Pa Sao-ha Bushi-jujitsu

Pa Sao is the maternal family name, middle given name and chosen name by which to be caled of my primary Jujitsu Instructor, James Pa Sao Carson. Of mixed heritage, he learned his Chinese mother's family's Chuan fa system, Sup Pa Sao Chuan from an early age, but embraced the Japanese heritage of his half Euro-Japanese father in his early teens.

 

This was a turning point which forever altered the course of his life and would lead him to train in the ancient Samurai art of Jujitsu. In time, he along with his Jujitsu instructor, Asao Yoshida Sensei, determined that the move to water down the ancient systems which became popular in the early twentieth century was in fact a mistake and the two devoted the remainder of their lives to what Pa Sao Sensei called "reversing the curse."

 

Pa Sao-ha Bushi-jujitsu is the system he developed by blending his Chuan fa and his Jujitsu into one, very destructive system. It is not intended for sport applications and it will not win its pratitioners any awards for being pretty.

 

It will however give the average person an amazing edge over an attacker with nearly zero effort. It is fast, deadly and invnetive and it is for these reasons that, despite my lifelong infatuation with Okinawan Karate, I chose to learn everything the gentle, old man would teach me and to make it the heart of Ken-shen ryu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ushicho Tegumi and the Ryu Kyu Kempo Connection

Ryukyu is the name of the ancient kingdom of which the island of Okinawa was the seat of authority. This is why the "Islands of Okinawa" are labeled as the "Ryu Kyu Archipelago" on many old maps.

 

Throughout its history the Ryu Kyu Kingdom was continually invaded, both by the Chinese to the west and the Japanese to the north. As a result, the people of this island chain developed their own, unique blend of combative knowledge.

 

Many of their techniques were gleaned from observing their occupiers. So much so, that the word Kempo, which means "Fist Law," is derived from the Chinese word "Chuan fa," commonly anglicized as "Kung fu."

Another evidence of this comes in the fact that when Funakoshi Gichen first codified his system of "Karate," he used the calligraphy for "China Hand." The version used today, though pronounced the same, says "Empty Hand" and was chosen when he took his system to Japan for a demonstration in which he did not wish to offend the politically sensitive audience.

 

Too, nearly every kata taught in traditional Okinawan Karate can be traced to one of the Chuan fa systems of China. Despite all of the romanticized stories of a fisherman being blown across the sea to China and returning with "Te," it is generally agreed between historical scholars that the first influx of Chinese forms into Okinawa occurred during the cultural exchange commission of 1392 AD.

 

Others techniques were developed independently during the rare periods of peace during which practitioners were able to train openly and thus the kata were altered to fit the methods of their users. While most schools today require as many as eight to ten kata to receive a black belt, in the old days each kata or set of progressive kata was considered a system in and of itself, worthy of a lifetime of study.

 

I personaly hold to the notion that the change to an emphasis on many kata was a grave mistake, as students rush through learning the movements without ever understanding their meaning and purpose. The style of "Old Okinawan Fist Law" which I teach is known as Ushicho Tegumi and one of the many reasons why I was drawn to it is that history seemingly forgot it in a mountain village and left it there, relatively unchanged, for hundreds of years.

 

Ushicho is the name of a village on the island of Okinawa from whence my teacher, Freed Master Paul Zorman's, lineage is derived. Zorman Sensei specifically retained the name Ushicho in order to make a distinction between his own lineage and some of the more well-known, watered down lineages of Okinawan Karate and, out of respect for my teacher, I have continued this tradition.

 

Tegumi means "Grasping hand method." Sometimes pronounced Tori-te or Tui'te, it is the name of an ancient Okinawan grappling system which predates the introduction of Chuan fa by the Chinese immigrants, who established the colony of Kumemura in 1393 for the purpose of establishing ongoing cultural exchange.

