By Bertrand Bourgeat, Member until 2022
The Shakuasei course has been completed and one theme was the difference between Japanese and Chinese martial arts, not only the technical differences but also the philosophical and learning differences. Sensei said that the Chinese often make things more difficult and complicated, while the Japanese, on the contrary, simplify and search for the essence. In any case, there is no doubt that Sensei searches for the essence of his approach to things.
During part 3, we saw some small YouTube film clips partly from Chinese martial arts films, partly from sports training events and finally with "Chinese National Treasure" Sha Guo Zheng (1904-1992) aka Shakuasei. Shakuasei is the one who, among other things, has trained and graduated SST in Chinese martial arts. The purpose of the films was to show various aspects of Chinese martial arts, from the humorous pop culture to mainstream sports, to the martial artist Shakuasei. The differences were (fortunately) quite clear to see.
The amazing thing, especially when you watch Shakuasei, is that it is almost more like dance than it is like Japanese karate. It has of course been seen with my own eyes. At this point, I couldn't help but wonder how it would look if someone had filmed me during the kumite training at the course. The exercise itself was simple enough and pure basic: Attacker makes a tsuki, defender (me) makes a hsingi tsuki, takes the center and breaks the attacker's balance. Simple enough but not easy to do! Even though we did it slowly, over and over again, it probably never came to look like either Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Yamana-Itotani Sensei or Shakuasei.
My point in saying that is not to belittle myself and my ability. It is really just a matter of stating that there is a lot of training and hard work ahead before the techniques work. Sensei suggested anything from 5-10 years, if you train diligently. I come to think that someone once told me that "kung fu" means hard work and whether or not that is true, it is appropriate for what lies ahead. The great thing is that Sensei has stripped away all the superfluous and given us the essence, so it's easy to go to. But as I said: Simple shit – not easy!
