True Leaders leave a legacy
Kimura Shukokai International Karate
After Kimura‘s death in 1995, this international organization was formed to promote his style, co-led by his four senior students: Eddie Daniels, head of Shukokai Karate Federation, Bill Bressaw, head of American Shukokai Karate Union, Chris Thompson and Lionel Marinus of South Africa. Pictured below. The style has flourished and grown around the world long after its founder’s death.
I was lucky enough to have attended a day-long Gashuku (Cape Town 19 Sept 1990) given by Shihan Soke Kimura before his death, and trained extensively under Shihan Chris Thompson, Shihan Eddie Daniels and briefly under Shihan Lionel Marinus. Not many people have had the privilege to train under these masters.
The style now mourns the loss of one of its key head instructors, Shihan Eddie Daniels.
Having reached a senior level in the style, in 2019 I started a new style, to build a complimentary set of martial art skills. After more than 30 years training Shukokai Karate I realised that I was perfectly trained to fight – another Shukokai practitioner who fought by the Shukokai rules. But was not advantaged at all in the unfortunate event of having to fight someone else. I had in a sense over specialised and ignored other elements of my martial arts training. My new style, more aggressive, fluid and precise, has taught me a whole new set of skills under Master Tony Plant. Notwithstanding the fact that I have moved on, I too mourn the loss of a great practitioner and a great teacher and master of the art. His legacy too like Kimura’s, will live on. One of the reasons these great masters leave such a legacy is because they build something with purpose, in service of others ( other practitioners and the art itself) and do so with a degree of humility which creates followship.
Martial Arts teaches us many things, foremost, humility, respect, focus, and the benefit of commitment and hard work. It has at its heart the pursuit of excellence through life long learning whilst accepting that excellence will unlikely be attained but that there is value in its pursuit through lifelong learning. It is not about fighting, and in fact, I have trained all my life and never been in a fight. It is in fact about the avoidance of violence. Leaders such as those mentioned above leave a legacy in part because they devote their lives to continuous improvement not only in themselves but also in their students! They are in service of their purpose, and not themselves. Leaders who are self-centred, with an ego that is too high, are in service of themselves and seldom are remembered beyond when they move on.
Andrew Fox
If you missed it, you can read Part 1 and Part 2 of the series now.
