For the Karate Guys: SKA vs JKA Karate

[Guestx]

As some of you probably remember, a few months ago I mentioned that I had started training at a wado-ryu dojo. Well, long story short I had to go out of town for four months to help a friend with something and just recently got back home.

Before just jumping back into wado, I re-assessed the local options and found a SKA Shotokan school that I was previously unaware of and thought I might check it out.

Does anyone have any thoughts/info on SKA vs JKA dojos? Everything I've ever heard about has been JKA-related.

 

[Jukai]

Honestly, never heard of SKA, although anything with "Karate of America" worries me.

Looking purely from youtube clips though (which is almost always a bad idea) it looks very 80s/early 90s WUKO, not as structured as the JKA style, not as flashy as the WKF nowadays, a very raw but strong style of Shoto. So, yeah, not bad but if you don't like the oddness that is Wado-Ryu.

 

[Silas1222]

JKA. Period

 

[Guestx]

Honestly, never heard of SKA, although anything with "Karate of America" worries me.

Looking purely from youtube clips though (which is almost always a bad idea) it looks very 80s/early 90s WUKO, not as structured as the JKA style, not as flashy as the WKF nowadays, a very raw but strong style of Shoto. So, yeah, not bad but if you don't like the oddness that is Wado-Ryu.

Wado as a style is fine with me. And I think the school I was at was high quality, but there was just something about it that wasn't working for me. I didn't really feel comfortable there or like everything was clicking like it should. Also, it's always kind of been my goal to train in Shotokan, as much due to the history of the art as the art itself.

As for JKA vs SKA, I did find this on another forum:

The SKA(Shotokan karate of America) teaches Shotokan as Oshima learned it from Funakoshi and others in the original JKA and is kept closer to the original Shotokan.

The JKA teaches the more scientific changed version, more directed towards sport.

Both are good , the SKA is less expensive, there are many other Shotokan organizations that may suit your needs. The AJKA, the SKI(Shotokan karate International), there's Okazaki's organization the ISKF which is no longer affiliated with the JKA.

There is also NIshiyama's ITKF(Internation traditional karate do federation).

 

[Guestx]

JKA. Period

Oh, okay.

Well that just clears everything right up now doesn't it?

 

[atecubanos]

Years ago, JKA was the Meca of Shotokan. Today, all organizations are the same.... Chose from the dojo, not the org.
SKA was a shit compared to JKA in USA years ago. Nishiyama broke up with that another ***, for power... But had JKA friends, and SKA got allone.

 

[Silas1222]

Oh, okay.

Well that just clears everything right up now doesn't it?

You gave an ultimatum so I answered. Go with the school which has the organizational recognition. JKA school have high standards with good teachers

 

[Guestx]

You gave an ultimatum so I answered. Go with the school which has the organizational recognition. JKA school have high standards with good teachers

Well I was hoping for a little elaboration. But thanks.

In any case, it looks like the SKA school may be my only option. Salt Lake City is really not a great place for learning traditional martial arts, so it's kind of a situation of taking what you can get.

 

[Jukai]

Hey, anything is better than an American sport karate dojo.

 

[Inquisitus]

I hope you're talking about Shotokan Karate of America. The SKA is pretty traditional and Tsutomu Ohshima is a contemporary of Nishiyama of the ITKF and Okazaki of the ISKF. In fact, this gentlemen was sent to the US by the JKA to help Nishiyama. The alphabet soup i just gave you are the closest to the JKA in North America insofar as their head instructors were senior JKA masters before leaving and creating their own NA orgs.

They're technically close to JKA and don't use WKF rules like the Wado school you looked at. For sure they're not like the sport karate that Jukai showed in the picture above. Check them out.

 

[Inquisitus]

Also, the saying that JKA is more scientific is kinda bunk as Ohshima himself used to be JKA. JKA techniques haven't changed much since inception after WW2.

 

[Hotora86]

Like someone said already, it's more about the dojo than the org nowadays. I've personally trained at a "modern" Shotokan offshoot (Fudokan) dojo where the sensei was VERY traditional and focused on Kata/Bunkai for self-defense. Another time I went to a ITKF (it has "traditional" in the name ) dojo where they focused on "modern" WKF-style point sparring.
You have to go and see for yourself.

