Links  and Resources

There is wealth of information available on the web and in print that is relevant to Okinawan Karate in general, and to Shorin Ryu karate in particular.  This page is divided by media rather than by topic, so there is a web resources section and a print section.  Within each of these sections there are a range of topics, from Karate to Culture, Health to History, and many more.  Further suggestions are welcome (via the contact button above).  Where appropriate I have included comments to either clarify my reasons for including it, or to offer a brief review.  Keep in mind that these comments are my own, and may not necessarily be shared by more experience karateka, historians, linguists or anthropologists.

Web Resources:
 

Japan and Okinawa

The Okinawa Prefectural Home Page is not as complete as one might imagine, but there is useful material here, and quite a bit on the American military bases.  A better site for the history of Okinawa is the Prefectural Museum's Web Site, which has much useful (though still very official) history and geography.  Okinawa.com is aimed at the Okinawan Diasporic Community and tends to be very surface level, though it keeps up with English language pop books and trends.  By contrast, the Okinawa Peace Network (located in Los Angeles) is an organization committed to getting the US military out of Okinawa.  This is a very interesting, serious site from a smart group.  Also, the website for the AmerAsian School in Ginowan provides yet another angle on the complexity of the Okinawan/American relationship.

In New York, the Japan Society is a good, if expensive, place to learn first hand about Japan.  Their web site is efficient, with up to date program information and online registration. They offer classes in Japanese language instruction, and a constant rotation of cultural programs.  You can become a member and save on the programs, or use the library (which is very academic).

There is also a site for Asia in New York, sponsored by the Asia Society of New York, which runs a number of cultural programs (for those interested in a broader cultural sweep).  Listed on this page are links to 40 or so Asia-related societies or organizations in New York City.

The online, English language Asahi Shimbun (newspaper) is a good way to keep up with what is going on in Japan socially, economically, and politically.  Okinawa doesn't figure significantly very often, which tells you something.  The English langauge version of the monthly Ryukyu Shimpo is more local, but lacks the cultural flair that is so apparent as soon as one arrives on the island.  By contrast, the Okinawa Times has some of the flavor but far less of the content.

There are no good websites (though there are many good books) on the Battle for Okinawa in World War 2.  You can look at Global Security's description, and Ruth Anne Keyso has collected some oral histories form civilians, which balance the military accounts.  But overall you are better off in the bookstore.  There are some good sites about the American Occupation that are worth visiting, especially for the photographs and first had descriptions.

An interesting, recent site with much valuable information on karate in general has been created by the Okinawan Prefectural Government: Karate and Martial Arts with Weapons. If you have broadband, the film clips are a great resource for people who want to see Okinawan Karate, rather than its American representatives.  There is lots of good stuff here on kata, and on "tanren" or body training specific to karate practice.

There are many Matsubayashi organizations throughout the world.  By far the biggest remains Soke Takayoshi Nagamine's organization, the World Matsubayashi (Shorin Ryu) Karate Organization.  Their website used to be more up to date when Charles Goodin was running it, but he has left the organization to join the Kishaba Juku organization.  Goodin's site, the Hikari Dojo, is a very valuable node, not least because he has links there to many of his publications, and those of the research groups he belongs to.  These are very highly recommended readings.

The dojos of the American Karate Federation are a small group of Matsubayashi practitioners in the Midwest discussed in more detail under our curriculum and our program, above.  We retain strong personal and historical links with this system, and though our curriculum differs slightly from their standard, our training regimen and ethos does not.

Beyond these three organizations there are a host of other Matsubayshi systems and dojos throughout the US and beyond.  A brief list would include:
 the Shorin Ryu USA, begun by the late Ansei Ueshiro;
Frank Grant's World Shorin Ryu Karate Federation;
The American Shorinryu Karate Association;
Eihachi Ota's Shorin-ryu Karate and Kobudo Association;

Dragon Times / Tsunami Video has an extensive website where you can buy there videos.  They are dedicated to preserving traditional Okinawan martial arts, and there videos are very high quality.  They also have reviews of their own products, which are (surprise!) uniformly positive.  Not all of it worth the price, but some of it is.

Another very good all around martial arts site is Chris Caile's FightingArts.com.  Chris is a traditionalist and has collected a nice group of writers and editors.  The articles are good, as are the equipment and videos selections.  It is updated with articles and reviews, and most of what they published in the past is available and well indexed in their archives.

Patrick McCarthy has a mixed relationship with traditional karatemen on Okinawa.  That being said, his work is interesting and his devotion to traditional karate is clear.  He tends to be a little self-agrandizing, but he also has spent an incredible amount of time worrying about the why's and wherefore's of kata.  His research society is worth knowing about, and he has managed to get himself hooked up in a formal way with a university in Australia.

