Episode 955 - Eizo Shimabukuro: The Legacy

In this episode Andrew sits down with Bill "Superfoot" Wallace and Sensei Darryl Baleshiski to chat with them about their instructor OSensei Eizo Shimabukuro.

Eizo Shimabukuro: The Legacy - Episode 955

SUMMARY

This conversation explores the life and legacy of Osensei Eizo Shimabukuro, a significant figure in martial arts, particularly Shorin Ryu karate. The discussion features insights from Grandmaster Bill “Superfoot” Wallace and Sensei Darryl Baleshiski, who share their personal experiences training under Shimabukuro and reflect on the evolution of martial arts techniques and philosophies over the decades. The conversation highlights the importance of teaching, the impact of instructors, and memorable moments that shaped their martial arts journeys.

TAKEAWAYS

• Eizo Shimabukuro was a pivotal figure in martial arts history.

• Training with Osensei was a rigorous and traditional experience.

• The evolution of martial arts techniques has changed significantly over the years.

• Personal connections with instructors can deeply impact one's martial arts journey.

• The importance of adapting techniques to individual needs in training.

• Memorable moments with Osensei often revolve around personal interactions and lessons.

• Teaching is about sharing ideas and techniques that resonate with students.

• Respect and tradition are core values in martial arts training.

• The legacy of martial arts instructors lives on through their students.

• Martial arts training can provide a sense of purpose and community

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction to Eizo Shimabukuro
02:59 The Legacy of Eizo Shimabukuro
05:56 Personal Experiences with Osensei
08:58 Training Techniques and Philosophy
12:03 Reflections on Martial Arts Evolution
14:51 Memorable Moments with Osensei
18:00 The Impact of Teaching and Learning
21:02 Final Thoughts and Farewell
25:00 Song: Karatedo Sanka

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Show Transcript

Jeremy Lesniak (00:07.694)

Hello, welcome. We are sitting here in the beautiful New England Rendocan Dojo in Old Saybrook, Connecticut with head owner and instructor Sensei Darrow Balashevsky. Thank you for having me. My name is Andrew Adams. And this gentleman sitting to my left is probably someone you know.

Grandmaster Bill Superfoot Wallace, thank you for being here. Just Superfoot. Superfoot, fair enough. We're here today to talk about someone that the audience may or may not know, but with someone that known very well to the two of you and someone that I know very little about. So I'm actually kind of excited to be here. And so I wanted to thank you for letting me be here for this. So we are here to discuss this gentleman in this statue here.

First question, who is this gentleman? His name is Ezo Shimabukuro. He was born in 1925. Started his martial art journey in 1937 with Sensei Kian. 1938 he trained a little bit with Sensei Miyagi as well. He preferred Sensei Kian's martial art. So he stayed with him and trained with him more.

Jeremy Lesniak (01:29.246)

1940, around 44, 45, he moved to Osaka in the main island of Japan. And there he trained with Sensei Choki Matabu, was his cousin's neighbor. And he recalls punching that mackerel overboard thousands of times. Something he definitely did not want us doing. But he did it.

Later, he trained under Sensei Chojin and Shibana.

Jeremy Lesniak (02:04.941)

He kept a little piece of everybody.

Jeremy Lesniak (02:10.515)

He for over six decades.

Jeremy Lesniak (02:36.365)

He and his brother Tatsu are the first to teach our US Marines in Okinawa. And Air Force. And Air Force, yes, sorry. They say that he taught well over 35 ,000 of our military people. Wow, that's Which are the big reason why his...

East Coast and West Coast with Mr. Wallace here. And the first question that I have for you before we move on to some other stuff is you have this statue of Osensei in your dojo. Why? What's the connection to you, Sensei? He was just an amazing individual.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:22.071)

is true.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:26.253)

I measured on one of my trips, I've measured his torogate and his doge. I have all the dimensions and everything and I wanted to recreate that. And unfortunately he passed away October 22nd, 2017. sad day for us all. Lived to be 93.

Jeremy Lesniak (03:46.157)

wanted to honor him. And he's someone that you trained with yourself for many years. made trips over there for over a decade doing two weeks at a

Jeremy Lesniak (03:58.827)

the

and at my other location in Rocky Hill. It was just a phenomenal experience. That's great. A great person. And we're sitting here with Superfoot. That's not a coincidence. You have a connection to Osensei as well. When and where did you first meet? I was stationed in Okinawa, 1965 -66. Kadena Air Base. Air Force. And I was a judo player.

And I was training in judo up until November 66, 65, excuse me. No, 60, yeah, 65. And tore my knee up, my menial collateral ligament in playing judo. And I was despondent because my judo career was done because back in 65, 66, if you had a knee injury, your athletic career is primarily over because they had no idea how to arthroscopy or they wanted to call it, it was called exploratory surgery at that time.

