Dual Certificates

Dual Certificates were presented to the early practitioners who trained in the honbu dojo of Shimabuku Tatsuo Sensei. Tatsuo provided them two silk certificates, one for the rank and one with the ken-po goku-i.

No one then and not many now truly understand the significance of that presentation. When you couple it with his wishes that the person not use the rank half until they practiced and trained for at least fifteen years you can get a good idea of his intent.

Tatsuo as a sumachi, etc. who studied the Chinese Ancient texts, etc. understood that after the "one" or the great "tai chi" came to be that every thing of the Universe consisted of a dual nature.

I believe he in his own way was trying to teach those leaving so early in training that there was more, so much more they must learn and this presentation was a clue to that end. Those who found the clue would then understand the spirit of his system while those who missed it would merely remain fighters.

This graphic depicts my viewpoint on this matter. George Breed Sensei provided these graphics of his certificates which I used on my web site and blog with his permission. Please see George's Warrior blog site for the originals and their post on them. (click it for larger view)