Danzan Ryu
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Synopsis
Danzan Ryu (檀山流, "Sandalwood Mountain School" from a Chinese name for Hawaii) is a Ryu of jujutsu founded by Professor Seishiro Okazaki (1890-1951) in Hawaii. It is one of the most ubiquitous jujutsu traditions in the United States, particularly on the west coast.
History of Danzan Ryu
Seishiro Okazaki's early life
Seishiro Okazaki was born in Fukushima Prefecture Japan on January 28, 1890. Very little is known about his early life. In 1906, he immigrated to the Island of Hawaii with his family and settled on the big island on Hawaii. At that time, he was afflicted with a pulmonary condition which, due to the paucity of historical information, cannot be accurately identified but was believed to have been tuberculosis. It was during this time, however, that young Okazaki came under the wing of a Judo sensei by the name of Yoshimatsu Tanaka in Hilo. Okazaki began to study intensely under sensei Tanaka, and ultimately found that the lung condition went into remission. Okazaki felt that the study of martial arts had no small part in his physical recovery and, as a result, it is said that he decided to dedicate his life to the study and teaching of jujitsu and related disciplines.
During the 1920's, Okazaki returned to Japan and underwent a study of the various schools, or "ryu" of the most popular Jujutsu styles of the times: Yoshin Ryu, Namba-shoshin Ryu, Iwaga Ryu, Kosogabe Ryu, Kodokan Judo and several others. When he returned to the Islands, circa 1924, be continued his study of Jujutsu under the various masters who had come to Hawaii from Japan. Incorporating, not only traditional Jujutsu but also Hawaiian lua,Okinawan karate, Filipino escrima, Chinese Kung Fu and American wrestling, he began to "evolve" the best and most effective aspects of the several systems into an eclectic system which he called, "Danzan Ryu".
In addition to the martial disciplines, Okazaki studied health sciences and physical therapy, and ultimately gained great notoriety as a healer of the sick and injured. In 1930, Okazaki opened the Nikko Sanatorium of Restoration Massage in Honolulu, which is still in operation today. Many famous personalities of the times came to the Sanatorium to meet, be taught by or be treated by Okazaki. Among the most famous were President Franklin D. Roosevelt, actress Shirley Temple, actor George Burns, and Olympic athlete, actor Johnny Weismuller. (Anon. 1)
First Classes
By all accounts the original classes were grueling, and as below, Sensei Okazaki taught different courses to different individuals. One of the striking aspects of his philiosophy was that he was willing to teach both people of non-asian extraction and women the arts. This was frowned upon by the Asian community of the time. (Esmailzadeh 1) During the time of the original classes in Hawaii, it took around four years to get a Nidan and students trained trained 6-7 days a week. Sigfried Kufferath, later elected Professor by the AJI, received his Shodan in May of 1941.
WW2 and later
Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, Okazaki, along with many Asians, was interred six months In one of the most unfortunate and racist incidents in American history. He was released relatively quickly because of the intervention of parties unknown. He was also fortunate in that his dojo was unmoleseted, as his students protected it from white looters who, in a chilling analog to the pillaging of Jewish assets in Nazi Germany, ransacked asian homes and buisinesses. Because of the preservation of his assests he was able to lend aid to the asian community who had formerly shunned him. In this way he became accepted by them. During wartime, Okazaki continued teaching and also assisted the US military in creating a hand-to-hand combat cirriculum (based largely on the 120 Commando Technique list). While the US Army, for understandable, if faulty, reasons did not give credit to Okazaki for the collaboration, anyone who has examined the hard-to-find original field manuals will certainly recognize asian martial arts in general and Danzan in particular in those pages. Ironically, at the same time, Gichin Funakoshi, the father of modern Karate, was responsible for hand-to-hand training of many members of the Japanese military (Funakoshi 88).
Okazaki suffered a stroke in July of 1948, from which he recovered somewhat in 1949, when he continued teaching. Sensei Okazaki died on July 12, 1951 At the age of sixty-two. He left a rich martial arts legacy which has grown and branched for more than fifty years.
Modern Danzan
Danzan Ryu is now the most practiced form of Jujitsu in the US, not counting Judo, which has become increasingly sport-oriented. The original Danzan Organization was the American Jujitsu Institute, founded by Okazaki in 1932. The AJI still exists, under the direction of Sam C. Luke, Charles Lee, and Daniel Saragosa, but is not the largest organization in the Danzan family. That distinction belongs to the American Judo and Jujitsu Federation (AJJF) founded in 1948 by Bud Estes, Richard Rickets, John Cahil and Ray Law. In 1958, the AJJF was incorporated in the State of California as a non-profit organization. The AJJF now has dojos all over the country and thousands of members. They have also been most succesful at creating a standardized cirriculum; a fact no doubt appreciated by their students who are obliged to move and are able to find an AJJF dojo to continue practicing at.
There are many other Danzan and Danzan-influenced organizations. Wally Jay (ret.) is the founder of Small Circle Jujitsu. Carl Beaver founded the Shoshin Ryu.
Other organizations include Dai-Shihan Joseph Holk’s Kodendan of Tucson, Founded in 1967 The Kodenkan of Tucson is a traditional martial arts association with locations in major metropolitan areas of Arizona. According to one expert, the Kodenkan Yudanshakai was “[...] founded by Joseph Holck and his family in 1967 […]” to continue the school “founded by [Joseph’s Brother] Roy Holck in 1962” (Holck and Toomoka). The school teaches martial arts such as Danzan Ryu Jujitsu, Matsuno Ryu Goshin-Jitsu, Hiraido Jujitsu and other arts). The Kodenkan has grown over the years and presently has dojos in Arizona, California, and Idaho, including six in the Tucson-Phoenix metro area.
