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He's still kicking around

It is said that a practitioner of Shotokan karate can live for 120 years. Hirokazu Kanazawa, 74, one of the finest exponents of that style, could well be on his way there, writes ANAND SANKAR

PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.

MIND GAMES The key to remaining one step ahead of your opponent, says Hirokazu Kanazawa, is reading his mind PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.

Hirokazu Kanazawa might be 74 now, but this karateka's movements are still sharp as ever and leave one seeing just a blur. At an age when most of us (if alive and breathing without assistance) would be nursing arthritic knees, he is able to leave opponents half his age panting for breath. The key to remaining one step ahead of your opponent, according to him, is "reading the mind of the opponent".

Hailed as the living legend by his students and fans across the world, Kanazawa (10th Dan) is a practitioner of the Shotokan style of karate and is one of the few alive today who have studied under Master Gichin Funakoshi (see box), the pioneer of the Shotokan style. He was in the city recently to work with Shotokan students who are coached by Sensei Subramaniam, also his student.

"My master wouldn't call it style. Karate has no style. But once Shotokan became popular, it came to be known as a `style'," laughs Kanazawa. Japan, and soon the karate world, stood up and took notice of Kanazawa in 1957 after the first All Japan Karate Tournament in Tokyo. But he was crushed when the organisers initially refused to allow him to participate as his right wrist was broken. The reason for his disappointment was not the rejection but the fact that he could not perform in front of his mother who had come from far away to watch him. "In those days there was no air travel, so it took her a long time to come to Tokyo. I didn't want to send her back disappointed," Kanazawa recalls.

Then followed a series of negotiations with the organisers, who finally okayed the participation if a doctor certified his fitness. And seeing his determination, a doctor was impressed enough to certify him. Thus Kanazawa had to fight with his right arm in a sling. He did not just fight; he won the championship. Such was his concentration while fighting with one hand that he claims he saw his opponents in slow motion, a la The Matrix.

"When my mother saw me downcast because of the broken wrist, she said I was foolish; in karate, the whole body is a weapon." That's when he decided that he would win for his mother nothing else. "After winning the first two rounds, my mother wanted me to come out. But she didn't know you couldn't come out till you were knocked out. So, I became a champion by just kicking. It was a different feeling that year. Everyone was moving in slow motion. The next two years the opponents were moving normally. My ki (chi in Japanese) was the key." Kanazawa is the only karateka ever to have won the All Japan Karate Championships three times in a row.

What separates the Shotokan style from the other styles of karate is its emphasis on breathing and strengthening of the abdomen. Says the master: "Breathing is used in many ways. Everything breathes. Breathing properly is harmony of body, mind and spirit. Every action involves different kinds of breathing. It controls the flow of energy."

So rigorous is Shotokan that it is said that a practitioner of this style can live for 120 years. Kanazawa laughs: "I will probably live 90 years. I won't live long because of the pollution and the lack of trees in Tokyo. Also, I travel for eight months in a year across time zones. That will make my life short."

One thing that you cannot miss with Kanazawa is the tranquillity he radiates. Even admonishing his pupils is done with a smile. "I am happy because my job is making people happy and healthy. I especially love working with children. Karate makes them strong and disciplined."

For someone like Kanazawa, life is all about passing his knowledge on to others and there is no scope for retirement. But he does manage to grab a few moments for himself. "When I do get some free time, I like reading books or writing."

How karate conquered the world

Karate can be traced back to over 1400 years, to Daruma, founder of Zen Buddhism in Western India. Daruma is said to have introduced Buddhism to China, incorporating spiritual and physical teaching methods that were so demanding many of his disciples would drop out of sheer exhaustion. The physical training, heavily imbued with Daruma's philosophical principles, was taught at the Shaolin Temple from the year 500 C.E. as Shaolin (Shorin) kung fu.

The martial art eventually found its way to Okinawa, and influenced its own original fighting method, called Okinawa-te (Okinawan hand) or simply te. A ban on weapons in Okinawa for two long periods in its history is also partly responsible for the high degree of development of unarmed fighting techniques on the island. This method eventually began to be called karate: kara meaning empty and te, hand.

Master Gichin Funakoshi was the first expert to introduce karate-do to mainland Japan, in 1916. He was one of the few people to have been initiated into all the major Okinawan karate methods. He taught a synthesis of the Okinawan styles as a total discipline. This method became known as Shotokan (literally "House of Shoto", Funakoshi's pen name). Because of the great popularity of the style in Japan and later around the world, Funakoshi is widely considered to be the father of modern karate-do. Kanazawa is currently the Kancho, Supreme Instructor and President of Shotokan Karatedo International Federation.

For more information, check out http://www.skif.jp/index-e.htm.

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