So I thought my career was over. put in the cast, said, well, you're just going to make it through the rest of the year. The attachment here at Keating Air Base and you're going home. So I'm hanging around in crutches and a friend of mine says, Hey, there's a karate school downtown. Let's go check it out. I said, sure. Okay. So I'm on my crutches on one leg and we'll go down to Azo Shamabukuro's Karate School. We go and I'm sitting on the bench, just watching class and this black belt walks up and says, you too karate? I said, what?

You want to do karate? And I turn to my friend and he says do you want to do karate? And I said yeah, it looks fun. And he says you stand up. I said I'm in the cast, I can't. He said nobody on mute, nobody on mute stand up. So I stand up. He said now we do yoga gherkin. What's a yoga gherkin? And he says I'll side kick it. And I said I started doing side kicks. Just, I can't move. So I just do a side kick. About 14 ,000 of them.

Jeremy Lesniak (05:56.761)

And I leave, we leave after the class is over and I go back to the barracks and I say, that's kind of neat. So I go back the next week. He says, you're back. I say, yes sir. He says, I'm out of New Washington. I just learned yoga again in Western Washington. So I'm watching it. Around the house kickoff. Around the house kickoff.

So, okay, so I start doing 15 ,000 of those round ass kicks. And after a month or so, I get my leg out of the cast, still wear the brace, but I'm out of the cast, so I go down, I start taking lessons. And in the service, they'll pay for it. So they have a contract with the armed forces that they can pay for the classes. So we're in class, we're going through the keel and the basic movements and all this stuff, go through your class, and he said, now we do committee. I said, what's committee?

We fight. Now hold it. Time out coach. I'm not like that of course. But I said now just a minute. We've been taught, Gakuzuki, Sengu -zutgoizuki, that this punch will kill somebody.

Jeremy Lesniak (07:02.113)

And now we're gonna fight? Excuse me, but I belong to the United States government and they're gonna be a little upset if you kill me. no, we use Kimi. Another one of those words. What is Kimi? We focus. control. okay, now I understand. So I'm sparring with one of the higher ranked black belts and I throw a sidekick and he moves out of the way so I bring the heel around, catch him in his solar plexus and he drops.

Again,

What was his personality like when you started training, when you first met him? very traditional. Back in 65, 66, he didn't speak a lot of English. The air base was not new, it had been there for a while, but it was still old. And we were new. And it was old, very traditional. short.

You know, again, the respect, I'm coming from the judo background, we had all the respect that I had start with. I just respected him, you know, because watching him doing the technique, watching him doing the movements. What it is nowadays...

you're watching people do techniques and it's not even close. The stances are entirely different. The movements entirely different. If you look at competition back in the mid 60s, early 60s, mean everything was primarily front kick reverse punch. The spinning back came around when Chuck Norris started competing.

Jeremy Lesniak (08:58.113)

But up to that time, I think it was primarily front kick, reverse punch. Enter it, and ok now, we were taught that, or again, like this. All of sudden you get back to the United States, now it's like this. So it's much more controlled in a way, and much more used in competition. Now, you travel yourself all around the world teaching seminars, the martial arts of today is certainly very different from the martial arts of the 60s. A thousand percent. What was his specific training classes like?

Hardcore, know, I mean, I don't know when Darrell was there or not, but he walked around with, he and his students, his and Blackwell's, walked around with a bamboo shinai, the little sword. And when you had the stance wrong, when you had the puncher wrong, he would just find it out if you had it correctly or not, he'd beat you to death. you know, I mean.

You look back and you're lucky he didn't get sued because that's what happened nowadays in the United States. we look forward to it. We look forward to him harassing us. We look forward to him caring about us. And I guess that's what the main thing was because if you care to the point that we're

He's correcting you, moving around, putting you on this. He cares. Otherwise, as a instructor now, if I'm doing something wrong and this instructor just walks by me, well, I realize he doesn't care about me at all. But if he corrects me, a little, little, you know, like, so, don't get overtaught this. Some people might have it like this, some people might have this, some people might have the thumb inside. So he's correcting.

It worked. You started training with him in 65. How long were you working with him? About six, seven months. hurt my tourmending up in November. So I started shortly after that going down to school and training with him a little bit. I got out, I left Kadena June of 66. Station in San Bernardino. Ironically enough, the funny thing about that, I thought when I left Okinawa,

Jeremy Lesniak (11:10.187)

because I wasn't there long enough to make black belt, but I made brown belt. EQ. Third, first brown. So I get back to United States and I'm sitting, my martial arts career is over here now because the judo's gone. And I get back there and a friend of mine at the barracks says, hey, you do karate, right? I said, well, I used to. Yeah. He said, well, there's a karate school downtown. I said, really?

