Kanbukan Karate

After Funakoshi opened his first full time Karate dojo in 1922, Tokyo saw an explosion of new Karate schools. Some Karate students were unhappy with the way the art was being taught, especially when it came to combat. In most of the traditional schools, fighting was very controlled, and did not have any contact. In some schools there was no fighting allowed at all!

By the mid 1930’s, a group of Karate practitioners formed a loose alliance and trained together to develop full contact techniques. Most of these Karate students had an extensive background in SHURI-TE. They used modified Kendo armor (BOGU) to give a degree of realism to their fighting. In 1940, this group was recognized as a new Karate style and Kanbukan Karate was born. Kanbukan means “Korean Martial Arts place,” probably because the founder of the Kanbukan was Korean schoolteacher named Geka Yung who learned SHURI-TE from Kanken Toyama. Toyama was a student of Yasatsune Itosu, and he would later form the All Japan Karate Federation in 1946. Some famous Karate men were instrumental in the early years of Kanbukan, including:

http://www.renbuindia.com/image/log.gif

Hiroyasu Tamae - A student Shiroma Gusukuma and Chosen Chibana, Tamae also trained Chinese KEMPO in Beijing, China before World War II and NAHA-TE Okinawa.

Hwang Kee - Hwang Kee would create his own academy when he returned to Korea in 1946-the MOO DUK KWAN – and taught what he called T’ANG SOO DO.

Yoon Byung-In - Yoon Byung-In disappeared during the Korean war in the 1950’s only to resurface in North Korea in 1995. Two of his students went on to found two of Korea’s most important styles. Lee Nam-suk founded the CHUNG MUK KWON and Park Chull-hee founded KANG DUK KWON.

Mas Oyama - Mas Oyama, the founder of KYOKUSHIN Karate, is said to have trained at the Kanbukan. This is not surprising as Oyama was actually Korean, and is reputed to have loved full contact fighting.
Brief History of Masutatsu Oyama

Bogu Karate

The end of the Second World War brought enormous change to japan and to Karate. Many of the Koreans living in Japan returned home to continue training what they had learned in Japan. Some went on to be influential organizers of what would become Tae Kwon Do. A number of the era’s best teachers and students never returned from the battlefields and seas of the Pacific.

Kanbukan was not immune to these changes. Geka Yung returned to Korea in 1949. Most of the other Korean students and teachers who had not already left, followed soon after. Kanbukan was left under the direction of two men: Norio Nakamura, a 4^th degree in Kendo and a 2^nd degree in Judo, and Miwaru Okamoto. In 1948, Masayuki Koide, a Shotokan practitioner from Waseda University and a 2^nd degree in Kendo joined Kenbukan. Koide went on to become the first international director of Renbukai. Also in 1948, Akira Onodera joined Kanbukan. Onodera would eventually be the technical director of Renbukai.

An old friend of Kanbukan, Kanken Toyama, founded the all Japan Karate-Do Federation (AJKF) in 1946. By establishing an organization such as the AJKF, Toyama’s intention was to unify Karate under one governing organization. Kanbukan, Chito-Ryu and Shudo Kan were all early members of the federation. The federation become an authority for rankings, and issued rank certification.

The name of Kanbukan was changed in 1950 to Renbukan translated, Renbukan means, “To forge the martial arts place”. Under the name of Kanbukan the style continued to grow in popularity, especially in Tokyo. The first full contact sparring competition using the modified BOGU was held in 1954. Following the success of that inaugural tournament, annual full contact tournaments using Bogu were scheduled. Participants came from across Asia, but mostly from Japan and Korea. Foreign residents, or servicemen would occasionally enter these full contact tournaments.

In 1964, Renbukan became Renbukai. Renbukai means, “To forge the martial arts association”. Renbukai joined KYO KAI, WADO RYU, SHITO RYU, GOJU KAI and RENGO KAI in becoming the first six recognized styles in the new organization called the federation of All Japan Karate-Do Organizations (FAJKO). FAJKO is later re-named the All-Japan Karate-Do Federation (JKF).

Budo Karate

The word Budo is combination of two words:

Bu meaning “Martial” or “Combat”, and

Do meaning “Way” or “Path”.

Budo, the martial way, is a Japanese term for the art that use peaceful combat as a mode of perfecting the self. The word Do comes from the Chinese word Tao and the philosophy of Taoism. Do does not mean the way or method of learning something, such as the learning the techniques of Karate, but rather it is the path of life whereby what is learned is transcended into wisdom. Do and Zen are complementary. Zen seeks self-perfection through passive means, such as meditation. Do seeks self-perfection through active means, such as the training itself. In fact, the practice of kata is sometimes referred to as Dozen, or “Moving Meditation”. Budo is much more than just the techniques and applications of the martial arts, it transforms all aspects of life.

The word Karate is combination of two words:

Kara meaning “Empty”, and

Te meaning Hand

Kara also means “Chinese”, and the original meaning of the word Karate was “Chinese Hand” because of its origins in Chinese kempo. However, Gichin Funakoshi, the Okinawan master who brought Karate to Japan and developed Shotokan Karate (one of the styles from which Renbukai was derived), believed that “empty” better described the meaning of Karate:

The kara that means ‘empty’ is definitely the more appropriate. It symbolizes the obvious fact that this art of self-defense makes use of no weapons, only bare feet and empty hands. Further, students of Karate-do aim not only toward perfecting their chosen art but also toward emptying heart and mind of all earthly desire and vanity reading Buddhist scriptures, we come across statements such as “Shiki soku ze ku” and “Ku Soku Zeshiki”, which literally mean “Matter is void” and “All is vanity.” The character Ku which appears in both admonitions and may be pronounced kara, is in itself truth.

Karate and Budo are sometimes combined as Karate-do, or the “Empty Hand Way”.