tradition of service. The Japanese understood this. And that is why Jigiro Kano, the Judo master, asked him to stay in Tokyo and teach at the Kodokan - the judo academy - as an equal. Itosu's punch in 1905 had opened the doors. We might ask ourselves what Itosu's state of mind was when he met the Japanese challenger. Itosu was well aware of his age and the problems that old age brings to the human body. But he had lived his life on a knife's edge and physical danger or the fear of physical danger was not a new experience for him. It might be said that he lived karate. It had become a way of life, a means to achieve complete security and fearlessness: "To put the body under complete control of the mind..." had been the aim of his training and he had lived his life that way. Although his physical powers were rapidly declining, he had enough strength of will and body to win the match. Itosu understood fear and how powerful an illusion it can be and trap the individual's mind in its snares until he finds himself incapable of acting.

A story comes to mind of how Matsumura had used a challenger's fear of ghosts as a means of defeating him. He, as the challenged party, had picked a deserted graveyard as a place to meet his enemy. The mist, the unearthly silence, the darkness and rows of tombs had unnerved the challenger so that he was already broken in spirit before Matsumura announced his presence.

The ancient purpose of the martial arts is to learn the control the emotions. To learn to overcome fear, regret, anger - all of the fierce drives that are part of biological ancestry. In their own way, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism all taught the same lesson. Overcoming the emotions doesn't mean leaving them behind, because that is impossible. As long as you draw a breath you can't divorce yourself from your own life-force. It means to master them as a falconer would master a fierce hawk. To train oneself in self mastery until the emotions are tightly leashed and under control and not to fly away at the first sign of danger or provocation. To learn to accept the conditions of human existence as they are without regret, but to attempt to change them the best way we can.

Karate expresses these ideas in action. Karate is a martial art that emphasizes self-improvement and self- motivation. The movements that make up the exercises are repeated with concentration and utmost precision until the practitioner can execute the movements as flawlessly as is humanly possible. On a physical level it requires agility, strength and speed; but equally important, mentally it demands dedication to the goal of perfection.

An older source explains this point. There are sources that claim that Daruma (Japanese form of Buddhidarma) taught his followers yoga exercises along with nutrition so that they wouldn't fall by the wayside. In one of the later Japanese sources he is said to have told them:

"Although the way of Buddha is preached for the soul, the body and soul are inseparable. You will not complete your training because of exhaustion. I shall give you a method by which you can develop your physical strength enough to enable yourselves to attain the essence of the way of Buddha."

Practice had to be contenttained at all times, even if no one was watching or supervising. One had to practice for oneself. The Okinawan masters followed this advice. Itosu Yasutsune was a living embodiment of this lesson. Funakoshi was to remember in later years the discussion that took place between masters Itosu and his instructor, Azato, concerning the spiritual as well as the bodily aspect of the martial art.

Karate has always been more than punching and kicking. Master Azato was a highly skilled fencer of the Jinen school of kendo. He brought this knowledge to his art and proved it by defeating unarmed one of the master swordsmen of Okinawa, Yorin Karma, who was armed with a wooden sword, a formidable weapon in the hands of an expert. Kanna himself was well read in the Chinese Classics and in Japanese. No mean accomplishment for a mere swordsman. The martial artists of Okinawa, no matter what their style or school, were always more than skilled pugilists.

Azato advised his students to think of their arms and legs as swords and to fight this way. That is why he had been able to defeat Master Kanno. The sword of course was more than just a weapon - it was a symbol of strength and purity and humility. The Code of bushido made this plain. He told Funakoshi to understand his opponent, to read his character and to see inside him and thereby be able to predict how he will fight. Azato quoted the old Chinese adage, "The secret of victory is to know both yourself and your enemy."

As Funakoshi tells it: the Okinawan masters were great men. They did not suffer from petty jealousies. Both encouraged their students to seek out as many instructors as possible and to learn from each what they could. And each master taught their students the best way that he could. Itosu, of medium stature, was exceptionally strong. He had trained his body so that it could withstand any blow and he encouraged his students to train the same way. He proved it often I enough with those foolish enough to assault him and thereby gain a quick reputation by beating a well-known karate master. But Itosu merely shrugged their punches away and made it plain to them how easily he could have injured them. Both Azato and Itosu were kind men who went out of their way to avoid a confrontation, unless of course it was a question of honour. Then they stood like a rock.

Itosu carried on Matsumura's legacy. Itosu believed in training the body and hardening it so that it could withstand any human blow and endure high levels of pain. He also taught the importance of mobility, the ability to control the I breath, even under great bodily and mental stress, and exercises to calm both mind and body.

