12/01/2025
Iha Sensei on being known and unknown, Gusukuma’s advice, and trees
Noon classes were usually much smaller than the evening, with maybe four to eight students. If we didn’t need to get back to work we would often grab something to eat. Often Iha Sensei would accept our invitation to go as well. One time at Panera’s the talk turned to various teachers he knew and how their karate changed over time and what they were known for. I asked if he could point to a time when he knew he “got it” and was becoming “someone” in karate circles in Okinawa. He didn’t quite get what I was asking (or knew it was a bit of an inappropriate question and tried to avoid it) so I just plainly said, “When did you know you were good? Because everyone who is good says you’re really good!” He chuckled as he often would and said “Ah, when someone looks and says ‘Wah! He pretty good! I want to be like that!’ then maybe you ok.” That was his truthful and humble way of answering when I put him on the spot, which he didn’t really like it turned out.
Then the conversation seemingly changed topic, but it was really Sensei’s way of weaving things together like he often would if you spoke for a longer amount of time. It was sort of like when the carpenter cuts five pieces of wood that seemed to be random, but then fits them all together at the end to make something.
He went on to talk about how so many great karateka are unknown now because they died around the time of the War from wounds or su***de and shortly after from malnutrition. He said his own teacher, Gusukuma Shinpan, would tell stories about different masters and students who died.
“Sometimes nobody knows you. Only you and your sensei. Sometimes not that too if the sensei die.” He said Gusukuma Sensei died young, and most of his students died in the war or didn’t really practice regularly. After Gusukuma died Sensei said he wanted to “make proud” for his teacher and to be someone people looked up to. He said no one really had plans after the war but he said karate was his plan and he was very intrigued ever since he watched Chibana Sensei perform kata to boost morale in the interment camp that they shared after the war.
He said a teacher always knows his students and the students need to trust that the teacher knows them. He said he thought he knew things when he was younger but he didn’t and it took a long time to understand what his teachers knew. He addressed me and said that when you are young you don’t think about being old but that Gusukuma would say karate is for all ages and that you have to train very hard when you are young because it is harder when you get older. He said, “Like kata, just keep doing.”
I asked if he thought about Gusukuma frequently and he excitedly said, “Ah yeah! Every day!” He said he wished he had more time with him and more photographs of him from when he was older, not like the ones “in the book”. (Sensei’s brother, who was into photography, had actually taken a whole series of photos of Gusukuma but insects ate most of them). I asked if he could still remember the sound of his voice and he said he could. He said Gusukuma was very educated and strict in class but liked to talk afterwards. He said school teachers like to talk.
I asked (insert rude question #2) if he thought Gusukuma knew he, Iha Sensei, would be good. He said Gusukuma taught him to train with all of his effort and to be hard on himself. He recalled in Uchinaaguchi what Gusukuma would say to him and it was a phrase I didn’t understand, and Gusukuma used a name for Sensei I didn’t know and unfortunately couldn’t remember the sounds to write it down. Sensei said that Gusukuma knew he would train hard to the point of exhaustion in every class. “Kata is sprint. Not long run.”
Someone else asked him if he can tell if a student will “be good” and he said “yes” but it is like planting a tree; you don’t know how it will grow and, like Gusukuma, you might not live to see it grow. Someone remarked that Sensei had planted a forest of students! He liked that idea and said everyone needs to grow up together.
It was a good conversation.
“Trees, too, remember the sun, moon
and rain
and the wind that cast their seed,
and the ones who beneath their shade
took once their lone reprieve.
And roots grow deep to ancient streams
to sprout forth buds in Spring,
And new seeds fall as Autumn rounds
to bring forth life again.”
