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Hunt For Karate Legend Goes Cold

ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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Hunt for karate legend goes cold

Three Singaporeans on a mission to find a karate legend have been found huddled in an abandoned car on a north Japanese mountainside, local media reports say. One of the Singaporeans told police in Hirosaki his dying father had told his group to seek the master.

Thirteen people had set out from Singapore but one group became lost on the slopes of Mount Iwaki.

One member told TV Asahi: "Japan looked so small on the map that we thought we would find him straight away."

Light clothing

Japanese media said the group included the wife of the man who made the dying wish.

The 13 had split into three groups, with another four resting at a hotel.

The three men who got lost telephoned for help from a mobile phone.

Police said they were wearing only light clothing on the mountain, which is 1,600 metres (5,249 feet) high.

"Neither police nor local people know of anyone running karate classes in this area," the Reuters news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/w ... 883608.stm

Published: 2006/04/06 13:04:46 GMT

© BBC MMVI
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It was probably his dying father's last practical joke before he died.
 
Call me old fashioned...but does this karate legend have a name (email, mobile etc)?
 
Thirteen people had set out from Singapore but one group became lost on the slopes of Mount Iwaki.

One member told TV Asahi: "Japan looked so small on the map that we thought we would find him straight away."
Click to expand...

Of course, Singapore is so MASSIVE that compared to it, Japan just looks tiny.
 
Update ... Here's the rest of the story ...
Faithful son's search touches karate master
A young Singaporean man rescued from a freezing car in Japan while searching for an elusive karate master has finally found him and has been granted an honorary title.

Koh Tian Lin, a 25-year-old computer industry worker, went to a remote village in northern Japan trying to fulfil the dying wish of his father.

His father had asked him to seek a secret karate book from the Japanese master but gave his son only a few clues, including that his name sounded like "Soma" and he had two daughters.

Mr Koh's search initially flopped last week and he was recovered in an abandoned car in near-freezing temperatures with two friends, who had joined him on his search.

But the karate master read news of his woes and arranged a meeting with him through the tourism centre in Hirosaki in Aomori prefecture.

The master turned out to be Shoen Fukuda, 61, an instructor in the small town of Shiranai who remembered teaching Mr Koh's father 30 years earlier.

"I was moved that he visited Japan only because of his late father's wish," Mr Fukuda said.

"I cherish that martial arts gave me the opportunity to meet him."

Mr Fukuda, impressed by the deep bond between Mr Koh and his father, granted him an honorary certificate as karate master.

But he declined to give him the secret book on karate skills.

"It is my treasure which my Chinese master gave me when I was training there," Mr Fukuda said.
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SOURCE: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-04-15/faithful-sons-search-touches-karate-master/1731314
 
If they were looking for Count Dante, they were in the wrong place...
 
Kondoru said:
Now considering Karate is an Okinawan art...........
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Not entirely. Karate was derived from Chinese fighting styles imported from the Ming Dynasty to the Ryukyu kingdom. Shaolin Kung Fu styles were taught in Fujian province from which the Chinese teachers came, and the hybrid of their animal styles formed the basis of Karate on Okinawa and the rest of the Ryukyu Kingdom's island chain.
 
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