It occurs to me that regardless of the lineage issue being important or not really important that all of us, every karate-ka today, can truthfully say they have roots to the core of karate on Okinawa. Okinawa had "Te or Toudi" and that morphed into Naha-te, Shuri-te, and Tomari-te. Then the next gen karate become Goju-ryu, Shorin-ryu, and as it progressed it become various factions of those systems.
So, in realty, all karate-ka today can claim a solid lineage to the masters of "Ti or Te" as the indigenous fighting system of Okinawa is referred to by today's historians.
Now, then there is the matter of perceived importance as to how close you are to what some refer to as "first generation" lineage. First generation student is a phrase I have heard only from Isshinryu. It refers to those who actually trained under Tatsuo's personal guidance. Now this can be iffy because my Sensei actually did this yet he is first to express that Tatsuo Sensei never physically participated in his training. Tatsuo Sensei's second son actually taught most of them and others were under the tutelage of other more senior Americans while Tatsuo Sensei sat and drank tea and smoked cigarettes.
Now, this is not meant to disparage Tatsuo Sensei but then again Tatsuo Sensei merely did what other older masters did, they observed and let Sempai to most of the teaching and intervened only when absolutely necessary, etc. That is just the way it was.
I am merely hashing older posts here but we have to get real in that the only truly important fact is that we are practicing and passing along the knowledge of karate-do. What matters is our current ability and proficiency. What matters is what are we doing right now in the dojo and in life. What we did yesterday and what yesterday's practitioners did or did not do, who they trained with or did not train with, and so forth is not important except for historical purposes, the lessons one had learned and applied to "today's" practice and training.
In a nutshell, your rank, your lineage, your Sensei, your knowledge, etc. means absolutely nothing until you demonstrate it on the dojo floor and more importantly in every day life, the actions and the words and the demeanor and the customs and the manners you do, say, and demonstrate every single moment of ever single day.
"The Author, it must be remembered, writes from his own standpoint!"
My personal "Interpretive" Lens!
Do You Have A Question?
If you have a question not covered in this blog feel free to send it to me at my email address, i.e. "snow" dot here "covered" dot here "bamboo" AT symbol here "gmail" dot here "com"
"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider..." - Francis Bacon
Warning, Caveat and Note: The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books.
Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.
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