Preface:
Over the years, Professor Estes has
recounted stories and anecdotes concerning Professor Okazaki and his
relationship with his students for the purpose of illustrating
principles. I’ll recount some of them for you.
To Be Convinced
It is told that before traveling to the
Hawaiian Islands, a man had studied Judo in a school in Los Angeles
and had won a black belt in competition style Judo. One evening he
was walking down an alley, toward a street, and he saw two men
attacking a third. One of the attackers was armed with a knife. The
black belter immediately decided to even up the odds and took out one
of the men with a Judo throw, knocking him unconscious. He then
turned around to see how the victim of the attack was doing, with the
intention of helping. He found, that to his surprise, the victim was
calmly standing there with his attacker defeated and lying helpless
in the gutter. The intended victim of the vicious attack was
Professor Okazaki. He looked at the black belter and observed, “So
you know Judo. “ The
black belter, who said that at that time he had a rather inflated
regard for his abilities, replied that he indeed knew Judo. Professor
Okazaki thanked him for saving his life, as he put it, although later
the black belt said that he didn’t need his help at all.
Professor Okazaki then told the man
that he had a Judo-.Jujutsu school and invited him to attend. At that
time this was indeed a great honor, since it was extremely rare for a
Caucasian to be invited to such a school. He attended and was
introduced to the class by Professor Okazaki as a man who had saved
his life. Consequently, he was given the royal treatment. As a mark
of special favor, Professor Okazaki told the black belter that he was
going to have him work out with his son. Professor Okazaki’s son
was only about half his size, and as he put it, he felt a little
“silly” out there in front of everyone with this little fellow.
However, the feeling was soon dissipated. The man recounts that the
son turned him every way but loose. Every time he attempted a
technique, he had to pick himself up off the mat. He recounts that
finally he got irritated and simply body snatched” Okazaki’s son
off the mat, intending to throw him bodily (not viciously) to the
mat, whereupon he once again was thrown with beautiful
technique. At the conclusion of this activity, the man told Professor
Okazaki that he was convinced that he didn’t know anything about
Judo at all and asked to be accepted as a student. Professor Okazaki
accepted him and although it
wasn’t required he threw away his black belt, put on a white
belt and began again. He was and is Professor Okazaki’s devoted
student to this very day.
A Prediction
Certain individuals of Professor
Okazaki’s acquaintance had berated him for teaching the Arts to
all, without regard to race or religion. Some among them told
Professor Okazaki that Caucasians just didn’t have the Intestinal
fortitude to learn the “true” Arts. Professor Okazaki snorted and
advised them that Caucasians had just as much in the way of courage
as anyone else. He told them that they, the proud possessors of all
martial art skills would one day be learning the Arts from
Caucasians, and others too. They laughed.
THE FALL
Professor Okazaki took Bud Estes and
some others and began their training, not on the mat surface, but on
a concrete slab. He taught them the fundamentals of rolling and
falling on the slab. He was such a stickler for absolute precision,
that he would lay two thick boards down parallel to each other, with
just barely enough room between them for a man to lie in the falling
position. Then he instructed the students in this special class to
fall between these two boards. Bud Estes has noted that those in this
class learned to fall relaxed, because of the cement slab, and with
absolute precision, because of the boards. Any deviation from the
correct form was immediately and painfully apparent to the erring
student. The hard training proved too much for some in that class and
they quit. But some stayed, among them Bud Estes. Bud Estes recounts
that when they were finally allowed to go inside where the mats were
located, the mats felt just like pillows to them, and they could fall
from just about anything completely relaxed. By then, relaxation,
both mental and physical, had become a conditioned reflex, as had
good form in the arts they had been and would later be taught.
THE BLOW
Professor Okazaki was nothing if not
demonstrative with his students. Early in the process of learning
with him, Bud Estes was being taught a blow defense. Like many
beginning students, when Bud was to throw a punch at the Sensei, he
“pawed at it” and did not really attempt to strike, deliberately
missing his mark which was Professor Okazaki’s chin. Professor
Okazaki immediately stepped in and drove a flat hand blow to Estes,
knocking him down flat on the mat. He then reproved him explaining
that he must have faith in his teacher and do exactly as he was told.
Embarrassed by the blow, Estes quickly got up and threw a hard punch
at Professor Okazaki. The Professor used the blow defense he was
teaching to Estes and then calmly told him, “That’s right, when
your throw a punch, do it like you mean it, then you will learn how
to properly perform the defense. Mr. Estes’s embarrassment
evaporated immediately, and he saw why his sensei had deliberately
struck him. It was a lesson he never forgot.
THE BREAK
Professor Okazaki used to tell his
students that there was only one way that the martial arts should be
used, and that was for the benefit of others. Professor Okazaki once
told Bud Estes, “You know Kyoshi, (Estes’ nickname). If a
man were to break into my house and try to injure my family, I might
have to break his arm to stop him, but remember, I must also be the
first to render him first aid and help in any way that I can.”
