One=three

There used to be one big Shotokan association in this province. This was back in the 1980s, and it was part of Nishiyama's world wide group. Here Sakurai Sensei was the head, and Mike Scales and Andy Holmes were the number 2 and 3 guys.

I was happily ignoring all the politics, having returned to university to become a schoolteacher.

The news was that Nishiyama was coming to Vancouver to give a short seminar. I left Victoria for the weekend for this chance to train with one of the legendary instructors. I bet I was smiling every minute of the ferry trip over.

The training was top notch, and very well attended. This was followed by Black Belt examinations, and then for some reason, a meeting of all Black Belts. I must have been the only guy there that didn't know what was happening.

Nishiyama was involved in an international struggle to gain control of tournament Karate. Who would gain Olympic recognition?

He was in Vancouver to order us to stop participating in any tournaments he did not control. Nobody was willing to do this. The 'other' tournaments were the real ones.

Sakurai Sensei, caught in the middle, sat stoney faced. Tempers flared, and voices got louder and louder. Nishiyama remained calm, but steadfast and pretended to not understand any arguement against him.

When it ended I left thinking, "What the hell just happened?"

It was the end of the association in the province. Some clubs joined the ISKF, which had been a small group in BC prior to all this. Sakurai Sensei formed a new group out of the clubs that stayed loyal to him. Those that felt he had somehow betrayed them, lead by Scales and Holmes, formed another.

To the best of my knowledge, nobody went with Nishiyama.

This year I've trained with people from all three of the heir associations. All are nice, and seem to punch the same way.

Fancy that.