Yokota Sensei and Shari Rodgers
Shari Rodgers
On May 24, the Karate Group at Quail Creek had an amazing Karate seminar with Shihan Kousaku Yokota, 69 years of budo experience, founder of Asai Shotokan Association International (ASAI), Asai-ryu Shotokan bujutsu karate, and author of six books!
The style of karate taught and practiced by the Quail Creek group is Asai Shotokan, founded by Shihan Kousaku Yokota! Asai karate is unique as it combines a long-distance fighting method of Shotokan with a short-distance fighting method of White Crane Kung fu.
Yokota Sensei has extensive martial arts experience. Not only does he have 50 years of Shotokan Karate experience, but he has also studied other styles of Karate, such as Goju-Ryu and Kyokushinkai, as well as Judo and Ki. He has experience with weapons and has studied the ways of Nunchaku and Sai to deepen and supplement his knowledge and experience in Karate-do.
Yokota Sensei started his martial arts training in 1960 when he was just 13 years old. He began his training in Judo by taking lessons at the Hyogo Prefecture Police Station in Japan. At this Judo dojo, there was a student who also practiced Karate. This practitioner impressed Yokota Sensei so much that even though he had been training in Judo for two years, Yokota Sensei switched his martial arts training to Karate. In 1973, he moved to Philadelphia and became a full-time instructor at the ISKF headquarters as well as a personal assistant to Master Okazaki, 10th dan and ISKF Chairman.
Yokota Sensei returned to Tokyo in 1997 and trained in Ki for two and a half years under Master Nishino, Grand Master of Nishinoryu Kokyuho. In 2013, Shihan Yokota formed his own federation, ASAI (Asai Shotokan Association International), to honor the late Master Asai and to promote Asai-style Shotokan karate around the world.
Yokota Sensei has published several books—Shotokan Myths, Shotokan Mysteries: The Hidden Answers to the Secrets of Shotokan Karate, Karatedo Quantum Leap: Advancing Your Karate Understanding to the Next Level, Karatedo Paradigm Shift: The Path to Rediscovering Budo Karate, Shotokan Transcendence: Beyond the Stealth and Riddles of Funakoshi Karate, and Karatedo Esoteric Wisdom: Prohibited Knowledge Now Disclosed for the First Time. His articles have been published in major martial arts magazines, including Shotokan Karate Magazine, Masters, Shotokan Way, and Classical Fighting Arts.
Our Quail Creek seminar was for brown and black belts only, with lower ranks able to come and watch. Quail Creek members participating were Sensi Stan Herum, John Evans, Shari Rodgers, Linda Bleish, Ken Kelly, and Larry Rowen. Areas covered in the seminar were Kihon, Kata, and Kumite.
Interested in starting your path in Karate? Check the Anza schedule, there are classes four days a week in the afternoons!