PICS BY CHARLIE SURIANO

Grandmaster Joko Ninomiya r My Journey in Karate, The

Sabaki Way.

for me. lcould stay, he said, but lwould havetokeep training hard. lwas so happy lkeptshouting Osu! jumping up and down so muchthat lhardly heard the remainder of hisinstructions. Osu !"

At the end of March, the "war" in New yorkwas over for most of the group. lt was time forthe fighters to return home. Senpai Kishi andJoko watched their plane taxi away from thegate, before catching a train back to the city."Riding along in the noisy subway car, I closedmy eyes and suddenly felt very alone inside. Bystaying in America, I had sealed my fate. My lifewas about to unfold in a new direction and yet I

couldn't see exactly what lay ahead. lworriedabout just where that journey wou ld take ffi€,but I was comforted to know I would have theguidance of Senpai Kishi along the way."

Once Ninomiya moved in with Senpai Kishi,a different world opened up for him. "l hadcertainly heard of bushido the samurai warrior'scode but lnever fully understood itssignificance. With Senpai Kishi, lwould begin tolearn about the samurai spirit and the innerworld of Karate-do. The secrets about the rnindand spirit. ln Senpai Kishi, lsaw a man wholived these principles of budo every day."

Ninomiya continued training every day andsplit his teaching time between Scarsdale andFairfield, Connecticut, dojos. As it turned out,the first All-World Tournament was pushed backa year, so he continued training with his sightsnow set on I975.

"During that first year in New York, I wasslowly making a transition. I had been training inthe martial arts since the age of fifteen, andm uch of that ti me I had spent in the dojomastering techniques. ln New York I felt for thefirst time some profound changes stirring insideme. I n karate I started search ing for someth ingmore than physical strength and technicalperfection. lwas entering another difficultperiod of dou bt and f rustration, in wh ich mypatience and will would be tested to their limits.The path of karate was turning steeper and moreperilous, and it would be some time before itwas clear just what kind of changes that journeywas affecting within me. But I would not give in,and I would not give up my search."

ln Late October I97 5 Joko N inom iyareturned to Japan for the first All-Worldtournament held in the Tokyo Gymnasium.

The tournament hosted I28 of the topfighters from more than thirty differentcou ntries. "When I f lew back with Sen pa i K ish i

I realised I had been out of the country for nearlytwo years," recalls Ninomlya.

Because the world tournament was beinghosted by Japan, there was naturally a lot ofpressure on Ninomiya and the other Japanesefighters to do well. "l didn't mind thepressure. lwas looking forward to thechallenge, and after having trained every dayfor the last two years, I f elt I was tru lyprepared both mentally and physically."

Joko arrived in Tokyo a week early and stayedwith his brother Noringa. "l worked out daily onthe roof top of his apartment building. Threedays before the tournament I was working outalone on the roof. I jumped up and grabbed thecrossbar of the laundry pole with both handswhen something snapped.pain shot down mylower back and hips. I couldn't move. I couldn'twalk; lfelt crushed. I had put in two years oftraining, there were three days left until thetournament, and sudden ly I was a cripple."

When his brother arrived home that eveninghe fou nd Joko collapsed. I mmed iately Noringarushed Joko to an acupuncturist, then took himfor shiatsu treatment (finger pressure massage).The combination of the two returned movementto his lower back and legs, but he was still in agreat deal of pain.

"The next day, when Kancho Ashiharaarrived in Tokyo, I didn't mention my back injuryto h im. We both a lready had enough to th in kabout, and I wanted to put the injury out of mym ind and prepare for the tournament. "

Over the next two days, Ninomeya faced fiveopponents, defeating each in turn to make it tothe sem i-f ina I .

" My sixth match was the contest he hadbeen waiting for. I was to face Senpai KatsuakiSato, to whom I had lost in overtime in I97Iand who would twice win the All-Japan." Thebout was so fierce and so close that the judgesmade Ninomiya and Sato continue through threeconsecutive overtimes, eventua I ly award ing M r.Sato a narrow victory. " I had noth ing to beashamed of , " says N inomiya, " lt had been thehardest f ight of my career. "

At 2l-years-of-age N inom iya was awardedthird place at the first All-World Tournament." Everyone seemed satisf ied, but me. Now I

wanted the All-Japan more than ever, and thatdesire tightened someth ing in the pit of mystomach. lt locked my senses, mind, and spirit tothe achievement of that one goal. No matter whatobstacle stood in the way, I would not be denied.I vowed to win the All-Japan or die trying."

When Ninomiya returned to New york, thestudents at the Scarsdale dojo threw a party tocelebrate his third place finish. "As close as I hadcome to winning my friend Senpai Kishi broughtme back to reality that evening. He said to me, ,lt

is probably a good thing you didn't win',""l couldn't believe my ears, and remember

asking why?""Because if you had won at your age, you

would now have nowhere to go," said SenpaiK ish i . "There wou ld be noth ing left to cha I lengeyou. You would be a precocious champion withall of the outer skills but very few of the innerqualities."

lnitially Senpai Kishi's words stung, butNinomiya began to see that his friend was right.Something was still lacking, but he did not knowhow to find it.

