Episode 882 - Sensei James Pankiewicz
In today's episode Jeremy chats with Sensei James Pankiewicz, the creator of the legendary Dojo Bar.Sensei James Pankiewicz - Episode 882
Welcome to another riveting episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, the podcast that explores the rich tapestry of martial arts stories from around the world. In this episode, we sit down with the esteemed Sensei James Pankiewicz, whose martial arts journey led him from the halls of college to the vibrant streets of Okinawa.
Sensei James shares his compelling story of an irresistible pull towards Japan during his college years, culminating in a life-altering move to Okinawa 15 years ago. As a martial artist deeply immersed in the local culture, he not only runs his own dojo but also crafted a unique experience with the creation of the Dojo Bar, a karate-themed establishment where enthusiasts gather to share their passion.
In this captivating interview, Sensei Pankiewicz unveils his role as a guide, leading karate-themed history tours of Okinawa and assisting visitors in maximizing their martial arts experience on the island. Join us as Sensei Pankiewicz shares his fascinating journey, offering a glimpse into the convergence of tradition, community, and the global appeal of Okinawan martial arts.Show Notes
Connect with Sensei Pankiewicz:
https://www.facebook.com/james.pankiewicz
https://www.facebook.com/asatodojookinawa
www.bujin.tv
www.asatodojo.com
✅Subscribe to whistlekick Martial Arts Radio on the following platforms:
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Show Transcript
Jeremy (00:00.854)
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of Whistlekick commercial arts radio. Today I'm joined by Sensei James Pankovitch. We're, this is our second effort here. I've introduced you before. We'll probably chat about that in a moment. But to the audience out there, if you wanna support what we're doing or you wanna get the show notes, all the good stuff about what Sensei James is doing.
whistlekickmarshallarchradio.com is the place to go for that. You're gonna find the show notes, all the details, all the things we talk about today will be over there. And if you wanna support Whistlekick in general in our mission to connect, educate, and entertain, to get everyone in the world to train for at least six months, that's our stated mission here, go to whistlekick.com, check out everything we've got going on there. So Sensei James, welcome back.
It's kind of funny, right? Because we've done this part before, so I feel like I know you a little bit, but it was almost anticlimactic. We had some internet troubles, as... Yeah.
James Pankiewicz (00:57.854)
Yep.
James Pankiewicz (01:02.761)
Yeah, we got kind of this far before, didn't we? And then the gods of the internet decided it wasn't gonna happen. So, but I'm glad we're back.
Jeremy (01:12.138)
I'm glad we are too. Thank you for your flexibility and your willingness to reschedule. Yeah, you know, it happens. And I think there's something.
James Pankiewicz (01:17.149)
Oh, you too.
Jeremy (01:24.646)
very martial arts-esque about this approach, right? Because like our training doesn't always work out. We don't always get the training session we want or testing our competitions. It's not, yeah, go ahead.
James Pankiewicz (01:38.755)
I think it's good to be patient and a little bit forgiving sometimes, right?
Jeremy (01:44.034)
think you have to be, right? Because there's only so much that we have control over. And one thing we don't have control over is the internet.
James Pankiewicz (01:49.874)
Indeed.
James Pankiewicz (01:53.449)
such a
Jeremy (01:55.462)
I was helping a friend last night with a very bizarre computer problem. It's what I used to do. And they say, can you help? And I said, yeah, it's going to be real quick. And of course, the real quick solution wasn't it. And an hour later, after doing 75 other things, the real quick solution worked that time.
as I was running out of options. Yeah.
James Pankiewicz (02:18.302)
Power for the course. I've had that experience so many times. If you're the one in the family that knows how to turn a computer on, you become the go-to guy. That's it, right?
Jeremy (02:27.938)
Right, it's true, it's absolutely true. Well, we're here to talk about you, we're here to talk about martial arts, we're here to talk about your story. So let's start at the beginning of your story. If I said, you know, let's imagine there's a movie of your life as a martial artist. What's the first scene?
James Pankiewicz (02:49.961)
Well, I grew up in a small town in the southwest of England. And there was one karate dojo there, and a teacher there who, I didn't get to karate until I was about 17 years old. I did other kinds of sports. And then, you know, I left school at 18. That was the...
the age back then. And around that time I sort of found karate and I found this dojo and as it happened the teacher there, who I'm still in contact with and I have a huge amount of respect and gratitude for,
teacher there, Miku Sensei, had been to Japan and he not only started teaching me karate but he started telling me the stories of his visits to Japan and I was hooked. You know, I was a small boy from a small town and you know, that sounded so exotic, so exciting and I just knew I had to get out there. And karate for me was more than just sort of another
James Pankiewicz (03:53.271)
into another culture. And that really, to be honest, that's been the path that I've been pursuing is trying to learn more and travel more. And martial arts for me has been, it's been, you know, for all of us, it gives you all kinds of benefits. And I love working out, I love training, I love sparring, I've done all kinds of competitions along the way and all kinds of things. But...
the cultural aspect and the way that martial arts has opened up a whole path through life for me is something which is just, you know, I'm eternally grateful for. And that's the main reason why I advocate to young people to pursue martial arts, is because of the doors that it opens to you in your life.
Jeremy (04:42.994)
said. Let's talk about that first door for you because starting in 17, you know, over the years that we've been doing this show, that's not a common age. Ironically, it seems to be a more common age of the folks that we talk to, but anybody who owns a martial arts school will tell you 17 is not an age that most people start martial arts. They generally start earlier, or later. What was your reason for starting?
James Pankiewicz (05:08.801)
For me, it was actually, it was about learning self-defense. Like I said, I was in good shape at a lot of sports, the school always enjoyed physical activity. But I wasn't, to be honest, kind of came from a family where martial arts was not encouraged. So it was also kind of a little bit, yeah, it was sort of taboo. It was, you know, it was not something that was approved of. And so it was sort of...