What are the chances of the same system being there? So we drive down to the school. It's the name of the school, Shorin School of Karate. I go in, wow! I walked in, I tell him who my instructor is. Really? I said, yes sir, why? He says, because his brother, Tony Janek, studied under Ezra Shimabuku back in 64, 65 when Joe was there.

And Joe, meaning Joe Louis, the famous Joe Louis. Your training with him, was it was your interactions with him strictly as an instructor or did you socialize with him outside of the dojo? That down not very much socialization because you know, I'd be back to barracks. Yeah, I had to go, you you could spend so much time down there. But but see, because I liked it so much in the service.

You either find something to do with your off time or you go out with your friends and get drunk. Number one, I don't drink. And so I had to find something to do. And the something to do was going to the dojo, working out every night. know, every class that I could take, wanted to, because I was so infatuated with it. I just said, wow, this is neat stuff. I like this. You because you throw the guy and you let him get back up.

and you throw the guy out, or he counters you and you throw you and you get back up. And you hear it, you find it's striking. I like the striking. Even though I was a wrestler in high school and college, the striking really intrigued me. What was your favorite part of training with him? All of the six months you did with him? Working the kicking techniques. See, one thing that I loved about the movement.

Jeremy Lesniak (13:23.849)

Every one of us are individuals. And remember, when I went into class, I had the bad knee. So you're in zenkutsu dachi, working your punching techniques. Then you work the front kicks. So you say, I can't do a front kick with my right leg. What do I do? says, turn sideways. Keep it, keep it dachi. So I turn sideways. Now we're doing bababap.

Your back fits reverse much as I pull the back foot sideways. Now throw your Gugetti with your left leg.

Jeremy Lesniak (14:01.855)

If you think about it, look at technique. When I teach the seminars, if you feel many of it today, I'm sideways when I do Yogi Giri. I'm sideways when I do Moshi Giri. And when I throw Ura Moshi Giri, I'm sideways. Hold it now, whoa, whoa. When I throw Ura again, I'm sideways. When I do Haito, I'm sideways. So everything for me, because of the knee,

I had to be kibidot, horse stance, sideways. Number one, to protect the knee. Protect what's already damaged. And back then, there was no such thing as arthroscopic surgery. Back then it was exploratory. So I had to protect it because I didn't want to go through the knife. I mean, it took 38 years to wear it out until I finally had to get it.

that time I was in Kibidachi. you can almost say so, Sensei was the founder of the Shoren Ruin lineage that you train now. wouldn't say founder, right? Came through Kian. But he almost sounds like he was kind of helping you start out the super footwork. would say yeah primarily yes. If you look at Joe Lewis's fighting stance to start with back in the back in the early ages.

he was here sideways because a lot of our techniques, chokey -bootaboo, was renowned to kill people with a sidekick. So that came from the shorner system. And a lot of the movements come from the side position.

Nahachi Shodan, Nahachi Niidan, Sana. They all come from the side. I mean, to me, it's either do it from the side or not do it at all. Because I couldn't straighten this leg out. I can't push off with it because of the medial ligament. So now, he allowed me, helped me with it, to be able to do the techniques, same thing we do from kiba, from seikutsu, to do it from kiba.

Jeremy Lesniak (16:03.827)

If you had one favorite memory of Osensei, what would that be? You know what? It's when he said goodbye. Really? When we left. more. Yeah. You know, I'd go in there and I worked out and I said, Sensei, I leave in two days to go back to the States. And he didn't cry, of course not. Because they come and go, we come and go all the time. But he says, in his own little way, I miss you. I will miss you.

and I heard all kinds of things about how, you know, when we got back and I became successful, Joe became successful, and how he had our picture up in the dojo. And I don't know if it's true or not, but that made me feel great. And when you left Okinawa in 66, had you ever gone back to see him? I wanted to. I wanted to go back three or four times. But every time I wanted to go back, they had a problem.

In Japan, you have to go through a certain city in Japan to get to Okinawa. And they had an atomic problem with one of the reactors. So they to close down that area. So I didn't want to take a chance, which is stupid now, to go through that area and get infected or something and then have to fly to Okinawa. Joe and I were going to do that several times. And then in the early 2000s, there was a group of people that brought Azo into the New England.

