Hello. I've lurked on this board for a while, but a thread about Shudokan? I can't pass that up! I teach Shudokan Karate-do on the Oregon coast, although I just started not seven months ago, so don't take me to seriously Shihan Morris Mack, 9th Dan, runs the Yakima School of Karate (http://www.yakimakarate.com), located in Yakima, Washington. He is the head of the American Shudokan Association (ASA), which has member dojos located for the most part in the northwest, with one in Idaho. He's a really charismatic guy who’s experienced karate’s evolution from the Blood-and-Guts days to its current state. He has allot of history in that head of his that I'd like the chance to pick some day. He also made me nervous because he unexpectedly showed up at my shodan grading and ran the test! Nothing like having the highest ranking master of your style in the country scrutinizing your every movement from six feet away at what you consider to be the most important test you’ve ever taken! As far as picking bits of other styles and arts and integrating them into Shudokan, this seems to be pretty accurate and fits with Toyama’s original idea for what would become what we know as Shudokan today. Toyama, to my understanding, believed that all styles of karate, no matter how different, were still karate. He sought to pull together principals taught to him by Itosu with principals from styles like Goju and even added to the style from principals learned during his time teaching elementary school in Taiwan. From an original Shudokan perspective, it’s all karate. It’s all “empty hand”. Patusai, you’re correct. There are seven kyoku kata, which are unique kata to the system. The first five are taught to brown belts, and the remaining two are taught to black belts, although originally they all were black belt only kata and from what I hear, looked a whole lot different then what they look like today. Good luck trying to get a good look at them if you're outside the style though. They're dojo only kata, and can't be preformed at tournments or even in public traditionally (although this rule is pretty lax today).
