Do the victors write much of the history of our arts or the losers?

They say history is written by the victors. And in the old days, that was generally true. Whoever controlled things, decided what the official story would be. But in recent times (especially since the advent of the free press, multi-channel TV, the internet, Wikipedia, etc.), it has often been written by anyone, including people who may know little about a given subject, who have an agenda that slants their telling, whose egos float astronomically higher than their IQs and knowledge, and so on. This has been especially true in the martial arts, where history was often based more on legend, mythology, and writer bias than fact. I think Bruce Haines’ Karate’s History and Traditions was the first book I read in which the writer actually did an academic investigation into things. It was flawed but not for lack of trying.

Until recently, most martial arts history was passed down via word of mouth. Philosopher Karl Popper called this “subjective knowledge,” knowledge that often changes with each retelling or personal slant and would disappear with the death of the last person to hear it.

“Objective Knowledge” is knowledge put into some form of hard copy (books, magazines, video files, pdf, etc.) that enables it to be Googled or microfiched or whatever and accessed by students or researchers possibly forever. This can be a good or a bad thing.

There are a few qualities a person must possess it they are to undertake certain tasks. If they want to be a security guard, they can’t be blind. If they want to become a piano tuner, they can’t be deaf. And it they want to write a history, they can’t be less than honest and truthful to a fault.

Several years ago, I was asked for assistance from a writer who was putting together a book on the history of karate in America. I supplied him with a fair amount of info he didn’t have and some rare photos, if I remember right.

In our last conversation, he asked me about a local martial artists who I had had problems with. A woman had enrolled her son in his school but quickly left, referring to them as “hokey”. She brought her son to us and, after being with us for a few months, she wrote me a note that said “Karate at CKA (my dojo) was the best thing she ever did for her son.” I asked her if it would be okay if I used her quote in an ad for the dojo. She said she was happy to recommend us.

I ran an ad that featured her quote and placed her name under it. It was a great ad that brought us many students. After some period of time, our local competitor ran the same exact ad, with her quote and name in it. She was livid. I sent a letter to the guy, explaining the situation. I figured he would do the right thing and stop running it. I was wrong. He said he had been given the ad by a management company, who said I had given them permission to use it. It was trademarked and I never gave them permission. In fact, I had told them they couldn’t use it.

When he refused to stop running the ad, I had my attorney contact him and politely let him know it was illegal for him to use it. He got an attorney, who wrote back that they would fight us and that we would lose because of some technicality. I had a student who oversaw the hiring of proprietary attorneys for a major corporation. He referred me to an attorney in San Francisco who was considered the top expert in the field. She sent the instructor a letter that shut down his attorney. The guy stopped running the ad, although only because he had to, not because it was the right thing to do.

The book author got very defensive of the local guy. He thought he was the greatest martial artist in the world and I was obviously a jerk for not seeing that. So when his book came out, in which he listed the credentials and accomplishments of most American martial arts instructors, the only comment associated with my name was “martial arts administrator.”

What’s the big deal? Well, if a future writer (maybe next week, month, year, ten years, or a hundred years) researched this era for an article or book, my name and role could be deemed inconsequential, or diminished, based upon what had been written about me – either rightly or wrongly. And this is not just some theoretical fear I have about something that might possibly happen in the future. Next time, I’ll discuss a case in which I was attacked in a history book because of something I never said or did.

Thanks again for your continued support.

Karate and the Olympics

Thanks to Sensei Claudio Iedwah for the following on Delcourt and Nishiyama efforts relative to the Olympics. http://www.eurokarate.eu/02recogn/040220.htm Lots of interesting stuff.

What I know about karate and the Olympics - Part IV

One of the first martial arts books I ever read (and reread many times back then) was Nishiyama and Browns’, Karate: The Art of “Empty Hand” Fighting, which was published in 1959. I still have a copy in my extensive martial arts library. It was a great, elegantly published work for that time. In hindsight, it had little on kata and lacked a lot of the detail that would be included in later Shotokan books – one of my favorites being Sensei Nakayama’s Dynamic Karate, which I used to reread at least once each year to pick up technical details I had missed, forgot, or misinterpreted. (Two other memorable books I read and reread in the earliest days were Mas Oyama’s What is Karate? and George Mattson’s The Way of Karate.)