"The act of training on a daily basisbecame a necessity for me. lt provided apurpose to each day. Without a daily workoutI sometimes felt lost and unfocused.Running, frog-jumps, pushups, situps... thesewere a lways part of my da ily routine. " Eachweek Joko would try to increase his goal. ,,lf I

were doing 100 pushups, lwould try to do105 the following week. I frog jumped aroundthe perimeter of a parking lot behind an officebuilding on Central Avenue. Each week I

wou ld try to push myself to increase thedistance by one more parking space eachweek. Even if I had an injury, I would go outand train every day. lf my leg was sore, I

wou ld do extra work on my pu nches; if my

Martial Arts Magazine www.sportzblitz. net Page 79

hand was injured I would work extra hard on

my kicks. There was a lways someth ing to do

to improve my strength or technique.""No matter how hard I trained for the All-

Japan, I always told myself there was someone,

somewhere, training harder than l: and thatdrove me to keep improving for the day I'd face

that f ighter. "

When he returned to Tokyo for the I976 All-

Japan, Ninomiya was in top fighting conditionand determined to take the title that had eluded

h im the year before. N inom iya fought h is way

through to the f inal , again facing Mr. Sato. For

the second time in two years, Ninomiya came

tantalisingly close to reaching his goal of

winning the All Japan. He fought as hard as he

could, but had to settle for second place. "The

taste of defeat was as bitter as ashes, but I was

determ i ned not to give u p, " I n a few days

Ninomiya returned to America and the routinewould begin all over again.

And then several months later disasterstruck, Wh ile preparing a demonstrationinvolving a samurai sword with SenpaiKanamura, Ninomiya severed the thumb on his

left hand. The scabbard was old, and a slightcrack gave way as he drew the blade, forcing therazor sharp edge across his thumb under fullforce. The blade cut through the tendon, carving

between the bones of the kn uckle joint. " I

remember blood spurting eerily in thin arcingjets across the white mats. The severed tendons

snapped back into the base of my thumb,leaving little else but a thread of skin to keep it

attached." lmmediately Ninomiya rushed tohospital where the surgeons warned him that he

may never use his thumb again. Ninomiya spent

f ive days in hospital after extensive surgery. That

years All-Japan was out of the question, and ittook months before he cou ld move h is th u m b

again. "Three months after the operation, I

could start rehabilitating the hand. I squeezed a

rubber ball to rebuild the strength in my thumb,but it was a long slow process."

Those five days he was laid up in hospitalgave N i nom iya ti me to th i n k. " I had been

dreaming more and more of having my own

school. New York, Ch icago, and Los Angeles -these cities were full of Karate schools. I wanted

to be on my own, lwanted to move to a town

where there weren't as many schools. I would

move west, maybe to Denver to the Rocky

mountains and the open spaces that had

captivated my imagination back in Japan.""l made a decision, and as soon as my hand

healed I packed what few things I had, and

drove to Denver." With no friends or contacts,

Joko Ninomiya was forced to start all over again.

After finding a place to stay, Ninomiya hung

his heavy bag from a tree in the nearby park,

working out for hours on end. "lt was my way of

saying'Open for business'." lt wasn't long

before Ninomiya's workouts started catching the

eyes of curious joggers. Having found some

space at a local health gym Ninomiya's class

was soon overf lowing with students."Then one night, I was awakened by a phone

call. lt was my sister Tomiko on the other end.

"Father has died," she said. The death of his

father shook Ninomiya to his core, and after

returning to Japan for the funeral he was forced to

take a hard look at all he had sacrificed in ordertopursue h is dream. Realising how many positive

things his father had given him, Joko strengthened

his resolve to make the most of his life.

Seven months after his father's funeral,Ninomiya was back in Tokyo for the 1978 All-

Japan Open Karate Tournament,"For the last ten years this had been the

object of my every effort. Although first place

had eluded ffie , th is year I was ready, and

nothing could change that."Ten years of spirit and striving had focused

on this one event, and somehow, intuitively,before the tournament even started, I sensed

that th is wou ld be my year. lt is d iff icu lt to

describe except to say that lfelt lwas in thehands of a larger force,"

Fina lly the tou rnament started, a nd

N inom iya moved easily through the f irst few

rou nds. "With each f ight I seemed to grow

stronger. After taking a decision in my first

round, lwon each successive fight with a

knockout until I reached the semi-finals."

