About Us
About Us
Karate Origins
Similar to the birth of many historical fighting and resistance styles, Karate was created by the Okinawan people at a time when weapons were disallowed by their neighbors, the Japanese, who began invading in the 17th century. Initially referred to as only “Te,” meaning “hand,” Karate was later influenced by Chinese settlers and renamed “Okinawa-te” or “Tode,” which means “Chinese hand.” Three main subsets fell under Okinawa-te, all respectively named after the three major cities that influenced them: Shuri-Te, Tomari-Te and Naha-Te, which later became only Shōrin-ryū (the confluence of Shuri-Te and Tomari-Te) and Shōrei-ryū, borne out of Naha-Te. This verbiage was again changed by the Japanese to “Karate-Jutsu,” which was later shortened to “Karate-do,” meaning “the way of the empty hand” and eventually to just the modern day “Karate,” which still carries with it the meaning of “empty hand.” Karate is principally a self-defense system meant to advance self-discipline, respect, mental fortitude and the seven virtues of Bushido, the Samurai moral code, listed throughout this page.
The Birth of Shoubukan Karate
The style of Karate taught herein is known as Shobukan Karate – of which there are two – or, more esoterically, Shoubukan Karate. This specific Shobukan, which has elements of Karate, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu and Kobudo (the use of handheld weapons), has its origins in Shuri-Te through a lineage that can be traced back to Anko Azato 安里 安恒 (1828-1906) and Sokon Matsumura 松村 宗棍 (1798-1890) and Kanga Sakugawa 佐久川 寛賀 (1733-1815) before him. Anko Azato was one of the Great Karate masters of Okinawa, known widely for the power and versatility of his technique. He provided private lessons in his own home under the blanket of night to very small groups of students, some of which were his own son, Anri Azato, and the now-famous, Gichin Funakoshi 船越 義珍 (1868-1957). Gichin Funakoshi would later rise to fame as the father of Shotokan Karate in Japan while Anri Azato would go mostly unknown. Anri’s son, Yoriuki Azato 撰行安里 (1905-1974) arrived in Sasebo, Japan in the 1950s and founded a Dojo, which remains there to this day. Upon arriving, he Japenized his name, changing the spelling to “Yasuzato.” Although his grandfather practiced in the Shuri-Te style, Yoriuki Azato decided to entitle his Dojo “Shoubukan,” meaning “house of the warrior way” or “house of the martial way.” Eventually, Yoriuki’s style became known as Shoubukan, as well. Following his death, his only daughter, Yoriko Yasuzato, currently a 7th Dan Black Belt, inherited the Dojo. While Yoriuki Yasuzato was still alive, Joseph A. Picou, an American soldier who served 3 tours in the Vietnam war, was under his tutelage. Picou would go on to open a Shobukan Dojo in Rota, Spain, where JR Ayers would be introduced to the style. To this day, JR Ayers continues his training under Joseph Picou and has himself opened a Shobukan Dojo in Sarasota, Florida. It was here that I began my Karate training. Currently, I hold a Green Belt, but have my eyes set on a Black Belt.
A Little About Me
Around five years ago I theorized that the name my dad gave me wrote my destiny before I got the chance to live it. Ever since I could remember, I wanted to be a Marine Biologist. I could swim before I could walk, and in the second grade I made a poster and presentation on my then-hero, Jacques Cousteau, a famous French Marine Biologist who invented the first version of SCUBA diving equipment. My favorite animal for the longest time was the pink dolphin, found in Amazonian rivers. I also remember watching a video a few years back about a Brazilian man who lived on the beach by himself and spent every day he could out on the water, surfing. I remember thinking there was such beauty to the simplicity of dedicating yourself to doing something you love most of the day, every day. Surfing interested me even before watching the video, but after watching it, I started envisioning my life exactly as this man’s. Alone on a beach, surfing. A simple home, a simple life. Happiness. One day, I looked up the meaning of “Yara,” my first name, and I came to learn that it has multiple origins. One is Arabic, but the one that intrigued me came from Brazilian mythology that spoke of a water fairy, which some people described as a Siren of the Amazonian rivers, luring men walking through the forest into the river water.
“Nathalie,” a song by Gilbert Bécaud, was the inspiration for my middle name. It speaks of the Red Square in Russia and as such it predicted that my mom would meet and later marry a Russian man, my step-dad. Years into the relationship, we all traveled to Russia together and my mom took us to the Pushkin Café , which, though it didn’t exist at the time the song was written, was now a popular restaurant because of the song’s lyrics, which mentions drinking hot chocolate (my warm beverage of choice, despite being Colombian) there. Furthermore, in high-school when I had the choice of studying either French or Spanish, I chose French because I was already pretty comfortable with Spanish. This choice was again foretold by my name and it is even more curious to me because my siblings all chose Spanish over French.