I only met Sensei Nishiyama on a couple of occasions. I never spoke personally with him as I was fortunate to do with several other Shotokan greats. So, I was never able to form any kind of direct insight into what kind of man he was or what drove him to do what he did.

Ron Marchini (right) ref-ed my match with Francisco Rameriz in the late '60s

I once asked old friend, oft-time mentor, and great karateka, Ron Marchini, about a particular martial artist, who he knew but I didn’t. “There are great martial artists and there are great guys. He’s a great guy.” There are also, of course, those who are great martial artists and great people. I’ve met a few of these along the way. But, unfortunately, I’ve met far more who were great martial artists but not very good people. (And I’ve met a bunch who were both bad martial artists and people.) I can’t say where Nishiyama would fall on all this. He obviously had great knowledge and technical skill. That can’t be denied. I just don’t know what kind of person he was.

Even when we lack direct knowledge about someone, we can often derive a fair amount of insight via indirect means – their behavior, the opinions of those who did know them, etc. (Juries often convict people accused of crimes based solely on such indirect or circumstantial evidence.) The fact that some very great American karateka trained under him for many years, knew him very well, and decided to leave him (including Frank Smith and Ray Dalke, arguably two of our all-time greatest), says a lot, in my opinion. I met Smith only once but knew Ray for many years and have great respect for him as a man of honor, a karateka, and a teacher. If they left him, a man they obviously greatly respected, then there had to be something very wrong. Neither of these men are the disloyal type. In fact, they were reportedly loyal for years under conditions most would not have tolerated for any time at all.

In the mid-70s, I was asked by the editor of Samurai Magazine to write an article for them. The magazine’s publishers (the money behind the publication) were two LA doctors, who I assumed were also Nishiyama students, as everyone knew Samurai was Nishiyama’s publication. At the time, I considered it the best martial arts publication on the market as it dealt only with traditional Japanese karate and traditions and was very professionally done.

I forget the timeline but at some point the magazine went rapidly downhill. I think the last copy I received was printed on a copier and hand stapled. I asked a friend who was highly placed in Nishiyama’s LA organization what happened. He told me that one of the doctors/publishers had died. When the surviving doctor informed Nishiyama, he reportedly responded, “Where will we get the other half of the money for the magazine?” There was no “I’m sorry to hear that,” or “That’s terrible,” or “My condolences to his family.” According to my friend, the surviving doctor told Nishiyama he had better worry about where he was going to get all of the money and pulled out. I don’t know if this is true or not, as I got it second-hand. But it came from what I considered a very reliable source and someone who was on Nishiyama’s side.

Alone this tells us little, as we don’t know the actual circumstances or even if it actually occurred. But, if true, it would seem to give credence to the general opinion that he was a man on a personal mission, who didn’t care who or what got hurt in the process, even karate.

There are many other stories out there. I’ll leave those for others, as I don’t know the truth of any of them. (Some of these are outlined in Jon Evans’ piece, mentioned in Part III.) I will be probably soon post an article, perhaps more, written and sent to me by Soke Patrick Hickey on the subject of karate and the Olympics. I also have copies of letters between the various parties – Delcourt and Nishiyama, et al. I will likely be posting them as well.

Thanks again for your support. I greatly appreciate it.

Black Belt Article - 1970 WUKO Championships

While I work on my next post on karate and the Olympics (a bunch of documentation is still coming in which I would like to pass on to you guys), here's a great article on the first World Karate Championships in Tokyo. It appeared in the March 1971 issue of Black Belt Magazine.

What I know about karate and the Olympics - Part III

Although Sensei Hidetaka Nishiyama’s International Traditional Karate Federation (ITKF) was far smaller than WUKO and didn’t have sufficient numbers to gain acceptance as an Olympic sport itself, he had a sufficient number of both members and high profile supporters to prevent WUKO from being named.