 

Over the next eighty years, Tegumi and Chaun fa were blended into Tode, the forerunner of modern Karate and was, among other things, used as a defensive method by the body guards of the early kings of Okinawa. Then in 1477, a new king came to power and attempted to subjugate those who had been faithful servants of his predecessor, taking their rank, status, weapons and lands.

 

At that time, a group of royal guards fled the capital of Shuri with their families and joined relatives in the northern part of the Island. There they continued the practice of Tegumi, infused with the knowledge they had gleaned from their studies of Chaun fa and, over the course of the next four hundred years, their descendants honed that knowledge into a unique form of Ryu Kyu Kempo, Ushicho Tegumi.

 

Prior to studying Ushicho Tegumi with Zorman Sensei, I studied other forms of Ryu Kyu Kempo, including Isshin ryu, Tui'te-jitsu and Kyusho-jitsu. As the appointed Soke Dairi of the Ushicho Tegumi system, I attempt to bring forth and share the knowledge I received through training in these systems, while preserving the historical aspects of the Ushicho Tegumi system.

 

Ushicho Tegumi is a highly devastating system of self-defense. For those not yet prepared for this type of study, especially young children, I have developed a specialized curriculum called Tora-kan Karate-do, which allows beginners to move into full fledged training through graduated steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kung Fu

I want to begin this section by expressing with absolute clarity that I am not a Kung fu master or anything close to it. What I teach is not in fact Kung fu, but an expression of specific Kung fu movements in accordance with the philosophy of Ken-shen ryu. What I teach as "Sup Pa Sao Chuan" is not in fact the historical system which bore that name, but my own attempt to breath life back into the remnants of a system which is no more.

 

With that said, many observes who are well versed in the combative sciences become confused when they realize that two of the three upper most levels of Pa sao-ha Bushi-jujitsu are comprised entirely of animalistic movements which are generally considered exclusive to Kung fu systems.The reader should understand that the history of Ken-shen ryu International's primary sub-system, Pa sao-ha Bushi-jujitsu, was in fact greatly influenced by a far more ancient fighting system called Sup Pa Sao Chuan. This was the family system of my Jujitsu teacher, James Pa Sao Carson's mother. While he never passed on to me the older system, electing instead to focus on the preservation of Pa Sao-ha Bushi-jujitsu, he made no bones about the fact that the older system was one of the foundations of the newer.

 

As it was taught to me, the fith level of Pa sao-ha Bushi-jujitsu is composed entirely of Crane movements and the sixth level is a composite of Lion, Tiger, Bear and Preying Mantis, which together form a Dragon level. These are among the most advanced and devastating movements of the entire system and I always thought it a shame that the old system apparently died out with my teacher.

 

In 2009, I began asking Josh Slater Sifu for advice and guidence in attempting to unlock still deeper meanings behind the animal movements and his insights have been nothing short of enlightening, a fact for which I will always be thankful. Then, in 2011, combat science historian Dr. Daniel Jackson was in Thailand, researching Pa Sao Sensei's life for his book Tigers By The Tale: The Complete Authorized History Of Ken-shen Ryu and stumbled upon a man who claimed his grandfather had learned Sup Pa Sao Chuan from Pa Sao Sensei's grandfather and had passed some elements of it on to him.

 

Based upon what that man told Dr. Jackson, I have begun the painstaking process of attempting to reconstruct as much of the ancient system as is possible. Though I realize that I will never be able to fully reconstruct a lost system, this process has proven to be one of the most exciting of my career and those of my students who have opted to join me in my research have expressed much the same sentiment.

 

In the meantime, I continue to teach my own expressions of the movements he taught me and to further explore their meaning and purpose with the aid of Sifu Slater and his teachers, Shoushi Raymond Pridgen and Shuoshi James A. Christopher DEan. Sifu Slater is currently ranked as an Examiner in Ken-shen ryu, Grand Masters Pridgen and DEan are the only two men whom I have ever designated as Professors of the system and I am honored to have been invited to join them as a member of the Brothers of Wushu Society's Board of Education.