Jeremy (05:28.278)
Was it discouraged?
James Pankiewicz (05:38.657)
something I hadn't been able to do until I got to the point where I was kind of thinking about, you know, starting my own life. I left home at about 18. Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy (05:48.115)
If I may ask, was the reason or the reasons it was discouraged, was it for accurate understanding or inaccurate understanding?
James Pankiewicz (06:03.378)
because of the belief that it was about violence. Studying martial arts is about practicing violence, maybe perhaps even enjoying violence against other people. So a real misunderstanding of actually what martial arts practice is about, as opposed to just going out and looking for a fight. And, but yeah.
it was very strongly discouraged in my family. But of course that made it even more exciting and sort of mysterious for us, for myself.
Jeremy (06:33.354)
Yeah, tell a 17 year old they can't do something and that's all they're going to want.
James Pankiewicz (06:37.901)
Exactly, exactly. It's the most basic reverse psychology isn't it? So that was one of the reasons. But then once I started doing the kickboxing, but once I walked into a more traditional dojo, and this was actually Wadoru Karate Dojo, I realized that there was a whole culture around this exercise. And like I say, that
really caught my interest. There was a different language, there was different etiquette manners, and then there were all the stories about where this came from, literally the other side of the world, that very mysterious place which I already was intrigued by. But now I had almost a personal connection to my teacher there. And actually that turned out to be one of the first personal introductions that I benefited from to actually go later to go to...
to visit his sensei in Tokyo and train there.
Jeremy (07:42.495)
held you when you did that.
James Pankiewicz (07:44.053)
That was in my early 20s when I managed to do that.
Jeremy (07:48.618)
big deal, right? It's, you know, now because of social media, I think everyone feels like everyone who's been training for 20 years travels to the country of their martial art origin.
James Pankiewicz (07:50.677)
Oh yeah.
Jeremy (08:04.446)
audience that's not true, right? If you haven't been to Okinawa or Japan or China or Thailand, you know, don't, don't feel badly about yourself. But it is more common today than it was that.
James Pankiewicz (08:15.841)
just so much easier these days and cheaper.
Jeremy (08:17.517)
Yeah.
Yes, you had to be very committed to want to do that. That had, you know, that, that in and of itself says something about your commitment to your training, your passion and wear this fit into your life.
James Pankiewicz (08:32.141)
I had to work out a way. I had come from a working class family.
we didn't have the money lying around to just fly around the world and go and live in another country for a few months. So I had to come up with a plan, a scheme. And what I did was decided I would study Japanese at university in the UK. And as part of that, I went to Japan on exchange. Back in those days, university education was still heavily subsidized by the state back in the UK. Now it's a little bit different. So as a working class lad, I was actually able to realize my dream
Jeremy (08:46.402)
game.
James Pankiewicz (09:07.743)
which I loved as well of course, and then getting to Japan that way. So that was my first route to Japan.
Jeremy (09:17.557)
And I imagine that you had expectations of what it would be like to be over there. Was it as you expected it?
James Pankiewicz (09:22.984)
I...
James Pankiewicz (09:27.305)
Well, yes and no. I mean, you know, I'd watched everything and read everything I could about going about Japan. Everything from, you know, the Shogun novels and movies to modern day, you know, anime, manga, all that stuff. So I was expecting all kinds of things from the traditional to the hypermodern.
and I found all those things, but then there's lots of things that you don't expect. So the nature of the people, the nature of Japanese people, very, very hospitable, very, very kind, very modest. You know, just sort of everyday life is something you don't see, perhaps quite so often. These days you can find a YouTube video for anything. But...
But back then, it tended to be more what had been in books and novels and movies. So it was the everyday stuff which was a real discovery for me. I think that's what it's like when you go to any new country. It's the everyday interactions that really give you a feel for the true kind of nature of the place.
Jeremy (10:36.458)
And that's always my favorite when I travel to experience, you know, not, yeah, I like doing the touristy stuff, but I want to go in the grocery store. I want to I want to do some of the things that they do and experience their way of life, at least somewhat, not just, you know, what's it like to take my way of life and bring it here.
James Pankiewicz (10:46.217)
Yeah, exactly.
James Pankiewicz (10:57.581)
Exactly, exactly. And for me, language has always been important. So Japan wasn't actually the first place where I lived abroad. When I was 18, as I said, I sort of left home and I went and lived in Greece for two or three years. And why did I go there? Because it seemed an exciting, fun place to go. And while I was there, yeah, it was, yeah. And again, another place, a lot of history, but also, of course, a vibrant, modern culture, lots of tourism.
Jeremy (11:15.682)
Yeah, a lot of history.
James Pankiewicz (11:27.113)
But learning the language there really helped me to unlock friendship there and unlock learning about the culture from the locals.
I really, really studied hard. I actually went to Japan after only six months study, a language study, but I was head down, I was head down every night, reading, writing, reading, writing, reading, writing, and speaking as much as possible. And so that for me was a real passion. I was a very boring first year university student, no parties, no going out. I was just study, I'm going to Japan.
Jeremy (11:45.07)
Truly.
Jeremy (12:07.498)
the power of having a purpose. A why, we talk about why on the show a lot. Your why clearly, I need to go to Japan and anything that's gonna get in the way falls off.
James Pankiewicz (12:09.63)
Yeah, yeah, I...
James Pankiewicz (12:20.829)
Absolutely, yeah, 100% focused on that. And it was everything that I expected and much more. And that really began a path which I'm pursuing today.
Jeremy (12:29.678)
Hmm.
Jeremy (12:35.594)
So in exchange, was that six months?
James Pankiewicz (12:39.133)
Yeah, I exchanged, my first year I spent the second half, the second six months in Hokkaido, the north of Japan. And then about two years later, my third year I got to spend another year which turned into two years in Osaka, in Japan.
Jeremy (12:56.046)
Okay. And talk about the end of that first period, that six months when you went back, when you went back to the UK and, you know, a little bit of foreshadowing if you went back for a year that turned into two years, I'm imagining there was some pain in leaving and you got back as soon as you could, but talk about that.
James Pankiewicz (13:19.193)
I loved living in Japan, I loved being in Japan and I desperately wanted to go back so I really was just counting off the days, the weeks, the months until I could go back and visit again. I went to university in London and um...
London's vibrant city and I enjoyed it a lot but Japan's special and so I knew I had another chance to go probably in my second, third or fourth year and I just took every opportunity to make that happen and thankfully it did. So yeah my time in London was great but it's sort of a blur. I tend to remember my time in Japan more.
Jeremy (14:02.246)
And I imagine as you were spending time in Japan, you were training.
James Pankiewicz (14:07.965)
Absolutely. I took every opportunity to train. I was training every day. Wado karate. I was, you know, as I was in Japan, my goal as I'd gone there as a sort of a junior Q grade student was to take my first black belt test in Japan, showdown, and then from there, you know, see how it goes. So I had this very firm objective.
and then I ran karate, but then also while I was at university and there living in big cities there are lots of other dojos and martial arts. So I took every opportunity to train in other disciplines too. So I would have done judo, kendo, jujitsu, western boxing, nihon kenpo, bits of sumo here and there, some kung fu.
So pretty much whatever I could do, I got a chance, if I had a chance. And I was living a student life, so I had the time to do it too. So.
Jeremy (15:12.962)
trying to think of how to ask this question. Because it's a good question. It's how did training and those different things, and I'm sure some of those things got more of your time and attention than others, and some of those things were of more interest to you than others. But anytime we have someone on the show that is really kind of dabbled in a way that I'm sure plenty of the audience is saying, oh, I wish I could do that.
You know, one of my personal kind of long-term dreams is that we buy some old, uh, shut down university and make a true martial arts university where, you know, there are actual classes, you know, and you get an actual degree in something. Uh, it's not a fully fleshed out idea because if I spend my time on that, it's going to be painful to not move forward with it yet. I think you get it. But how did, how did all of that time and all of those different things
James Pankiewicz (15:53.505)
Awesome. Yeah. Awesome idea. Yeah.
James Pankiewicz (16:04.695)
Hahaha. Yeah.
Jeremy (16:11.122)
impact your view on martial arts, your training in martial arts? And it sounds like, at least at the time, Waduru was, we could maybe call it your base art or your primary art. And how did those things impact your Wado training?
James Pankiewicz (16:30.281)
Yeah, I always thought that karate was sort of my mainstay. And I was really interested, but I realized that there were limitations in the karate system that I was studying. Wado is a great system, I really enjoyed it. I don't practice it anymore because there's no Wado practitioners here in Okinawa. But it's a great system and I liked it because it's a blend of Okinawan karate and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu.
For me, the really interesting and dynamic parts of that were where those two clearly intersected and fused together. Wado had set me on a track to explore at least those two branches of the tree, the karate and the jujitsu, for example, in order to better understand the wado that I was doing. I really looked at these opportunities to
to visit or to train for a while in other martial arts as complementary study. Yeah, I never...
I always thought karate was for me the broadest. And then later when I arrived in Okinawa, I realized actually how much broader and deeper it was than I had even seen until that point. So for me, karate is a bit like a Swiss army knife, right? It can have lots of different ways, lots of different tools in the toolkit. And the skill sets overlap into what we would look at
or something you'd see in judo, or something you'd see in striking arts, et cetera, et cetera. So karate was like the trunk, and I viewed all the other things as branches that intersected with it in some way. So even if I didn't understand intersection, yeah, I was hoping that I would understand how those things intersected. And over the years, I have found that to be very, very true for me. It's...
Jeremy (18:16.029)
sense.
James Pankiewicz (18:31.233)
karate is a broad church, but has a very wide, quite complete span. So today I find no contradiction between continuing to do mostly karate, but also learning other things as well, or just experiencing other things as well along the way.
Jeremy (18:55.726)
Yeah, I see it as a language or philosophy. You know, you can train the same stuff as someone who has a bunch of time as a Karataka or someone who has a bunch of time as a Taekwondo practitioner. You can train the same things, but they're going to look different. It's a different philosophy. It's a different or a different language. You know, one of the things I found, uh, much to the chagrin of my Taekwondo instructor and others in that world.
I spent most of my early days doing karate. And so I did Tae Kwon Do as a karateka, whether I tried to or not. It's just, it's how I understood those sorts of movements in my body.
James Pankiewicz (19:37.057)
Absolutely. I've met a lot of martial artists along the way so far and when it comes to, let's say, the actual execution of those skills, probably in an aspiring environment, but sometimes in an actual self-defence environment, but even in an aspiring environment, what you tend to see is that there isn't that much difference between...
the skill set of someone that's come from karate and applies that into a more free-flowing sparring environment. I suppose someone that's come from another martial art like jujitsu for example, or even something as different as say Kali or Silat, right? When you see people sparring, it becomes very, very similar. What's interesting is to look and see what...
is special to their skill set based on what the route they've come to learn to learn their martial arts right for me that's really interesting um but um you know the actual the solo practice of martial arts or the or the kata based practice of martial arts becomes extremely distinctive um it's sort of there's this there's evolutionary pressures to make it very distinctive right so it doesn't just become the same as something else but when you come to actually use it
all tends to look very similar and I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's a functional thing.
Jeremy (21:07.95)
Sure. The body only moves in so many ways. And if somebody's trying to punch you in the face, there are only a handful of ways you can respond to that keep you from being punched in the face.
James Pankiewicz (21:11.475)
Exactly.
James Pankiewicz (21:21.029)
Exactly, exactly right. Now every now and again someone pops up who seems to be have a different way of doing things, right? Someone's got a really original take on things. Often, you know, there are a few individuals in every generation who are truly gifted. They just have sort of that almost genius for martial arts. And they push things in a new direction and that's amazing, right? They have a massive effect on everybody's kind of approach.
So those sort of, I've been lucky enough to meet one or two individuals like that along the way, and they are just, yeah, they're, you know, they're sort of forces of nature, right? So, but again, yeah, as you say, they still have the same body, same two arms, two legs. It's just what you do with it, which is kind of the, it's where the creativity and the originality is in what we do.
Jeremy (22:16.826)
Now, if we are telling your story, if it is in the form of a movie, we've had some flash forwards and backs and everything, but you mentioned something that I think we need to start digging into, which is that you live on Okinawa.
James Pankiewicz (22:30.845)
Yes, I've been living on Okinawa for just over 15 years now. My wife is Okinawa. I have three lovely daughters who are all growing up fast. I was in mainland Japan finishing my degree. I'd heard of Okinawa, but it wasn't really on my radar. I was very focused on being on the mainland and studying Wado Karate, which is based on the mainland. But yeah, I met a girl from Okinawa.
came down just to check out the island. And that was the beginning of a relationship with Okinawa. So it wasn't actually karate specifically that drew me down to the island, although I'd heard of it. But once I got here and I started to spend time and be introduced to a few people, it's a small place. So, you know, for example, my mother-in-law, yeah, was my mother-in-law already at that point.
She said, oh, you like karate, right? She said, oh, I used to work with a gentleman who was a karate teacher. I'll take you around to visit him. I said, fantastic. Turned out to be one of the most famous karate teachers in Okinawa. And he was lovely. When I realized who I was meeting, because it didn't quite click straight away, but then, you know, it sort of clicked. I was like, oh my God, I've heard of this guy. He is very, very famous.
and he was already a 10th Dan teacher at that point. But he was incredibly kind and patient. My karate was nothing special, certainly not in his scale of things. But he was incredibly kind and patient, and that was one of the first experiences of training in a dojo in Okinawa. Subsequently, I got to visit quite a few dojos before I met who would become my main teacher in Okinawa.
And I have to say that all of those experiences are very positive. Not all of them were something where I thought, oh, that's a fantastic martial art. I want to do that. Some of them were just like, almost just like, you know, you find sort of a, it's like sifting through sand and you find a few diamonds here and there. So I took away something from every experience. And then eventually a few years down the line, I was in Okinawa and I met Arakaki Toshimitsu.
James Pankiewicz (24:54.017)
and Arakagi Sensei became my teacher for Matsubashi Rokurate and Kobudo, and remains my teacher and really my sponsor in Okinawa to this day.
Jeremy (25:10.57)
What was it about him or his teaching methods or his dojo that... Because the way you just talked about it suggests that there was not a short, I'm sorry, not a long decision process. That you experienced this and said, that's it, that's what I want.
James Pankiewicz (25:30.025)
So when I met him, I was very impressed by his character. He was a real gentleman, and as well as being very skillful what he was doing. At that point, I trained in quite a few different dojos and quite a few different arts by that point, and I'd had some good experiences and some not so good experiences.
The ones where you go, that's an awesome guy, that's an awesome teacher, or look how good that guy is at like literally like, you know, knocking people down. I have to learn from him.
despite the fact that person is not necessarily a very good person. They have significant character flaws. But you go, no, they've got the best technique, I need to learn that. What I learned over time was that those relationships don't last, because if you can't maintain respect for somebody, you can't really maintain the desire to learn from them. I contrast when I met Arakaki Sensei.
James Pankiewicz (26:32.349)
I just was very impressed by his character and just wanted to spend more time with him. And that continues to be that today he is a wonderful friend and mentor as well as being my, obviously, my karate instructor.
Jeremy (26:52.558)
did he feel about taking you as a student? As a Westerner who he had not started from the beginning, who had fairly recently moved to the island. And I'm sure that the instructors on Okinawa are constantly bombarded by Westerners coming in with something that might not land well in their culture.
James Pankiewicz (27:00.19)
Yeah.
James Pankiewicz (27:15.605)
Yeah.
Jeremy (27:18.926)
marrying a local and having all these other experiences in the martial arts that maybe he had to unteach.
James Pankiewicz (27:28.529)
Well, I wasn't the first Westerner that he'd had in his dojo that he'd taught, but I think I was the first for a while who looked like I was going to stay. So this was not my first time in Japan. I was pretty sure that I wanted to stay in Okinawa and live in Okinawa by that point.
So there was that. I also, I said to him, I was very honest with him. I said, you know, I've studied this and this and this along the way, I've been training, you know, by the time I met him, I've been training for 20 years. But I said to him, you know, but I'm, you know, I want to, my mindset will be to keep my cup.
empty or as empty as possible and try and allow everything to come into it. So he said to me, fine, he said, you know, you're going to wear a white belt. You're going to start from the beginning in our system. I was absolutely fine with that. Yes. Love to do that. And we took it from there. And I, you know, I really focused on listening more and just, you know, enjoying his teaching.
It was a small dojo, so I got a lot of one-to-one time with him.
Jeremy (28:49.43)
What's considered a small dojo in Okinawa?
James Pankiewicz (28:53.294)
about five to ten people training regularly. His dojo is actually in his house, so he has a custom-built dojo on the ground floor of his house. It's a small dojo, I mean, you know the saying about swinging cats, you could probably swing about two cats in that dojo I reckon.
Jeremy (29:14.914)
So does he have a day job or were all five to 10 of you paying? Okay.
James Pankiewicz (29:18.085)
No, he's retired. He was already retired by the time that I met him. He's now in his 80s and still going strong, still in great shape. But yeah, he pretty much retired. He'd done well in life. He was obviously quite well off and he was retired and enjoying teaching karate. So I kind of met him at a good time in that he was still in very good shape and was just enjoying his karate.
