LIn maw tsun
Karatedo and I
The first time I heard the word Karatedo was in 1966, I was a high school student and was doing judo training at Butoku Kan (柔道聯誼會, 武德館) in Taipei at the time.
One day, a tiny Japanese woman came into the dojo. She donned wide pants and a hoodie, and had a very masculine haircut. I learned from her introduction that she was originally a 2 dan judo trainee, but due to her small size, she could not pursue a higher path. She switched to karatedo and she was now a karatedo instructor with 3 dan ranking. (She was Master Tetsuhiko Asai’s pupil.)
I empathized with her. I only weighed 49 kilograms myself. I then became distant from the practice because of university exams and military service, missing earlier opportunities to learn more about karate. After my service, I busied myself with work during the day and studying at night. Another 7 years passed quickly where I got married and had children.
But one day, completely out of the blue, one of my friends who was about 5 to 10 years older than me told me that he was about to join a special class taught by a top-ranking karatedo master in Taiwan. At the time, I was feeling the decline in my physical strength so I decided to follow along with my friend to the dojo. Once there, I learned that the instructor was in fact Chen Hunt-Tsing, who was extremely famous in the central region of Taiwan, and I immediately signed up for the class.
Chen Sensei graduated from a high school operated by Japan under Japanese colonial rule before the war, with impressive grades, and became a teacher at his elementary school. After the war, he was then chosen for the Taiwanese national team for the first All Province Taiwan Sports Championship (台湾全省運動会) and he was also a PE teacher for elementary and secondary schools in five cities in central Taiwan. He continued on to become the instructor for the representative team for City of Taipei at the All Province Taiwan Sports Championship (台湾全省運動会) in multiple categories.
He was a master of Japanese martial arts such as Judo, Kendo, Jodo, and those of Taiwan, such as the White Crane Fist. He was also the person who helped introduce and promote karate in Taiwan. We were fortunate that Shuseki Shihan Asai, then the head of the technical office of the World Karate Championship, often came to Taiwan to teach karate at his own expense, which allowed me to deepen my understanding of karate.
Taiwan was under martial law with various restrictions at the time. Furthermore, it was during the time when a certain person had been attempting to monopolize karatedo for some time. Despite such adverse circumstances, like many of my senior pupils, I followed suit after Master Chen and put my every effort into promoting karate in Taiwan.
With the support from Shuseki Shihan Asai from Japan, we established Karatedo Sports Association (体育会空手道委員会) in Songshan District and Nagang District in Taipei City. In 1990, we formed the Taipei City Team, which won fourth place at the Karate World Championship held in Dubai that year.
In the following years, Karate Federation and International Japan Karatedo martial arts Karatedokai (IJKA) was eventually formed.
1990 Gifu prefecture
2001 Tokyo
2007 Okinawa (achieving multiple best results at the World Championship)
2011 Taipei City
2016 Taipei City
2018 Shanghai (saw the agglomeration of Asai karate with comrades pursuing the same path at the Asai Cup International Karatedo Friendship Tournament)
Since 2003, Shuseki Shihan Asai, Shuseki Shihan Chen Hung-tsung, and the Technology Office Head, Master Chen Hsin-koei, raised and trained many karate instructors in Shanghai, China.
The head of the IJKA Technology Office, Master Chen Hsin-koei, now walks in Master Asai’s footsteps and organizes karatedo technical seminars every year, visiting places like Switzerland, Germany, Italy and mainland China. Likewise, many trainees around the world travel long ways to be taught by him.
In the last 40 years, I have experienced the positions of Managing Director of Karatedo Committee (District of Nangang) Taipei City Sports Association, Committee Chair of Karatedo Committee of Taipei City Sports Association, Vice-Chair of Chinese Karate Federation, Head of International Administrative Office at IJKA, as well as the head of regional office IJKA China. All this time, under the guidance of Shuseki Shihan Master Chen, I participated in tournaments, seminars, and training.
I am still a trainee myself, but I am determined to never forget that I am here to contribute my moral ability to society by preventing unscrupulous members from using the martial arts skills for harm, by supporting each other and talking with diverse people, and never neglecting butoku.
林 茂椿 2020.9.20敬筆