Sensei Kazutaka Otsuka, grandson of Hironori Otsuka, graciously agreed to let me interview him while visiting our home in Lewisburg, Tennessee. This interview took place just a few hours before he conducted the winter seminars at our dojo on Friday, November 2, 2007. We talked about many things and I tried to ask questions that would be of interest to those who have just joined our organization and also to those who have been involved in Wado Ryu for many years. — Jenny Carter

Mrs.Carter: One thing that interested me, looking at your biography on the US Eastern Wado Ryu website, I saw that when you were a child, you rebelled against taking karate.

Sensei Kazutaka Otsuka: I started karate when I was five or six years old but didn’t stay a long time. I wanted to quit because I didn’t like so much karate. So I said to my father, ‘I’d like to quit.’  He said, ‘Okay, but you have to do something else in the martial arts. So, he put me in Iaido. So I continued at the Iaido until I became a university student, 18 years old.”

C: What is that martial art?  I am not familiar with it.

O: Iaido is Japanese swordsmanship, practice with a sword. They do just kata, the forms.

C: Is it hard with your own child?  What is his name?

O: Benoît. 

C: Your son is 12 and really involved in martial arts? And he’s not taking any other martial art [except Wado] now?

O: No. This year he studied basketball because he’s really tall. He wanted to do something besides karate. Finally he became a basketball player.

C: A young student in our class, Myra Walker, wanted me to ask if you ever did any other sports besides the martial arts.
O: Yes, I did. When I was a junior in high school, I was on a team of football [soccer]. I was doing that for three years. After I went to high school, I started club wrestling.”

C: This is regular wrestling, not sumo? (I Laugh)

O: Yes, I was doing this for three years.  I became 2^nd place in Tokyo. If I won another game, I could be regional tournament [champion]. Unfortunately, my opponent was [the] senior student. So, we know each other. (We both laugh)

C: He knew all your moves, didn’t he?

O: Yes.

C: When you came to this country, didn’t you go to college here?

O: Yeah, I went to Colorado University to study English in 1994. Then six months later, my wife came to my class. (Laughs)

C: Oh, you met her there?

O: Yes, yes.

C: Where did she come from originally?

O: From France.

C: She’s French!  What is her name?

O: Marie-Caroline.

C: That’s a pretty name. I like that.  Has she ever done any martial arts?

O: The last two years before coming to France, she did karate with the children’s class.  Finally, she was interested. Unfortunately, we decided to move to France. After we moved to France, there was no more time to spend on karate.”

C: Well, it takes a lot of time. We were talking before about getting tired and rebelling. You probably had to do more classes or take more classes than most children in this country would take. How much were you working out when you were a little boy when you were in Wado?

O: When I was a child, there wasn’t any dojo for my Wado Ryu style. My father always was taking [me] to some other places which were pretty far away from [my home], so it was pretty difficult to do.”

C: So he was taking you with him to these dojos?

O: Yeah. Yeah. I was too young, so sometimes I had to stay until the adult class finished. See it was a little difficult for a [small boy].”

C: That was very hard!

O: See that was also the reason I quit.

C: I understand! That kind of explains things. That was hard on you. How much do you work out now?

O: Well, right now it’s kind of difficult to find a place for the training. I do training by myself every morning about an hour and a half. And I have two classes, two times a week.  I have a regular class now. I work out about…

C: You mean you are teaching the class?

O: Yeah, about three hours each and on other days right now, like a Monday, I train with the Tae Kwon Do people. Because I’ve got a friend with the Tae Kwon Do people and they let me use their dojo for free lessons, so I just join and do the fighting things. Like on Friday, there’s another karate dojo which is taught by the world champion of karate. This French guy who is a friend used to be world champion.”

C: So you go to his class? You like to be a student in other words sometimes?

O: No, I have no choice right now, because there is not so much a place for training myself. So [if I become a student] still I can keep training.”

C: So you would prefer to be teaching classes?

O: Yes.

C: What would you say is the secret to developing the skill level in your family?  Many of us have worked out with your father and with you. Most of the people here look at you and say, we’re not to that level, and I guess most of us spend too little time, that’s our problem. I have to say some of it’s got to be inherited from your father. (He smiles) Some of it may just be the knowledge, working with the people you’ve worked with. Did you get to work out with your grandfather?

A No, I did not because of the reason [we talked about before]. My grandfather was also traveling around all the time; he didn’t have any [time].

C: And you didn’t get to work out [with him]?

O: No, it’s awful, Jenny.

C: Oh it is.

O: But when my father and my grandfather had a demonstration, I also went to see their demonstrations, so I have [vivid memories] of that.

C: That’s good. And I guess you did get to work out with your father some as you did start to train. Did he give you special attention?

O: No, he treat me as a normal student, especially much worse than a normal student. So, he didn’t teach me any technique. So, when I was training in his class, he sometimes said, ‘Your shoulder is too much up!’  That’s it!  (We both laugh)  So I don’t know how much up! Right side or left side (he laughs some more). It’s always like that.”

C: It is always like that with parents teaching their children.

