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John Lindsey
19th September 2003, 16:24
Never heard this before:


In the early '90s, Dragon Associates Inc., located in Los Angeles, began selling videotapes ("Wado Ryu: The Way of Peace and Harmony") under the Wado-Kai logo that featured footage from some 60-mm instructional films of Grandmaster Otsuka demonstrating proper Wado-Ryu techniques. He had given them to a Japanese Wado-Ryu instructor, Yoshiaki Ajari, living in the U.S. about 40 years ago. For the videotape release, additional instruction material has been included to boost their length. The kicker is that this added material contains misleading Wado-Ryu moves.

"The technique is wrong," laments Kazutaka, sipping coffee before the day's demonstration, his large forearms visible within the wide arms of his white robe emblazoned with the blue Wado-Ryu Renmei logo. "They are using my grandfather as a product. Instructors using these tapes can get more students so they don't care."

When it was learned that a second volume was to be released in 1996, the Otsukas volunteered to present Dragon Associates with additional video material showing the proper Wado-Ryu style. But when representatives from Dragon Associates refused to meet at the airport in Los Angeles, the Otsukas went through the court system to force the company to release the tapes with markings indicating that footage is not official Wado-Ryu material. However, when the initial rulings did not go in their favor, and as court fees continued to mount, they threw in the towel.

Full story at:
http://www.bigempire.com/sake/karate.html