Ashihara Karate (Fighting Karate)

MLH,

This is a very hard question since I can describe the motions, but the benefits would be lacking without other instruction to show setups for counters or why we move in certain ways. However, I will try to give you a basic overview and start with the basic 4-step model.

The easiest way to comprehend this is to look at and an X-Y axis as it relates to foot work. So you have to keep this in mind, there is a lot more happening here than is implied in a 2-D model. But nevertheless, I will try to give you a few pointers.

First, though, you have to have an idea of balance as it pertains to the attacker. Two, you also have to understand how we see the attacker's weak side/strong side. And finally, you must understand, that we are more interested in the angle and orientation you are in with respect to your opponent. How you get there by moving yourslef or moving your opponent is dependent upon a lot of factors. But the equal sign in this edeavor is to be in the best orientaion for you to attack your opponent from his weak side. Which should be the same if you moved into that position, or you moved the opponent to that orientation.

The other aspiration would be to be either to his side or behind. This way, if nothing else, you have created time so that you can withdraw while your opponent is trying to face you with his weapons.

Every stance has a weekness to it, generally in one plane that is perpindicular or 45 degrees to the plane of attack. You can sort of see this if an attacker shoots a front kick at you. Energy goes forward, however just at extension of impact, if you were to redirect the kicking leg 45 degrees, or slip the technique so that you can control his base (pivoting support leg) you can easily throw him off balance. This is just an example.

The weakside/strongside usually goes with which side of your opponent is closest to you and where the last strike came from. For instance, if an attacker just threw a right straight and you were able to perry this, this side becomes the weak side. You have to worry now about the other side where he has regained momentum to punch from that side.

OK, taking the above considerations in hand. Visualize your opponent on the top of the y-axis and you on the bottom of the y-axis, divided by the x-axis. Now if you look at the top left quandrant, call this 1, next to it, top rt. call this 2. Next to you, on your left, call it 3, and finally on your rt. call this quandrant #4.

If a less emphatic straight punch comes to you you have to move to quandrant number one while perrying the strike and then controlling the opponent from his back. He is not moving much, so you have to. You are in quadrant 1.

IF a very emphatic lunging right or rt front kick comes to you, then pivoting on your lead left (if in orthodox stance) and perrying the strike and controling the opponent's larger mass is available to you. He moved to you. You are now in quadrant 3.

In both cases presented, you are to the side and in back of the opponent with your orientation being equivalent. Hope this sort of helps. Sorry if it is confusing.

With some slight modifications, you can move a similar way on the other side, using quandrants 2 and 4.

Regards,
-B

Butterfly,

Thankyou very much for the info. Although I have heard it before from various sources, you did a great job of summarizing what Ashihara Karate is about. I think readers of this forum who are interested in Ashihara will get a clearer picture from your post.

I'm also interested in hearing about the 12 lines you mentioned. I'd like to hear more about how you expand on the 4 lines of movement.

Ahshihara,

Steps 5-8 are diagonal to the axis that I described (45 degrees from the center of that x-y axis). For steps 9 and 10, you are stepping in, and stepping back for 11-12.

This is the oversiplified versions and you will, of course have combinations of these steps. It is also important to be able to maintain your balance and stance when doing all of these steps. Otherwise, without proper hip and foot placement, you will not be able to use your momentum and hip torque for counters or for controlling the opponent.
-B

-B

MV,
I cannot comment on our father art or anything else that I am not too familiar with. However, I have had dinner a few times with Midori Kenji, one of the heads of Kyokushin. I have done one demo with him and can attest to his ability.

However, you are correct with some of your descriptions of tai-sabaki at its highest level. I gave a cursory explanation of sabaki as it has been given to me in the style I study. Higher level discourse would do no one any good without a connected frame of refernece. But at higher levels, sabaki will not only lead you to movements around attacks and controlling your opponent's momentum from the outside, but also within attacks. This will lead you into jamming and redirecting linear and circular attacks before they are allowed to get into the impact zone.

Conceptually, in movement and power distribution of the body, I would say we are more akin to Aikido, but as I said in another post, without the altruism.

What you have been describing is the higher levels of sabaki. And, as you noted, I doubt if anything is new under the sun and was probably rediscovered by Ashihara, and subsequently presented in his take on karate.

Regards,

-B

Butterfly:

Thanks for the explanation. It sounds pretty much like what I've been trying to do, though the "quadrant" description is new, and very useful.

Now if I could only do it. I have way too many bad habits to break.

Multiverse:

The "body change" concept (or something very much like it) was introduced to me in a short Silat seminar a couple years ago. This is the idea that really opened my eyes to the potential of Okinawan Karate.

