Master Ma Fong Tu

BIOGRAPHY OF MASTER MA FONG TU

Master Ma Fong Tu was born in 1886 in Ho Pei's Chinese county -Mon Szun district- and his martial art style would be the base and furthest root of our Kenshin Ryu style, and if I say "would be " it is because some ancient students maintain that previously there was another Chinese Master who also had an important influence on Master Seiichi "Shikan" Akamine's existential and martial philosophy and, consequently, on his karate style.

Ma Fong Tu began training Tai Chi Chuan (ability of the sword; sable and short sable) and Pa Chi Chuan (ability of the lance and long stick), and running the years he was developing your own method of teaching Pa Chi Chuan, the one -because of its important differences with the most usual methods- it was popularized as the style "Pa Chi of Ma" (Ma Shu Pa Chi).

One of the most important differences was that Master Ma Fong Tu sustained that the short things were inside the long ones, and that the long things were inside the short ones. Then, while most usual methods were based on the long combat distances determined by the size of the lance or the length of the long stick, in Pa Chi of Ma style it were also trained short distances, determined by the lenght of the weapon (short stick).

His system was also characterized by wider and lower postures; wider and circular displacements, and for dodges, since Master Ma Fong Tu sustained that the important thing was not to block the attacks, but leaving the trajectory of the rival's blow, aspects that are very notourius in Kenshin Ryu style. In his method, strength and softness were conjugated; tension and relaxation continued one to the other; the explosive force was expressed with simplicity and the blows were not based on the force, but in the speed, all of which is also very noticeable in the style created by Master Seiichi "Shikan" Akamine.

Master Ma Fong Tu was an excellent musician of strings instruments and he took care zealously of his hands condition. For this reason he didn't agree with the hardening and preparation systems of the hands that were used in that time, but rather he sustained that the important thing was to prepare the body, and the mind, based on a series of physical-athletic exercises - introduced by Bodhidharma - called "Daruma Taiso" (or Daruma Waza), and to some breathing forms known as "Ki Kyo" (Chi Kyo), and, in this way, to achieve a good corporal and mental balance, in harmony with the nature.

Establishing another great difference, he divided his system in two big areas: "weapons training" and "empty hand training", giving to both areas the same importance. To differentiate this type of trainings, to the first one he called "Pa Chi Chuan" (or only " Chuan "), and to the second "Pa Chi".

Weapons training (Chuan) was very similar to the classic Pa Chi Chuan training, but in empty hand training (Pa Chi) it was strictly forbidden the hardening of the hands -to the one the most usual methods were almost exclusively dedicated- and it was rich in specific forms (katas); dodges (tai sabaki); blockades; blows; advances (anticipations); counterblows and projections (conductions), all of which are also practiced in our Kenshin Ryu style.

Master Ma Fong Tu was also a great studious of "numerology" and "simbology", and he left an excellent study about both topics. He also studied Chinese medicine and philosophy, and also the meridians theory and the techniques of massages and digit-puncture that arise from this theory, such as Do In and what today is known as Shiatzu.

Ma Fong Tu admitted several Japanese students, but the most outstanding was Master Seitoku Higa.

Master Ma Fong Tu died in 1976 and his four sons (Ma In Ta; Ma Sien Ta; Ma Ling Ta and Ma Ming Ta) they continued developing the style "Pa Chi of Ma", while his brother ( Ma Ying Tu) specialized himself in the ability of the wide sable.

FERNANDO PRIETO
8th DAN