Some of my earlier posts have caused a bit of a backlash against me.
It seems that some of you readers (and we all know who you are) are upset that I am still using the old name for our type of karate: “Renbukai”. This is despite the fact that I am still a proud member of both Shoko-Ryu Renbukai kan and Zen Nihon Remmei Renbukai.
I have identified the type of karate I teach as simply Renbukai because that is what it is. The fact is, I am teaching the same basics, the same kata, and the same approach to sparring as was taught to me many years ago. I am not naïve enough to say that what I do this week has not changed over my almost 40 years of training… I know it has changed. That is the nature of the beast when the ‘style’ is not necessarily a style at style at all (see my earlier post).
However, I do take offense when some of my old friends think they and their current cadre are more legitimate than anyone else. Really? I see that there is a real push on converting dissatisfied dojo’s into Renbukai clubs by simply introducing the armor. There are many examples, you just have to look closely: a Shotokan group here, a Kyokushin group there, are all calling themselves Renbukai with arms wide open acceptance. Everybody loves the new guy! Are they really more legitimate holders of the Renbukai name than any other group?
To paraphrase that old saying “if it looks like Renbukai, fights like Renbukai, and trains like Renbukai, it is Renbukai”.
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