As a young man on a journey to Naha city to see the bullfighting, he encountered a fierce exemplar of that species which had broken loose. The animal was large, frightened and dangerous, intending to maim the bystanders. The crowd scattered before the stampeding animal, each man intent on getting away. Itosu walked straight into the path of the bull. The bull, peculiar to his kind, charged head down. Itosu sidestepped the sweep of the sharp horns and then he twisted the bull's neck and ran alongside the enraged creature until it tired and dropped. Itosu contenttained his iron grip until the beast had been subdued. Word of Itosu's feat drew challengers who wished to test themselves against him.

In Naha city, travelers that passed through could find a large rock called Ude-kake-shi. At that rock those individuals who wished to test their martial skills against one another appeared. Slapping the rock had the same effect as throwing down the gauntlet had in Europe among the war-like nobility, centuries before.

A formal challenge consisted of a challenger striding up the rock and slapping it as he threw out his challenge. Acceptance of the challenge meant placing one's hand on the rock. At the time of Itosu's journey (1856), Tomoyose was the unconquered champion of Naha city. He boasted, and so did his adherents and supporters, that Naha was more than the equal of Shuri, Itosu's home town. The issue became a heated one and the two martial artists decided to meet and let the outcome be decided by force of arms. Itosu met Tomoyose and defeated him. The incident is said to have taken place the following way. Itosu thinking he might be outmatched, decided to get it over with as quickly as possible, before his courage deserted him; for the great Tomoyose had a formidable reputation. He had broken many challengers. Steeling himself, Itosu walked quickly up to the rock and slapped it hard.

There! Done! Now no way out but to fight. Those must have been the thoughts in his mind. Also, his supporters were losing confidence in the brash young challenger from Shuri. Did he really think to defeat the experienced, ruthless, hard as nails Tomoyose? The man that stepped up to him left no more room for doubt.

Tomoyose was a big man and he knew how to use his weight to his advantage. He was swift, powerful and had a good sense of balance from training for many years. He had knocked out many a challenger. He would remove this newest threat to his crown immediately.

With the supreme self-confidence of the experienced fighter he stepped up to Itosu and threw a hard punch. But it never reached its target, or the history of Okinawan martial arts would have turned out differently. While Tomoyose's punch was still traveling to its intended target, Itosu, the challenger from Shuri, threw three punches so hard and fast to Tomoyose's head that to those watching they seemed to be one. It was the old one, two, three! Tomoyose's knees gave way and he hit the ground without knowing it. He was out cold. Itosu had won. Or so it seemed.

A couple of Tomoyose's pals decided to even the score for their fallen champion's sake. They had a couple of clubs with them just to make sure Itosu didn't have things all his way. Itosu didn't wait. Before they closed that critical distance Itosu made his move. He moved to the right just in time. the club came whistling down at his forearm with bone breaking force.

Itosu stopped it cold, using both hands in a reinforced block. He didn't wait to see the results. The second aggressor was coming up behind him. Itosu leaned over and rammed his back foot out sideways kicking harder than a mule. He hit the second man's chin hard enough to knock it back between his ears. His feet flipped out from under him and he was rendered unconscious: But the first assailant was still in the picture. Itosu had grabbed the first rowdy's arm with the club to keep from being brained. Still holding on to it, Itosu moved his rear leg back into a solid position and jammed the instep of his other foot into the club wielder's groin. He went down with a great deal of pain. Itosu had dispatched all three of them. Since he was still young he asked for any more takers. There was one. He turned out to be bigger than the three before. This was the real Tomoyose.

He swaggered up to Itosu playing up to the Naha crowd. Both fighters slapped the rock then moved in on each other. Tomoyose threw a punch to kill an ox. Itosu blocked and chopped down with the knife edger of his hand - the so called shuto. Something cracked. Was it Itosu's hand? Itosu didn't wait. He slid sideways and out of range of a second punch. The crowd gasped. Itosu had broken their champion's arm. It hung down at his side like a broken wing. Shuri had defeated Naha. Itosu was capable of controlling his fear under all conditions. That is why Matsumura accepted him as a student and trained him. Fear is on of the strongest emotions. It is caused by impending danger to the self. In extreme cases it is the threat of termination of life to any physical being. The presence of such a threat to humans often leads to moral collapse. In Okinawa, as well as in Japan, the martial artist faced the same palpable threat to his existence: the fear of personal destruction.

"The samurai knew this and patterned his behavior and training to put an end to fear, especially the fear of death. He reasoned that if he could overcome the fear of death he could overcome the other forms of fear."

In the martial arts the fear of physical confrontation is the strongest there is. Fear of impending pain is something that only constant practice can eradicate. Learning to take a blow from an opponent is a capability that is acquired through long mental and physical training. Physical conditioning, combined with the toughening of the mind, is the art that the Okinawan masters practice in previous centuries.