The list continues with the Kodenkan Hombu (Costa Rica), of Ramon Lono Ancho Jr. (deceased) and Bill Beach’s Hawaiian Jiu-Jitsu System, Inc., as well as The Southern California Jujitsu Association founded by Bill Randle. The Christian Jujitsu Association, founded by Gene Edwards, claims to be the only true Danzan organization, by way of including the Chrisitan philosophy which they say is central to the teaching of Danzan. There is also the Kodenkan Danzan-Ryu association founded by Sig Kufferath, Tony Janovich, Ramon Ancho, and Doug Keihl.
The two most focal events of the post-Okazaki era in Danzan-Ryu were the two Kodenkan Okugi (tm) classes held in Santa Clara, CA. These two events, one in the summer of 1993 and one in the winter of 2003, brought a number of Danzan-Ryu instructors together to learn the system from Professor Sig Kufferath and his senior student Professor Tony Janovich. Kufferath had been a graduate of the same class held in 1948 under the direction of Professor Okazaki. Over the many years, the methods of performing Professor Okazaki's arts had diverged into a number of different styles. This class, whose contents were designed by Janovich under the direction of Kufferath, was designed to show interested instructors how the arts had been done by the originator and how Okazaki's senior student Kufferath had modified several arts. Students were instructed in all of the combat arts as well as the eleven required methods of resuscitation. The students who graduated from these classes were awarded with Kaidensho, or complete transmission certificates, and were given the title of either Renshi (trainer), Kyoshi (teacher) or Shihan (master). Before Kufferath's death in 1999, he and Janovich had planned to hold a second class in 2003, ten years after the previous class. This had been the plan of Professor Okazaki after his 1948 class, but his death in 1951 prevented this. Janovich carried out the plan and held this class in January and February of 2003. There are tentative plans to hold another class in the future.
Note: Other classes that have been called "okugi" have taken place, but were not sanctioned by Kufferath.
In 1995, a significant Danzan-Ryu resource was introduced on the world-wide web in the form of The Danzan-Ryu Jujutsu Homepage (www.danzan.com). This is the pre-eminent and most comprehensive source of readily available information about this system. Founded by Sensei George Arrington, Shihan, this website incorporates data that has been arduously gathered from many sources. Danzan.com contains information about techniques, people, lineage, organizations and a host of other Danzan-related topics. There is also a large section relating to Professor Okazaki's healing and restoration method, known as Seifukujutsu.
Another Danzan organization is Pacific Coast Kilohana founded by Sig Kufferath, Muro, Rhodes et. al. According to the organization’s historian, Pacific Coast Kilohana was founded in response to a comment by Professor Sig Kufferath while watching a Kata Competition, that the art had changed so much that he could “no longer recognize [it as] Danzan Ryu”. (Kahoun). Kilohana can be seen as an organization with the goal of returning to the original techniques, as taught by Okazaki. The Kilohana workbook includes detailed descriptions of all Danzan basic techniques and variations from Yawara to kiai No Maki. Each technique contains the stamp of Professor Kufferath who said that the techniques as described were the same ones taught to him by Professor Okazaki. It is interesting to note, however, that even with such a detailed list, there continue to be evolutions in technique and significant differences between dojos in the Kilohana family.
Other Danzan influenced systems include Matsuno Ryu Jujitsu founded by Shihan Vinson Holk, Quantum Jujitsu founded by Sensei Jeremy Corbell in 1996 and Hiraido Jujitsu founded by Sensei Mark Caan in 1999. In addition, while Sensei Mike Ezmailzideh teaches what can properly be called Danzan-Ryu, he has also added so much more material to the cirriculum that what is taught is unique to the Suigetsukan dojo in Oakland Ca.
Training in Danzan Ryu includes methods of kappo and seifukujutsu.
The seifukujitsu was Okazaki's gift to honor the traditions of martial arts, from which he derived benefit in his initial study of martial arts after arriving in his new home of Hawaii. Shortly after arriving he contracted tuberculosis, which in those days was almost always fatal.
"Upon completing about a year of study", he wrote in his Esoteric Principles (contained in the mokuroku- scroll given to his pupils who mastered his system) "I acquired a body of iron(paraphrased)" so he dedicated his life to the study of martial arts and the healing techniques associated with each style he took up.
Some of his students carried on his healing traditions, and in 1984 third and fourth generation devotees standardized his style of massage (from notes by Okazaki's students)into the AJJF certification program in Okazaki Restorative Massage {recognized by the AOBTA as ORM (but a.k.a. Okazaki Long Life, Nikko Restorative Massage)
Works Cited
Arrington, George, The Danzan-Ryu Jujutsu Homepage, http://www.danzan.com
Anon. 1 “History of Danzan Ryu.” Shinbukan.com. 15 May 2003
Esmailzadeh, Michael 1. Lecture. Suigetsukan Dojo. Oakland. 2002
Funakoshi, Gichin. Karate-Dō My Way of Life. 1946. Tokyo: Kodansha 3rd ed. 1984
Holck, Vinson K. and Tomooka, Meleana. History of the Kodenkan Yudanshakai of Tucson. Date unknown.
Kahoun, Dale. Danzan Ryu Workbook. Campbell: Kahoun. 1999
Okazaki, Henry S. The Esoteric Principals of Judo. Late 1940’s
Links
1. The Danzan-Ryu Jujutsu Homepage http://www.danzan.com 2. American Jujitsu Institute http://www.theaji.com
