User:UsagiM/WGKF

(Continued from the main article about Genseiryu). This version is the version of WGKF of: 14 August 2005, 07:25

World Genseiryu Karatedo Federation

Both Genseiryu Karate and Taido were created by Seiken Shukumine (1925-2001) and as the founder he was naturally also the head of his own styles. However, since 1962 he was mainly occupied with his new martial art Taido (a further development of Genseiryu) and could not be totally involved with Genseiryu anymore. Some believe that sensei Shukumine never took part in Genseiryu at all anymore, and it may have been his wish that all his pupils would switch to Taido, but there are also some people that believe that he in fact still gave some occasional lessons in Genseiryu and even took some examinations of high rank Genseiryu instructors. Proof (pictures) of one of these lessons can be found here: [1]. In fact, Sensei Shukumine did hold a friendly relationship with some of the masters of Genseiryu, that is to say he appointed a head instructor for the Genseiryu Karatedo. The first one being sensei Yamada, later followed by sensei Saito. Today the head instructor of Genseiryu is sensei Yasunori Kanai. Since 2003 all the Genseiryu clubs in the world that honour sensei Shukumine by following his style and his book "Shin Karatedo Kyohan" have joined in a world-wide federation called the World Genseiryu Karatedo Federation (WGKF), of which the head instructor of Genseiryu, sensei Yasunori Kanai, became the president.

The World Genseiryu Karatedo Federation has its office in Ito, Japan, the place where sensei Shukumine lived for many years and where he is now buried. The head quarter (Honbu) of the Japanese branch of Genseiryu, Japan Genseiryu Karatedo is also situated in that office in Ito and Sensei Kanai is also the president of this Japanese branch. Japan Genseiryu Karatedo is a member of Nippon Karatedo Rengoukai, and since Nippon Karatedo Rengoukai is a member of the Japan Karatedo Federation (JKF) ([2]), Japan Genseiryu Karatedo is that as well.

In 2003, many Genseiryu karate instructors from all over the world came to Oviedo, Spain for a meeting held by the World Genseiryu Karatedo Federation. At this meeting they all signed an agreement where they state a.o. that they will follow Sensei Shukumine's book "Shin Karate-do Kyohan" as a guideline to train the "original Genseiryu" (let's call this the "original Genseiryu", since this was the first Genseiryu and the only Genseiryu before sensei Tosa created Genseiryu Butokukai...) Especially the basic kata Ten-i, Chi-i and Jin-i no kata are considered by the original Genseiryu very important kata, because they prepare the karateka for the advanced kata Sansai and also because these kata are so characteristic and typical for Genseiryu Karate. Some Genseiryu instructors choose to train Heians (basic kata from Shotokan) as well, but they did not reject any of the kata in the book. So they still train Ten-Chi-Jin as it is sometimes abbreviated. It is free to mention and free to train kata from other styles in the original Genseiryu organization, but the original Genseiryu will never change things as mentioned in this book. In the book "Taido Gairon" (1988) sensei Shukumine wrote a note about his first book, saying that it was written for Genseiryu followers who wanted to continue with Genseiryu. So, according to WGKF, any school that rejects techniques or kata from this book (Shin Karatedo Kyohan) is not doing (the original) Genseiryu. Some masters of Genseiryu changed the style according to their ideas, like Genwakai and Butokukai. Therefore, these styles will be called Butokukai and Genwakai (which started from Genseiryu). But it cannot be called Genseiryu only. The agreement can be read here.

History of Genseiryu according to WGKF (additional to the article Genseiryu)

In 1962 Sensei Seiken Shukumine introduced a new martial art which he called Taido. It is a further development of Genseiryu and is not to be regarded as karate, but as a new martial art. From that point on, Sensei Shukumine was mainly involved with Taido and many of his pupils started to train Taido as well. However, Taido people have always kept a friendly relationship with Genseiryu people and sensei Shukumine was occasionally involved in Genseiryu Karate. For example he appointed a Head Instructor several times for the World Genseiryu Karatedo, he wrote books and occasionally gave lessons to high rank Genseiryu instructors.

In 1964 he published his book "Shin Karatedo Kyohan", which is the first book ever on Genseiryu Karate. In this book he describes the techniques, which are being used in Genseiryu Karate. In the book he also describes some of the kata that are trained in Genseiryu very thoroughly, together with pictures. The most important kata of Genseiryu are the basic kata Ten-I, Chi-I and Jin-i-no Kata and the kata Sansai and Tai-i. Sensei Shukumine pointed out the importance of these kata in an open letter he wrote not long before he died (letter in Japanese).

In the mid 1970s Sensei Shukumine wrote another book about Genseiryu Karate: "The Karate training by complete drawing", which is a much lesser known book. It contains over 200 pages, where he describes Genseiryu karate techniques but he also describes the differences between Karate and Judo, Karate and Aikido, Karate and Taido, etc.

The "other" Genseiryu style

In 1962 a student of Sensei Shukumine, Kunihiko Tosa, started his own dojo, which he named "Butokukai". He also created the organization Nippon Karate-do Genseiryu Butokukai. Along with some other students Tosa decided to continue with karate instead of joining Taido. He wanted to join the JKF and presumably to increase the chance of being accepted to this federation he changed his lesson curriculum. He implemented kata from Shotokan and Shito-Ryu. The most important difference of his curriculum was his choice of discarding the basic kata Ten-i, Chi-i and Jin-i no kata and to replace them by the basic kata of Shotokan (the so called Heians). Tosa also wrote a book (1984) and named it "Genseiryu Karate Kyohan 2". Tosa's book is used in dojo that train Genseiryu-Butokukai. Because Tosa named his style Genseiryu, there were suddenly two styles calling themselves "Genseiryu", and a problem arose. This problem seemed to be solved when, through legal intervention, he had to call his karate style Genseiryu-Butokukai. However, this is by Japanese law and outside Japan, he and some of his followers (not all) are still using the name Genseiryu.

Other students of Sensei Shukumine, like Sensei Yamada and Sensei Kanai, continued with the curriculum that Sensei Shukumine was teaching. So they kept training the 'original' Genseiryu, as was first taught by Sensei Shukumine. Their guideline was and still is the first book of Sensei Shukumine "Shin Karatedo Kyohan". This can be read in this agreement. This agreement was signed and the federation of WGKF was created to ensure international conformity about the original Genseiryu.

There is also another organization that claims to train Genseiryu. Although WGKF has nothing against other karate styles, WGKF believes that this style is not training the 'original' Genseiryu because there are too many differences, as described above. Sensei Tosa, founder of Genseiryu-Butokukai, is the head of this organization, now called the Genseiryu Karatedo International Federation (GKIF) (Japanese name Nippon Karate-do Genseiryu Butokukai).

External links

Genseiryu Karatedo Japan (玄制流空手道) (Official Genseiryu site, only in Japanese but worth a visit for the nice pictures: click links below left and middle!)
Genseiryu Karatedo Netherlands (Official site of Genseiryu Netherlands)
Genseiryu Karate (Official Genseiryu Karate site with many nice pictures (like from 55 years Genseiryu celebration)
Gensei-Ryu Honbu Denmark (Danish, but nice pictures of Honbu Dojo in Ito, Japan)