Far Eastern martial culture advocated conquest of fear and self ego. Interest in self-conquest passed into the martial arts of the Far East. The will to self-negation is paramount in the martial arts. The mind of the martial artist aims at the conquest of the self, bringing all emotions down to an irreducible minimum.

You cannot feel two emotions at the same time. The stronger one always takes over. The martial arts understood from the very beginning that the fear of death was the greatest barrier to progress and self-knowledge. Therefore the aim in the martial arts was to overcome the fear of death. This created the phenomena of the state of mind, of concentrated attention and a reflective concentration.

The martial artist does not confuse anticipatory anxiety with fear. He separates them.. He does not look to external sources but looks within his own mind and soul. Itosu is an outstanding example of this aspect of the martial arts: the ability to change the external world by bringing forth changes from within. Itosu believed in education as a means of bringing about benevolent change in both the individual and society. In this he was probably influenced by Confucianism from the contentland. Chinese ideas had always been current in Okinawa among the upper social strata. It is likely that as a member of the nobility he had as a schoolboy been exposed to them. Because of his faith in the martial arts as a social tool, he helped introduce karate into the Okinawan elementary school system.

Itosu's sensei, the highly respected Bushi Matsumura (so called because he was recognized as one who had attained the old Japanese honorific title of a knight of Bushido - that is to say a member of the military caste) had taught him a true Okinawan kata called Channan, Matsumura believed that those katas in use at the time tended to be unnecessarily complicated in the way they had been put together; and that the student was not learning to move naturally without restraint like an arrow in a straight line.

Richard Kim relates the following experience concerning this matter. When he was in training with his sensei, he was often asked to walk a plank laid flat on the ground, thirty feet long by four inches wide. Thinking no more of the matter he did as he was requested. He had no trouble passing the test. Yet when asked to walk a slightly wider and shorter plank, a mile above~ground somewhere in the mountains, he had to force himself to get across.

What is the lesson in that? The mind must recontent stable under all conditions, regardless of the external circumstances. The Old Romans taught very much the same lesson as does the martial arts today. Mucius Scaevola laid his right hand into the campfire of his enemies the Celts and let it blacken and shrivel as the flesh melted from the bone, smelling his own burning flesh for the honor of Rome. Such a degree of self-discipline was known to the martial arts in the old days. The old masters practiced it every day in their lives. Itosu is a sound example of this. A few of his exploits have already been mentioned.

The story is told the following way. One evening after drinking with a friend, Itosu made his way home. But it was already dark outside and he had to walk through a pine forest. Although it was a full moon he could hardly see because of the lowering sky. In those days Okinawa banditry was a common way for those who fell on hard times to supplement their income and travelers were best off either armed to the teeth or traveling in groups with armed guards. The lonely traveler was a rare thing and often became a casualty, perhaps disappearing in some lonely gorge. Either he lost his life.or his purse. In Itosu's case, the bandits made a mistake. They spotted him walking among the pines without a care in the world and they went for him the way a hawk would for a sparrow.

The bandit leader stood in the martial artist's way demanding ransom for Itosu's unimpeded progress. Itosu, pretending drunken indifference to his danger, noted the arms of his assailants. The one who had accosted him was armed with a sai. The second carried a bo - a staff made of hard wood and often shed with metal at the ends. The third man appeared unarmed. Despite his outward show of indifference Itosu knew he was in peril of his life. He had to apply what he had learned. He recalled his teacher's warning; that when facing more than one enemy who is armed, take care of the one whose weapons pose the greatest and the most immediate danger, then move on to the next one.

Itosu saw the first: bandit throw his arm up and backward ready to throw. Itosu didn't wait. He leaped upward into the overhanging branches of a tree. The sai wielder became confused in the bad light. One moment his target was there and the next moment it wasn't. He hesitated - and that was his fatal mistake. Itosu dropped his full weight down on top of the man knocking him senseless. This was what his training had prepared him for. Without a shred of human pity he broke the bandit's neck with a shuto and took possession of his sai.

The second man attacked with the bo. He dodged and feinted and struck. But Itosu managed to evade his deadly strikes. He knew the bandit was an experienced fighter so he decided to take a gamble. When next the bo-man moved in with a strike Itosu risked his life on the decision that it was a feint. He stood firm and threw the sai. It penetrated the bo-man's chest, killing him instantly. Two men dead at the hands of a drunken, helpless victim. This was too much for the third bandit. His nerve broke and he fled.

Later, at the end of his career, Itosu would be faced with a formidable opponent -younger in years, the Japanese policeman Judoka. As a child he was faced with an opponent older than him. His father, who tied him to a pole and goaded him with a stick until he overcame his fear. Itosu overcame both. The circle was complete.

By Hanshi Gary Legacy

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