Читать книгу Complete Aikido. Aikido Kyohan: The Definitive Guide to the Way of Harmony онлайн

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While no stranger to jujutsu even at that early age, Suenaka found Okazaki-ryu jujutsu somewhat different from the more traditional Daito-ryu style learned under his father. “He (Okazaki) had other jujutsu styles . . . that were incorporated or combined with the Okazaki system, even a lot of techniques from lua, the Hawaiian martial art. He also studied Western boxing and wrestling. He studied everything that he could.” Other than his father, Okazaki Sensei would become one of Suenaka’s most influential pre-aikido martial arts instructors, and Suenaka studied Kodenkan jujutsu from 1948 until Okazaki Sensei’s death in 1952. Kodenkan jujutsu is still taught and practiced in Hawaii and elsewhere, including the mainland United States, although it is now more commonly known as Danzan-ryu (“the Hawaiian style”) jujutsu.

One year later, in 1949, Suenaka was introduced to his second most influential pre-aikido teacher as he began instruction in Koshoryu kempo under James Masayoshi Mitose. One of kempo’s most renowned practitioners, Mitose Sensei, a Buddhist priest and later an ordained Presbyterian minister, was the man who introduced kempo to the United States. The name Kosho-ryu translates as “old pine tree style,” and is a unique family style, a combination of Japanese jujutsu and traditional Chinese Shaolin boxing, which is itself the largely the progenitor of present-day Okinawan karate.