The belt was long enough to allow two feet of free play between Itosu and the pole. His father would then pick up a bo and poke him with it. At first Itosu thought this was a game and would try to grab the bo. But when his father kept hitting him hard in the stomach and even on the head Itosu started to cry. It didn’t matter, his father didn’t let up. This became a daily occurrence and stopped only when Itosu got fighting mad. That was the day when his father saw a look in Itosu’s eyes that seemed to say, “If I grab your stick – watch out!”

This is what his father had been waiting for. He told Itosu to meditate. Once, during this training a neighbor commented on how cruel it was. Itosu’s father replied that it was a tough world and that he was trying to give his son fighting spirit. He predicted that his son’s name would go down in history one day.

In 1846, (the father was forty-five years old and Itosu was sixteen), the father went to see Bushi Matsumura (Sokon) and asked him to teach his son. (Bushi means samurai.)

Matsumura wanted to have a look at him first. When he saw him, he said that he was too skinny. But when he looked in his eyes and saw his spirit, he changed his mind. Matsumura agreed to accept Itosu as his student, but told him that the martial arts is the toughest discipline to undertake. Itosu said that he understood and was still willing to go through with it.

Matsumura replied, ‘you might agree now but it’s the end that counts. It’s easy to start in the martial arts, but when the going gets tough, its a different thing, you must stick with it.’

For the next eight years as Matsumura’s student, Itosu got up at sunrise and began his training. He had to cook the rice, wash his teacher’s back as well as perform other menial tasks. He couldn’t sleep at night, because when he fell asleep, Matsumura would attack him with a stick and hit him. Because of his training, Itosu developed a terrific ki and the ability to perceive an oncoming attack from any direction, at any time. (During this period, the Chinese invited King Sho Iku to visit them, when he did, they kept him prisoner, replacing him with Sho Tai in Okinawa.)
One day Matsumura suggested that Itosu go and see the bullfights in Naha-no-kamaizoto. Itosu decided to go. While he was walking through town he saw a bull that had broken loose running through the streets. People were shouting in order to warn everyone. When the bull came upon Itosu it charged at him. Itosu managed to grab the bull by the horns and hold it. When the bull began to struggle, he pinned it down to the ground while the townspeople tied it up. Apparently, this was the very first time anybody had done that to a bull, and the people were very excited. They apologized about letting the bull get loose. In order to escape them, Itosu went to the red light district. He mingled in the crowd watching the bullfights, but because he towered above everybody else (he was six feet tall whereas the average Okinawan was only about five foot four), people noticed him and asked about him. When they found out that he was Itosu, a karate man from Shuri, they wondered if he could beat Tomoyose, the best fighter in Naha. (Naha and Shuri had different styles of karate. They were competitors, had different styles, similar to Goju versus Shotokan.)

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Two years after the bull incident, Itosu was cooling off in the sea breeze on a hill near Naha (it gets very hot there), when he overheard two men talking. They were discussing the fact that Naha had the best fighters and that Shuri’s fighters weren’t too skilful. They were convinced that nobody could beat their champion, Tomoyose. Itosu approached them and asked who this Tomoyose was. They told him. Itosu went to Matsumura and told him that he wanted to fight Tomoyose. Matsumura agreed.

In the old days, the karate teachers frowned on fights between their students or between their students and others. A way to test yourself, which was okay with the teachers, was to go to the red light districts. You were bound to get into a fight with somebody over either a woman or something else. This kind of fight was acceptable. However there was one place in Okinawa that you could challenge the entire town and that was in Naha. Just outside of Naha was a big rock about three and a half feet high with a flat top. If you placed your clenched fist and arm upon it, it was viewed as a challenge and someone would defend the town’s honor.

Itosu left for Naha to place his arm upon the rock. When he got there, there was already a fight going on. The fight was against a big man who was beating everybody. Itosu fought a severe fight with him and he won. He also fought and beat two others without too much trouble. He then said out loud, “What the hell is this! I thought Naha had the best fighters? No one here is any good.”

