Patrick McCarthy: the pen and the sword
Originally published for the Italian web-magazine “KarateSen”
By Stefano Censi
If you practice karate and you have never heard of
Patrick McCarthy… Well, ask yourself why.
Internationally known historian, expert in several
martial arts, a teacher famous all over the world for
his 40 years of experience, he is just “the prophet”
of karate (or the Indiana Jones, in many ways). I
believe it is an appropriate title for the western man
that first had made an accurate research about the
Bubishi, which he nicknamed “The bible of karate”,
and complete an English translation of it.
Someone once spoke about him as Karatedo
Kurofune (“the black ship of karatedo” in relation
with the Western vessels which had landed in Japan
between 16° and 19° Century). But what is the
Bubishi? We are talking about one of the oldest
Eastern Martial Arts manual ever known, a book
which has conditioned a huge part of the karate
practiced nowadays.
The true question is: “And so, what? Why are we talking about Patrick McCarthy?”
The second weekend of June (year 2014) he came in Italy to teach a seminar on Koryu Uchinadi. I
was there, but I wasn’t the only one of course! People from all parts of Italy and beyond (even from
Bristol, UK) arrived in Cesena for this event. Even the Several times European and World
champion Lucio Maurino! In other world: an experience you had better not to miss!
Among detailed theoretical and practical explanations, history lessons, philosophy and “defence
tactics”, it seemed to me like being in a real university! Not the common “military karate”. Not the
common up-and-down repetitions and the shouts. I’m talking about 2-person application practices
with percussive impact, joint manipulation, chokes, balance displacement, groundwork, bunkai, and
henka. To sum up: karate. We all learnt a lot of things and it is a pity that the seminar lasted “only”
12 hours, it would have be much more to discover from a person like that (even if it wouldn’t be
enough neither a month of continuous training to satisfy me, but don’t think about it).
Between a choke and a control, however, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to interview such a
“Living Treasure of Martial Art”: he doesn’t come to Italy every week!
So, armed with pen and audio recorder, I started this new challenge. It has been worth the trouble.
Here you are the result!
Stefano Censi – First of all, thank you for the interview. Let’s start from the beginning: why did you
start practicing martial arts? Was karate your first choice?
Patrick McCarthy – In Canada, where I originally come from, school begins in September. In
August 1964, in Tokyo, they had the Summer Olympic Games. There was a Canadian boy who
went to the Olympics in Judo and he won the silver medal. He was also the Canadian and World
Champion. His name: Dug Rogers. The National Film Board of Canada had been following him for
a few months for the Olympics and then they show this film (documentary) in all the schools in
Canada. So, as a boy, I saw this film in September 1964 and when I saw it I said: “That’s what I
want to do! That’s who I want to be!” and the following week my mother registered me at Saint
John Judo Academy and that’s where I begin. And in the same dojo, in the YMCA branch, they also
have karate. That’s how I enter in this world.
S.C. – Who was the teacher there?
P.M. – His name was Adrian Gomes. He was from Venezuela and he was a university student. He
was a Kyokushin karate practitioner.
S.C. – During Seventies, you had been a top athlete in kata, kumite, and kobudo in North America.
How this period influenced your future researches and you way of thinking?
P.M. – It influenced me in two ways. Number one: it taught me the value of adversarial training.
But I ultimately discovered that the true adversary was not the person I was fighting, that was not
the challenge. The real adversary was me. Therefore, I needed to take a journey inward, not
necessarily outward. So, for me, competition karate was a very great and important part of my study
because it opened the door for me to understand that it wasn’t necessary about the destination, the
possession: it was about the pursuit, it was about the journey and it had to begin inward. That’s
what I got from competition karate.
S.C. – How was your life in Japan? Why did you start studying Katori Shinto-ryu with Sugino
Yoshio-sensei?
I just fell in love with the culture, the language, the people, the
food and ultimately the women. I married a Japanese girl and
settled down. In the 1980 I went to the Butokuden, in Kyoto, for
the Martial Arts Festival. I had to give demonstration and
receive some awards. During that time I saw a demonstration of
Katori Shinto-ryu. I look at it and it was love at first sight.
In those days I already practice Muso Shinden-ryu, both Eishin
and Jikiden styles. My teacher was the son of a very famous
practitioner who studied with Nakayama Hakudo and Takano
Sasaburo, so he was very good, but I just so the differences and
was: “Wow!”. I want Katori Shinto-ryu!”
In the first year it was great. My lifestyle changed, I really
learned to embrace another culture. Ultimately, it taught me a
lot about Japan, but more importantly it taught a lot about me.
S.C. – Let’s move on HAPV theory. How and why did you decided to systematize those acts of
Physical Violence?
P.M. – Good question, I like more people to ask me this. Every time I meet somebody in karate,
always their style is the best style. OK, I respect that. We all have the right to believe what we do is
the best. I understand. But, for example, when I went to meet the masters in Okinawa, Japan,
Asia… I asked: “Is this the original way you learned this from your teacher? ” and they always
replied: ”Yes, it is!”.
But then I went to another guy who also trained with the same master and his form was different,
and everybody was different. The focus was not so much on actual function, it was more on form,
and the uniform, the right association, the propaganda, the politics. I felt that the practices in the
style and in the dojo did not accurately address the Acts of Physical Violence in civil or domestic
environment. And I wondered: “This is not what real goes in the street, empty hand, one against
one”. I mean, how about if you are a karate champion and you have a bag from supermarket. You
are bent over, getting into your car, and a guy jumps on you from behind. You hadn’t had the
chance to warm up yet. You can’t get you side kick working on the street. I didn’t understand how
this could ever work. I was doing a lot of cross comparative analysis with trips to China, looking at
South-East Asian and modern forms of combat. I was involved with Sayama Satoru and with the
leader of a group o catch wrestlers called UWFI: his name was Takara Nobuhiko. He also became
the stable master for Pride fighters. I was the sparring partners there for three years with these guys,
I learnt a lot there from them. But I was also doing cross comparative analysis with European and
Medieval fighting arts (not weapons, only empty handed) and I started finding thing here in Europe
very interesting: Arto di Manzia, from Italy, Spain, Portuguese, the Dutch, Hans Tallhoffer’s books.
