ISR History
Shihan(*) Rod Lindgren:
It’s been many decades since my active involvement in Isshin Shorinji-ryu, so please be patient with my attempt at recreating the history to some of the things you’ve asked. Since retiring from a demanding business career, I’ve been able to return to the martial arts, but because of a long struggle with Lyme disease and some of the permanent damage it’s left behind, as well as the advance of osteoarthritis, I am studying Taiji Chuan instead, another passage in my martial arts growth. For a while I had been looking for a school mastered by someone competent and genuine, but even as much as it is in karate, there are a lot of self-professed “experts” in Taiji who aren’t. Finally, at a World Tai Chi & QiGong Day fair I knew I found her. All of the years of training has given me an eye to recognize real from phony, and Grandmaster Aiping was spellbinding.
Grandmaster Aiping Cheng first came to the U.S. as a member of the historic 1974 Chinese National Wushu Team delegation invited to perform for President Nixon at the White House when trade with China was first re-initiated. She was just 19 then and came as a part of the entire Chinese diplomatic entourage. Since then she went on to win several Wu Shu competitions eventually becoming a senior member of the Wu Shu international organization. In 1997 she permanently emigrated to the U.S. in a State Department’s capacity of “Person of Extraordinary Ability.” In 2008 she received 8th Duan (8th Dan) from the International Wushu Shanshou Dao Association located in Beijing and since then has been recognized by the same as one of the top Taiji Chuan practitioners in the world. Sometimes good fortune just comes your way. I feel it a great privilege to be affiliated with her school. Four years ago she opened another school in Austin, Texas and is living there to be closer to her children and grandchildren. Our school in Connecticut is run by her disciples, Shifu’s, Jonas Karosis, Shirley Chock, and Bob Shannon. https://www.aiping-taichi.com
On the surface Taiji appears to be simple, and so I thought it would be gentler on my joints, but I assure you that the demands of centering, balancing, rooting and the slow motion of the body as it goes through form is a different demand on internal strength than I’ve known. This will sound strange, but I wish I had learned these principles when I was practicing Karate because the result would have been that much better. I now know why Soke spent so much time learning Gong-fu in addition to Isshin-ryu, because he saw the Shaolin/Chinese principles of centering, internal control and circular motion as being a benefactor to Okinawa-te and wanted to bring karate back to its origins. Renaming our system to Isshin Shorinji (= Shaolin) was an affirmation of that.
To your question; when was I promoted to Dai Sempai (san dan) and then to Shihan (fourth dan)?
[Aside: as an homage to Karate’s roots, Soke had renamed the ranks to more closely resemble the ancient family system that the 17th century Okinawan’s adopted from the Chinese. After all, until the Satsuma clan invasion, Okinawa’s culture more closely identified with China than Japan].
I’m afraid my memory won’t allow me to be precise; however, Charles (a.ka. Chuck) Cusumano and I came through the ranks on exactly the same promotion nights so we both attained Dai Sempai and Shihan together. After being a Shihan for about 2 years I then had a heart-to-heart talk with Soke about my interest in studying Kendo, and its adjunct Iai-do (the Way of mental presence and quick draw). I told him about the American Buddhist Academy in Manhattan, and living in New York then, I visited it out of curiosity becoming keenly interested in studying. However, Kan-sensei, the head instructor, a 7th dan from Japan and Buddhist lay priest, told me that if I joined it would require a full commitment so it was unlikely that I could split my time between Karate and Kendo. Later I found out how prophetic he was. I never worked so hard being put through more punishment and pain in Kendo than ever in Karate. Soke fully endorsed my studies understanding my attendance at the Parsippany dojo would diminish. He even gifted me a bogu set he had bought many years prior. During the pure Isshin-ryu days there was no body armor for contact kumite. Bogu is Kendo’s armor and Sensei thought it might be useful protection but found out it wasn’t. I still have it in my closet, sweat and blood soaked from the endless hours of Kendo.
So off to the American Buddhist Academy with only maybe once a month visits to Parsippany on the weekends. After the Parsippany dojo closed Chuck and I remained close, he going to med school and I splitting my time between a career and Kendo. I remember Chuck even visited the American Buddhist Academy with me once or twice. I am recreating this timeline to help recollect the promotion dates you asked about. I would say Chuck and I were promoted to san dan around ~1970 but the exact date I can’t be sure. Our promotion to Shihan (4th dan) was around 1973 or 1974. I’ve attached two photos, #01 is the night we were promoted to Dai Sempai (san dan) and #02 the night we were promoted to Shihan (Yon dan) and Eric Lorenzen and Marie McCarthy to promoted to ni dans. The night we made Dai Sempai (san dan) was a complete surprise to both of us. The convention then was that Dai Sempai’s wore black tunics with white pants and Soke had gifted both of us our first black tops at the promotion ceremony. You’ll see our belts still had the two ni dan stripes because it was only minutes after the class ended this picture was taken. When Chuck and I reunited at Sandwich, IL. reunion after more than three and a half decades of being apart, we posed the same as we had the night of that san dan promotion in homage to our lasting friendship, and later I composited it into one picture.