To my knowledge, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) never approached karate (or most likely any other sport) and said anything like, “We have to have you in the Olympics, please, please, please join us!” Most sports go to them and beg to be included. The IOC has long felt they have too many sports already. “Why should we include your sport?” is a question every applicant must be able to answer.

To convince them to accept another sport, it must prove it has a significant number of practitioners around the world. It must be a competitive sport, not merely an activity. It must be represented by a world organization that is supported by a vast majority of the practitioners of that sport. The organization must have rules for competition that are widely accepted and in keeping with the Olympic Ideal. It must host a regular world championship, etc.

Nishiyama kept insisting that WUKO didn’t practice true karate and that the ITKF was the only world organization that did. WUKO countered with letters from many of the most traditional Shotokan stylists (and former dojomates of Nishiyama) – like JKA Managing Director and WUKO General Secretary Fusajiro Takagi, Takayuki Mikami, and others – stating that what Nishiyama advocated was no different than what WUKO practiced. (I read some of these but don’t think I have copies of any of them. If I can come up with one, I will post it along the way.)

From the reports we received, the IOC seemed convinced on several occasions that WUKO was their choice and that karate would soon be in. Then, Nishiyama would mount another attack and things would be put in limbo yet again. This went on for many years.

One of Nishiyama’s supporters was reportedly Mexican Olympic Committee Chairman, Mario Vazquez Rana, who was also president of the powerful IOC New Sport Committee, which heavily influenced which sports got in and which did not. If true, such a friend would be extremely helpful in blocking WUKO’s application and in keeping Nishiyama informed of what WUKO was saying and doing as well as advising him as to how best to thwart WUKO. (From communications I’ve read between Vazquez Rana and Nishiyama, he may have come to later regret his possible part in checking karate’s entrance. But I could be wrong on both counts. I may publish a copy of this communication sometime soon and you can be the judge.)

The IOC didn’t know what to do with karate. They wanted a unified world body, as TKD had been smart enough to give them, and tried to get the two organizations (WUKO and ITKF) to merge. But Nishiyama refused, even though WUKO offered to allow a separate division for his “traditional karate.” With too many sports in the Olympics already, the WUKO/ITKF fight gave the Olympic Committee the excuse they needed to block karate’s entrance.

People talk about “Tyranny of the Majority,” the powerful or numerous forcing their goals or desires on a small minority. But there is also “Tyranny of the Minority,” where a small number (sometimes even just one person) can bring things to a halt. If consensus is needed, one holdout can achieve this. (Court trials often see justice undone by a single holdout, for example.) Such a position can give power to the otherwise powerless (or less powerful), enabling them to achieve their goals or to right social inequities but sometimes it is used merely to stroke someone’s ego.

Someone once defined Nishiyama’s position as “If I can’t run it, I’d rather TKD got in than karate did under anyone other than me.” Many within the traditional karate world considered him a traitor, that by his long battle with WUKO and the IOC he had prevented karate’s acceptance and facilitated TKD’s. I don’t know if this is true or what his motives actually were. Jon Evans, Shotokan stylist and former head of AAU Karate, wrote an article on the subject for Black Belt Magazine in ‘88, blaming Nishiyama’s resistance on a long-standing rift within Shotokan in Japan. If you’re interested in reading more on his theory, the link is as follows: http://www.shotokai.com/ingles/interviews/wuko.html

Well, let me end this for now. I’ll have more to say about this, including a couple of personal observations relative to Sensei Nishiyama next time. Thanks again for your continued support.

What I know about karate and the Olympics - Part II

Something I apparently didn’t make clear last time was that I’m not attempting to lay out a definitive history of karate’s attempt to gain Olympic acceptance. I’ve heard that someone is undertaking such a book and will gladly leave it to him. My goal is just to pass on what I know or was told by knowledgeable people, as well as some of my experiences with some of the participants to give some insights into how these people appeared to think and act.

