History of
The Manakai Martial Arts System was born in 1990 out of my connection with Japan throughout my life. In particular, with the concept of Kaizen ("continuous improvement"). As a system it was also very heavily influenced by the teachings and practice of Bujutsu as developed by Iizasa of the Tenshin Katori Shinto Ryu Bujutsu school - Iizasa had devised a unique method to ensure warriors could train without serious injury and yet maintain a resemblance to 'riai' (integrity of principle - the underlying principles behind a technique) and combative reality. Those who practice Manakai come to understand this principle very well, indeed!
From this experience, I was able to identify the martial arts as always having this virtue - not just in the art itself but in the development of the practitioner, as well.
Basically, my Japanese teachers would seek to improve their own skills, while at the same time passing down those improvements to their students who would, in turn, seek to improve on the instruction as it suited them. This led to a greater transmission of the teachings and development of the art form. This was impressed upon me by various sensei at the top of their game (Inokuma, Yukimaru, Okada, Watanabe, Koga, et al).
The name MANAKAI reflects the terms mana from Manabu 学ぶ (learning) and kai. While most schools would use kai for their club or school, I chose to utilize it for the ocean 海洋 (kaiyo) and developing this concept: Learning deeply; absorbing all like a wide ocean!
Eventually, I settled on Manakai seeking to hide the meaning somewhat to bring it down from 学ぶ海洋 (Manabukaiyo) to simply 学洋 for Manakai rather than Manayo - only those that understood the concept would know it as Manakai.
All throughout my training in Japan along with some trips to China, The Philippines, and Thailand in seeking to quench my thirst for martial arts knowledge I saw this concept being practiced in many of the traditional art forms. I also saw this Kaizen concept develop in rules-based fighting systems, as well as in martial arts derived forms such as Sanda, MMA, Muay Thai, Kumite, Shiai, etc.).
That said, I had never thought that rules-based fighting systems offered much to the development of martial arts due to the narrow focus based upon the rules of the competition. My own foray into competition left me rather bewildered despite winning local, state, and national titles. I much preferred to keep the traditional forms as they stood while seeking to improve my overall knowledge by integrating the various art forms to form a whole. In doing this, I had come to understand Bujutsu as the martial art you practice, whereas Budo is the lifestyle you live and the path you walk by practicing it.
Manakai Martial Arts was to include all the systems I had ever studied and even those not yet studied. I sought to integrate Kaizen into the syllabus in addition to encouraging the practice of this concept by its practitioners.
This led to the growth aspects of the art form of Bujutsu as well as paving the way for practitioners to add their knowledge and experiences, as well. But I did not want it to be limited to Koryo Bujutsu (Old school) , so I changed the name to include whatever we understand as MARTIAL ARTS – hence, MANAKAI MARTIAL ARTS, this also incumbasas the meaning of Gendai Bujutsu (New or Modern).
I realized that nothing needs to stay the same when I stumbled on Heraclitus of Ephesus (500 BCE) famously claiming that “life is flux” - and indeed, everything is in a state of flux, with nothing is and nothing was, but everything is becoming. So, we examine what we have, experiment with it, and from there derive new and embellished techniques that not only add to the art form as we know it, but which also adds to our skills and abilities as practitioners.
Origin of the name by the Founder of Manakai Martial Arts.
Shodai Soke, Jack Harris.