ITOTSU

YASUTSUNE ITOTSU

Yasutsune Itotsu Sensei is often referred to by his nickname of "Ankoh." He was born in 1830 in Shuri-Yamakawa village, Okinawa. He began studying "Shuri-te" under Matsumura Sokon Sensei at a very young age and was literate enough to be named as the official clerk of the Shuri government.

When Karate became part of the physical education training at the Shuri Elementary School in 1901, Itotsu Sensei was its first instructor. This was the first step for the popularization of modern Okinawan Karate. Between 1905 and 1915, Itotsu Sensei was a part-time Karate instructor at the Okinawan Dai Ichi High School. He devoted his entire life to the spread of Shuri style Karate and ended his 85 year long life in 1915. The following are the teachings of Itotsu Sensei:

1. Karate training should not be used for your own interest, but for the protection of your parents, and it is never to be used to hurt anyone.

2. Karate training is to be used to make the muscles and bones of the body as hard as a rock and to make the arms and legs as sharp as spears, hence it is so practical that it will help our military society in times to come. The First Duke of Wellington said when he defeated Napoleon I, "Our victory today was attained in our schoolyards."

3. Karate cannot be mastered in a short period of time. One to two hours of hard and correct training every day for three or four years will help put you on the right road to understanding Karate and eventually mastering it.

4. Karate requires such strong hands and feet that you should train by striking makiwara (striking post) one to two hundred times each day.

5. Karate students should train with their limbs straight up, the lungs wide open, the shoulders down and the feet firmly on the ground.

6. Karate form (kata) is a training method where meaning and analysis is of the utmost importance.

7. Karate form (kata) must also be analyzed by the student to determine its use-whether it is to be used for physical or practical training. Karate training must be intensive as if one is actually on a battlefield.

8. Karate training must be systematic and correct so as to develop one's physical strength.

9. Karate experts have lived longer because training develops the muscles and the bones. It also helps the digestive organs and improves the circulation of the blood. Therefore, Karate training should be offered in physical education courses beginning in the elementary school and up.