Discussions on the Eugue Ryu style of Karate.

[Kieran-Lilith]

I didn't know we had a school in Texas...Sensei Dave, did you?

I don't think we do, but it's quite possible I'm wrong. Yes, our school definitely teaches humility...you can rarely base what's true in one school as a rule for the masses, though. Everything is normally school dependent.

[Ohio Judo]

Yes, I heard that Sensei Adam passed away. I spoken to him on the phone about 3 weeks before he passed away. He was planning on coming to Ohio for a visit.

[j.j.]

The lineage at the K.C. school is pretty simple the school started here in the early 80's the head instructor was Sensei Terry James who was a direct student of Sensei Adams and now resides in Texas, from my understanding was Sensei Youngs Sensei. Sensei James was Sensei Williams (san-dan) Sensei. Sensei Williams was Trained by Sensei James but tested and promoted to shodan by Sensei Adams in Ohio. Sensei Williams took over the school in the late 80's. He created several Shodan until he retired due to illness in 1998, They are as I remember J.Jones, C. Williams, J.Hess, T. Baswell, T. Goslin at present Mr. Hess is teaching a class at a community center and is struggling to keep a student base of 6 or more which has a lot to do with location and that other schools promote so quick that a 10 year old can be a Shodan in 3 years. I have a book from the way back Eugue-ryu school ( we call it the yellow book I am guessing it was made in the late 60's -early 70's) Sensei adams was a Sandan in karate and a Shodan in judo (it has his # in the kodokaw institute and #'s for karate and judo It gives all requirements for each grade Shodan in the book is 17 years of age time in karate 2-3 years.

[Kieran-Lilith]

Huh. You learn something new every day. We don't promote really fast, though. You can't get to shodan in less than five years here (Wapak, Ohio). Five years is the minimum, and it usually takes more.

[j.j.]

It took me almost six years of blood, sweat and hard work to reach Shodan. Mr Hess' class seems to be competing with a tkd class at the same community center. The book I refered to was made by Sensei Adams or Possibly by Sensei Flowers? I was just trying to reflect the changes that have been made in some schools ours has lengthened the time it takes to promote and other styles possibly for economic reasons have shortened theirs. I must agree that our intermediate belt ranks in most part were equal to other styles shodans. Perhaps its our five dan system that is the difference in quality. I hope I didn't offend anyone with the information I've given I'm just a student of the art not a critic.

[Kieran-Lilith]

No offense taken here. I think the non-Eugue Ryu karateka are pretty much ignoring this thread...

Anyway, I'm not a shodan, I'm just a gokyu. I wonder how the Texas school is different...hmm...You guys have all the belt colors that we do? We have white-yellow-orange-blue-green-purple-brown (3)-brown (2)-brown (1)-black. Then the blacks change eventually, but that's not the point right now.

If the book has a lot of judo in it, I would lean towards it being made by Sensei Adams.

I wonder if we're going to have anymore unknown Eugue Ryu dojo pop up?

Where is K.C.?

[j.j.]

I Don't know much about the texas school but if Sensei James is running I'm sure its no piece of cake.

The book is something you might get on the first time you attend a class it has a vocabulary promotional breakdown slogans, the karate creed and so on it does end with sincerely Oscar Adams the little yellow book must be 40 years old and one of my greatest treasures.

I don't know of any others.

K.C. is short for Kansas City we live on the Kansas side Mr. Hess' has his class on the Kansas side the population is approx. 150,000 on the other side of the river is Kansas City, Missouri its pop. is approx. 1,000,000. there is a lot of karate schools.

[Kieran-Lilith]

We get our packets, yeah. They just have things we need to know, like vocab, etc. It's useful, and I have one packet that's been folded, highlighted, and marked all over in the process of my studying for tests. It's really quite pretty, now.

[SamuraiDave]

Well it's definitely nice to hear from the other schools. I have the same class-size problem over here myself. I am in the middle of nowhere and there are a few dozen other schools around. Renting class space is overwhelming here though. I used to pay about $300 a month just to rent a dance room for 12 hours a month. I don't have the energy right now to focus on developing the class into something bigger (especially when there are a lot of really bad McDojos nearby that charge a fortune to learn from a "black belt" who has only been doing martial arts for 3 months. I teach privately for now which uses up more of my time but doesn't cost me anything in rent.

I would love to find out if there really is a school down in Texas. If anyone hears anything please let me know.

I have a lot of source material for my classes (though I don't expect my students to memorize thousands of terms). I have seperate sheets depending on whether we are working on Karate, Jujitsu, Judo, Aikido, or Iaido (or something else).

[j.j.]

Its really good to know I'm not alone in being dedicated to an art that is not poular because we are associated with an national organization such as American Kempo or the SKA. It's hard to be independent and be considered an ligitamate art by the large clubs.

For me the martial arts is not just a form of fighting but a way of life.

The Blind Dragon might know if the texas school is still open or not.

I brought up the yellow book because it may be the first book created as a class guide to Eugue-Ryu karate we have evolved in a lot of the promtional guidlines, time in grade we added a yellow belt but we continue to use most of the original kata although not in the original order. We do not know ni-kyu or yon-kyu which is not listed in our book in my book it shows a kata called hachi-wan which I think is naihanchi We would like to know the Kyu kata missing from our list of kata but we have no one to instruct us on them.