It went kind of like this:

Teacher: "This is very basic." (Shows simple movement.)
Me: Ok. We do that. No problem.
Teacher: "Now do it like this." (Does movement with partner.)
Me: My God! That's brilliant! *Ding* (Light goes on.)

MLH,
I don't know about you, but there is so much in the MA world that sometimes something so simple sticks in your mind. And once shown, you slap your forhead, and say, "I should have thought of that."

A little more info on Ashihara Karate:


Ashihara Karate was initially developed by Kyokushin Karate exponent Hideyuki Ashihara, who saw what he believed to be an Achilles Heel in the regimental movements of Kyokushin. Hideyuki produced a hybrid style of self-defence that was street oriented and worked for all students, regardless of their size.


When Hideyuki passed away in 1995, he relegated the position of Kancho to his son, Hidenori, under the guidance of his top Black Belts, of whom Sensei Suzuki and Shihan Yuasa are included. "Kancho Hidenori Ashihara had the system bestowed upon him by his father, whereas Sensei Suzuki, Kondo Tetsuo and Darin Henry all chose the Ashihara way. At such a young age, Hidenori had the option of walking away, but chose to make Ashihara a way of life. The decision took a lot of courage," says 5th Dan Bill Wakefield.


The aim of Ashihara is not to break a student's spirit but to build the student's spirit. Its instructors believe there is no point in a person going to their dojo to avoid a beating on the street, and then being beaten up in the dojo. "There is no intimidation in our gyms," says Kondo Tetsuo. "A novice starts lessons at white belt level and is introduced to a less demanding standard
of training. As the student progresses through the ranks the training becomes more intense and challenging. The person becomes stronger mentally and physically."


Ashihara was designed to be a complete martial art that would be street applicable. Its practitioners are adept at grappling, should the necessity arise, but the style is formulated so that a conflict would be terminated long before a horizontal situation could develop. Kancho Hidenori is open-minded and has earned the respect of all his students. Because Ashihara was intended to be an art that evolved through necessity, he often calls his senior students together to discuss improvements or changes to the style.


Hidenori's father toured extensively, taking part in a lot of tournaments to see what was effective in various martial arts. He did boxing, and incorporated whatever worked effectively into his style. He added many of the take-downs from Aikido, and the shin-kicks and leg-checks from Muay Thai. In a street fight situation you have to utilize whatever you can," says Darin Henry of Des Moines, Iowa who now lives in Japan and is a disciple of the Ashihara system.


"There weren't any UFC or Pride tournaments in the mid-60s, so Kancho Hideyuki would challenge experts in any discipline to see what was practical. From his experiences he developed a system called Sabaki, where defence and offence are combined whilst fighting an adversary from an angle, rather than locking horns head on. He learnt much from observing sumo
wrestlers - not the pushing aspect, but moving to the side of an opponent and controlling him. These same principles are applied in Ashihara," says Sensei Suzuki.

Hi ashihara,
Here an Ashihara fan from Belgium -Europe
Its nice to know someone who trains Ashihara in Japan and
The U.S. . We might keep in tough and swap Pics and other Ashihara stuff.
I train Ashihara for about 9 months now but have about 20 years of martial arts experience in other styles and sports like Kyokushin , Chinese boxing , Taekwondo, boxing .
Just had a weekend of beach training and will participate in
the Ashihara summer camp with Shihan Jens in Denmark
here is our clubs site :
http:// www.ashihara.be
anybody knows any Ashihara related sites in the U.S ?
Greetz, azimuth

This has been one of the most interesting and (Within the limits of the written word) most technically complete discussions I've had the pleasure to read in a while. Thanks to all.

im sure ashihara karate is superb, i got the book many years back and it looked superb - mobile modern knockdown in a traditional format.

i mean no disrespect but tai sabaki has been around along time and is emphasised in many systems (shorin, wado and shukokai come to mind), however I think due to the hardness of the ashihara training it makes the practioners that little bit more effective as fighters.

I think many things boil down to application of training methods, not the style at all.

Shoshinkan,

No disrespect taken. You are absolutely correct when you say it is the training of the individual that counts. Also, you are right when you say a lot of styles have the conceptual models of tai-sabaki within them. Personally, I think all MAs have this to one degree or to another.

However, what I like about this take on Sabaki coming from Ashihara is the explicit nature of the description of movement that this style uses as a paradigm to allow techniques to flow from it. You are spefically schooled in why this movement and this block is used and when. This takes the quesswork away from appling techniques...which I did not encounter in some of my previous training coming from striking arts. This is also not to say that this concept, as it applies to Ashihara, is stagnant...it is not and can cover a multitude of techniques and movements. Just that once you understand the concept, attacks and defenses take on an easier feeling for application than, say, memorizing a million separate defenses each for its own particular attack.

But at least for me, having a philosophical model of movement that implied techniques for defense at specific instances was novel for me. Everything that we did had a reason to it that could be derived from the Sabaki movement we practiced. I like it enough to still continue practicing after 15 years.

Warmest regards,

-B

If you're interested in studying Sabaki-style Karate, there are several Enshin Karate dojo's in the DC (Northern Virginia) area. There are Enshin dojo's in Sterling, Falls Church (the one I go to), Vienna, and Alexandria, VA. The website is at: http://www.virginiakarate.com/

Hiya Cla68 and the rest of the Enshin and Ashihara Guys, I train and teach Ashihara karate in the UK, I also have attended Courses by Kancho Niyomiya (Enshin Founder) who was one of the Senior Shihans in AShihara before he found a new path to follow as per his Autobiography.
Can we get a count on how many guys on this site are Ashihara/Enshin Guys to see which parts of the world it gets to

There is also the new one in Springfield.

Excellent so that's showing a couple of places, we need more though?

Hello everyone

I also study Ashihara Karate in Denmark, Århus, currently at 9th Kyu.

Great discussion and explanation on the 4 positions, butterfly, you don't happen to have a link to anything that might explain or show the 12 positions you speak of?

Anyway, good to see Ashihara Karate being discussed. The style is fairly popular here in Denmark, but its popularity seems to be a bit more limited in the US (as far as I can tell) and on this site as well.

Oh and Azimuth, I just noticed that you had pictures on your site from summercamp 2004 with Sensei Mads who's our Branch Chief. I'm actually thinking of going this year.

Hello Kysogkram,

Glad to meet your aquaintaince. I'm glad Ashihara is popular is Denmark. there is only 3 Dojo's in the UK excluding mine that practice the style, we're too far away from each other to make an open training seminar viable.

Lets hope that one day we can

Hi, nice to meet you too.

Hmm, that's incredible, Denmark is roughly 6 million people, and we have 10 Ashihara Dojos. Naturally they're probably a bit smaller (ours is like 80 people or so), but still.

We're also fortunate enough to have Shihan Higashidani residing in Aarhus, who teaches at the dojo once in a while. Sadly I haven't had the opportunity to train with him as it's from 4th kyu and up.

You should consider visiting the Ashihara Denmark summercamp, as far as I'm aware usually people from all over Europe attend.

I would love to, I will have to get a passport first, I've never had one. I would love to meet other ashiharakaika and see how different strains have adapted the kata

Wow, I didn't think this old thread would be resurrected. I brought it to Ken's attention, but my oh my.

Kysogkram, no...I don't think I have any formal stuff to show or a website that might explain it. However, maybe one of these times I'll put something up so that you can get an idea of what I am talking about.

On the other hand, just think of the other eight steps as an efficient means to move the body out of a direct line of attack with similar emphasis...from a longer distance out...that kuzushi (unbalancing in Judo) would have and that the "weak" lines in Aikido play to positionally control your opponent.

It's more sophisticated than what I am trying to get across and takes very good timing, but it's their nonetheless. I think a lot of styles encapsulate this understanding, but I like the directness of this approach.

Regards,

-B

Ashihara Karate is my life, my life is Ashihara Karate, I am so glad that Brad pointed this thread to me and I feel challenged to find as many fellow karateka as possible

When I realised Ashihara was the style for me, I changed jobs and took a huge pay cut to be able to train and teach.

I would still like to know if there's more Ashiharakaika on this site though?

My respect to my fellow AshiharaKaika, Is there more of us out there, I know there is because Ashihara as a style is one of the most popular styles in the world
Guys please stand and be counted

hiya Guys

this is just to bring Ashihara Fighting Karate into the light again, there are many of us out there so lets keep ashihara on the first page

Osu

Hello guys. Just to keep this thing a bit alive, I've got something I thought would be interesting to discuss.

Ashihara karate is proclaimed "street style" karate, which as far as I can gather, means it is intended for self defense. However the Ashihara curriculum also has its fair share of fancy kicks.

I know that the use of high kicks in self defense has been discussed a lot, and I personally believe that to some extent it is usable. However we can surely all agree that some of the fancier kicks (eg. ushiro mawashi geri, there are plenty others, perhaps tobi as well) in Ashihara karate would be very... brave to use in a self defense situation.

So my question is this. How do all these fancy kicks fit in to the picture? Surely if Ashihara karate is such a street oriented style, time would be better spent elsewhere than on learning some of these kicks. So what are they for? Competition? Training tools to improve athletic ability? Something else?

Let discussion commence... Hajime!

Kysogkram,

My take, though being able to do them, is that this was a qualifier to show that some styles of karate had the capacity to do similar, more "fanciful" kicks that were promoted in TKD.

Noting the prevalence of TKD and its use of kicks at the same time Ashihara was molding itself in the midst of this popular MA, I think it was actually a marketing ploy to suggest use and ability in these kicks, without really, absolutely requiring them and still showcasing the hard contact that Kyokushin was noted for. This was in the early to mid '80s. (I know, some of these fancy kicks are in the kata...but as I don't like kata in general, I don't like these even more. ) Also, no one in Ashihara that I have met has ever suggested that these kicks were really ever needed in a real fighting situation.

As for "Fighting Karate," I also think that this is a bit of a misnomer, though I think there are lots of good and usuable things within Ashihara for defense. I believe the name is applied more to signify the founder of Ashihara and his particular use of karate...since he was known as a brawler and a very capable karate-ka. This background, I feel, imbued his take on karate with the actual use he was credited with. Now whether those who actually train in this style can use it the way Ashihara Kancho practiced what he preached when he was alive, is a different story altogether.

It's a good style. It has a lot to offer, but I don't think it has it all or is the best (I am unsure if there is a best for everyone). However, it has something that speaks to me personally and makes me feel good to learn and practice it. And I actually think it's deep enough to keep my intellect involved as well. I suppose, that's as good a reason as I can provide. It's kept me entertained for the last 15 years or so.

-B

hiya Guys

I'm putting together a Demo, to help draw in new students. A question to my fellow Ashihara Stylee's what do you recon to Kihon No Kata Sono San as kata, then slow bunkai, then fight speed bunkai. I want it to look impressive but not impossible.

I await your admissions

Osu

I don't know how much time you have for the demo. However I'd probably start off with a bit of kihon (with kiai, should get peoples attention). The idea of showing a kata, and then showing the bunkai is good. However if you're gonna do kata, I'd suggest something with at least a few high kicks. Generally the crowd will find this more interesting.

Perhaps to finish off, do some sort of free figthing where you can really show off some proper sabaki, eg. one way attack.

Ken,

Do what you think YOU would enjoy seeing. And go from there. As far as Bunkai, perhaps I am confused, but you are showing the applications or use of the kata as performed by parterning up? Not modifications to them, right?

Once again I have been surfing the net, and came up with these videos:

This is a few clips from an Ashihara video from the 80s, special attention should be paid to the awesome style and effects
Ashihara Video

This is from a recent event held in Russia. It featured lots of different MAs, with Russians fighting the rest of the world. This is a Danish Ashihara guy (in white) fighting one of the russians, but sadly sort of gets his ass handed to him
Russia vs. World Ashihara

Enjoy.

It will have to wait, I think I've torn my Gluteus Medius whilst doing Kumite San Ura

lol, any good tips on how to quicken the healing process up, I'm using Chinese Woodlock and Tiger Balm Mix at present

thanks

you can help the healing process by the application of cloth covered foam on a wooden frame (otherwise known as spending a few days with the injured area parked on a chair). The last thing you want is your Students telling you to sit down and stop training or youll be out longer.

with respect

Hiya fellow AshiharaKa, Has Anyone ever seen or practiced Krav Maga as this is probably the closest Art to Ashihara, without being Japanese. Same stance similar techniques etc. just an observation.

Osu

Hi Kysogkram,
I was in Livo this year also and last year aswell
Sorry but the site isn't updated since long
our webmaster is travelling around the world for his job
and the rest of us are not good in keeping a website alive.
We did make a promo vid though
see here
http://www.ashihara.dk/default.asp?id=4958&nyhed_id=8884&pagetype=1
Check your PM box and we might get in though .
Grtz, Azimuth
Osu

Azimuth-san

It is my turn to welcome you to this forum as you welcomed me to the 'other' one, If you've not already spoken to the 'guys' in here they're all really honest and reliable Martial Artist who hold the Budo way to their hearts.

Osu

Cool that you went to Livø. Sadly I decided against it due to work. Maybe I'll go next year.

I have already seen your video, which is pretty cool

Guys

Just thought I'd bring this thread back into the lime light for all those Diehard Ashiharaka out there. There are a lot of excellent comments in the thread.

My respects always



Osu

I trained Ashihra Karate in Denmark Europe. In the US I found out that Enshin was pretty similar and closer to where i am located.

Meliam

Sensei Sempai, Kohai

As this is my 400th Post I wanted to use it to bring Ashihara back onto the first Page

With reference to Kancho's European visit, will any You Tube extracts be added or links to website showing some of the events and seminar footage be online

Osu