Kodokai Dojo

D. Branchaud 
I began karate training in 1978 when I was a U.S. Marine on the island of Okinawa, Japan. My main karate teacher was Master Seikichi Odo, but I am also infuenced by my first teacher, Master Eizo Shimabuku.

After leaving Okinawa I was reviewed many times as Master Odo frequently traveled to America to teach his students. He visited the Kodokai in 2001 and I last practiced with him on Okinawa in 2002. He passed away six weeks later.
My Karate and Kobujutsu rank is Hachidan, 8th degree black belt.

I now practice Motobu Udundi. I was fortunate to be a student of the late Taira Sensei and I continue to train under Takamiyagi Sensei on Okinawa.

They can't teach you what they don't know.

Few teachers offer evidence of their qualifications, and for one good reason. They often have little to show.

Martial arts are an oral tradition. Any legitimate teacher will have enjoyed a long relationship with a master instructor and will have plenty of documentation of their experience. If you don't see documentation, there probably wasn't much to document.

Many teachers got their rank in the franchise karate schools known as "belt factories". Some enhance this with an afternoon seminar in ju-jitsu, sword or what ever else is trendy, or study from video. In these cases, documentation works against them.

If you walk into a school and find it sterile and with no sense of history, or if the school looks like it could be packed up and gone overnight, you should think long and hard before joining.

Here is a small sample of evidence of my experience.