|
This all came to and end when he was forced to move to the country to avoid American bombers during the war. School life was hard, and senior students would often beat the younger children for no reason. It was very militaristic, and he looked upon his teachers as gods, it was just like the Samurai and his Lord.
Desperate
to become a soldier but being too young, he tried to join a naval academy
but was rejected due to an eye problem.
In hindsight it was actually quite lucky as they were all training
to be Kamikaze pilots but at the time he was devastated.
Suzuki was raised with the Bushido code, to die for his emperor and
country would have been a great
honour.
It was while at school that Suzuki had his first taste of martial arts. He practiced Kendo every day. When he was 14 years old he met one of his school friends older brother. He had studied Wado Ryu Karate while at university; from then on whenever he came home Suzuki would ask him to teach him. Eventually he agreed, it was all fighting - nothing technical.
After the war Suzuki and his family moved back to Yokohama. The Americans were occupying Japan and despite his hatred of them, due to Government propaganda, he ended up working at one of their army bases as a cleaner. Through working at the base I came to realise that the propaganda was a lie.
Suzuki decided to learn English and went to the local YMCA where they held classes. Once there he discovered that they also taught Karate. He knew that it was Karate that he wanted to do and soon forgot about learning English. The instructor there was a man called Mr. Kimura. He was one of Professor Otsuka's best students. He trained at the YMCA for about 6 months before he had to move on. He would train wherever he could, in gardens or fields, in the rain and snow, anywhere the American's could not find them. Kimura was a very intelligent man with a very sharp technique. He was a 5th Dan at the time the highest grade in Japan.
Suzuki
was fascinated by the way of the warrior and the samurai code.
He would read books on Budo, Bushido and Hagkure.
As a boy he dreamt of being a samurai hero.
After the war swords were banned, so he looked for a martial art
without weapons. In Judo it
was always the big guy who won, but Karate was different.
"With
speed, timing and good spirit I could defeat any opponent large or small.
Post-war Japan saw the Japanese people embrace everything American, baseball, coke, Elvis. Suzuki wanted to give the world something Japanese. He decided to become a great martial artist so he could teach the world about the Japanese spirit.
When he first started he was only training four hours a day that eventually increased to 10. Everyone thought he was crazy but he believed that to be the best he had to work longer and harder than anyone else. At the end of every year he would go up to a temple in the mountains for two weeks. There he would train every day from morning until night, only stopping for one small meal. To eat any more would make him sick. His day would start with a run, followed by Zen meditation. After that he would practice his punching by extinguishing a candle flame with just the force of his punch. Next he would work on his kicks by wearing iron boots. This built strength and speed. Suzuki's favourite technique was the sokuto (side kick), Otsuka sensei would tell students, if you wish to practice sokuto go see Mr. Suzuki.
That would be followed by three hours of fighting with his fellow students. By the end they would be physically exhausted. To end the day he would practice kata (set moves against imaginary attackers). He would perform each kata three times. When finished his body would feel great all the days aches and pains gone.
Suzuki
would travel to Tokyo several times a week to train with Otsuka sensei.
Away from Karate he was a gentleman but inside the dojo he was like a
true samurai. He would train
with them as well as teach them. Many
of his senior black belts had returned from the war, they were tough both
physically and mentally. The
fighting in those lessons was extremely hard. In the old days fighting was different than it is today. There were no rules, any technique was allowed; kicks to the groin, strikes to the eyes or throat. Contests would be organised between the various universities. Suzuki would visit with a team of 10 fighters - to them they were the enemy, especially if they practiced a different style. Nowadays most styles fight pretty much the same way, but back then he could tell a person's style of Karate from the way he fought. Shotokan fighters were very stiff and liked lots of room, whereas Goju Ryu liked to get in close - Wado Ryu would be somewhere in between.
The home crowd would be crying for blood and would often try to hit them with sticks or whatever they could lay their hands on. The senior students would referee but would rarely stop a fight unless it looked as if one of them was about to be killed. They would end up fighting on blood-soaked floors. No pads or guards were worn, it was all bare fists. Many people lost teeth or broke noses or other bones. Eventually the heads of all the styles got together to devise competition rules. They were concerned that potential students were being put off.
Later the students, who had decided that they would like to practice karate, informed Tatsuo Suzuki sensei that they had formed a karate organisation, and could T. Suzuki return to London to teach them. Having lots of offers to teach, Suzuki narrowed it down to either Britain or America, as English was the only other language that he could speak. He was offered a sponsorship deal by some American businessmen, but a leading Shotokan instructor, Ohshima, was already teaching there so he declined.
T. Suzuki moved to London in January 1965 and began teaching and promoting Wado karate. It was hard to settle at first. His English was very basic, and he had to take a Japanese/English phrase book to lessons to try to explain my teaching. As he was the only Japanese instructor in England everyone wanted him to teach them. Demands on his time were so great that he had no time to do any other work.
Suzuki missed Japan, he was living in a bed-sit that would get so cold that it would be impossible to sleep. He would have to train to warm-up before going to bed. There were no Japanese shops and he longed to eat some Japanese food.
"Fear with regards to fighting can be overcome by mental training. It's a vital aspect of Karate training. It is important when fighting to have a strong spirit and a brave heart. When attacked you must never be scared or startled. You must believe in yourself this is difficult to achieve. A famous samurai was once asked what he would do if he were attacked in the street. He replied that he would move towards his attacker so that he could not strike down with his sword. To back off or freeze would mean death." Suzuki would often go to monasteries to learn Zen meditation from the monks. A samurai would not fear death before battle, this was the state of mind that he aimed to reach. He is always careful though, and will never change in believing that he is invincible. "You must be wise and careful".
When Suzuki was awarded his 5th Dan no university student had ever been graded so high. He did not want this and asked Otsuka sensei not to give it to him but he insisted. It was the same for his 8th Dan. Over the years he have been offered 10th Dan but refused it. "It would mean nothing to me, the only man worthy of giving me a grade was Otsuka sensei and he is dead."
It is still important for Suzuki to train regularly. Demands on my time have increased tremendously over the past few years. As well as his own training he teaches twice a week at his London dojo. He is also the head of a very large Karate federation, the Wado International Karate-Do Federation (W.I.K.F), Suzuki travels extensively both here and abroad holding courses for his members. |
In
1963, Suzuki and two other students