Tomorrow, April 22, 2024 would have marked Kanzaki sensei’s 96th birthday. Naturally when his birthday roles around I think about him, and a flood of good memories come to mind. Initially, I was going to keep this post private, but on reflection I thought it would be better to share a few of my thoughts of him.
Born in 1928, Kanzaki sensei was a man who practiced Karate just like his teacher Kyoda Juhatsu. He did not care about how many students he had or your opinion about what he taught. Students were there to learn, and his obligation was to teach; it was that simple for him.
I first reached out to him 25 years ago and despite writing several letters to him, I was initially ignored. When I was finally able to talk to him over the phone, I expressed my hope to visit him in Beppu to talk about Tou’on-ryu and his time learning from Kyoda sensei. I even harboured the idea of being able to see a little Tou’on-ryu as well. I secretly hoped that if I was exceptionally lucky, perhaps I could practice a little of it.
But things never work out the way you intend and he would have none of it. In fact, he outright refused my request. He politely explained that his wife had recently passed away and was in no frame of mind to have visitors, let alone a foreign one. He told me to contact him in a few months and perhaps then we could arrange a date to meet. So, I phoned a few months later and he still wasn’t ready to meet. This went on for several months until he finally relented, and we set a date to meet.
I won’t repeat the story of our first meeting as I have written about it before but suffice it to say I wasn’t disappointed. At the time of our first meeting, Kanzaki sensei was around 70 years old, and I was around twenty-nine. After that first meeting I was hooked and was allowed to train regularly with him, but I wasn’t officially a student. That would happen months later. Rain or shine I went to practice as often as I could and week after week I persevered, trying as best I could to unlearn what he referred to as, “my bad (Goju-ryu) habits.”
Kanzaki sensei could be curt, a bit rough and occasionally off-putting in his way of teaching. Personally, it never bothered me, nor did I ever regret a single minute being with him. Even today I remember (as best I can) everything he taught me. What he taught me about myself and Karate I still treasure to this day more than any dan rank or license he gave me.
It’s unfortunate that I was too stupid and inexperienced to pass on Tou’on-ryu when I returned to Canada. Not to mention that my students at the time didn’t understand or appreciate what they were being taught. I taught a few seminars, but soon realized that attendees simply wanted to add the Tou’on-ryu kata to their curriculum. They had no desire to learn it in depth or pass on the art. So, I stopped doing seminars. Eventually out of sheer frustration with myself and students I gave up trying to teach it. Now when people ask me about learning Tou’on-ryu I refer them to Ikeda sensei who is now the soke of the style. In hindsight, I now realize that I wasn’t the right person to teach Tou’on-ryu outside of Japan. I lacked the talent and ability to do so. I hope that some else will succeed where I failed.
When I think about my time with Kanzaki sensei, for better or worse, I was his first, last, and only foreign student. I know that I disappointed him at times, but he was too much of a gentleman to say anything. However, I could sense that he felt I had let him down and will always feel ashamed for doing that. I suppose I was like his other young students who were generations removed from him and could not understand the values he embodied. As I matured, I came to understand what he was trying to teach me all those years ago, but it was years later… too late I suppose…. I have always been a bit ‘slow’…. or as my Irish father would put it, ‘a bit thick’. Perhaps that is why there were so few people that practice Tou’on-ryu.
Of all the teachers I had the good fortune to meet in my life, he is the one who impressed me the most, not only technically but the way he thought, spoke to people, and how he carried himself through life. Kanzaki sensei was not a saint, and like all of us he had his flaws. Yet, he was someone who I wanted to emulate. I want to sincerely say, “thank you” for everything he taught me.
Kanzaki Shigekazu died on June 25, 2016, at the age of 88. He rests in the small cemetery in Beppu, Oita-ken not far from his teacher, Kyoda Juhatsu. Ikeda Shigehide, the most senior, active student of Kanzaki sensei, continues his teaching within the Tou’on-kai (東恩会) and is now the current soke.
Okinawa Karatedo & Ryukyu Kobudo 