Law's
Children
Master Okazaki considered his students
as part of his family in every way. At one time Ray Law’s children
were ill and Professor Okazaki heard about it, and in typical
fashion, decided to take some action to remedy the situation. Mrs.
Law heard her front door slam shut and came from another part of the
house to investigate. She was understandably surprised as she looked
up and saw Professor Okazaki walking down the road toward his home,
one child under each arm. Professor Okazaki took them to his home and
nursed them back to health. He, of course, never considered asking
permission to do such a thing - after all, they were his children too
weren’t they? They all were his children — his heart was big
enough to encompass all with whom he came in contact. -
CONTROL
Professor Okazaki told his students
that they must learn to control themselves completely mentally,
emotionally, and physically. One of his students, who thought he had
achieved this goal, once said to the Professor that he had
finally learned to control himself. Unfortunately for him or maybe
fortunately, he was receiving a massage from the Professor at the
time. Now, Professor Okazaki had some liniment that he used in his
administrations. It was his own formulation, and quite hot as
liniments go. Professor Okazaki congratulated the student on his
achievement and deftly poured some of the liniment over a very
sensitive portion of the student’s anatomy. The student suddenly
let out a yell and came right up off the mat, clawing his way toward
the ceiling. Professor Okazaki looked at him and then commented that
he apparently had a ways to go towards achieving perfect control of
himself. He was also admonished to keep working on it —
he was doing just fine!
THE DROWNING
At one time, Professor Okazaki was
asked to please come down to the beach and revive a man who had
drowned. Seeing the
opportunity to give practical instruction on certain resuscitation
arts (Kappo), Professor Okazaki grabbed four of his black belters
from the mat, and they proceeded hastily to the beach. On arrival,
they observed the man lying there and as it happened, he had vomited
all over himself. The particular situation involved the use of mouth
to mouth resuscitation. The black belter bent down, the vomit smell
got to him and he vomited himself. Okazaki promptly knocked him out
and bent down, giving the man mouth to mouth resuscitation, and
revived him. That was a lesson his students remembered —
and as Professor Okazaki graphically demonstrated from then
on, they forgot self in
the service of others.
THE DISLOCATION
Professor Okazaki, of course, always
maintained strict discipline among his students both on and off the
mat. On one occasion he received news that one of his brown belters
had gone to a nearby bar, gotten into a fight with a man, and
dislocated the man’s arm. Professor Okazaki turned to Bud Estes,
who by that time was a black belt holder, and said simply, “Kyoshi,
you know what to do. He
did. He went immediately to the bar, and found both men still there.
He went to the brown belter, dislocated the man’s arm in the same
fashion as the man had done to the other, then reduced the
dislocation of the first man and gave him massage and first aid. He
then went to the brown belter and reduced his dislocation, and gave
him massage and first aid. He then instructed the brown belter to
apologize to the man he had injured.
The brown belt did so and turned out to be a model student
from then on.
ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
Bud Estes, just like any other student,
wanted to learn advanced techniques and so—called secret arts
before he was ready. He thought he was ready, but Professor Okazaki
knew better. Although Estes never asked Professor Okazaki to teach
him these techniques, his attitude was clear to the sensei, who
approached him one day and said, “if you want to learn the advanced
techniques, learn to do the basics better than I can, then I will
have to teach you advanced techniques.” This is an answer that Bud
Estes still gives today, when the occasion demands it. It’s a good
one.
Postscript by
D. Scheid, 1991
It is interesting to note that
Professor’s Estes was called Kyoshi.
In the Martial Arts grading system, the
following is typical. Kyu ranks are those from beginner to black
belt. Certificates such as Shoden and Chuden
are issued for achievement is the basic and intermediate Arts.
The Mokuroku represented achievement of the
Master’s system through the intermediate Arts, including knowledge
of the Advanced Arts. It was the lowest teaching certificate. The
Menkyo Kaidan was the highest teaching
certificate. This is the system devised by Jigoro Kano but by no
means inclusive of all grading systems.
Various schools have different requirements for advancement
and titles. Time in grade is not uniform and contrary to the teachings of the Kodenkan which based advancement on both skill
and character. (See home page.)
In the All Japan Kendo Federation,
Renshi is the lowest instructor’s certificate,
and may be obtained 3 years after attaining fifth dan. The next
certificate is Kyoshi and comes 7 years after
Renshi. The highest teaching certificate is
Hanshi which is obtained 20 years after Kyoshi
and the exponent must be over 55 years of age. So, in the Martial
Arts, Kyoshi is the rank of Instructor and it
just speculation that instead of this being Professor’s Estes’
nickname, it was his title and grade which Professor Okazaki assigned
to him.
Since Professor Okazaki issued
Mokuroku, wherein he lists his Shoden and Chuden levels, it is
obvious that he adopted Kano’s system. However, from the use
of the nickname, it is possible that he may have merged or adhered to
a slightly different system than that devised by Kano.