Pretty soon I started to realize this is not about Okinawa, or Japan, or China, or Europe! This is
about human beings, one against one, empty handed.
I started looking for a common denominator. It just happened I was doing a research project and
reading “Canon of Judo” by Mifune Kyuzo. He was talking about mechanics, levers, principles, and
I was: “Ah, Jesus! It can’t be this easy!”. I also had studied Judo as a kid as well, my Jujitsu teacher
was Professor Wally J, so to me it was like a Blinding Flash of the Obvious (BFO), it was an
epiphany! It just came to me almost like a dream and I said: “It can’t be true! I need to turn my
attention to mechanics, I need to better understand the principles. But… wait! Somebody else had
already done this: Archimedes! He told us about leverages, the wedge, the fix, the axle and the
wheel, the pulley. These things built the pyramids before the age of industrialization! And about
acceleration for percussive impact, we can turn our attention to Isaac Newton (the law of motion).
So, I started looking at the modern applied science, applying it to the ancient. I had a large
collection of joint manipulations, limb entanglements, blood and air depressions, balance
displacements, ground fighting escapes and counters, percussive impact, a lot of ways to receive… I
started to systematize those into individual set, in the same way that Katori Shinto-ryu systematizes
its teachings into 2-person drill to culminate the solo practice. So to this, karate culminates the
practice in the solo representation so that, by eliminating the second person of the HAPV contextual
premise drill and taking the individual solo application practice and ritualizing it into a template and
then linking the templates together into a geometrical configuration, we wound up getting
something greater than the sum total of its individual parts. And here we found the kata. As soon as
I discovered that, I understood that the need for uniforms, belts, propaganda, the “one style against
another”, it was mostly political. Or it was the rule of competition that dictated how you should
accomplish those. Therefore how you should train to get those. For example, if you are a
bodybuilder going to Mr. Universe Contest, you are not doing marathon running training, you are
not eating like a rabbit. You eat a lot of meat, you have a “hard training”. Therefore, it has to be a
balance. That opens up the door for me to discover something more about the “old ways” of karate,
compared to the new and modern versions.
S.C. – Wow, very interesting! Finally: in your opinion, what can we expect from the future for
karate?
P.M. – Oh, great question!
Karate is in the early stage of his renaissance. You see, look at all of this people here, more than
seventy people came here more this seminar. I came for the last seminar in 2012…
S.C. – Yeah, I was there!
P.M. – You know, you can see them!
I have been doing this, teaching this stuff for twenty years. Twenty years ago I had so many
detractors, saying things like: “Oh, he doesn’t know anything! He made that shit up!” and now
those same people congratulate each other for what they criticized me for. There was a lot of
hypocrisy then. And I think that in the next twenty years or so, this type of practicing the art… Not
the sport, the art! By the way, I don’t say sport is a bad thing. They’re two side of the same coin.
Sport, or kumite, is the spirit of karate, it’s great for young people! It keeps them sharp, it burns in
their spirit. But the soul of karate lies in its application practices and in its kata. So, when young
people had finished with kumite, then they can settle down and work on those things. Now in the
western world we have a lot of people who have been practicing for forty, fifty years until now, and
now they want to learn the art.
I hear this quite a bit, you know. Somebody comes to my seminars, they have been practicing for
forty years… let’s say, for example, shotokan karate. It took them three or four years to learn the
basic shotokan and then, for the next thirty years, they have been teaching the basis. Then, when we
do this kind of things [indicating the people practicing KU drills], they say: “Oh my God! I’ve learn
more from you in five hours than I did in the last twenty years!”. In many ways that’s a kind of
accomplishment. It’s better you have learnt it now that never have learnt it. Often I hear: “Oh, I
wish I could have learned this thing many years ago!”. Well, it wasn’t around twenty years ago.
We are looking back into the past in order to be able to better understand the present with regards to
the future. So, where do I think karate is going in the future? I think that it is going in this direction,
into the renaissance. On the sportive side, it would probably go to some type of international
sportive division, something like the Olympics. But I think it will probably be more different than
now, more diversified than what you see today. It will open up the door for everybody to fight, with
different forms of regulation, with kata being a creative form of expression.
S.C. – Well, it’s over. Thank you for making yourself available, it was all great!
P.M. – Thank you to you too and good luck with your interview.
Saying so, I didn’t miss the chance and I
gave as a present to Hanshi McCarthy a
bottle of “Limoncello” (an Italian whisky
made with lemons), which he loves, as
someone told me.Then, straight back to
tuite-jutsu explanation!
It had been an unforgettable weekend, it’s
in event like this that I understand the
words of Sakumoto-sensei, when he told
me that “Karate should build a bridge
across all the people on Earth”. We, as
karateka and as open-minded people, are a
big family.
It is a duty, as well as a pleasure, to thank Marco Forti (Italian KU Shibucho and neo-promoted
Koryu Uchinadi Renshi) and his team for the great organization for the seminar. My gratitude goes
also to Hanshi McCarthy for his courtesy and availability, and to all the (old and new) friends met
in that days in Cesena.
Thanks guys and see you soon!
© Photo courtesy of Patrick McCarthy, Marco Forti and Giuseppe Morelli.