Inspiration for the Journals
About a year ago, I started to get into Karate as a way to learn self-defense. As I became more involved with it, it started to feel like a natural progression to practicing self-awareness, discipline and bodily control, which I had begun to explore through yoga and meditation years before. One day when I was meditating, I reflected on the fact that I often forgot the details of how to perform a given kick, technique, form or Kata. I had decided months before that a way to address this issue was to keep a journal for myself where I could write the steps to each of the aforementioned during practices with my Sensei. That way, I could be sure that whatever was written in the journal was exactly what my Sensei had instructed me to do at one point or another, instead of relying on memory, which we all know is fallible. I had not yet started to do this, but during the meditation, I thought that if I had this problem, then probably other Karateka – or Karate practitioners – did, too. That’s when I had the initial inspiration for the customizable journals and this website. I asked myself, “Why not make a journal where I detailed the steps of every technique I’ve learned so far and kept it not only to myself, but instead gave other people the opportunity to benefit from it? A place where you could write questions down that you could later ask your Sensei, reflect on how you feel on a given day, and set an intention for the near and far future as well as more long-term goals.” I already knew that starting a journal for yourself took work and required discipline to be filled out since it had been months since I had had the idea to start a journal for myself and I still hadn’t, so I knew that having one that already contained all the information you needed and that you knew was correct would be worthwhile. Plus, thinking of it this way – in terms of something I could share with other people – was the push I needed to actually do it. All I needed now was a name.
And Then it Hit Me
I lied in bed and thought about different options, but they all felt cliché and impersonal. They were all bad puns or names that I made by hashing together the names of different dojos I had seen in my life. None seemed to click and none seemed to have the draw or ring I wanted, which would let me know that “this was the one.” Then, for some reason, I remembered the theory I had thought of years ago about my dad having predicted my life when he named me. My last name, Rincon, was the only odd one out, which had me thinking, “If only I lived in a Spanish speaking country, I would name this ‘El Rincon de Karate’.” And then, almost instinctively, I translated this to English and realized, “oh my God, this in English would be ‘The Karate Corner’,” which I loved in every sense. It had a ring to it, it was personal, and it had two connotations: one brought about images of a boxing ring with an announcer saying, “And in this corner, Karate!” as in we here represent Karate in the world of martial arts and the other implied that “The Karate Corner” is the “Karate spot.” It’s the place you go to learn Karate, be yourself, learn about yourself, be with other people and just hang out. And… it proved my theory because my last name finally pointed to a significant part of my life. So, welcome. I’m glad you’ve made it to this corner of the world.
Karate Origins
Similar to the birth of many historical fighting and resistance styles, Karate was created by the Okinawan people at a time when weapons were disallowed by their neighbors, the Japanese, who began invading in the 17th century. Initially referred to as only “Te,” meaning “hand,” Karate was later influenced by Chinese settlers and renamed “Okinawa-te” or “Tode,” which means “Chinese hand.” Three main subsets fell under Okinawa-te, all respectively named after the three major cities that influenced them: Shuri-Te, Tomari-Te and Naha-Te, which later became only Shōrin-ryū (the confluence of Shuri-Te and Tomari-Te) and Shōrei-ryū, borne out of Naha-Te. This verbiage was again changed by the Japanese to “Karate-Jutsu,” which was later shortened to “Karate-do,” meaning “the way of the empty hand” and eventually to just the modern day “Karate,” which still carries with it the meaning of “empty hand.” Karate is principally a self-defense system meant to advance self-discipline, respect, mental fortitude and the seven virtues of Bushido, the Samurai moral code, listed throughout this page.
The Birth of Shoubukan Karate
The style of Karate taught herein is known as Shobukan Karate – of which there are two – or, more esoterically, Shoubukan Karate. This specific Shobukan, which has elements of Karate, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu and Kobudo (the use of handheld weapons), has its origins in Shuri-Te through a lineage that can be traced back to Anko Azato 安里 安恒 (1828-1906) and Sokon Matsumura 松村 宗棍 (1798-1890) and Kanga Sakugawa 佐久川 寛賀 (1733-1815) before him. Anko Azato was one of the Great Karate masters of Okinawa, known widely for the power and versatility of his technique. He provided private lessons in his own home under the blanket of night to very small groups of students, some of which were his own son, Anri Azato, and the now-famous, Gichin Funakoshi 船越 義珍 (1868-1957). Gichin Funakoshi would later rise to fame as the father of Shotokan Karate in Japan while Anri Azato would go mostly unknown. Anri’s son, Yoriuki Azato 撰行安里 (1905-1974) arrived in Sasebo, Japan in the 1950s and founded a Dojo, which remains there to this day. Upon arriving, he Japenized his name, changing the spelling to “Yasuzato.” Although his grandfather practiced in the Shuri-Te style, Yoriuki Azato decided to entitle his Dojo “Shoubukan,” meaning “house of the warrior way” or “house of the martial way.” Eventually, Yoriuki’s style became known as Shoubukan, as well. Following his death, his only daughter, Yoriko Yasuzato, currently a 7th Dan Black Belt, inherited the Dojo. While Yoriuki Yasuzato was still alive, Joseph A. Picou, an American soldier who served 3 tours in the Vietnam war, was under his tutelage. Picou would go on to open a Shobukan Dojo in Rota, Spain, where JR Ayers would be introduced to the style. To this day, JR Ayers continues his training under Joseph Picou and has himself opened a Shobukan Dojo in Sarasota, Florida. It was here that I began my Karate training. Currently, I hold a Green Belt, but have my eyes set on a Black Belt.