Along these same lines, the Dilman people have taken Okinawan karate in very much their own direction.  I have misgivings about much of what they teach, but I also have been surprised a few times at how well some things work.  As will McCarthy and Dr. Yang (below), a little caution is recommended, but overall it is worth a look.

Beyond Karate, there are numerous good sites for martial arts associated with Shorin Ryu, including Yamani Ryu bujutsu (the traditional weapon art of Shuri) and White Crane Gung-fu.
The Taichi Wushu Club (which offers trips to China)
White Crane Gungfu Today (from Canada)
An article from Kung Fu Magazine listing current teachers in China
Tashishiro Oshiro's Yamanni Chinen Site and an interview with Oshiro by Dong Tran

The Okinawa Centeniary project has a website associated with its recently published book on the topic.  It has information about the study, and recommendations about health.  Many people, including me, think that the trend to long-livedness in Okinawa will change as the effects of contemporary industrialization become apparent.  Already the male life-expectancy in Okinawa is lower than Japan's national averages.  But the "Program" does have its benefits and raises interesting ideas.

A little more far afield is the website and entire ouvre of Dr. Yang (he is a PhD in Engineering, not a medical doctor...worth keeping in mind).  He has written extensively on traditional chinese medicines and its realtionship to the martial arts.  His website is very health related, though he also has books on chin na and vital point striking.  I have mixed feelings.  Some of it is very good, and some is a little hokey. Buyer beware, you read and shop at your own risk, but I wouldn't put it up here if I didn't think it was worth a look.

There are good introductions to Chinese Medicine online, as well as some sources for the related field of Chi Gung.  In the US there are several serious chinese medicine schools, especially on the West Coast.  The Bubishi (see books, below) is full of chinese medicine, though in a largely unapproachable form and it is certain that such considerations went into the design and evolution of traditional kata.  In acupuncture, the knowledge to heal and the knowledge to due harm are identical.
 

It is important not to underestimate the ways in which global history has impacted karate.  Yet while many martial historians have looked to the past for karate's origins, little attention has been paid to the contexts of its transmission.  Karate arrived in Japan largely as a result of the global economic depression of the 1920s, and remained there almost by happenstance when it (unlike other, more traditional mainland Japanese martial arts) was not banned by the American Occupation.  Likewise, American wars in Korea and Vietnam turned Okinawa into a central staging area and exposed many Americans to Okinawa directly.  All of these servicemen were, ironically, instructed by teachers that had lived through the horror of The Battle of Okinawa during World War 2, and studied at a time when resistence to the American Occupation of the Island was growing.  All of these currents help shape the karate that was learned and passed on, here and around the world.  To ignore this history, or think of tradition as something unshaped by the circumstances in which it is received is perhaps the mostly widely committed sin in karate.

There are several good sources for the ongoing attempts by people on Okinawa to deal with all of it, including....
The American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa: Literature and Memory
(by Michael S. Molasky)
and
Okinawa: Two Postwar Novellas by Oshiro Tatsushiro and Higashi Mineo (1996)

....are both works attempts to protray in nonfiction what is being done in other ways by people on Okinawa.  Keyso's book has an interesting afterword by former Governor Ota, who helped bring the Okinawa situation to the world's attention when he (initially) refused to renew leases to American military bases there.

....which helps explain in alot more detail why Okinawa was so distinct to begin with, and why its relationship with the mainland was so mistrustful even before the Occupation years.

There are thousands of books on the martial arts and hundreds on karate, but far fewer are worth the money or the time spent to see what they are really all about.  A few that are worth the effort are:

When looking for some of the technical (rather than historical) roots of Okinawan karate, good starting points include....
The Essence of Shaolin White Crane Martial Power and Qigong (1996) and....
Comprehensive Applications of Shaolin Chin Na (1995), and....
Quigong for Health and Martial Arts  (1998), all by Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming.
Again, Dr. Yang is not a medical doctor, and these are all self-published.  But for
something of a kook, there is alot of good stuff, and disection pictures for
the true sickos.

The Bubishi is a weird, funny manuscript that exists in many forms and is, in many ways, as mysterious to Okiniwan practioners today as it is to "outsiders".  Bubishi: the Bible of Karate by Patrick McCarthy (translator) (1995) is very approachable.

There is a long existing liturature on the art and strategy of struggle.  I have tried to limit this to classic that were concerned mainly with martial arts...

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Please note:  The author of this site is Kirk Dombrowski, and he is solely responsible for its contents.  It is intended as an educational resource only and we ask that you use it in this spirit.  Where mistakes have (inevitably) been made, apologies are offered.  Corrections are welcome.  Professor Dombrowski can be reached via the contact button on the menu at the top of this page.

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