Tuesday, May 29, 2007SHOSEI KINA, Christian and Okinawan Karate weapons teacher
Mark Bishop in his book OKINWAN KARATE shares the story of Shosei
Kina, an Okinawan Christian. According to Bishop, when the Americans came to Mr. Kina's village, the villagers asked Mr. Kina for help. Mr. Kina introduced himself as a Christian to the American soldiers. One of the American soldiers was a translator named Thomas Higataro recognized Mr. Kina as his former school teacher. I checked the website and found articles which claimed that Mr. Kina's village became Christian as a result of one visit by a missionary. There was no contact with other Christians for 30 years. The villagers were apparently on their own. I think I saw an article in BLACK BELT MAGAZINE about an Okinawan karate master who became a Christian. I think the villagers burned their idols when they became Christians. I thought I'd share these two web references. The mention of clean houses reminded me of the book BRUCHKO by Bruce Olson. I have no way of confirming the story. I should add that "Karate" was originally written with the characters meaning "Chinese hand." NOT "Empty Hand." In other words Karate was not necessarily a form of weaponless combat. Gichin Funakoshi changed the characters or "spelling" to read "Empty hand." Shosei Kina taught weapons. (Cal, am sending you the article from Mark Bishop's book). Anyway here are the web references which I found from a Google search: ======================================================================= Who Is Your Theophilus? - Dr. Ernest E. JamesThirty years before, an The Village that Lived by the BibleGuided by the two old men - Mojun
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