So, and we spent a lot of time not only training, but just talking, you know, he'd teach me all kinds of things about the history of the island, about Okinawan culture, about Okinawan language, phrases that they use in the dojo, as well as introducing me to other people that he thought would be useful, interesting, good friends as well. So.
Yeah, so he's been a real mentor, not just for the karate itself, but for sort of an instruction to Okinawan and Okinawan culture too.
Jeremy (30:20.878)
And I would imagine in putting on a white belt and just the way you're coming across, you worked really hard to empty your cup and to keep it, keep it empty as empty as possible as someone can with 20 years of training.
James Pankiewicz (30:31.969)
Thanks for watching!
James Pankiewicz (30:37.705)
Well, yeah, I mean, to be honest, I still didn't feel... I... You know, after 20 days of training, a lot of people perhaps will have opened their own dojo or got to the stage where they've sort of... they've gone into more the teaching mode. I wasn't there. I wasn't anywhere near that. And I wasn't interested in... you know, being the teacher. I just wanted to learn.
so and it wasn't until well I only opened my dojo about six years ago and that felt like the right time so right because the more people I met who were very capable in what they were doing the more I realized I much didn't know and there was skill level a skill level
Jeremy (31:17.644)
Why?
James Pankiewicz (31:34.769)
I wanted to say what I regard as the minimum skill level kept going up. I suppose, what's the imposter syndrome? The idea that you're never quite good enough to be doing what other people think you should be doing.
I think that's actually a very healthy thing in many ways. And for me, when I arrived in Okinawa and I started to go around and visit all these different dojos, I started to realize how much I didn't know. And so I was not overly enthusiastic to be standing up going, hey, I'm a teacher here now, you need to come and start learning from me. I felt that there was a long way to go. So yeah, that took some time.
Jeremy (32:29.442)
Did you feel some pressure given that you were a Westerner living in Okinawa teaching something that, let's face it, came out of their region and not where you were from?
James Pankiewicz (32:44.089)
Yeah, absolutely. And even today, I don't... I see myself as passing on a tradition. So when I think about sensei, the word sensei in Japanese, you know, it means literally someone that's just ahead of you on the path. So there will always be people ahead of you on the path, and people that will be coming up behind you. And I think...
The fair thing to do is to be as kind and generous to people that come up behind you as you've received from the people that are in front of you. So for me Sensei is sort of that ongoing process of learning and then sharing, learning and sharing, learning and sharing. So I look at it that way and therefore I don't think that it's a pedestal of any kind. I don't think it's where you go like...
I'm here, I've achieved this. No, I think it's an ongoing process. My dojo is, for me, it's not the James Pankowicz show. For me, it's a place where we meet, we get together and we train. My dojo, actually, therefore, is sort of as a unique...
flavor in Okinawa in that obviously of course it's a foreigner run dojo so that's unusual. I'm not the only one, I'm not the first one in Okinawa but it's unusual. And then the other thing that's unusual is that I've encouraged other teachers to come and teach in my dojo as well. So I teach what I've learned which is primarily Shorn Rukarati, Matsubashi Rukarati and Kobudo. I then have other teachers that teach Goju-Ru in the dojo.
and other teachers that teach Motoboryu, which is another old style of Okinawa martial arts. And for me that's fantastic. But it's very unusual in Okinawa for there to be more than one style in a dojo.
Jeremy (34:49.646)
How is that viewed, given that it's different and you're a foreigner doing the different thing?
James Pankiewicz (34:56.704)
Well, I'm always going to be a foreigner doing different things. So I've realized a while back that if you want to stay in Japan as a foreigner, you have to accept that you're never going to be a local. So in a way, it can be frustrating, but it also gives you a sort of a space that has a certain freedom that is unique to being a foreigner in a foreign culture. So
James Pankiewicz (35:27.069)
So yeah, it's kind of a unique, not unique, it's a kind of special position. There are one or two other individuals in the island who I have a great respect for, who also follow the same path. Some of them before me, in terms of arriving here, deciding this was gonna be their home, and then becoming part of that martial arts tradition. And more are coming. Okinawa seems to be becoming more popular, which is...
good thing. But I think it's, I think there's a phrase in Aki Na Mokarate about keeping a beginner's heart. I think this is more widely known as well. So the idea is that you should always keep that sense of sort of modesty and humility and almost a sense of wonder that you have when you're a beginner. That's something.
always try to remember that. It was actually a favourite phrase of my teacher's teacher, so Arakaki Sensei's teacher, who was Nagamine Shoshin. Nagamine Shoshin founded Matsubashi-ryu, the style that we do today. And while I never got to meet him in person, I was just too late to arrive on the island before he passed away, Arakaki Sensei shares a lot of his experiences from Nagamine Sensei, and that's one of the sort of the pearls of wisdom that comes down.
Jeremy (36:56.458)
And is the dojo your full-time gig or do you do other things on the island?
James Pankiewicz (37:02.241)
It is now, yeah. Up until 2020 I was running a place called the Dojo Bar, which was a karate-themed bar, a pub in Naha, and what became a very popular meeting point for...
Karataka for martial artists visiting Okinawa, as well as foreign visitors in general. I did that for nine years. And then due to corona and the whole shutdown, I closed the place in 2020. The upside of that was that it enabled me to focus on running my dojo, which I'm enjoying immensely. And
during Corona when we didn't have too many tourists coming, or almost none at all, I also managed to realise another project that I had on the back burner for several years, which is Bujintv, hence the banner behind me. I'm making a shameless plug here.
Jeremy (38:01.771)
No, no shamelessness to it. Plug away, my friend.