And Joe and I wanted to come and see him again for probably the last time. yeah, and we were basically uninvited. Hmm. That's unfortunate. Well, if I I'd known about it what was gonna happen in the future that we just showed up. Yeah. Yeah. My last question for you would be if he were here today right now, what would you say to him? I would thank him for everything because you know

Our teachers teach us and understand that our job, it's like when I do seminars, I learned this from him. When I do seminars, my job is to give you ideas. Think of all the techniques that we have in the martial arts. Different systems, different techniques. Our job is to take those techniques that we like, not the ones that everyone's and said use this, use this, use this.

Jeremy Lesniak (18:27.671)

but use the ones that we like and perfect those to where they work for us. The number one technique in all of point fighting throughout the entire world, any compact sport throughout the entire world is backfist reverse push or jab cross. Why? Because it's the very first one you learn.

But for me the very first technique I learned was Yoko Guri. Because I couldn't move. couldn't turn side or push off with my right foot or anything. So it was still good. So I just did Yoko Guri. And if you look at all my fights, 13 of my knockouts in kickboxing was with a side kick. My number one combination in point fighting was back fist side kick. Because I'm side fist, back fist, you got to block one of them. up until now you've just picked the wrong one to block.

And I mean it jokingly, but seriously. And that's what happened. Otherwise, he'd say, you better be honest with me and say, well, my, thank you, because I couldn't push off with it. And if I did, maybe it comes out of joint. Then I go back to him and they make a nice zipper in my knee. Darryl, anything that you want to add about Osensei, your interactions with him?

your interactions with him about anyone else? Yeah, so I first saw him in 1984. I was a yellow belt, green belt summer.

Jeremy Lesniak (20:00.356)

I didn't get to train with him or anything because it was too low rank back then. Made my first trip to Okinawa in 2004. Never looked back the way he was. agree with Mr. Wallace's talking about when he met you at the airport, dropped you off or you were leaving or anything, it was always very warm. You knew that he cared about you. I definitely...

My trip was obviously much different than Mr. Wallace's because I was 2004, he was right back there in the beginning. Watch it now. Watch it coming in the beginning. Then there was the Earth. We went on what Osensi called special training trips. We took two weeks out of our life, we lived with him, we trained twice a day with him, he went through absolutely everything that he knew with us.

strap your seatbelt on and ready. But then he ate with you.

Jeremy Lesniak (21:02.753)

just experienced everything with us. It was an amazing time. I do miss them.

Jeremy Lesniak (21:12.107)

back since definitely like to go back to Okinawa one of these days.

It's not going to be the same, but it's still a special place on earth. The funny thing for me is, 1965, there was no McDonald's and most of you that know who I am know about my diet. So I live on hamburgers for junk. I'm a junk food freaker. And when we go there, after classes maybe they want to go get something to eat, right? Well, I don't eat rice.

Back then, I do now. I don't eat pasta, I don't eat noodles and all that other stuff, right? So you guys have a wonderful time. I'm going back to Kadena Air Base. Because they have a cafeteria there and I can get a hamburger, they have a restaurant that I can get hamburgers or all that my junk. And so, know, they would go out to eat and drink and I would go back to the Berrics. They're definitely...

It's different time. Since I did love the hamburgers and the french fries and McDonald's, I don't know if he influenced that or where that came from. You know what's funny is, Fumiya Degura, he died a couple months ago. Unfortunately, It's funny to say, he came to the World Police and Fire Games in Indianapolis.

And I said, I'll go pick him up, because I know him from you. So I rode to pick him up. We're driving back. And I said, Fumio, because it's lunchtime. I said, Fumio, have you ever had a hamburger? Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill. No, no, it's OK. No hamburger. I said, look, it's lunchtime. Don't you think it's time that you've been here since 1965? Did you want to try a hamburger? no, no, no, no.

Jeremy Lesniak (23:04.959)

I talked to him in a winter place called Steak and Shake. And he had his first hamburger. And he goes, very good.

Well, maybe the same was for us. well, it's, know, it's. They're not bad tasting no matter where you buy one. Yeah, and they're decent for you because it's hard to screw up a hamburger. And, you know, it's it's it's good. And we talked about it often because I lived on those things.

Well, I want to thank you for having me come in and chat with you. Super fun. want to thank you for your time. My pleasure. But I think we're good. This was fun. Thank you so much. I definitely appreciate both of you participating. The thing to think about is our history. know, a lot of people know that martial arts work came from all this, but our instructors now think about this everybody out there. Who is your favorite high school teacher?

Who is your favorite grade school teacher?

Jeremy Lesniak (24:17.277)

You don't remember you a grade school teacher. I remember my sixth grade school teacher. His name was Mr. Dalton. He taught me how to play baseball. He taught me all kinds of really neat things because we remember our instructors and what we do is remember our instructor. Why he did what he did? Because you have to love the art to be able to teach it effectively like he did. And that's most important of all.