If you’re a Lane Cove local, studying and practising karate may be a recreational way of learning discipline and self-defence. For Kazuo Saito, it was for survival in a post-WWII Tokyo.
“Japan was a very dangerous place, so people are scared, but I don’t want to feel like this,” Kazuo told In The Cove, sitting in his dojo before his next class, “That is the reason, I do Karate.”
The 80-year-old established Shinbukan Japanese Martial Arts Academy shortly after migrating to Australia in 1978. He aimed to spread the teachings of Karate and Buddhism he received from nationally renowned senseis in Japan.
Today, Kazuo still trains students with the help of other determined senseis, including his 27-year-old son, Harrison. The aim is to create an environment mirroring training conditions in a 20th-century Japanese dojo while incorporating a mixture of disciplines and light-heartedness into the teachings of the ancient art.
These lessons aren’t ripped out of martial arts handbooks; they come from real experiences, passed down from centuries of Japanese Ninjutsu Grandmasters onto Kazuo, who eventually earned the title for himself.
How Do You Become a Grandmaster
He was born in 1945; his family fled from the countryside to Tokyo to escape bombings at the tail end of WWII. Like many in Japan during that period, Kazuo’s upbringing was marked by hardship.
At five years old, his father died, and their neighbourhood, Asakusa, was perilous, filled with Yakuza (Japanese gangsters). There was also cultural conflict at his local school and fighting between students was very common.
These reasons alone were good enough for the future Grandmaster to begin training in martial arts at the age of eight. Kazuo was fortunate enough to train under the 14th Grandmaster of Iga and Koga Ninjutsu, Seiko Fugita.
The studies and practices of Ninjutsu originated from a group of monks and scholars, known as Yamabushi (mountain warriors) in 12th century AD. The town and monastery of Iga was founded around this time.
He also trained directly under the late Master Gogen Yagamuchi, ‘The Cat’, one of the most well-known karate-dō masters from Japan.
Fugita saw great potential in Kazuo from a young age, firstly training his mind with numerous philosophy and strategy texts before training his body in the arts and skills of Ninjutsu.
“Every day I train at least two hours, three hours,” Kazuo said.
“Everyday training in Tokyo Imperial Palace. I run 6km then go back to working place and eat quickly food. Then, after maybe 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock, go to dojo, repeat everything.”
Some of the training for Kazuo included armed and unarmed combat and attuning his senses to complete darkness, armed with a sword, and locating opponents in darkened rooms until it became his nature to find them.
Lessons of Shingon Mikkyo, or tantric Buddhism, were also evident which were esoteric teachings of utilising the body’s energy flow.
There was great pressure from the Yakuza for these skilled students to join their gangs. They often harassed Kazuo. However, these temptations were resisted as Fugita taught seishen, the absolute requirement of “right consciousness.” Besides, the young karate master was often too busy putting his skills to the test, winning national championship tournaments during the ’60s and ’70s.
The tournaments were notoriously known for their challenging brutality.
“Sunday is a day I have to fight on the tournament,” Kazuo retold.
“This is dangerous, but I don’t think this is dangerous. It is good. Otherwise you get weak. Slowly government say stop. This is too much. You can’t do this.”
Kazuo didn’t have plans to leave Japan to pursue the life he has made for himself, rather a set of circumstances created a pathway he chose to follow.
While serving as a translator for Master Gogen Yagamuchi, he met renowned singer Kate Ceberano and her father Tino, who is often dubbed the father of Karate in Australia. Immediately impressed by the young martial artist, Tino offered to sponsor Kazuo so that he could move and teach karate in the land down under.
He accepted and in 1978 he moved to Sydney and Shinbukan was born.
A New Dawn of Karate
Kazuo achieved many physical and mental achievements in his life. He was ordained as an Abbott in Kyasan after seeking spirituality in Shingon Buddhism.
He assimilated into Australian culture while not sacrificing his own, even if this did mean admittingly swapping scrapping with the Yakuza for fighting ‘Australian gangsters’ during the crime-ridden era of the ’70s—’80s Kings Cross.
He also became the 16th Grandmaster of Iga and Koga Ninjutsu. When visiting Iga in 1991, 15th Grandmaster Heishichoro Okuse assembled all the senior students and ordered them to fight, providing no reasoning.
Tests of armed and unarmed combats ensued, with fights only ending if students were unconscious or completely defenceless, leaving many badly cut. Kazuo won each fighting discipline at which point Okuse announced his retirement handing his title over to Kazuo as well as the warrior name Crando.
This was a significant event in Japanese cultural history, as this was the first time a master of the oldest school of Ninjutsu had lived outside of Japan.
Now, Kazuo teaches the essence of Igaryu Ninjutsu to non-Japanese people, in our very own suburb of Lane Cove, keeping a contemporary significance to the craft and culture. This perhaps being his greatest achievement as he has been able to successfully transfer the teachings of his life’s work through his son Harrison, who is also a sensei at Shinbukan.
“He had to try to survive every day. He talked a lot about how people were cut with swords around his neighbourhood as little kids. So these little kids didn’t get to have much of a childhood, and they grew up to become survivors, which I think is lacking in today’s society,” Harrison told ITC just after running a class full of students.
Harrison believes that during times of uncertainty, especially among the youth, navigating the trials and temptations that arise from new-age issues such as social media can be daunting, and people need to train themselves through hardships to develop a survivor mentality.
“I think my role is to try translating his (Kazuo) teachings. He’s quite an esoteric person. He observed, watched, and tried to survive in Japan, picking up what he could. I’d say, in the west, where I grew up in Sydney, it’s more being spoon-fed explicitly what to think, how you should do things,” Harrison said.
“But I want to try to translate more of my dad’s essence, which is, take your time, even if it takes a long time, if you do the fundamentals correctly, you’ll get there. And I hope to be a living example of his teachings.”
If you’d like to learn the ancient ways of Buddhism and Ninjutsu, then there is no better way than through the teachings of a Grandmaster and his son at Shinbukan.
They are located at 151 Burns Bay Road. You can enquire more on their website here.
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