Great Masters

At first, he was very comfortable with master Kano's art. Until: "I saw Karate in college, at that time, I knew of its existence, but I didn't know what it really was as a martial art. When I had the opportunity to get to know it, I decided to practice it. I was attracted by its strength, by its speed, by its mentality. In those years almost every young man was attracted to this martial art and I could not be an exception."

His father was very upset when he asked for permission to practice it. In fact, he forbade it, as it was a disgrace for a samurai family to train it:

"My father did not want me to practice it because my neighbor and college classmate, trained it and had had several fights. In those days, Karate had a very bad reputation, it seemed that it was the martial art of gangsters and people from the slums. That's why he forbade it, he told me that Judo or Boxing yes, but Karate, no."

Yosuke Yamashita began training under the tutelage of master Yoshikiro Urakawa, a direct student of Yamaguchi Gogen, the greatest exponent of Goyu ryu. He did this in secret, without the approval of his father; but...

What was the reason for this obstinacy? What did Karate have that the other martial arts did not have?

"First of all, mentality, spirit. In 1945, when the Second World War ended, all of Japan was destroyed. Cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya etc. were totally burned. There was nothing left and hardly anything to eat. Young people were looking for something where there was nothing left. There was no soccer, no baseball, no possibility of training for any sport. Something inside us told us that we had to do something to defend and develop ourselves. Life was very hard and so were the streets. The Dojo was a reflection of what was on the streets. Every day at the end of class four or five people were bleeding, but no one left, it was the only thing we had left. If you look at photos from that time you can see that the looks, the aptitude and the postures are different."

For two years he was able to keep it a secret, until one day he showed up with a broken tooth. It was impossible to hide the evidence:

"At home he said he practiced Judo, in those days, Judo training was also very hard, but it was not comparable to Karate, where we all had injuries, some in the ribs, others in the collarbone, I had cracks in several fingers etc. But nobody gave up. We had lost the war, we had lost everything. We only had honor and dignity left. To have failed would have been an act of cowardice".

Those times were hard and so was the street, but nothing matched the spirit of Karate: "When the first dan was approved, the master would say: <<All right, let's see if you are really worthy of wearing that belt, come with me. >> In all the streets there were three or four young rowdies or apprentice Yakuzas (Japanese mafia), who were always looking for a fight and who used to carry knives. So the master would say: <<Kick those thugs out of here>>. This may seem harsh today. But in those days the concept of Karate training was only selfdefense and the street, although it seems incredible, was softer than the Dojo, at least, the rivals, did not have their hands hardened in the makiwara."

For this and many other reasons there was great respect for black belts. "The hierarchy of grades was very much respected and not by imposition, but by merit and aptitude. For this reason you never spoke directly to the master. It would have been disrespectful to your superiors. When you had any doubt or wanted to know something, you went to them and only, if they indicated it, to the master."

They were years of long and hard training, when he reached a certain level it was frequent that he went to perform kumite to other gyms, almost always of the same style. In 1964 the master was runner-up in the Goyu Kay tournament, but that could not be called a competition, as there were no rules. "It was a kind of combat without rules, where there was no control over the blows. Both defenses and attacks were real. -The master jokingly added: "So there were no doubts. The loser ended up bleeding or injured".

After finishing his university studies, a branch of philosophy and letters, the master dedicates himself "body and soul" to the Goyu ryu. Soon after, he decided to go out into the world to make his style known. The first country where he settled was Denmark, later he moved to Germany.