James Pankiewicz (38:05.769)
So, Bujian.tv is an online martial arts video website. So, over the years, in Okinawa, I had, along with a good friend of mine called Chris Wilson, who is a British photographer and videographer, over the ten years before we got to here, we'd been doing interviews.
with Okinawan karate teachers. And we'd amassed quite an archive. Some of it had been shared online. And also I knew that there were a lot of other great videos that I'd like to get of Okinawan teachers. And so, Bujintv was sort of the idea was that this would be a place where all that content would be made available without, you know...
annoying advertising, whatever else, it would be a place that were dedicated to really high quality martial arts content. And so that's what Bujintv is today. Today the content is actually much wider than just coming from Okinawa, although we retain a lot of exclusive content. And so Bujintv, working with content partners, updating that, sharing that, is sort of about a
James Pankiewicz (39:23.427)
post-corona a third is actually helping people who are visiting the island to maximize their visits here, principally martial artists. So I sometimes take people on tours, history tours.
Jeremy (39:38.117)
Okay, cool. You're a martial arts tour guide to Okinawa. Is that an oversimplified version of what you do?
James Pankiewicz (39:42.229)
Hahaha.
James Pankiewicz (39:47.677)
There's quite a demand for that. I do that quite frequently. Yeah And there's so much fascinating stuff to go and see that some that never gets stale and then the other thing I do is I Will support facilitate large events here. So for example international seminar events So just this year this year has been so busy the bounce back after
Jeremy (39:49.87)
That's amazing!
James Pankiewicz (40:14.661)
in the country reopening after corona was just crazy. So we've had some big events here this year, hundreds of people, and I project manage those, help to make sure that those get an appropriate venue and teachers and marketing and all that stuff too. So yeah, it's been a busy year actually.
Jeremy (40:16.91)
It's great to hear.
Jeremy (40:39.906)
How is it? Oh, that's great.
And when you consider these three things, do you see them as parts of a whole or are they distinct in your mind?
James Pankiewicz (40:54.513)
Oh, they're very much connected. Yeah, they're very much connected. I mean, you know, if you're into Venn diagrams, things like that, there's a huge overlap in the middle. The overlap is knowledge and passion for authentic martial arts. So all of those things that I do would be rendered kind of fake without it being connected to a sort of a truth, which is a real passion for...
Jeremy (41:02.327)
I am, very much so.
James Pankiewicz (41:23.549)
understanding and passing on the martial arts knowledge which is here in Okinawa. Because Okinawa is sort of a crossroads, because it attracts so many people that are here with a like-minded people with the same kind of mindset, they also bring lots of other things with them too. They're also people that have trained in lots of different things. I'll give you a great example. Just last month I had a wonderful month, a friend of mine
who is a Maori martial artist, came up from New Zealand. And my friend Tuari, his name's Tuari, he also teaches Maori martial arts, the traditional weapons arts of the Maori people. But he's also a lifelong karate and kubudaka. So we just had, oh, he is an awesome individual and I highly recommend we do that, yeah. He...
Jeremy (42:06.734)
That's so cool.
Jeremy (42:12.27)
but we gotta get him on the show.
Jeremy (42:16.299)
Yeah.
James Pankiewicz (42:20.677)
For him it was a dream, coming to Okinawa for a month and staying and having that time to go and do all kinds of things that he wanted to do in the past. It wasn't the first time he'd been to the island, but in previous times he'd sort of been chaperoned along with the group, they'd come, they'd train, they'd left. So for him it was sort of a dream come true. And we just had some awesome sessions, basically.
training karate, training Okinawa Kobudo, and then training Maori martial arts. And for me it was just the absolute personification of what I love to realise here, which is bringing people together like that. And yeah, that's why I love living here, because it's a crossroads. Historically it's always been that way. The reason Okinawa...
has been so significant is because of literally where it is in between Asia, Japan, South East Asia and these days of course people come in from all around the world. So it's a fantastic place to be.
Jeremy (43:26.966)
Why shouldn't someone come to Okinawa? Is there a type, yeah, is there, are there certain expectations that people might have that when they get there they realize, oh, this is not it.
James Pankiewicz (43:29.537)
Why shouldn't they? Ha ha ha!
James Pankiewicz (43:39.569)
think this rarely happens but I've seen it a couple times is people come talk in our to show off how good they are right and well they might be really good I mean to be honest these days you know there are some fantastic martial artists all around the world so they might be really good but that's not the point if you come talk in our
Jeremy (43:51.126)
does not seem like a good idea.
James Pankiewicz (44:05.437)
it seems like such a waste of opportunity to spend all your time trying to show off what you've got rather than looking for opportunities to find out something new or to learn something new. If you're really, really good already, like I said before, it's kind of like sifting through sand and you'll find the old diamond or two, but it's worth it. It's worth sifting through that stuff to find those gemstones, right? And so it happens rarely, but now and again, I've come across somebody who
just missed all kinds of opportunities because they weren't, you know, they were too full. You know, the glass was full. So I always... yeah.
Jeremy (44:43.342)
I'm glad you brought it back to that, because I think it's such an important philosophy. On the show we talk about it often as keeping a white belt mentality.
James Pankiewicz (44:51.229)
Yeah, absolutely. I just think it's a shame you...
Jeremy (44:52.938)
You know, when do you learn the fastest? When you start, when you are a white belt, when you assume that you know nothing, and the longer you can keep that, the faster and better you progress.
James Pankiewicz (44:57.117)
Exactly.
James Pankiewicz (45:02.885)
Exactly. Listen more than you speak. Be open to new ideas. You don't have to agree with everybody, but listen and try and learn as much as you can. I think it's the best way to be.
Jeremy (45:20.378)
I wholeheartedly agree. Sometimes what you learn is this is not the way for me, but the better you understand it, it still has value. Or as my instructors drilled into us when I was a child, you never know if someone that you're going to teach needs that. So while it might not be part of your, you know, the common toolbox you work with, you really should have it in the archive if you need to pull it out for them later.
