Me pretending to kick Mr. Cappelli in the head after dodging his reverse punch.This photograph was taken in 1974 shortly before we move from this, my second dojo, in Phoenixville to our location at 225 Bridge St.
On a little street near China Town, Mr. M. Shuragowa taught jiu jitsu in a basement dojo at his home. His jiu jitsu moved slowly seeming to be akin to Tai Chi. At first I thought it was because of his advanced age. But, that wasn’t it. He said that the movements were done slowly to quiet the mind and focus the ki. He called what he did “jiu jitsu”. But then, when I did Aikido he called that jiu jitsu too. And when I did karate or taekwon-do – yep, “jiu jitsu”. In his mind, fighting was fighting no matter what you call it or how you learned to do it.
During the height of the Kung Fu TV craze I even spent a few weeks in China Town at the preying mantis kung fu school of Sifu Jen Fu Moc.