A voice from the crowd said, “You haven’t fought me yet.” Itosu asked who was speaking. The man replied that he was Tomoyose, he walked over and put his arm upon the rock, issuing his challenge to Itosu. The two men stood facing each other, staring into each others’ eyes. Itosu remembered what his teacher had taught him about attacking as soon as your opponent’s eyes move. Itosu was watching Tomoyose’s eyes. When he saw them move, he gave a big kiai and jumped at Tomoyose, striking him in the arm and breaking it. Itosu was now number one in Okinawa.

Itosu attained satori in 1903 and created the five pinans. He did this because the school children he taught (they were required to study karate in school), were having difficulty in learning the Seisan as their first form. The second form they usually learned was either the Patsai or the Wanshu, depending on the school. He took the movements of the Pinans from five main forms: Seisan, Patsai, Tensho, Nihanchi and Koshanku.

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When he was seventy-five years old, Itosu was the head instructor for karate in the Okinawan school system. At this time, a man who had been the head of police in Kagashima, Japan, came to Okinawa to replace the island’s chief of police. (The Japanese had finally been able to wrestle total control of Okinawa from the Chinese and had begun to replace the important officials of Okinawa, who had been either Chinese or Okinawan, with their own men.)

The new man had a fourth or fifth degree in Judo. He was very strong and the pride of Kano sensei. He was also a Bu Toku kai man, as was the entire Okinawan school board. (The school board members were all from Kagashima.) When he saw karate being taught, he was not impressed and ordered judo to be taught in the schools instead of karate. The Okinawans protested strongly, expounding the merits of Karate. The new police chief was adamant. He did issue an invitation to Itosu though, to fight him if karate was that so worthwhile. The Okinawans protested, Itosu was seventy-five years old after all. The police chief decided that they could pick someone to fight in his place. When Itosu heard of the challenge, he went to the school board and told them to let the police chief go to the red light district if he wanted to fight. In the end, Itosu accepted the match with reluctance.

Itosu didn’t worry about himself, he was worrying about the police chief, he was afraid that he might hurt him.
Itosu wrote to all the karate men on the island, inviting them to the match to see real karate in action. He told them to watch close because the match wouldn’t last more than a few seconds.

The day of the match arrived and everybody was at the school grounds. The police chief was waiting for Itosu in his judo gi. Itosu came walking out looking like a bear, almost as if he had stood in a horse stance too long. (In fact people thought that he was in a horse stance.)

When the police chief went to grab him, Itosu hit him in the stomach, knocking him out. The school board officials thought that Itosu had a weapon, they searched him, but found nothing. Itosu revived the police chief with katsu. (Fortunately he hadn’t hit him using the technique in which you twist as you hit, rupturing the insides – a Cantonese corkscrew.)

Itosu told the crowd that today they had seen the power of karate and ki, he warned them not to use it. He asked the police chief if he wanted to continue, he did. The police chief tried to throw Itosu but couldn’t do it, he was rooted to the ground. Itosu told him that he would release the ki and the police chief would then be able to throw him. It worked. Needless to say karate stayed in the curriculum.

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Karate was seen in a bad light after that in Japan, because unfortunately several karate men went to Japan to commit political assassinations. One of the main reasons for Funakoshi’s visits to Japan was to improve the image of karate (1972 and 1922).

The Chinese found out that it was possible to send your ki down into the ground like tree roots, making it impossible to be moved. The Okinawans learned it from the Chinese. This can be developed through the kata Sanchin.

When you punch physically, you explode from the stomach out to the end of your fist (the ki). But when you punch mentally, you imagine that your first goes through your opponent and explodes out the other side. This is how you practice the kata in order to develop the ki. When you can do this exercise well, you will be able to stop your blow at any point because your mind has already been there.

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