Karate’s quest to gain Olympic approval began in the mid to late 60s. I (like most traditional Japanese instructors in the country at the time) was contacted in the 60s about plans for the first WUKO World Karate Championships. The event was the brain-child of French attorney Jacques Delcourt and Japanese industrialist Ryoichi Sasakawa, co-heads of WUKO, and organized around rules established by FAJKO – Federation of All Japan Karatedo Organizations – for competition within Japan. It was presented to us as the first step towards gaining Olympic recognition for karate.

Selection and training tournaments, organized under the AAU, were held around the country. I was invited to an event in Stockton, where an event-within-an-event was held at one of Ron Marchini’s tournaments. Minobu Miki and, I think, Fumio Demura and Kiyoshi Yamazaki came up to teach us the rules to be used by the world organization and ultimately the Olympics.

Four teams of five athletes were ultimately selected to represent the United States. These included many of our top competitors, including Marchini, Mitch Bobrow, James Yabe, John Gehlsen and Tonny Tulleners (both from my instructor’s IKA dojo), and others. The Northern California athletes worked out together at Sensei Don Buck’s dojo in Marin County.

Tonny Tulleners (left) and me at IKA championships

The first championships were held in Tokyo in 1970. My fellow IKAer, Tonny Tulleners, was the top US finisher, tying for third with the great Dominique Valera of France. First place was won by Koji Wada of Japan. John Carnio of Canada took the silver. John Gehlsen didn’t place in the final group but was awarded one of the Outstanding Fighting Spirit Awards.

According to George Anderson, karate was vastly more popular around the world than TKD. He told me that karate had over ten times as many registered athletes as did the Korean art. Hirokazu Kanazawa had a membership of over one million athletes in just Indonesia alone.

With so many athletes and a series of very successful world championships under its belt, why didn’t it happen?

The general consensus is that karate was largely kept out of the Olympics by Hidetaka Nishiyama. He wanted his organization, the International Traditional Karate Federation (ITKF), to be named the world governing body for karate. He claimed that what he called “sport karate,” which WUKO and others practiced, was different than true traditional karate and should not be allowed into the Olympics. Or, if allowed, it should be considered a separate sport.

I’m awaiting some documents which I hope to share with you on this subject. So I’ll stop for now, rather than wait longer for it to be tracked down.

I want to thank all of you for your continued support. We recently surpassed 25,000 pageviews of this blog. I greatly appreciate your readership.

What I know about karate and the Olympics

Recently, a martial artist wrote several erroneous statements about why TKD was an Olympic sport and karate was not. As a result, I decided I should probably pass on what I know about this issue before I’m no longer around and the uninformed are the only voices out there.

Much of what I know about the subject came directly from two of the most knowledgeable sources, Jacques Delcourt, President of WUKO (now called WKF) and George Anderson, first VP of WUKO and President of the USAKF (the official national governing body for karate under the U.S. Olympic Committee at the time). Soke Patrick Hickey, an old and trusted friend and Hanshi Anderson’s uchi deshi and chosen heir to his organization and system, also supplied a great deal of valuable insights and information.

Me, Jacques Delcourt, Hanshi Anderson on Guadeloupe

Delcourt, as head of WUKO, then the official world governing body for karate under the International Olympic Committee (IOC), dealt directly with the IOC on karate’s entrance into the Olympics for over 30 years.

Hanshi Anderson, in addition to high rank, title, and positions in traditional karate (Kanken Toyama lineage), also trained under legendary TKD instructors Chull Hee Park and Ki Whang Kim of the SongMooKwan. And he was also friends with General Hong Hi Choi. Hanshi Anderson headed both the Central Taekwondo Association and the USA Karate Federation. So he had a unique perspective on this issue and TKD friends in very high places. He was also directly involved in securing Class C IOC status for karate, which allowed our athletes to train at the Olympic Training Center, among other perks. We also have Hanshi Anderson to thank for getting karate into the Pan Am Games.

I was extremely fortunate to have had Hanshi Anderson as a friend and mentor. It was through him that I met and was allowed to spend a fair amount of time with WUKO President Delcourt. While on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for a friendly competition between our national team and local karate competitors, which included world champions and members of the French National Team, I was allowed to speak privately with President Delcourt for several hours about many things, including karate’s application for Olympic acceptance. Afterwards, he would occasionally send me cards and letters over the years to keep me informed.

