Karate
honored to have him as a partner in the movies and very fortunate to have him as a friend." Hillary Swank, star of "The Next Karate Kid" and Oscar winner, has also lear ned Karate with Master Kubota. Another actress, who is very earnest in her karate training with Master Kubota, is the brunette Nancy McKeon. Besides, during this talk she was present in the morning workout and she accompanied us to breakfast, asking me about my years in Karate and my books and articles. She is pretty and nice, besides being a fine karateka who has perfectly understood Master Kubota's teachings. With only 34 years of age, she had already featured in more than 40 films and TV episodes. In her native New York she had appeared in numerous commercials, but when she moved to Los Angeles, Nancy had to start from scratch: "I had a very hard time, I was down in the dumps, it was like starting all over again. People here didn't know me..." Shortly thereafter, she recovered the good run and her first appearances on screen were back in "Starsky and Hutch" (1977), "Alice" (1978) - where incidentally also worked his brother Philip -, "Love Boat" (1977) and many other. Her major intervention was in the "Facts of Life" series, where she remained over eight years and with which she reached an enormous popularity. Although she has been consistently working, in her most recent interventions there are "Style and Substance" and, already in 2001, "The Division", playing the role of the police inspector, Jinny Exstead. For Nancy, Kubota Master is someone very important as she herself admits: "I remember well the day I started my training with Master Kubota, because
it was a shocking change in my life. I didn't only have the honor of learning from one of the greatest Karate Masters, but I had the extraordinary gift of his friendship. It's a real privilege to belong to his Karate family". The Dojo Master Kubota has an acceptable size and is very well maintained. On its walls two large windows provide abundant light. It has a wooden floor and the large mirrors seem to add space and light. Next to a tiny reception (which scarcely has enough space for a small table and two chairs) and a small waiting room for family or friends, a wall is home to many trophies and souvenirs of police corps and pictures of Master Kubota with actors and actresses with whom he has worked or to whom he has given classes: Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Caan, Tammy Lauren, Christopher Lambert, Wesley Snipes, Nancy McKeon, Hilary Swan, Sean Connery, Pamela Anderson... are some of them. Seizing the Master's connections with the great Hollywood stars, I couldn't pass up the chance of asking him to tell me about the way actors and actresses understand the philosophy of Karate, to which Master Kubota replied: "I have taught Karate to a lot of famous people. Some of them learned in private lessons, but I don't like it, I prefer that they attend classes together with other students, like one more of the group. In this way they learn other values. I usually help actors prepare for the fight scenes in action films. I have much experience in film and I know how to prepare the angles, etc. The camera works very differently from the human eye, so that the effects are different." "Two years ago I was here in your Dojo, and I remember that you were
about to set off for Japan with some of your students. Have you repeated the experience?" "No. This year I couldn't go for lack of time. Exactly, that was two years ago, and maybe next year ... Many people ask me to go to different places to teach courses, but I usually refuse to accept because I don't like leaving my Dojo. If I took many trips I would neglect my obligations, and although I count on highly qualified instructors, I prefer to stay here to keep the mysticism and philosophy. I want to maintain that integrity." Among the instructors referenced is Val Mijailovic, Karate 6th Dan, a native of the former Yugoslavia but grew up in the USA and present in our talk with the Master, along with Antonio Antonetti, an Argentinian established in Califor nia who decisively collaborates with us. Not this time, but on other occasions, we had the opportunity of also speaking with the legendary Carmen Kim, an aged lady of white hair (who incidentally speaks Spanish quite well) and that has helped Kubota in his Dojo practically from the start. Interestingly, Carmen was the victim of an attempted robbery long ago and she sent her two huge muggers to hospital, one of them to the intensive care unit. "We have many people training in this Dojo, although most of them can only attend classes one day a week. In my organization there are people from up to 52 countries around the world. 30% of the students are children," explains the Master. Many of us know the extraordinary body hardening that Master Kubota has developed. I've seen demonstrations in which he puts his hand on a table and hits it repeatedly with a hammer. What can he tell us about this? "When I was young, hardening was very important