James Pankiewicz (45:30.037)
very true very true
James Pankiewicz (45:50.505)
That's a very good point is that you don't, you can't measure the impact of what you do immediately. It's really nice to get immediate feedback, of course. I mean, that's really, really useful, but, but it's a lot for many people, hopefully. It's something that we say benefit from over the longterm as well. And, you know, I'm still relatively young at this whole thing, but.
already, you know, it's good sometimes to see a few years down the road that people have really benefited from an experience that you've been part of. And you know yourself that that's always been the case for you too. So I remember, you know, right back to, as I mentioned, my first karate instructor back there in the UK, and the seeds that he sowed in me.
continue to sort of blossom in a way. And then so many acts of kindness along the way, people sharing and teaching where they didn't need to, they weren't being paid for it necessarily. Those are the things which often stick in your mind. So it's not just the thing you got taught, it was also the way that you were treated as well.
Jeremy (47:16.898)
I like that word sharing as a substitute for teaching. Cause I can teach you something, but it's really up to you to decide to learn it, right? And vice versa. You can't make someone learn. They have to choose to internalize it. So that's why I prefer share.
James Pankiewicz (47:20.756)
Yeah.
James Pankiewicz (47:26.877)
Yeah. No.
James Pankiewicz (47:36.497)
Yeah, I mean, I teach kids now. At my dojo, we have regular kids classes four times a week. So we have about 20 to 25 junior students on our books, which I know is not a big group compared to many dojos. But...
James Pankiewicz (47:56.045)
So that's a really interesting process. There's sometimes a language challenge here and there, but actually it's more about trying to understand how best to have the kids take something away from it, as opposed to just being somewhere where they came and spent some time, an after school club, for example. And it is an after school club for them, so I don't forget that, but.
I'm always trying to think about ways in which for each of them to make it something which is they care about, you know, rather than just a passing the time kind of thing. And I don't know if I always achieve it, but try and find ways to help them feel that they are.
Jeremy (48:36.994)
How do you do that?
James Pankiewicz (48:46.857)
part of what's happening, they're engaged in it, that they are participating and not just there sort of watching it and waiting for the time to go past, you know, giving them a sense of achievement, giving them a sense of a purpose. So it's different, you know, I think in Okinawa I'm told that the kids in Okinawa are very well behaved compared to maybe some other places. I haven't taught kids in other countries so I don't know.
So on the one hand, it's probably in some ways they're an easier crowd, perhaps in other places. But yeah, you know, you don't know them. You don't know. I mean, most of my dodgers only been open for about six years now. So I don't know yet, you know, how much and how far, you know, they'll take that with them, but I hope, I hope it's something that they will benefit with them in their lives.
Jeremy (49:41.219)
Is the kids program newer? I got the sense you didn't start that at the beginning.
James Pankiewicz (49:45.722)
No, no, we started when we opened Dojo. We opened Dojo in, it was right at the end of 2018. So yeah, five years, six years. And yeah, we started with the kids and the adults at the same time. And it really was a steep learning curve. Ha ha ha.
Jeremy (49:47.868)
Okay.
Jeremy (50:04.85)
If to anybody out there who's never taught children, even if you've if you've had children, right, to have one child or two child children for maybe you have a really big family, you have six. It's a completely different dynamic to have six of your own children versus 510 20 of not your children that you are trying to not only keep from tearing things apart, but to impart.
James Pankiewicz (50:27.477)
Exactly.
Jeremy (50:34.574)
knowledge to them. Talk to a public educator. They will tell you the same thing. If you can do that, working with adults is a dream.
James Pankiewicz (50:38.237)
Yeah.
James Pankiewicz (50:44.989)
I think teaching in itself is obviously a skill. People go to university and study for years to become good at that, to acquire that skill and the tool set that goes with that. And I think that should not be underestimated at all. Even while you might think you know karate or be good at karate yourself, physically be able to do it.
teaching anything is a skill set itself. And one of the things that I've invested in is that, is trying to become a better teacher over the past few years. I have to say that opening my dojo, my objective is not to become a professional teacher, but I feel like it's become a very important skill set. Ha ha ha.
So, yeah, that's something that I invest in now too, in terms of researching, looking for better ways to have more relevant knowledge and understanding to be a better communicator as well. I mean, I think good teachers are very good communicators. They're probably good at listening and understanding people and they're good at being able to connect with people.
So I think that's what I try to do better, but it's very much still a work in progress.
Jeremy (52:12.399)
Yeah. I've had the honor of, you know, one of the things that we do at Whistlekick, we have a teacher training and certification division, and that's something that I work on and in with some other folks. And yeah, I think it comes down to really two things. It's empathy, because if people don't know that you care, if they don't care about you, it's really hard to do anything. And then it's communication on top of that. And if you can connect with someone and then you can communicate.
James Pankiewicz (52:28.475)
Mm. Yeah.
James Pankiewicz (52:33.864)
soon.
Jeremy (52:40.33)
appropriately, right? Not too much, not too little in the way that they need it. It really does come down to those two things, but those two things are not easy. They're simple. They're not easy to do, and it does take a tremendous amount of time.
James Pankiewicz (52:51.169)
Absolutely.
James Pankiewicz (52:54.889)
Absolutely does. Sometimes you can try, one thing I've realised is sometimes you can be trying too hard to teach. Sometimes you need to give people space just to go and practise and sort of figure things out for themselves. So while it's easy, you know, when people come to the dojo you want to give them sort of, you know, value for money so to speak, right? Okay, you've come for 90 minutes of instruction, I'm going to give you 90 minutes of instruction.
Well, actually, often what works better is you give them a little something to think about and then give them some space to go and practice that and work on that for themselves.
Jeremy (53:33.726)
I would say not 90 minutes of instruction, but 90 minutes of education. Because those two things are dramatically different.
