“Okinawa journey"by Shihan Anthony Marquez |
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Even though I was born in America, a large part of me considers home to be a place called Okinawa. I can still remember the good old days as a young serviceman walking into a dojo for the first time. I celebrated the 25th anniversary of that day on April 5, 1996. I visited Okinawa in August 1995 and participated in the Pre-World Championship, the precursor to the World Championship scheduled to take place on Okinawa in July 1997. This visit changed my entire outlook on Okinawan martial arts and, to a large extent, my future! I would like to share this experience with you and I will start by providing some background on my training and teachers.
The Search Begins One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when visiting Okinawa is affordable lodging. I had problems finding hotel space for our large group because there were many people on the island for the World Pre-Tournament. During the second day of the championship, I was very fortunate to bump into a gentleman by the name of Dan Smith. I found out through our conversations that we had something in common, since he had also trained in the Jinbukan. I mentioned that I was having difficulties finding lodging and he said that his sensei in Okinawa had a lot of property and he would ask if he could put us up for a few days. As luck would have it, the sensei he was talking about was Shimabukuro Zenpo, the head of Seibukan Shorin-Ryu. It being a small world, one of my black belt students, Angel Lemus from Los Angeles, is also a Seibukan sensei. Shimabukuro Sensei is a very wealthy real estate agent in Okinawa and a very kind and generous individual. He put up our team at no cost in a small double room apartment near his office. We found ourselves sleeping elbow to elbow, which is a very good way to establish a good camaraderie among your fellow students. In Search of Isa After the championships were finished, I was ready to look for Isa Kaishu Sensei. At the time, I did not know his first name and I didn’t know if I had his correct address. As a matter of fact, Angel had called me up late the night before our departure to Okinawa and gave me an address for Isa Sensei that he found in Mark Bishop’s book, “Okinawan Karate: Teachers, Styles and Secret Techniques.” I was very fortunate that Mr. Shimabukuro’s office was right across the street from where I was staying in Okinawa City. I walked into his office one day and explained to his secretary that I was trying to find a man named Isa. She then looked up the name Isa in their version of the Yellow Pages and found an address that was about five blocks away. She then asked Mr. Shimabukuro’s nephew, who also works at the real estate office, to take me there. Upon arriving at the address in the phone book, we found that it was not Isa Kaishu Sensei’s dojo or home. It was a Shorin- Ryu dojo but the sensei there knew of Isa and provided us with his home address and phone number. We called this number and to our surprise found Isa Sensei on the other end of the line. The translator then told Isa Sensei that there was someone who was trying to find him. Isa Sensei asked who was I and what did I want? Through the translator, I told Isa Sensei that I was an old student of his sensei, and ever since Kina Sensei’s death I had wanted to find someone from this weapons family and pay my respects. Upon hearing that I was a student of his teacher, Isa Sensei thought that I must be a very, very old man. It turned out that Isa Sensei was a student of Kina Shosei, the uncle of my teacher, Kina Masanobu. I made an appointment to meet with Isa Sensei the following day at 9:30 am.
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The author, Shinan Anthony Marquez stands in Sensei Isa's dojo in Okinawa. |
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Sensei Isa's living room was partly converted into a very beautiful Buddhist shrine in which he conducts daily services. |
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