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Remembering a Great Karate Master: Sensei Taiji Kase (1929-2004)
Recorded by: Cesare Marino
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Dear fellow karatekas:
I was recently informed of the passing away in November 2004, at 76 years of age, of a great karate master, Sensei Taiji Kase, 9th Dan, who was for several decades a major reference for, and an inspiration to, thousands of traditional karatekas � Shotokan practitioners in particular -- the world over. I had the great fortune and the privilege to attend some intense karate seminars (in Europe they are called �stage�) under Master Kase�s direct instruction during my training days in Italy in the 1970s, and I have vivid memories of this great Sensei. One in particular, I would like to share with you. Before doing so, here is a brief biography of Master Kase.
Taiji Kase was born in Japan in 1929. At six years of age he began practicing judo, a martial art in which he soon excelled, thanks also to his stocky, powerful physique, and indomitable spirit. In 1944, when he was only fifteen, he was promoted 2nd Dan in judo. It was then that he first saw Master Gichin Funakoshi, the father of Shotokan karate. Young Taiji was soon taken by the powerful charisma of that humble and unassuming karate master from Okinawa who had introduced the �way of the empty hand� to Japan. While still practicing Judo, young Kase began training under Master Funakoshi, and mostly under Funakoshi�s own son Yoshitaka, who is primarily responsible for giving Shotokan karate its modern foundations of low stances, and powerful, direct techniques. As Japan was then at war, in March 1945, at age 16, Taiji volunteered in the special Kamikaze corps, but the end of the war that same August saved his life. After the war, the surviving Japanese karatekas reorganized and Kase rejoined the Shotokan practitioners under Gichin Funakoshi, Yoshitaka having died in 1945.
From that day on, Shotokan karate completely absorbed the life of Taiji Kase. He obtained
his 1st Dan in 1946, and three years later his 3rd Dan as Captain of the karate team of Senshu University. For his exceptional fighting skills, Kase became a leading instructor at the Nihon Karate-do Kyokai, the famed Japan Karate Association (JKA). His students included many of the best and most famous Shotokan names, including the late Keinosuke Enoeda (who sadly passed away in 2003), and the great Hiroshi Shirai, now himself a 9th Dan and the technical director of International Traditional Karate Federation (ITKF) of Master Nishiyama. In the mid-1960s, the JKA sent out many of Master Nishiyama�s best instructors, including Kase, to bring karate Shotokan to Europe and the world. Kase went to France, Enoeda to England, and Shirai to Italy.
In Italy, Sensei Shirai established the JKA-FeSIKa (Japan Karate Association-Federazione Sportiva Italiana Karate), which I joined in late 1972. In the month of May 1975, after three and one half years of intense karate training (we trained very hard 5-6 days a week...) I was awarded my 1st Dan by Sensei Hiroshi Shirai after completing yet another grueling karate camp. Until then, I had only heard of Master Kase, but I was soon to meet this great master in person. Sensei Shirai, in fact, had by now built in Italy a very solid, powerful karate base which he regarded worthy of Master Kase�s attention. I belonged to the junior/kohai generation, my own teacher and friend, Italian Sensei Ofelio Michielan, being of the senior/sempai group. I will always remember my first training under Master Kase. We young black belts were very excited, and we looked forward to meeting this �living legend� of karate. We knew of his incredible power and speed, and we wanted to see him in action. At one training camp, Sensei Shirai once again separated the training groups and I was fortunate to be sent with other black belts in the large room where Master Kase was to lead the class. As we awaited in anticipation, warming up with our eyes fixed to the door, one of the sempai suddenly yelled a powerful �yoi!�, that made us snap in shizentai. Thru the gym door appeared a short, stocky, heavy set, bowlegged, older Japanese man with bright, piercing eyes and a gentle smile....; I remember he had his �traditional� white towel placed around his neck, tucked diligently into his gi; he was already sweating profusely (we did not know it then, but we later learned he had just finished going thru some combination techniques with Sensei Shirai) . As we bowed deeply in unison �osu, Sensei!�, we all noticed the Master�s feet and hands looked like mallets that had already cracked a dozen makiwara and hundreds of wooden boards.