O: So of course I have to figure out myself why he said that every time.  Just one word; there must be something wrong.

C: Of course you were much older then.  When my son was young, he would get very upset when he missed a move in a kata. He put that pressure on himself, and that was just with a local school. Did you feel that pressure?

O: No, because when I was a child I didn’t do karate, so I didn’t have that kind of pressure until I became 17-years-old and did karate again. But from 17-years-old there everyone is looking at me as 3^rd generation of Wado Ryu. That’s what made pressure; everybody thinks I’m the one that’s going to be some day the third generation and ‘Why doesn’t he know any kata?’  (He laughs and I laugh with him.)  But, I didn’t think about so much to take care of Wado Ryu in that time, just to keep training for myself to find out what is Wado Ryu, not to think about too much to take care of the family job. That’s helped me a lot.

C: Do you have any brothers and sisters?

O: I have one sister and one brother. Especially my youngest brother, he started karate before me. He also said he isn’t interested. My father was upset and he said, ‘If you don’t like it, then you quit. And, he quit next day and he never came back. (Laughs) My sister always keep going and coming out and going and coming and is not so much serious.

C:  Does she still practice?

O: Right now yes. After I moved to France she was the one that had to take care of the children’s class in Tokyo. Tokyo is a big town, too much town.”

C: Do you like living in France?

O: Yeah, right now especially the south of France is always sunny, nice weather everyday and also [not] far away from the ocean. It’s a really nice place.”

C: So do you plan to stay there? Is this just a temporary thing?

O: Well, we don’t know yet. Even moving to France, I didn’t know how I can start karate again or maybe I can’t make it. We didn’t think about that fact. We are lucky. The French Karate Federation, they were interested in me and so they let me into the karate world again.

C: Are you saying there aren’t that many Wado people in France?

O: They have 5,000 students, but in France, the system is if you want to teach karate you have to have a license from the French Karate Federation, plus you have to have a National Sports Instructor Diploma. Those two.

O: So, luckily, the President of the Karate Federation in France, he said I can give you 6^th Dan French Karate Federation, so already like that I can start as a volunteer.”

C: Something I’ve always wanted to know, Why is your last name sometimes spelled with an “H” and sometimes not?

O: Well, see my name is Otsuka. In countries here that speak English, “OH” is the sound of “O.” My father thought it was much closer to the Ohtsuka name.  So he put in the “OH.” In Japan, they don’t recognize that sound on the passport, only one “O” in Otsuka.

C: So you use Otsuka [and he uses Ohtsuka]?

O: Yes.

C: So you could spell it either way, but the sound would be closer to oh?

O: Yes. Even in France the people have a problem. My father uses an “H” but why not me? (He laughs.)

C: Changing the subject totally, what do you think… you’ve been here several times to the United States. You came with your father before. What do you think is the difference in the way American karate students are and the way they are in other countries?  Is there a difference?

O: Hmmm. Well, especially here is associated with American karate styles sometimes. I can see in such students… really they like to use a weapon like that sometimes, but on the other hand, even in those kinds of situations, the group of Wado Ryu is still traditional here. That, for me, is amazing.”

C: I think we try very hard.

O: Especially Mr. Patterson, [John’s] father, is American and kept all exactly like the Japanese old system. That’s really amazing. And in the other part of America there are some Japanese instructors that are teaching like the old Japanese way.

C: So they’re doing a pretty good job, too, of keeping it the same?

O: Uh huh.

C: In France or England, would Wado students look the same as what we are used to?

O: For me, everybody does the same Wado Ryu but each…even in Japan each dojo has a different character of Wado Ryu. It’s a little bit different. So, like that each country has their own way of doing Wado Ryu; here, too, because it depends on the instructor. See like [when you] teach karate…to copy is impossible. Karate reflects the character of each person. That one has to recognize. See, otherwise it’s just like uh… Normally, in karate, kata has two different ways. Kata is a form. The one is a form, each can be changed into many different shapes, that’s also form (makes molding motions with hands like molding clay). The other form is just like a mold, so to make something, you put it in and make a shape and another one, the same, always same. (He imitates pouring liquid into a mold over and over.) You can’t change anything. It has to be just for one reason. Wado Ryu doesn’t want to make that kind of form. It has to be flexible.

C: I see. That does go with what we understood from your father and your grandfather. I believe I remember he called kata a living thing.

O: Yeah. Yeah. Uh huh.”

C: You think of it that way?

O: Yes, I think so. Even me. My kata from 20 years old, 30 years old, and now, every detail is different. When I was young I sought (especially Wado Ryu) to try not to use any wasted energy or wasted motion, or to relax more. So, when I was 20 years old, I heard through my father always the same thing [to relax].  So I thought ‘It’s already enough. I’m relaxed.’ But it wasn’t!  Because at 30 years old, I realized I had too much muscles. So I quit those push ups, sit-ups, and those things when I become thirty years old.  Then, after pass 35 years old, I thought, ‘Okay, now I’m getting relaxed more.’ But again, when I become 40, still I feel I kept some tension in my shoulders, my body. So, like that [at] every age you can help yourself, try to make more relaxed.”