 

[Jukai]

Also, the saying that JKA is more scientific is kinda bunk as Ohshima himself used to be JKA. JKA techniques haven't changed much since inception after WW2.

Didn't mean to offend, was simply going off of what I was seeing in youtube videos, which I admitted often does not tell the whole picture. The sparring going on from the SKA had that gritty KUGB feel to it--- not quite as refined but rough enough to make up for that.

 

[Guestx]

I hope you're talking about Shotokan Karate of America.

I am.

The SKA is pretty traditional and Tsutomu Ohshima is a contemporary of Nishiyama of the ITKF and Okazaki of the ISKF. In fact, this gentlemen was sent to the US by the JKA to help Nishiyama. The alphabet soup i just gave you are the closest to the JKA in North America insofar as their head instructors were senior JKA masters before leaving and creating their own NA orgs.

They're technically close to JKA and don't use WKF rules like the Wado school you looked at. For sure they're not like the sport karate that Jukai showed in the picture above. Check them out.

Thanks for the rundown. What I'm gathered from a Google search is that, as a rule, the SKA tends to be very traditional. One poster said an SKA class is like "taking a time machine back to 1955." Others mentioned that they follow the Karate-Do Kyohan to the letter and make it a goal to preserve Shotokan exactly as Funakoshi taught it.

I can see both positives and negatives in this approach.

 

[Guestx]

The sparring going on from the SKA had that gritty KUGB feel to it. . .

If that's the case then I am on board. I have a documentary (or really it's mostly just an endless series of competition matches) that focuses on the KUGB and it was pretty interesting.

This one. . .

 

[atecubanos]

I hope you're talking about Shotokan Karate of America. The SKA is pretty traditional and Tsutomu Ohshima is a contemporary of Nishiyama of the ITKF and Okazaki of the ISKF. In fact, this gentlemen was sent to the US by the JKA to help Nishiyama. The alphabet soup i just gave you are the closest to the JKA in North America insofar as their head instructors were senior JKA masters before leaving and creating their own NA orgs.

They're technically close to JKA and don't use WKF rules like the Wado school you looked at. For sure they're not like the sport karate that Jukai showed in the picture above. Check them out.

Oshima's karate was more "shotokai" style. Not really good at all...
Nishiyama was a genius, they broke up bad.

 

[atecubanos]

If that's the case then I am on board. I have a documentary (or really it's mostly just an endless series of competition matches) that focuses on the KUGB and it was pretty interesting.

KUGB had the stronggest karateka of all time. I had the chance on training under an irish master that was Enoeda's pupil.
KUGB broke up with JKA becouse Enoeda Sensei had english JKA pupils of higher dans, chose Andy Cherry to be the chairman, and JKA Japan sent a 2nd hand japanese to rule the things instead, after his death...

 

[Inquisitus]

Didn't mean to offend, was simply going off of what I was seeing in youtube videos, which I admitted often does not tell the whole picture. The sparring going on from the SKA had that gritty KUGB feel to it--- not quite as refined but rough enough to make up for that.

Oh, my comment was directed towards what shadow_priest_x found on the internet, not towards any comment you made.

 

[Inquisitus]

Oshima's karate was more "shotokai" style. Not really good at all...
Nishiyama was a genius, they broke up bad.

What's bad about the "shotokai" style? I know the Egami lineage Shotokai is really out there technically but don't think Oshima is similar.

I'm not enthralled by Nishiyama but i do agree that the KUGB was strong in the 80's. I think that was more due to the spirit of group and training methodology than to any technical differences.

I had the pleasure of training with Karen Finlay (sp?) ten years back. Amazing. I still remember the precision & control she had with her ushiro-geri.

 

[Guestx]

So I talked to the instructor for the SKA place today and I thought the conversation went really well.

From what he says, the class is very traditional and oriented toward practical self-defense/combat application. It's a small group, non-commercial, and all but one student is either an adult or teen. Also, they have a "fighting" class on Fridays which I'm guessing is a class entirely dedicated to sparring, which is cool.

I'm going to go check this place out on Thursday. Shotokan is actually what I wanted to learn from the beginning and I was only at the wado school for two months before leaving town, so a switchover is probably imminent.