Unlike Sensei Shirai, whose superb teachings were always accompanied by a sense of intimidation � Shirai in those days was very, very hard on his senior students �Fugazza, DeMichelis, Baleotti, Montanari, Zaupa, etc., and even on those lower rank wannabees like me who attempted to follow in their footsteps. Unlike Sensei Shirai, I was saying to myself, Master Kase�s �grand fatherly� smile seemed to reassure us that everything would be ok. Oh boy! Indeed, Kase�s teaching style was a bit �warmer� than Shirai�s, but as intense and equally demanding. Unlike Shirai, though, who made no distinction and often dismissed us for our ineptitude, Master Kase seemed to tolerate the incompetence of us lower rank black belts, but he turned fierce and uncompromising with the senior Italian and visiting European karate instructors. On that specific training, I recall that he soon called upon Bruno DeMichelis for a demonstration of �controlled� combination kumite techniques. Now, Sensei Bruno DeMichelis was known as �the Giant (alternatively, the Lion) of Saint Mark, as he lived and taught in Venice. He was a superb athlete, a fierce fighter, strong, fast, and extremely talented and with an imposing physique, his feet and hands as big and hard as sledge hammers. He was many times Italy and Europe kumite champion; he was also a JKA �second place kumite� champion after a very tough fight with Master Tanaka (it had ended in aiuchi, tie, but it was awarded to Tanaka, as the Japanese had scored first a waza, half point.....) That night in Italy, Bruno simply towered Master Kase, and we for a moment felt for the older Japanese sensei who, granted, was a master, but with Bruno we thought, who was known to be going 110% at all times...... we were a bit concerned. Both were in jiyu kamae: what happened next was a sudden combination kick-punch attack delivered by Bruno with incredible speed and equally incredible power ....Master Kase�s expression was calm, alert, but relaxed, as sweat drops slowly ran on his big round face, his powerful fists raised in an intimidating kamae, his stance strong, being fudodachi, his preferred one, inherited from Yoshitaka Funakoshi. We observed Bruno charge forward with utmost determination and speed, and for a split second we believed he had made contact upon Master Kase who, it seemed to us, had not had time to move out of range, nor to react.
Instead, almost imperceptibly Kase Sensei suddenly avoided the attack with a swift but harmonious lateral movement (kotai), countering this action with what was to us an almost invisible (due to its speed) gyaku zuki to Bruno�s middle section. I had trained many times before under Bruno DeMichelis, who also came to Ofelio�s dojo in Treviso to teach us, but I had never, never before seen Bruno vacillate after an attack, even when sparring with Sensei Shirai. The expression on Bruno�s face was a mixture of bewilderment, surprise, and pain; it indicated that something unusually painful �even for his steel-like body� had just happened, while, again, the expression on Master Kase had not changed, except for a split second when his kiai pierced the air in the dojo, making us all blink, and awakening us from the hypnotic state we seemed to have fallen into while watching the Italian champion and the great Master in action. Bruno bowed deeply to Sensei Kase and politely took a long step back, always keeping his jiyu kamae
and tensing his face from the pain. Kase Sensei followed him with his piercing eyes, his face emanating a sense a calm and strength which soon turned into a smile when he called in a very accented French �Bruno!� and slightly nodded his head. Bruno, still visibly in pain, again bowed deeply and uttered in Italian a �grazie Maestro!� (thank you, Sensei) which expressed all of his (and our) admiration and awe.
Mostly through his physical, technical movements, Master Kase then guided us through repeated drills, patiently introduced us to the concept of �karate ni sente nashi� and emphasized what he called the �principle of reality�. It was a wonderful training. Later Sensei Shirai and Sensei Naito joined in, and with an incredible display of power, technique, precision, balance, and posture, everything that constitutes the foundation of true karate-do. The training ended with a few techniques exchanged between Kase and Shirai. Afterwards, Sensei Shirai once again showed his respect for Master Kase inviting him to seiza, alone, in the place of honor in front of some two hundred karatekas all of whom were still sweating profusely and many , including Bruno De Michelis, were showing the signs of what karate was in those days: very hard and tough. Sensei Shirai himself later told us in his still broken Italian: �Maestro Kase oggi solo �giocare�: se lui fare kumite seriamente lui uccidere me!� (Kase Sensei today was only �playing� ; if he doing serious kumite he kill me!�. This was Sensei Shirai speaking, the �terror� of European karatekas and one of Japan�s foremost sensei!
I was so taken by a mixed of tender admiration and profound awe for the �old� Master, and equally deep gratitude towards Sensei Shirai for having placed me in that advance training group, that after the seminar ended the next evening, I took the courage to approach Master Kase to thank him personally. In retrospect, I realize it was irreverent on my part, a total nobody, but I guess the old Master understood that my childish enthusiasm guided my less than polite ways, and he smiled to my clumsy bowing and equally clumsy words of gratitude. I really pushed it when I extended to him a white index card and a pen: he looked at me, I quickly lowered my eyes and bowed; Master Kase smiled and he signed the card. Sensei Shirai, who was sitting right next to Master Kase, was equally tolerant, and being apparently very satisfied with the overall performance of �his� senior Italian karatekas (I myself and the other juniors did not count; we did not even make it onto his karate radar), he too smiled, I bowed, and he also signed. Now, Sensei Naito, who was the youngest both in rank and in age and who had just recently arrived in Italy from the JKA in Japan to assist Sensei Shirai, gave me an even bigger smile, I bowed again, and he too signed. I simply could not believe it: the signatures of the three masters on the same card! When at the following karate class at the old RenBuKan, in Treviso, I showed my precious �Master signatures card� to my fellow karatekas and to my teacher and friend Sensei Ofelio, they all wondered and asked how in the world was I able to obtain it:
�I simply bowed � I explained � handed them, one at the time, the pen and the card, and then I bowed deeply again....�
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Oss
Cesare Marino
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