Lucas Grant: Week 42

This week I finished a book called “Three Budo Masters”. This book gave interesting perspective on 3 different types of martial arts masters in the 18-1900s. The 3 masters this books covered are Jigoro Kano a judo master, Gichin Funakoshi a karate master, and Morihei Ueshiba an Aikido master. Having 3 different masters in one book allowed for 3 different interpretations of martial arts and mindset when approaching the martial arts. This let me get a deeper understanding of how my findings in the martial arts differ from the findings of masters in the 18-1900s. This book taught me a lot and it also gave background into things in our Isshinryu history.The main master I focused on was Gichin Funakoshi. Funakoshi’s life also crossed paths with a master in our lineage, Choki Motobu. It was cool to see stuff sensei has taught in the dojo appear in book form. Funakoshi was the founder of Shotokan karate, which is a similar system of karate to isshinryu. The book highlighted points of Funakoshi’s life like his struggles and his upbringing of being a martial arts master. The main take a away I got from this reading of Funakoshi’s life was the sheer determination of Funakoshi. He was determined to keep his karate alive even through hard times like World War 2. It was truly inspiring hearing about the struggles he faced but in the end he would overcome them.