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

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Immediately upon his arrival at Kadena, Suenaka began teaching aikido in the base gymnasium, gradually accumulating students from base personnel. He did this with O’Sensei’s blessing, secured prior to his departure from Japan, as the Founder was eager to introduce aikido to Okinawa. Twice before, aikidoka had traveled to the birthplace of Japanese karate to promote the art there, only to quickly be sent packing by the local karateka; literally, challenged on the mat and defeated in single combat. Each time, the instigator of these long trips home to the Hombu was Fusei Kise.

Born in 1935, Fusei Kise first began studying martial arts at age twelve, augmenting his primary training in later years with instruction in Shorinji kempo and Shorin-ryu karate under many of Okinawa’s greatest living masters, including Shorinji-ryu founder Zenryo Shimabukuro, and the late Hakutsuru Shorin-ryu and Matsumura Seito Shorin-ryu Kobudo Grandmaster Hohan Soken. By the time Suenaka arrived in Okinawa, Kise was well-advanced in these and other karate styles. Today, he is one of the art’s most celebrated and respected practitioners, and continues in Okinawa to teach his own style of Shorin-ryu Kenshinkan karate, which he founded upon the retirement of Soken from active teaching in 1978, and also has numerous schools in the United States. A short, powerfully-built, and somewhat gruff man, Kise Sensei cared little for words when it came to expounding the virtues of any given style, preferring instead to see how it fared in kumite (sparring), or direct hand-to-hand combat. The test was simple. If you could beat him, your style was worthwhile. If not, shut up and go away.