Sankukai Karate - Rob Locks Martial Arts Academy

Sankukai Karate: A perspective by rob lock

Sankukai Karate was founded way back in 1970’s by Yoshinao Nanbu, who was one of the most innovative of all the Karate masters. Sensei Yoshinao Nanbu was born in Kobe, Japan in the February of 1943. He was brought up in a family tradition of martial arts, his father, M. Hideyoshi Nanbu, was a 5th dan in Judo and his uncle was a high-level practitioner in Kendo. Yoshinao Nanbu began his study of traditional martial arts at the age of five, learning Judo from his father. At school, he began studying Kendo under his uncle.

In the 1950’s, he studied Karate and Aikido under Sensei Samita. He went on to study the Karate styles of Shotokan, Goju-Ryu, Wado-Ryu, Shukokai, and Shorin-Ryu. At this time, Yoshinao Nanbu also achieved a high level in Kendo (Japanese sword fighting) and the rank of 3rd dan in Aikido.

In 1963, Yoshinao Nanbu was a lightning-fast competitor with a myriad of Karate styles researched and trained to a high level, with a heavy emphasis on the style of Shukokai Karate. Yoshinao Nanbu devastated competitors in the all Japan Universities Championships in 1963, which he won, introducing his now-famous Ashi Barai (foot/leg sweep).

He then went on to take part in the 1964 International Karate Championships in Cannes, with competitors from seven countries. It was a very similar story where he again won the individual kumite and dominated the competition. After that, he started coaching the French Karate team after being invited to France by Henry Plée.

In 1966, Yoshinao Nanbu returned to Japan to further study the style of Shukokai in more depth as it was being developed by Kimura and Tani. He was awarded 6th dan in 1967.

Yoshinao Nanbu introduced to Scotland his interpretation of Shukokai with a fast, free-flowing system of Karate. In the early 70s, Yoshinao Nanbu broke away from Shukokai and developed his own style, which he named Sankukai Karate.

In developing this style, Nanbu’s innovation was dynamic and fast. He believed in escape but only by using the minimum of movement, followed by a moving block and counter-attack. Due to Yoshinao Nanbu’s incredible demonstrations and flair for showing his dynamic and fast-flowing Karate style, Sankukai gained popularity very quickly.

Sankukai was the fastest growing style of Karate in the world at that time. Sankukai Karate was being practiced in Japan, France, the UK, Spain, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, and Canada. At one point, up to 43 countries were showing interest in training in Sankukai Karate under Sensei Nanbu.

At that time, Yoshinao Nanbu said: “Sankukai uses a lot of escape techniques. I believe it is useless to try blocking a punch or blow from a very big or heavy man. You must try to ensure that his attack goes past you by moving to one side. We use the energy in his technique to improve the power of our counter-attack. So instead of adopting the straightforward punch-block-punch-block methods of most Japanese styles, Sankukai involves the unusual combination of Aikido defense and Karate attacks.”

Sensei Yoshinao Nanbu then went on to develop further what he called Nanbudo.

Rob's early days with Sankukai Karate:

“I can remember a lot of people at that time saying Yoshinao Nanbu was the Bruce Lee of Karate.

We tried Nanbudo for well over 12 months. All of my colleagues, and the people I trained Karate with, including my instructor Alan “Butch” White, trained and tried it. We came away in the end and decided that it was not for us. It developed massively in Scotland; they took it on and enjoyed it, but personally, it was not for me.

At that time, we had a chief instructor by the name of Alan Hunt, I believe. Butch White was my instructor for many years throughout all of my Karate training. He was an incredible instructor, very tough! Butch never lost against the Japanese in team competition kumite. He was an incredible competitor and a very brutal instructor. I learned so much from him, and there were some very tough days.”

“I will never forget when he kicked me so hard in the stomach during a demonstration that I shot back about 6 feet, smashed into the wall at Kidderminster Harriers Football Club, and left an imprint of myself in the plasterboard. Ever since that day, I started to practice hundreds and hundreds of sit-ups. Eventually, I could do 300 sit-ups in one go. It was pretty intense training. It certainly makes you the person you are.

There was some incredible training and incredible people like Simon Stone, Calvin Collins, Jim Kaczer, Brian Slater, etc. Some great people and tough times.

The training side and the competition side of Karate were both significant for me. I was fortunate enough to be well trained by Butch. I can remember competing all around the country in kumite and kata.

Many years ago, back in the early 80s, we competed against Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu, weapon forms, and various styles of Karate. Some of the competitions were a proper mixed bag. I can remember competing against Taekwondo patterns, Kung Fu forms, and other styles of Karate. I was fortunate enough to win with my performances, which was a great time.

When it came to straight Karate (no competing against Kung Fu, Taekwondo etc). I did quite well over a period of five years, I won the British Sankukai Karate Kata and also the Kumite. I had been training in Thai boxing for many years, which is another story.

I came back into Karate competition (after going deep into training Muay Thai boxing for many years) just to try my hand at it, just out of interest and went up to the British Championships in Scotland, either Edinburgh or Glasgow. I remember entering the individual black belts, the kata black belt, and the team events. We won the team event, I won the kata, and I went into the individual kumite.“

I was up against the previous year’s winner, his name was Simon Spittle if I recall correctly. That was the final, which I won. It was a fantastic experience. In the team event, it was quite interesting because I had been doing Thai boxing for many years. In Thai boxing, you control your speed, looking for openings, loosening people up, and gauging them with jabs, crosses, etc. Karate, in some respects, is much more of a competition point-scoring affair and quicker. I was slow, at the start…

I still had Thai boxing style in my makeup, so when I got a lovely smack in the eye from one of the competitors, it immediately turned into a black eye. It woke me up and shook me up. Then I went back to how I used to be—a pretty quick fighter. I remember being one of the guys who used to try and pull off Nanbu’s Ashi Barai, or a leg sweep. I never took people down; I just did it to put them off for a split second so I could get my punches in.

After that victory in the championships, I remember Butch giving out the trophies at the end. He put his arms around my shoulders and whispered in my ear, “You came, you saw, you conquered.” I’ll never forget that. It was quite a humbling moment, and I think Butch was quite proud that one of his guys had come up and done what I did. It was a proud moment for me.”

Karate Kata are a series of moves against imaginary oppenents that surround the karateka. The Kata performance demonstrates power, precision, balance, focus and zanshin (State Of Awareness)

The main Katas I preformed in competition were Tazima (Horse Island), Bassi-Di (To Penetrate A Fortress), Matsukaze (Wind in the Pine Trees) and Annanko (Prince Annako).

The scoring process when I used to compete was four judges who gave marks out of 10 for a performance, these would be added up and a total given.

One year Butch was Chief Judge at a championships and after I performed Annanko he cored me a 10/10, he had never done that before and to my knowledge has never since.

I will never forget that proud moment when I lifted the trophy for the 1st place that year, such happy memories.

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Sankukai Karate: A perspective by rob lock

Rob's early days with Sankukai Karate: