KENBUKAI
dojo
A Bit of History:
Mr East started training in
Shukokai karate under the first South African champion Sensei Dunlop Paul in
1974.
Dunlop sensei was really the
inspiration for all his further training and owes all to Dunlop for passing on
the knowledge and desire for more knowledge.
Sensei Shigeru Kimura was
spending a lot of time in Johannesburg in those days, teaching Shukokai karate
and kenjutsu and the enthusiasm for the use of the Samurai sword stemmed from
those heady days of intense and long hours of training which included aikido
Kenkyukai also based in the same dojo.
Many years of using machetes,
sickles, axes, scythes and billhooks for their relevant use in farming and tree
husbandry have helped develop the
martial spirit and respect for edged weapons and the body’s natural weapons and
martial philosophy, which in his opinion only the Japanese systems seem to
truly satisfy. The discovery of Sensei Dunlop's dojo was the start of a very
long and exciting journey.
On his return to London in
1976 he started his own club teaching alone until joining the British Sankukai
Karate Association under Nambu sensei. ‘Chowakan’ (House of Harmony), chaired
and founded by Sensei Professor Roger Mills (then) 4th Dan. He progressed to
Sandan in Sankukai karatedo then on to Rokudan in Shitoryu Karatedo but
continued to practice Shinkendo, kenjutsu and battojutsu plus nunchaku, bo,
tanto and sai privately.
The relationship with Sensei
Roger Mills 8th dan and his association with Sensei Nambu and Sensei
Kenji Kusano Hachidan, based in
This style Mr East found was
more involved and interesting than hitherto as it included aikido and jujutsu
theory and techniques which suited his need for a full system as opposed to the
normal somewhat fragmented approach, due to schools breaking off to concentrate
only on certain areas of tuition and there getting stuck.
After moving to Somerset in
1979 he opened another school teaching first Sankukai then Shitoryu karate and
attained the rank of Rokudan with the British Shitoryu Karate Association in
2007. He has two BSKA karate clubs (
His love of kenjutsu led him
to discover Soke Toshishiro Obata in 1987 and he studied his works privately
until good fortune allowed him to train with him in Paris in October 2000 and
again in Amsterdam in 2002 and also with other Shinkendo sensei such as Brent
Hire sensei, since.
Somerset Budokai ideals:
Mr East believes that he will
never stop learning or striving for improvement and hopes that his students
will spend as much time, if not more, thinking about techniques as they do
physically practicing them and that they give themselves time to reflect on
their training. To ‘see’ basic techniques in advanced and many bunkai, without
deviating from the teaching could be approaching an understanding of the art.
Students must include in all their training: solo practice of techniques, pair
practice, kata, impact or cutting and kumite (free fighting) or tachiuchi.
He also believes that every
practitioner and instructor should have a single mentor or constant and
reliable source of further instruction and knowledge and testing so as not to
go stale or lose interest and not to get confused by cross training (Fighting
styles from other cultures or other styles of Karate or forms of Japanese
swordsmanship).
A student in any martial art
who cross trains could be giving insult to their Sensei and if they feel an
inadequacy in the teaching, they should consider joining another association
but on the other hand a knowledge of other styles and martial arts does has great
value and this should be discussed with your sensei.
Neither Shitoryu Karatedo nor
Shinkendo are 'fight cultures' which he believes is degrading to the spirit,
but something wholly positive and much further reaching than the obvious
martial abilities, which in themselves are unmatched in depth of hard won
technique and strategy. There is more to martial arts than just ‘fight
ability’. Follow the martial way.
Thankyou for showing me the
way…… Arigato gozaimashita
Dunlop Paul sensei, Neale
Quilliam, Kimura sensei, Kenji Kusano sensei, Roger Mills sensei, Brent Hire
Sensei, Toshishiro Obata sensei, Ryozo Tsukada sensei …and also my students
through the years.
Just a
thought:
How does a
student of the martial ways know if he is over confident or too self
denegrating when he thinks of his ability. Should he compare himself with
others or should he think about it at all? His teacher constantly reproves and
corrects him and it is wrong to praise a student of martial ways and wrong for
a student to accept praise, for fear of pride, which we all know comes before a
fall.
Praise, a
modern concept in the martial arts, seeping in with the constant need for
instructors to keep their students fed on a diet of ‘feel good’, in order to
retain numbers in the dojo for financial benefit. It seems to fly in the face
of the actual seriousness of the teaching given by dedicated instructors. A
soldier preparing to fight a real battle has no such baggage or illusions.
The
question actually is; why do we want to become proficient in a martial art at
all? Is it because we know we will with luck, never have to use it to defeat a
real opponent?