Page 80 www.sportzblitz. net

There Ninomiya faced Mr. Makoto Nakamura,

a two hundred pound fighter from the Tokyo

Kyokushin headquarters who had won every round

by knocking out all of his opponents. The two went

toe-to-toe until Ninomiya caught Nakamura with a

sol id rou nd house kick to the jaw. N inom iya

followed up with a left front kick that landed deep

into Nakamura's solar plexus. "He fell backwards

and went down. I was awarded the fight."

ln the final round Ninomiya was to face Mr.

Keiji San pei , whom he had defeated in thequarter-finals two years earlier.

" R ight f rom the begin n ing I attacked with

front kicks and low kicks. Neither of us backed

away and the f ight was extremely close."

The first round ended in a draw, and during

the one m in ute rest period the crowd worked

itself up into a frenzy. "Ten thousand voices

were shouting our names back and forth. Again

I fett I could win. No matter how many over-

times we might face, I knew I had the spirit and

stamina. I felt as if the energy of the crowd were

f lowi ng d irectly i nto my bodY. "

The overtime was again very close, the two

fighting as though their lives depended on the

outcome. " l remember the beanbag skidding

onto the mat and the crowd cheering at the end

of the match. Then there was an eerie silence.

The judges raised their flags. The decision was

mine. The crowd roared again, I had finally won

the All-Japan."

Joko Ninomiya bowed and immediately

looked for Kancho Ash ihara. "When he stepped

up onto the corner of the platform, I ran over,

shook his hands, and bowed. We didn't need to

say a word, I could see the approval in his eyes.

"Vaguely, I heard the announcer calling the

f ighters up for the awards presentation. We lined

up. My name was called, and a document was

read. The trophy was presented, and I bowed' I

tried to hold back the tears that filled my eyes. I

had reached the top of the mountain and the

view was humbling in its magnif icence. I wished

my father had been there to share it. I cannot

describe the joy and sadness that overwhelmed

me at that moment." lt had taken ten years, but

N i nom iya had reached h is goa I .

I n 1980 Kancho Ash ihara left the Kyokush in

organisation and started his own style of Karate.

Ninomiya left with his teacher and became the

United States Director of Ashihara Karate, a

position he held for eight Years."After twenty years of training I was f inding a

different path. I was thinking of new techniques. I

wanted to develop a tournament format that would

provide a true test of Karate skills. I wanted to

teach more of the inner qualities of Karate as well.

All of these considerations were important to me."

ln May 1988 Ninomiya left Ashihara Karate

and took on his biggest challenge ever. The

formation of Enshin Kai Karate.

"The name was important to me because

karate is more than a series of movements or

techniques. The inner dimension, what a person

does with his heart and mind is just as important

as what he does with his fists and feet."

ln Japanese Enshin means 'heart of the

circle.' Kai means group. "The'heart'character was especially important because I

wanted my students to meet one another in the

dojo not as adversaries but more as fam ily

mem bers ready to help one another. The circle

character also represents the circularmovements that take a defender around the

thrust of an attack and enable him to counter

from his opponent's blind side (sabaki)."

But there was also another meaning of the

circle En in Enshin: the En character in Japanese

also suggests an incomplete circle. "Finally, I

wanted to suggest that Karate is a journey whose

goal is never reached: ? pl'ocess and not an end

that is most important. Enshin Kai captured these

inner and outer qualities of what karate has come

to mean for me."

That same year Kancho Joko N inom iya

organised his first full-contacl Karate tournament

in Denver. "l rented a high school gymnasium, set

u p a single-el im ination pyram id for sixteen

fighters, and eight hundred people showed up to

watch. What they saw was a full contact Karate

tournament - no pads, no gloves - open to all

styles. A lot of people told me I was crazy to try to

build this kind of tournament. But I believed in the

tournament because it was the fairest and most

demanding test of Karate skills I had seen. For this

reason, I knew it would succeed." lt took years of

hard work, but the Sabaki Challenge Tournament

grew year by year.

Since then, several Japanese and American

magazines have stated that N inom iya's Sabaki

Challenge set the standard for bare knuckle Karate

f ighti ng i n the U S.

"l do not encourage all my students to enter

the Sabaki Challenge," says Ninomiya. "Far

f rom it. lt is on ly for those who wish to take

their training a few steps further." Today the

Sabaki Challenge is an lnternational event

drawing Karate fighters from all over the world.

With a Branch of Enshin Kai firmly established

in Australia, it won't be long before we also see

an Australian based Sabaki Challenge.

"A mountain has only one peak, but many

trails lead up to it," says Kancho Joko

Ninomiya. "Karate is simply one path to the

great happiness. lt can bring strength,u nderstand ing, wisdom and peace. These are

the u ltimate rewards of a life in karate-do, and

I will never stop exploring its ways."

References:

My Journey in Karate, The Sabaki Way, Kancho

Joko Ninomiya with Ed Zorensky, Frog Ltd. 1998

Sabaki Method, Karate rn the lnner Ctrcle,

Kancho Joko Nrnomiya with Ed Zorensky, Frog

Ltd.2OOo #4

Page 82