James Pankiewicz (53:37.345)
Exactly. Indeed, exactly. So yeah, sometimes you can feel like, you know, you're trying very hard to be an instructor, when actually you're actually not doing a great job of actually helping that person learn. So like I say, it's a work in progress for me.
Jeremy (54:03.21)
work in progress for all of us, or at least it should be. So what's next? If we look down the line, we look into the future, crystal ball, you know, we revisit in five, ten years and I say, hey, what's happened since? What would you hope you were saying?
James Pankiewicz (54:20.457)
Well, I'm very invested in my dojo. My dojo is called Asato Dojo. It's the name of the dojo, Asato Dojo, A-S-A-T-O. And I'm very invested in my dojo. So I hope that my dojo continues to be a place where we welcome all comers, people that wanna come and visit, and it continues to be a gateway to learning and Okinawa. The dojo is becoming a little...
better known now. One of the things that I've started to do is to go overseas and teach. So I suspect that over the next few years I should be travelling a little more regularly to go and teach, which is again an interesting new challenge which I'm sort of growing into. I really hope that Bujintv continues to grow as...
an online destination for people that want to come and find great quality content, authentic martial arts content. Well we have some other events, we didn't talk about the 100 kata event yet but so
Jeremy (55:34.055)
Tell us about that.
James Pankiewicz (55:36.393)
It's now a 10 year old tradition. We just celebrated our 10th year here in Okinawa doing our 100 kata challenge in the shadow of Shuri Castle, which is the capital city castle here, the old castle here. So the 100 kata challenge is a celebration of karate day, which in Okinawa is on October the 25th every year. And...
There are local celebrations here, everybody gets together, they do karate together, they do kata demonstrations on the main street in the city. The 100 kata challenge is a way to extend that celebration wider. So what we do is we invite everybody to take on that challenge of performing 100 kata in sequence. On karate day or as near to karate day as they can.
October the 25th every year and it's been growing and growing. It's a challenging participatory event, open to everybody, all ages, all levels of skill and ability. We have an online registration for it. This year we had, I think we had a
about 150 registrations and then most of those were dojos around the world, probably in 40 different countries, which amounts to thousands and thousands of people around the world taking part. And for me that's just so heartwarming in that.
Jeremy (57:05.994)
Yeah, that's awesome.
James Pankiewicz (57:12.877)
If it does two things, it brings people together and doing their karate practice in their local communities and enjoying it. Typically, they're outside in the park, on the beach, whatever, doing it. Another thing is it reminds me of the connection back to here, back to Okinawa. I think those two things are really, really important, really relevant. So I hope the 100 kata.
Jeremy (57:32.222)
Yeah, two of our three mission statement, right? Connect, educate, entertain. There is some education that goes there, but it's, you know, the connection is there in several ways. The entertainment is there.
James Pankiewicz (57:36.933)
Yeah absolutely, absolutely.
James Pankiewicz (57:45.597)
Yep, yeah. Well, that's the thing. I think one of the things that I've realised, one of the things that karate does really well is it does connect people together. It's not the case for all martial arts, but karate, just I think because of the way it's evolved and where it's come from, what it's become, is I think one of the most social martial arts you'll ever come across.
it really does act as a sort of a common language between people. I've noticed here, while I was running the dojo bar and subsequently now with my dojo is that even if there are literally language barriers between people, if they can get together and train and karate, then they feel very much connected to each other. That sort of mutual love of their martial arts practice. That's a really powerful thing. It's an important thing.
and so I really hope that we continue to foster that and find opportunities to encourage people to connect with each other, learn from each other, practice alongside each other.
Jeremy (58:52.594)
so to. And speaking of connection, if people want to connect with you, website, social media, email, any of those things that you want to share with the folks.
James Pankiewicz (59:00.681)
Absolutely. So asatodojo.com is our website online front page and a lot of what we do is linked from there. Bujin.tv, please come and check it out. And then yeah, find us on Facebook, mostly Facebook these days, a little bit of Instagram, I steer clear of Twitter.
James Pankiewicz (59:25.269)
But yeah, either my name James Pankiewicz or Asata Dojo and you should be able to find me and find what we do quite easily. And if anybody wants to come to Okinawa and wants to find out more, please get in touch. I'm happy to help. I do it every day. I help people every day with sometimes just questions, advice, sometimes with more concrete.
arrangements to help people come talk an hour and really maximise their time here. So by all means get in touch.
Jeremy (01:00:00.246)
great. And I'm going to have you close up for us in a moment and then I'll do a little bit of an outro.
How do you want to leave things with people today? What are your words that you want to go out on?
James Pankiewicz (01:00:17.174)
I want to encourage people, encourage people. I'm guessing people that are watching this are probably already practicing martial arts and I want to encourage you to continue, do what you can do. My sensei, my 80 year old Okinawan karate sensei who is still going strong both in body, spirit, mind, he says a little bit every day, do what you can do, keep training. And
Jeremy (01:00:24.418)
Most of them.
James Pankiewicz (01:00:44.793)
And connect with people. Connect with people. Use your training to connect with people. It's important. So, and look for ways to, you know, to improve yourself. There's always a way that you can improve yourself. Whatever kind of challenges you're facing, there are ways in which you can improve yourself. Look for those and try to realize them. I think karate is an amazing tool for doing all of those things. So.
If you're not doing karate and those things sound attractive, then I encourage you to give it a try.
Jeremy (01:01:22.254)
Awesome. Well, thanks for being here. I appreciate your time. Audience, you know what to do. Go check out everything that we've got going on. Whistlekickmartialartsradio.com for the best version of the show notes with all the great links and everything. And if you want to support us, whistlekick.com. Anything that you find over there that is of interest, whether it's sharing things with people or picking something up with the code podcast15, it helps us do what we do and we appreciate you sticking around, if nothing else.
James Pankiewicz (01:01:53.601)
It's been a great pleasure. Thank you so much for having me on.