In addition to his top position in world karate, Delcourt also headed the French Olympic Committee. The heads of all of the French national teams reported directly to him, including TKD. He told me in Guadeloupe that senior French TKD officials had just returned from some major world meeting. (I forget where.) They reported that the World Taekwondo Federation (world governing body for TKD under the IOC) had paid Samaranch (long-time head of the IOC) a half-million dollars in hopes of greasing the wheels for TKD’s entrance into the games. He said he wasn’t positive it was true, as he wasn’t at the meeting himself, but added, “Where there is smoke, there is usually fire.” I asked him what WUKO had given Samaranch. He said they gave him a fine leather wallet with the WUKO logo on it – but no cash inside.

If you look at later accusations lodged against Un Yong Kim, then head of WTF, it would seem to give credence to the French TKD seniors’ bribery charge. The New York Times, among many other publications, wrote several articles about Un Yong Kim and the charges of bribery and embezzlement later leveled against him. http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/k/kim_un_yong/index.html. (Although the charges that got him expelled from his position with the IOC had nothing to do with the incident reported to me by Delcourt, it does “go to character,” as attorneys say.)

According to both Delcourt and Hanshi Anderson, a variety of factors (not just liberally applied “grease”) enabled Un Yong Kim to get his sport included as a demo sport for the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics and a full sport for the Sydney Games.

President Un Yong Kim (right)

Kim was a very astute and resourceful leader. He was reportedly former Assistant Director of the Korean CIA. His skills enabled him to become heads of both the WTK and the GAISF, General Association of International Sports Federations, a multi-sport organization that was deemed in competition with the Olympics, although surely to a lesser degree. The IOC reportedly didn’t want the competition posed by GAISF. Kim may have known this beforehand and secured the position in order to give him leverage over the IOC. Or it may have merely been an excuse the IOC head used to justify delivering on some payoff, if there ever was such a payoff. But, in any event, Kim was asked to merge the GAISF with the IOC, or dismantle it (I forget which). In return, the Olympic Games would be held in Korea in ’88 and Kim would be named a senior IOC VP.

At the time, the host country could name two demonstration sports. So for Korea to be named host was a guarantee that TKD would compete on one of the world’s biggest stages and get its foot in the door. Kim took it from there and was able to parlay that into a second demo appearance in the Barcelona Games and compete as a full Olympic sport in the 2000 Games in Sydney.

When Samaranch retired, Kim ran for IOC President. However, his legal problems overtook him and he was expelled.

There are estimates that Kim spent as much as 5 million dollars to gain full Olympic status for TKD. (There are rumors that the money came from the KCIA, which in turn was supposedly money diverted from funds given them by our CIA. I have no idea if it is true or not but the theory is out there. As Kim was supposedly a former Assistant Director of the KCIA, it isn’t hard to see how such a rumor could arise or possibly even be true. If you read the Kido Kwan article listed below, it spells out the argument that Korea saw TKD as far more than just a sport.)

In the West, we tend to look at things from a moral/ethical position different than other parts of the world. And most here would judge Kim’s behavior as wrong. But things often work quite differently in the real world, where bribes are often a normal part of doing business. As a leader, Un Yong Kim did what he thought was necessary to achieve his organization’s goals – Olympic recognition for his sport. And they proved successful in that regard, even though they didn’t serve him so well.

If you’re interested in reading a very insightful and revealing article about all this, and much more (including the fixing of match results), read “The Shocking Confession from Taekwondo’s Past by Chong Woo Lee, The Vice-President of Kukiwon” – http://www.tkdreform.com/yook_article.pdf.

Also see the section entitled “Politics, Nationalism, and the Olympics” in Kido Kwan Martial Art International, http://www.kidokwan.org/?page_id=1535.

Karate’s approach was far from ideal either. Next time, I’ll look at what I know about karate’s long efforts to gain Olympic recognition and why it has failed so far.