A walk through the garden

Fukushuen Garden in Naha celebrates the ties between Okinawa and southern China. I'll drink to that.

Today I'm passing on some Okinawa pictures and background this week, along with the usual links and comments below. As I mentioned yesterday, Okinawa, now a prefecture of Japan, was once an independent monarchy. It's political center was the palace at Shuri, also featured yesterday. Nearby was the port city of Naha, which has since absorbed Shuri.



Port cities have the reputation of being wild and woolly and Naha was no exception. Okinawa enjoyed wide trade and diplomatic contacts and all kinds of interesting people and rough characters passed through.




Ties were especially close to southern China, which had an Okinawan community as well as extensive travel back and forth. Those ties are celebrated at the Fukushuen Garden in central Naha.




Those ties also influenced the karate traditions that developed in Naha as distinct from the Shuri te or Shorin ryu styles associated with the palace culture discussed yesterday. A leading example of Naha te is the Goju ryu or hard/soft style. Higashionna Kanryo, circa 1853-1916, is regarded as one of its forerunners. Higashionna traveled to Fuzhou in the Fukien Province of China and studied several styles of Chinese martial arts. He is pictured below.



One of his most prominent students was Miyagi Chojun, 1888-1953, who also went to Fukien Province in 1915 to study Chinese styles. Miyagi gave Goju its name and established the system. If the Shuri/Shorin karate tradition is rapid and whiplike, Naha/Goju karate training emphasizes strength development, dynamic tension, breathing and develops the ability to absorb as well as dish out powerful techniques. In practice, the style lives up to its name with its combination of "soft" and hard techniques.



The real Miyagi, pictured above, probably inspired the naming of the teacher in the Karate Kid movies. Some Goju techniques actually look like tasks Mr. Miyagi assigned Daniel-San in the film (wax on/wax off, paint the fence, etc.)


TWO FROM THE TIMES. These items caught my eye this morning. First, Japan is starting to admit that it has a poverty problem. Second, here's a look at how local food is starting to replace tobacco in a North Carolina town.

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT MINE SAFETY. Here's an op-ed on the subject by a friend of mine.

EARTH DAY. Here's one person's list of things to do about it.

GET UP, STAND UP. There's a connection between body motion and memory. Upward movement seems to be related to happy memories.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Almost gone

The real Mr. Miyagi. Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953), founder of the Goju-ryu style.

Ever since I began formally practicing karate in jr. high, I dreamed of going across the water to study it. The original "plan" called for going right out of high school but that didn't happen.

At the time, I was practicing the Shotokan style, which was headquartered in Tokyo. The longer I trained and the more I learned, however, the more I wanted to go to the source, i.e. Okinawa, where it was born.

The art now know as karate (for "empty hands") is probably the result of a combination of the indigenous Okinawan fighting art of te (meaning hand)and the Chinese martial arts popularly known as kung fu.

A poem written by the scholar Teijunsoku, born in 1663 includes these lines, which also reflect the values of karate:

No matter how you may excel in the art of te,
And in your scholastic endeavors,
Nothing is more important than your behavior
And your humanity as observed in daily life.

Over time, two major streams evolved which were named after cities in Okinawa, Shuri-te and Naha-te (Naha has since pretty much absorbed Shuri). Shuri-te is often described as being quick and light, while Naha-te is said to emphasize strength development and uses special breathing and dynamic tension methods in training. The leading Shuri-te styles today include Shotokan and Shorin ryu, while Naha-te is represented by styles like Goju-ryu and Uechi-ryu. A neutral observer would recognize both as being karate but also as being different.

Most of my background is in the Shuri-te tradition, so I'm hoping to round things off a little this trip.

Goat Rope posts will appear as usual through the weekend. After that, I'll try to blog from across the water but on a different time schedule.

THIS IS THE BRAIN on politics, revisited.

CEO PAY. Firms that received TARP money don't seem to be adhering to CEO pay guidelines.

A LITTLE GOOD NEWS. After a back and forth that has gone on for some time, funding for a program that helps people with disabilities and the elderly stay in their homes has been increased in WV. Not too many states are doing things like that these days.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED