Published Literature

Traditional Karate Magazine, Interview by ???, 19??, p.?

Mitsusuke harada was born in 1928. He started training in Karate at the age of 15 years when he joined the Shotokan Dojo of Master Gichin Funakoshi in November 1943. He received instruction from Yoshitaka Funakoshi, Motonobu Hironishi and other senior students in the dojo.

Harada Sensei was graded to 5th dan by Master Funakoshi. He had never claimed any higher grade, believing that anything beyond this is pointless. A man truly dedicated to the martial arts, Harada Sensei continued to teach his own students in Great Britain and others all over the world. As well as continuing to teach, Sensei Harada also continues to expand, his already greater awareness of other arts and in this interview talks about some of the arts he has experienced.

TRADITIONAL KARATE (TK): When you were posted to Brazil did you see any Capoeira or experience it?
HARADA SENSEI (HS): Oh yes. I saw some Capoeira, I do not know who the master was but some capoeristra came to my dojo. This was in 1956, some Japanese friends of mine told me about this art called Capoeira on the ship and they gave me some friendly warnings and said that some capoeirista might come to my dojo and challenge me because only judo was in Brazil at this time and they had accepted the challenge. Having not seen Capoeira before I was a bit surprised at first due to their fluidity of movement and that is why I decided to change the type of Karate I was doing at the time, the rigidness of Shotokan to a flowing movement. The movement was static but with Kime just like when hitting the Makiwara. The Capoeira was very smooth and flexible in its moves. This is how Karate should be done, but with the addition of speed.
TK: So the movements in Capoeira are similar to those practiced in Kawashi (Interaction) (Karate-Do Nyumon, Kodansha Publications)?
HS: Speed is of an essence which allows you to move in this way, just to do it.
TK: Sensei, did you also see any Gracie Ju-Jitsu when you were in Brazil?
HS: I heard about it, but I never saw it. I gather he was a very big man. I believe they were in Rio De Janeiro and I was in Sao Paulo.
TK: What are the precepts of the K.D.S. or the ideals?
HS: From the end of 1943 to the 10th of March 1945 I was training at the Shotokan in Tokyo, but I was just a school boy, how you say, junior. After the war all martial arts were suspended by General Headquarters. Most of the seniors had gone off to the war, so not so many people were training at this time, anyway I went to train under Hironishi Sensei who was a senior Shotokan Instructor at the dojo and quite occasionally Yoshitaka Sensei would teach. Once or twice he showed me something, personally. But anyway all the martial arts were stopped so I was very surprised to see Karate when I joined the University in 1948.
TK: Was this because Karate was not indigenous to Japan?
HS: No, I do not think that General Headquarters knew of karate at this time. However I feel that when I joined the university dojo the karate I did was different to theirs, the two dojos� karate was different.
TK: Could you please explain why they were different.
HS: At this time Karate was done for its own sake so there was no shiai (competition) the difference being in the way we stepped. At the Shotokan dojo we stepped like this and at the university dojo they stepped like this (Interviewers Note: Sensei demonstrated that at the Shotokan dojo they stepped with an in-out movement whereas the university dojo stepped with a linear movement). Something was different. Every Saturday Funakoshi Gichin Sensei would come down to the dojo to teach us but in his case he was too old to do this so he sat down and watched us do kata over and over again until he was happy with it, but there was no kumite (a meeting of hands). When our seniors took the class it was different--why? I found that a lot of the young seniors were influenced by Yoshitaka Sensei, this case I ponder, original Shotokan Karate and university karate were completely different.
T.K.: So the Shotokan karate as we know it today is Yoshitaka Sensei's?
H.S.: Yes in my case, I was very influenced by Yoshitaka Sensei's karate.
T.K.: Sensei on an historical note, when and who developed the mawashi-geri (round house kick)?
H.S.: A very good question, when I was looking in my books I could not find any mawashi-geri. We could not find it in O'Sensei's original book {Karate Do Kyohan, Kodansha publications) (Interviewers Note: At this point Sensei got out of his bag an original version of this book, written in Japanese. It had interestingly on the front the emblem of the Shotokan tiger. It was published in 1936 and translated by Oshima Sensei). There was no mawashi-geri in it but there was a Yoko-geri and a migazuke-geri (side kick and crescent kick respectively). Also a sokuto keage (blade swing kick). In my opinion the cross between the migazuki and mae-geri (front kick) is how it came to be. The migazuki-geri with its straight leg and the mae-geri with its snap in the knee is how I think it was developed by Yoshitaka Sensei and it came to called Mawashi-geri.
T.K.: When did it become common practice and what part of the foot was used for striking?
H.S.: It was done like this with Tsurmaski (pointed toe kick).
T.K.: Is it the same theory as the Ippon Ken (one knuckle punch)?
H.S.: Oh yes, this was by Yoshitaka Sensei who developed it. Hironishi Sensei used to walk like this, I say this because I saw it personally.
T.K.: Do the K.D.S. teach karate to children and if so what would you say to be the best age to start?
H.S.: Yes we do and the best age to start would be approximately seven, although it I depends on the child.
T.K.: And what is taught to them?
H.S.: It is games but karate orientated games and with the use of foam balls so as utilize the hip when they throw them, then some kata and lastly some more karate with the games aspect.
T.K.: Sensei in the Go-Ju Ryu demonstration we saw some body conditioning exercises, like the chishi (strength stone) did you do any of this when you started training and do you do any now?
H.S.: It is interesting that we have the same equipment as the Go-Ju Ryu but we wanted to do some body building (weight training) most of the seniors were against this as they believed it slowed you down. Personally I feel we needed some weight training with a good coach to develop some routines so as to not lose the speed. We have to be strong but not at the expense of speed.
T.K.: Did you do any stretching in those days as we know it.
H.S.: No, just warm ups, a type of aerobics or gymnastics. Just natural movements.
T.K.: Could you tell me more about Ki and its relation to the relaxed punch that you practice?
H.S.: I do believe that speed is more important than power. We need speed and how to create speed when breaking wood. We use 5lbs. of power because the wood has to be held strongly, but if the wood is held by one hand only, speed is important. Speed is of very great importance, that is my opinion.
T.K.: So Tameshiwara was practiced in the early days as was makiwara.
H.S.: Every one did makiwara, but if you do too much you can damage yourself. It can damage your hands and affect your work if you work in an office. If you are a professional instructor it is up to you how much practice you do.
T.K.: Sensei, on the aspect of kata especially the taikyoku set, shodan in particular, how much of your training time should be set aside for this group of kata?
H.S.: In my opinion it should be practiced at slow speed so as to get the correct form. It might even resemble tai chi practice and to concentrate all our focus on technique. Maybe in one training session 10-20 times it should be done. Sometimes fast sometimes slow.
T.K.: Do you practice all 6 of these kata (3 developed by Henri Plee)?
H.S.: The Shotokai were very surprised by the existence of 6 kata as there were only ever 3 taught at the Shotokan in Tokyo.
T.K.: As most schools only teach the first kata, could you describe all 3 kata's movements for us Sensei? H.S.: Taikyoku Shodan is Gedan Barai (low sweep block) with Chudan Oi- Tsuki middle punch). Taikyoku Nidan is Gedan Barai with Jodan Oi-Tsuki (head punch) and lastly Taikyoku Sandan is Chudan Ude Uke (middle block) Kokutsu Dachi with Chudan Tsuki to the side and Jodan Tsuki up the centre.
T.K.: Thank you for clarifying that point for us Sensei and on the subject of kata I visited the local K. D.S. club at the Community Centre near where I live and picked up a handout document. The contents of this were interesting. In the kata list at the back I saw four kata I was interested in learning more about. They were as follows: Matsukazi, Sanchin, Tensho and Hojo. Could you shed some light on these kata and their origin.
H.S.: Matsukazi was developed by Yoshitaka Sensei as a bow kata.
T.K.: I thought it was the old name for Wankan.
H.S.: No, definitely a bow kata.
T.K.: Sanchin and Tensho?
H.S.: Sanchin and Tensho are from Higaonna Sensei's Go-Ju Ryu but originally they were from Japanese Go-Ju Ryu. Now however we learn them from Okinawan Go-Ju ryu. Sanchin and Tensho are from Higaonna's Go-Ju ryu.
T.K.: And finally Hojo?
H.S.: This is a bokken kata unique to the K.D.S.
T.K.: Is this because you advocate a lot of bokken practice in the K.D.S.?
H.S.: Going back to the question on weight training, the seniors did not like us to do this so we used the heavy bokken to disguise it so as to allow us to develop physique.
T.K.: Could you tell us more about the seniors at the Shotokan and Waseda Dojo's.