Nakayama in China

[Josh Hodges]

Without having an extensive research library on the history of Shotokan Karate, I have found many resources on the internet that say Nakayama Sensei spent a number of years in China working as a translator during the Japanese occupation prior to WWII. During this time he taught karate and studied a number of Chinese martial arts.
“In 1933 he spend four month traveling in Manchuria and latter in 1937 was a student exchange at Peking University. He was there for the next five years and then went to work for the Chinese Government. He did not return to Japan until 1946. During the decade he spend in China, Nakayama continue to practice and teach karate, but he also studied various Chinese martial arts with a number of masters there.” – retrieved from www.skacanada.com
Is there any more information about his teaching in China or what Chinese arts that he studied? I know that a condensed system of Hsing I was very prevalent at that time practiced by the officers in the Chinese army. I also remember hearing that some of the kicks that are practiced today are a result of the Chinese influence via Nakayama. Over the course of nearly a decade, I can imagine there was quite an extensive study as opposed to a passing familiarity. Does anyone have a reference to this time period or any anecdotes that you may have heard?

[Josh Hodges]

Just to follow up in answering my own questions...
“He traveled to China studying Chinese history and language. There he met masters of Ch'uan Fa and, invited one master of Tai Chi ch'uan to demonstrate at the JKA. After 11 years in China he returned to study with Master Funakoshi.” Retrieved from http://www.shotokan-worcester.org.uk/in ... te-masters

Ch’uan Fa (quan fa) is a generic term meaning “unarmed technique.” However, the mention of Tai Chi is much more specific. I also saw this post on another martial arts forum...

“I have read the book moving zen by C.W.NICOL, in it there is a section where he talks about a tai chi master who paid them a visit on one particular Sunday morning at their lodgings. He describes how this tai chi master showed great chi by striking the columns of the house and being able to take blows to the body from these karate-ka. He was actually so freaked out about his strength he asked Nakayama sensei about tai chi. Nakayama sensei's reply was karate is for normal men tai chi is for supermen.” Retrieved from, http://www.traditionalfightingartsforum ... hp?f=15&t=

That being said, I am having a hard enough time learning karate, and I am quite certain that I am no superman. I have dabbled in Bagwa and Xing Yi and found that the softness of those internal arts gave me a better feeling of what I was doing with my body when I practiced karate. But apparently in the early days of the JKA instructor training program, there was an encouragement by Nakayama sensei to practice Tai Chi. I know that to this day, Kanazawa Sensei practices Tai Chi and his organization will have a Tai Chi session for senior black belts during seminars.

Any other thoughts or further info on Nakayama sensei in China?

[kensei]

I breifly studied a few styles of Kung fu and found that they had similarities to Shotokan (hung gar specifically). However after some time I realized that its natural for all movement oriented styles to have some key elements the same, after all the systems were designed to use the same machine...us! You can not expect a person with only two arms and two legs to suddenly transform to create a new fighting are based on something other than laws of motion.

As for Nakayama in China, I have read that he was a governement employee and this left little time for training outside of teaching Karate. He picked up some interesting tid bits in his breif exchanges and one of the men that he worked wiht was a Tai Chi man and he did most of his study outside of Karate with them.

Yaguchi and Okizaki Sensei both shot down the story that the Mawashi Geri came from kung fu, they say they were sure that the kick existed on Okinawa. I think that unless some kind of journal is found that says exactly what he did in china then we will all be just guessing.