Guest
I want to share with you a very early video of Sensei Gakiya Yoshiki (我喜屋良章), performing Matayoshi Kobudo’s Choun Nu Kun (朝雲之棍). The video shows an early, yet-to-be-refined kata, by an inordinately enthusiastic practitioner, one who would quit karate and focus solely on kobudo. He would work to become so masterful, that his movements would cause the air to crack the way lightning creates a vacuum and the air violently rushing back in creates thunder. You may watch this and be impressed, or be unimpressed, but I am impressed because I knew him beyond video, when everything about his art was refined. I stayed at his home, I sweated on my hands and feet, I learned many weapons under the pressure of Gakiya Sensei’s strikes. His mastery became my gold-standard for hard work. Sensei devoted himself to kobudo, and it showed. Ultimately, he became Matayoshi’s technical successor, and the lead instructor at the Hombu dojo, before politics became too much and he created his own organization. He