I’ve added a third by request of Bob and that is the original photo of the evening Oshima-sensei honored us with a visit and instruction. My recollection is that Carol Welch had been going to university in California, I don’t remember which one. Still keenly interested in Karate she sought out a dojo and as luck would have it, it was the founder of Shotokan Karate in the U.S. and direct student of Gichin Funakoshi. She was home on break and coincidentally Oshima-sensei had come east to visit the Shotokan schools in the area. Carol with her usual charm was able to convince Oshima-sensei to pay a visit to the Parsippany school. Our Soke was more than delighted to accommodate him. Oshima-sensei’s only requirement was that we begin our class much earlier than usual because he had other commitments. That is why you will see some of us in civilian clothes, like me, Chuck and Bob, because we were only able to just leave work and commute to the dojo in time for the second half of his seminar. I remember that didn’t stop him from adding us into his instructions, shirt, tie, and all. He even used me as a “dummy attacker” to demonstrate technique. I recollect he was a very strong man, something later I’d realize was internal command over his timing and motion and not necessarily muscular.
I hope this helps you creating an historical timeline for our family. I think it’s wonderful that there are those, like yourself, who want to preserve our history and separate fact from fiction. Although I left in the 70s, I am proud to be a part of this tradition that you and others have been documenting. As he looks on, I can see that handsome smile as he ponders his creation of something greater than all of us.
Epilogue [A loving letter to my grandnephews about xenophobia]
My Kendo sensei was a 7th dan master, a Japanese Buddhist lay priest whose English was horrible. As part of his curriculum he also taught Iai-do recommending it as a meditative supplement to Kendo so of course I signed on. Kan sensei taught in the traditional Japanese style, that is, “do as I do” without verbal instruction, an overwhelming amount of repetition, and constant practice. Even though 70% of our school were Japanese, I watched the other 30% round-eye (Gaijin is a Japanese pejorative for Americans), come and go because they just couldn’t stand the repetition without progress to the next steps. Pat Morita’s “Karate Kid” rang true to my understanding of karate, ““Wax on, wax off; up, down; side a side, paint da fence, sand ‘da floor,” I lived it. As you know, I’m stubborn, an attribute that Nana said was a fault, but sometimes I’ve found it to be an asset. One man’s poison…I guess. I hung in there trying to find the virtue in what seemed to be self-abuse. It did serve me well as I found out later in my first international tournament in Toronto, Canada where I actually won a couple of bouts.
It may have been as much as two years that I had been studying with Kan Sensei when at the end of a workout session as we were all changing in the locker room, Sensei was teasing an American student. The student was about his own age. I could generally tell they were making good natured fun of each other. Those around the two were egging each on. I didn’t pay much attention until I heard Kan Sensei say, “You Marines,” pointing to his locker room adversary, “no good in dog fight,” as he sheepishly smiled, “but we see Navy flyer, we run,” mimicking with his hands the gliding motion of an escaping Zero. The American student who turned out to be a Marine aviator in the Pacific snapped back, “We shot more of you guys out of the sky than any Navy flyer could ever hope to,” as he playfully challenged Kan Sensei’s veracity. They both laughed. Was I hearing what I thought I was? Two men who 30 years earlier were mortal enemies, but now they were swapping war stories like rivals of a by-gone college football game. Another American student about Kan Sensei’s age jokingly asked, “How did you survive the war?” Sensei said, “I was shot (dropping his tunic and exposing a bullet wound), so they send me home for the rest of war. When I get better, I play Kendo.” We all laughed. So much for the universal misbelief of Japanese fanaticism because he clearly sounded like he had no stomach to return to battle for the emperor or anyone else, being happy to wait out the rest of the war in a Tokyo dojo.
I was profoundly moved by their banter. Obviously, Kan Sensei wanted nothing to do with suicide missions, was at the same battles my father was, maybe even shooting at or being shot at by Dad’s LST and had they both found themselves in hand-to-hand combat would have tried to kill one another. But at this time, this moment, and this place Kan Sensei was taking the time, patience, and sincere interest in teaching the principles of his cherished way of life, Zen Buddhism, to the son of his former enemy. Going home I was overwhelmed with conflicting emotions thinking of how Dad might have reacted if he were still alive. If, as I believe, he lives on through me, I think he would have pondered the stupidity of war, forgiven his enemy, maybe even thanked him for teaching his son to make another passage into manhood…and changed his pejorative language towards Japanese forever.
*Editors note: Rod Lindgren is not Shihan rank
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