A Little About Me
Around five years ago I theorized that the name my dad gave me wrote my destiny before I got the chance to live it. Ever since I could remember, I wanted to be a Marine Biologist. I could swim before I could walk, and in the second grade I made a poster and presentation on my then-hero, Jacques Cousteau, a famous French Marine Biologist who invented the first version of SCUBA diving equipment. My favorite animal for the longest time was the pink dolphin, found in Amazonian rivers. I also remember watching a video a few years back about a Brazilian man who lived on the beach by himself and spent every day he could out on the water, surfing. I remember thinking there was such beauty to the simplicity of dedicating yourself to doing something you love most of the day, every day. Surfing interested me even before watching the video, but after watching it, I started envisioning my life exactly as this man’s. Alone on a beach, surfing. A simple home, a simple life. Happiness. One day, I looked up the meaning of “Yara,” my first name, and I came to learn that it has multiple origins. One is Arabic, but the one that intrigued me came from Brazilian mythology that spoke of a water fairy, which some people described as a Siren of the Amazonian rivers, luring men walking through the forest into the river water.
“Nathalie,” a song by Gilbert Bécaud, was the inspiration for my middle name. It speaks of the Red Square in Russia and as such it predicted that my mom would meet and later marry a Russian man, my step-dad. Years into the relationship, we all traveled to Russia together and my mom took us to the Pushkin Café , which, though it didn’t exist at the time the song was written, was now a popular restaurant because of the song’s lyrics, which mentions drinking hot chocolate (my warm beverage of choice, despite being Colombian) there. Furthermore, in high-school when I had the choice of studying either French or Spanish, I chose French because I was already pretty comfortable with Spanish. This choice was again foretold by my name and it is even more curious to me because my siblings all chose Spanish over French.
Inspiration for the Journals
About a year ago, I started to get into Karate as a way to learn self-defense. As I became more involved with it, it started to feel like a natural progression to practicing self-awareness, discipline and bodily control, which I had begun to explore through yoga and meditation years before. One day when I was meditating, I reflected on the fact that I often forgot the details of how to perform a given kick, technique, form or Kata. I had decided months before that a way to address this issue was to keep a journal for myself where I could write the steps to each of the aforementioned during practices with my Sensei. That way, I could be sure that whatever was written in the journal was exactly what my Sensei had instructed me to do at one point or another, instead of relying on memory, which we all know is fallible. I had not yet started to do this, but during the meditation, I thought that if I had this problem, then probably other Karateka – or Karate practitioners – did, too. That’s when I had the initial inspiration for the customizable journals and this website. I asked myself, “Why not make a journal where I detailed the steps of every technique I’ve learned so far and kept it not only to myself, but instead gave other people the opportunity to benefit from it? A place where you could write questions down that you could later ask your Sensei, reflect on how you feel on a given day, and set an intention for the near and far future as well as more long-term goals.” I already knew that starting a journal for yourself took work and required discipline to be filled out since it had been months since I had had the idea to start a journal for myself and I still hadn’t, so I knew that having one that already contained all the information you needed and that you knew was correct would be worthwhile. Plus, thinking of it this way – in terms of something I could share with other people – was the push I needed to actually do it. All I needed now was a name.
And Then it Hit Me
I lied in bed and thought about different options, but they all felt cliché and impersonal. They were all bad puns or names that I made by hashing together the names of different dojos I had seen in my life. None seemed to click and none seemed to have the draw or ring I wanted, which would let me know that “this was the one.” Then, for some reason, I remembered the theory I had thought of years ago about my dad having predicted my life when he named me. My last name, Rincon, was the only odd one out, which had me thinking, “If only I lived in a Spanish speaking country, I would name this ‘El Rincon de Karate’.” And then, almost instinctively, I translated this to English and realized, “oh my God, this in English would be ‘The Karate Corner’,” which I loved in every sense. It had a ring to it, it was personal, and it had two connotations: one brought about images of a boxing ring with an announcer saying, “And in this corner, Karate!” as in we here represent Karate in the world of martial arts and the other implied that “The Karate Corner” is the “Karate spot.” It’s the place you go to learn Karate, be yourself, learn about yourself, be with other people and just hang out. And… it proved my theory because my last name finally pointed to a significant part of my life. So, welcome. I’m glad you’ve made it to this corner of the world.
My Lineage
