The Martial Art(s) You’ll Learn at Ligo Dojo

     Kyokushin Karate is a style of Japanese Karate founded by Sosai (Chairman) Mas Oyama. Sensei Ligo was a personal, residential student of Mas Oyama in Tokyo in 1990 and 1991, and he holds one of only 3 certificates ever issued by Mas Oyama to Westerners for his famed Young Lions Uchi Deshi program, Sensei Ligo having completed 2 years of the grueling 3-year program before any foreigner had ever graduated. Kancho Hatsuo Royama, the chairman of Kyokushin-kan (our current Kyokushin Karate organization), was also a personal student of Mas Oyama, although from a much earlier time, and for many more years. Kancho Royama, from whom Ligo Dojo students have opportunities to learn in person, has been Sensei Ligo’s primary teacher for the past 20 years, ever since Kyokushin-kan was founded to return Kyokushin to the purity of its Budo Karate roots.

     Please read the brief article Kata, Bunkai, Kumite: The Tenets of Budo Karate below, as these 3 areas of focus will constitute 70% of your training at Ligo Dojo. In the West, and since the 1990’s, practitioners of Kyokushin Karate have begun their karate training with kumite (fighting) and worked backwards in the direction of Kata (formal exercises) in an often futile attempt to supplement their fighting ability (futile because it’s too late to learn kata as an afterthought). In founding Kyokushin-kan, Kancho Royama has turned this notion on its head, and returns us to the origins of Kyokushin when he was a young student of Mas Oyama at the original Oyama Dojo where basics (Kata) were the basis of self-defense, and from them, they developed fighting. While every student should have kumite (practice fighting) experience, we at Ligo Dojo recognize that full-contact fighting is not going to be for every student, day in and day out, so we gladly follow our teacher Kancho Royama’s proscribed path of Kumite FROM Kata. 

     At Ligo Dojo your advanced Karate training will be supplemented by Ikken. Similar to Tai Chi or Qigong, Ikken is used to uncover, and learn how to utilize, the body’s nervous system (Chi energy) as a viable force that can be used to supplement and enhance Karate movements. Both Mas Oyama and Kancho Royama learned Ikken from Sawai Sensei who first brought Ikken to Japan from China. Mas Oyama used Ikken in his original synthasis of Kyokushin, and Kancho Royama practiced it to develop the power he used to defeat “the foreign giants” whom the smaller-statured Japanese defeated in the First World Tournament in 1971. Sensei Ligo’s primary teachers of Ikken have been Kancho Royama, and Shihan Ishijima Masahide (Kyokushin-kan’s first Kata Champion, and chief technical instructor), and prior to taking 6th place in Kyokushin-kan’s World Kata Tournament in 2017, Sensei Ligo increased his practice of Ikken to three hours per day. Ikken is mostly a solitary practice for which we don’t have time in the dojo, but Sensei Ligo teaches it so that team members will practice on their own.

Hoshokai’s Four Martial Arts

     At Ligo Dojo, our supplemental, “advanced” Saturday class focuses on the FOUR martial arts of Hoshokai, including especially Iaido (the art of drawing and cutting with a Japanese sword). We originally started learning these kata-based martial arts in order to supplement our Kyokushin Karate, but soon discovered there’s so much here, of such vital importance, that we now pursue them as a unit with near equal vigor. Under the instruction of Soke Hiroki Okazaki (Founder and Chairman of Houshokai AND chief technical instructor in Kyokushin-kan under Kancho Royama), we also pursue mastery of four martial arts Soke Okazaki acquired from his life’s second teacher, Soke Shiokawa Houshou (now deceased), who taught:

• Mugairyu Iaido (drawing and cutting with the Japenese sword)
• Ryukyu Kobudo (traditional Japanese defensive weapons including sai, tonfa, bo, and others)
• Jo-do (use of the short Jo staff for defense against a Japanese sword)

     Please visit our Chapel Hill Hoshokai – Martial Arts page to understand more about this extra-curricular training available to Ligo Dojo Students. 

Jiyu Kumite vs. Bunkai Kumite 

     Jiyu Kumite means “free practice fighting” and can range from light, controlled impact to full-contact. Sensei Ligo can be seen in the video clip in a heavy contact setting, working with a student in Jiyu Kumite. Note here that Sensei Ligo’s intent, here, is  NOT to defeat the student, since the student is attempting 10 consecutive rounds as a toughening exercise. This particular student, was training for full-contact tournaments, and chose this intensity which today is NOT our norm. Sensei Ligo can be seen in the next video, COOPERATING with a student to demonstrate BUNKAI Kumite, which is more central to our current program. 

     Bunkai means “application” and this art is “the practice of analyzing and applying the motions of Kata.” All karate students must have some exposure to Jiyu Kumite (sparring), because this is what prevents the students from developing a fantasy notion of what they can do with their karate. However, at Ligo Dojo, our emphasis is on Bunkai Kumite which develops a higher degree of ART, but a lesser degree of day-in and day-out impact. We recognize that the majority of our students will not become full-contact competitors. The 3rd video shows Ligo Dojo students, practicing Bunkai Kumite.

    Kata, shown in the 4th video, are the formal exercises passed down to us from our teachers (and from THEIR teachers before them!) which CONTAIN the lethal fighting techniques of Bunkai. Note there is no opponent in practicing Kata, and the entire group works in one synchronized effort to PERFECT the motions. Consider that Bunkai kumite, in which the motions of the Kata are applied, unites the practices of Kumite (fighting) and Kata (formal exercise). Without Bunkai, the student risks understanding Kata to be some kind of stylized dance exercise learned merely to pass promotion tests. Bunkai, however, links the two, and the student learns how the motions of Kata are RELEVANT to fighting. If the student learns Bunkai, Kata practice informs Kumite, AND Kumite practice informs Kata. 

Kyokushin Karate and Iaido?

    At Ligo Dojo we approach real-world self-defense through a pursuit of mastery of ART in which practice fighting is important, but not through unnecessary roughness. Humility is key to learning, and working together as a team. We are the opposite of the dojo in which physical toughness blurs the lines with tough-guy attitude, pride, and ego. Kyokushin Karate is a style of Japanese Karate internationally renowned for its full-contact tournament fighting, and Sensei Ligo, a personal student of Kyokushin’s founder, has practiced for 40 years. Our teachers in Japan, however, are moving us towards a return to authentic Budo Karate which existed in the earliest days of Kyokushin’s history which means developing an appreciation of self-defense in a real-world situation in which our lives may one day be on the line.

     Since the sports RULES of tournament fighting have rendered even devastatingly powerful full-contact fighting eminently SAFE, we supplement our karate training with Iaido (use of Japanese sword), and Kobudo (use of sai, tonfa, bo and jo) to deepen our appreciation of the life-and-death reality of martial arts. Making tough-guy fighters in Kyokushin Karate is a relatively rapid course for making young people tough so that they can fight with other tough guys, and that type of training IS very efficient. The pursuit of mastery of self-defense, however, is a longer pursuit in which depth of knowledge, and precision of technique, takes closer attention to detail over a longer period of time. This leads, in turn, to a more rounded appreciation, creating a martial ARTIST for life, rather than a sports fighter for youth. At Ligo Dojo, students experience kumite (“real” fighting in a protected-by-the-rules setting), but tournament fighting is not our emphasis. Instead we emphasize the pursuit of mastery of our ART(s) in which kumite is also vital. Iaido, the art of drawing and cutting with the Japanese sword, hones precision of technique like no other martial art. We use it also to “up our game” and increase precision in our empty-handed karate, moving us towards a deeper appreciation of self-defense.