Who am I?

My instructor thought it was inappropriate that I post all this information on Chibana and that my name doesn't appear anywhere on this blog. His concern is that people will start to "borrow" information from here without giving me any credit for any of the research I've been doing. I'm also sure there are those who visit and say, "Who is this guy? Who does he think he is? He's no (insert famous karate historian's name)." There's hardly anything about myself on this site.

Well, my name is Terry Garrett, and I've been attempting to do karate for approximately 6 years (emphasis on attempting). I have a long way to go before I'm even 1/10th as good as those who have taught me - this isn't modesty, unfortunately, but truth. I'm that bad. I practice Shorin Ryu, and I was (am?) a member of the Shorinkan Shorin Ryu organization under Nakazato Shuguro; my first instructor was Mr. Mark Staal, a good man and a great teacher. Mr. Staal is a behavioral psychologist and Air Force officer. For the last 2 years I have been a student of Mr. Patrick Nakata, an extraordinary instructor. Mr. Nakata had the fortune of being a student of Chibana Choshin in 1962, becoming a virtual uchi-deshi for a year - he trained 14 hours a day, six days a week at Chibana's home and at the Yamakawa Dojo. Chibana thought him worthy of a shihan teaching license and awarded it to him in 1965 (he's the "American student" I refer to in the post "A Family Affair"). My interest in Chibana stems largely from Mr. Nakata's voluminous stories of him.

As a descendant of Chibana's karate lineage, I have a vested interest in finding as much information about him as I can and making it public for other members of his karate progeny. I believe that only by understanding the past can we look forward to the future of karate - okay...this statement is trite, but it's true.

Recently, I have also developed a keen interest in exposing overlooked masters. Itosu, quite frankly, was THE MAN, and his students were the vanguard of Okinawan karate to the world. However, besides Funakoshi Gichin and Mabuni Kenwa, how much information is out there on Itosu and his disciples? Hanashiro Chomo and Kentsu Yabu were, along with Chibana Choshin, Itosu's top students. Yet hardly anything in print exists on these men who were the dai-sempai of Itosu's dojo. Thanks to the efforts of people like Mr. Charles Goodin who recently wrote an article on Kentsu Yabu in Classical Fighting Arts (1), we are beginning to find out more about these karate legends. Hopefully, more information will become public; and as we dig deeper, karateka world-wide will realize that there's more to karate than jumping around, screaming, and breaking boards. That there's a rich history waiting to be discovered.

Hopefully, I'm playing a small part in uncovering said history. Then again, what the heck do I know? I'm an economist.

(1) See his article, "Kentsu Yabu's Senior Students in Hawai'i" in Classical Fighting Arts, Issue 8, 2006, pg. 15-21.