3. Miyagi and Kyoda (B)

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By Graham Noble

There are some nice old studio photographs of the young Juhatsu Kyoda and Chojun Miyagi showing karate techniques. They must come from sometime in the early 1900s, when both were still studying with Kanryo Higaonna. Only three photographs seem to exist: Joe Swift noted that they were taken at the Naminoue Photographic Studio in Naha and that there were originally twelve photos in the series. If that is true then it is a great pity that nine have been lost: we could have learned so much from them.

Anyway, in the three photos that we do have both men are dressed in shorts, which must have been the training wear in those days. One photo shows Kyoda and Miyagi in what may be a kind of preparatory position for some kind of sparring or joint-hands exercise. Another shows Miyagi blocking a kick and punch and countering with his own front kick, and in a third Miyagi has taken Kyoda down with a leg grab. These last two techniques, incidentally, reappear in later photos of Miyagi teaching: the double block and kick appears in a 1920s dojo photo, in a photo of training at the Okinawa Karate Club, and in a photo of teaching at a school. The leg takedown technique also appears in the Kenkyu club and school teaching photos. That shows an interesting continuity in Miyagi’s practice.

That first photo of Kyoda and Miyagi facing each other in right stances with wrists in contact is intriguing, This position is usually presented without comment, but what does it show, and why do both men have their right fists in an ipponken (one knuckle) formation? Juhatsu Kyoda’s senior post-war student, Shigekazu Kanzaki, in an interview with Mario McKenna, was referring to this photograph when he said: “From this stance all techniques of attacking and defending were practiced.”

Kanzaki also told Mario that “Kyoda Sensei did not teach prearranged sparring. Instead of prearranged sparring, Juko Sensei (Kyoda’s son) and I would practice free sparring. This method involved placing your right wrist on the right wrist of your partner while both of you took a right forward stance. The left fist was held at the waist. Kyoda Sensei would stand between us and hold both of our fists down and we would wait for our chance. It is exactly like the start of Japanese sumo. You looked for your chance and with a shout ‘Ha!’ the sparring would start. In other words, (Kyoda’s) To-on Ryu is a style that favours close in fighting and using techniques at an extremely close distance. Therefore we do not do prearranged sparring where an attack comes and you block in a certain manner.” That photo of Kyoda and Miyagi, then, seems to show an old form of free sparring training which, however, never worked its way down to Goju Ryu.

Incidentally, when Choki Motobu’s son Chosei was over in England in 199x with his assistant Takeji Inaba, during the course of a discussion they stood up to show a few techniques (including the principle of meotode, which, in the context of Motobu karate means both hands working together), and they took up this crossed-forearms position – which Chosei explained, I think, as a preparatory position for kumite - and showed a few attacks and counters from there. I noted this, and I just assumed it was an old practice method, but unfortunately I never asked any more about it, where it came from, and what place it occupied in training.

In fact, this crossed-wrists positioniis was also illustrated and described in Kenwa Mabuni’s 1935 “KarateDo Nyumon”. It is shown as figure 41 and accompanied by the following explanation, (translation Mario McKenna):

“Like kendo, where opponents cross blades, in kake-te, partners face each other and cross their forearms at the wrist and just below the thumb) . . . . From this position neither partner knows what will happen next. In Okinawa, people did kake-dameshi with each other to test their skills (that is, crossing their fists in the kake-te position). It was thought that by just crossing the forearms and looking at the opponent, you could know whether he was skilled or not. When both men were ready something like ‘ready’ or ‘go’ would start the fight.

“ . . . Figure 41 show the kake-dameshi posture. The person on the right side holds his left fist close to his right elbow. This posture is referred to as ‘meotode’ or ‘in-yo kamae’ and allows you to switch your technique rapidly.

“Figure 42 shows defending against an opponent’s attack by parrying with your forearm, grabbing and pressing it down, and punching his ribs. Figure 43 shows countering with an elbow strike. Both examples show the practical application of training with the kakete-hiki.“ (This section of the book, incidentally, is included in the section on training and conditioning tools, including the kake-te-hiki, the kind of primitive “wooden man” which includes a wooden “arm” to practise grabbing and pulling).

It’s interesting that these old Miygi/Kyoda photos show applications rather than the solo practice of kata technique. That could indicate that specific applications or practical fighting techniques were taught by Kanyro Higaonna, although in their later teaching both Kyoda and Miyagi didn’t seem to have gone into much detail, if any, in teaching practical applications. Kyoda was said to have passed down Higaonna’s teachings pretty much unchanged but Kyoda student Shigekazu Kanazaki told Mario McKenna that “With respect to kata when I was learning, it was up to the student to study and find what techniques were in the kata and how to use them. Kyoda Sensei never explained directly what the meaning of a technique in a kata was.” When Mario then queried: “Kyoda Sensei never taught the meaning of a technique?” Kanazaki replied “Almost never. It was up to the student to figure it out. We would practice by ourselves and then show Kyoda Sensei what we thought the technique could mean. If he wasn’t satisfied, he would tell us to go and practice and investigate the technique more. But, by studying and researching karate techniques his way, your body soon learns and remembers it.” The only exception to this that Kanzaki could remember was a technique in Sanseru which Kyoda had to explain. It was “one part of Sanseru that I couldn’t figure out for the life of me,” Kanazaki recalled.

So in those old photographs of Miyagi and Kyoda showing techniques, maybe the couple of applications shown had been worked out by Kyoda and Miyagi themselves, and in fact, that may be why the techniques appear again in the later photographs of Miyagi teaching - but again, we have no idea, really, it’s another puzzle.

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