Shifu Eric Ishii Bio
Mr. Eric Ishii first studied under shifu Li Da
Chong (Brendan Lai) for more than 20 years. He passed away on Sunday, December 10, 2000
at Mills Peninsular Hospital (California, USA) after fighting against Leukemia
for some time.
This is definitely a big loss to the praying
mantis boxing community with whom he openly shared his deep knowledge. Personally, I have lost a very good friend,
and this bio is my humble tribute to his memory. Eric, wherever you are I am sure you will be training Tang Lang
Quan !!!
Mr. Eric Ishii
was brought up in Hawaii. Hawaii has a
mixture of cultures and when he was very young there use to be black and white
Japanese TV movies of Samurai and Ninja shows, both live action and Cartoon
ones. This had some influence in
getting Eric involved with Kendo (Japanese bamboo sword fighting with
protective armor) when he was 9 or 10 years old. He trained Kendo under sensei
Matsuda-san for about two years. Eric got to 3rd level during elimination in a
statewide Competition, but then dropped out due to school homework was getting
harder and taking longer to do.
During his
Junior and senior years of High School, he trained in Kempo Karate under sensei
Dustin Dunn for nearly three years. Kempo forms were animal based, which
included separate sets / fighting techniques from Twin Dragons, Tiger, Crane,
Horse and Bear. Besides practicing
forms, they sparred a lot. It was
through his involvement with Kempo that he was exposed to gong fu, and other
martial art systems and movies. Then
his teacher left Hawaii to go live in Los Angeles, California (USA).
Mr. Ishii I
looked around for another teacher and he ended up taking Cai Li Fo (Choy Lee
Fut) under shifu Buck Sam Kong after going to one of their recruiting demos
which featured a lot of the animal forms.
After he signed up and started practicing, he found out that the animal
forms were not to be taught until one completed the Cai Li Fo forms in their curriculum.
He tried to stick with the style because he was really interested in the animal
forms at that time, however he just did not like the Long Range Forcing Power
fighting of the Cai Li Fo, so after 9 months, he left.
Mr. Ishii ended
up looking around again at different schools that were "open" to
non-Chinese and visited the Bai He Quan (White Crane) Tibetan Hop Gar school of
shifu Chuck Tse on two occasions. The White Crane class reminded Eric too much
of the Cai Li Fo class and he politely decided not to join.
Later Eric
became involved with training under shifu Patrick Hodges, who had been exposed
to Northern Styles of gong fu, which were rare to find in Hawaii at the time
(nearly everyone practiced Southern Styles or Tai Ji Quan and that was about
it). Shifu Patrick had trained at the
"Chinese Physical Culture Club of Hawaii", a Chinese gong fu club in
Hawaii similar to the Jing Wu Association. As a part of this club's activities,
they occasionally hosted visiting masters of traditional gong-fu and shifu
Patrick managed to learn a set from every visiting shifu. In the early 70's
shifu Patrick was teaching northern gong fu (basically Xing Yi Quan and Ba Gua
Zhang) when Eric started learning under him.
Under shifu Patrick, Eric learnt his first Bei Tang Lang (Northern
Mantis set), Beng Bu Quan (Crushing Step Boxing), and that started Eric to
develop his interest in this style.
Shifu Patrick left Hawaii to go study gong fu to Taiwan under shifu Shen
Mou Hui, and after a six month stint, shifu Patrick came back and kept teaching
Eric. Eric kept learning bei gong fu
forms: Lien Bu Quan (Continuous Step Boxing), Gong Li Quan (Martial Power
Boxing), Shaolin Er Lu (Two Shaolin Rows), Si Lu Ben Da (Four Routes Running
Combat) and Yang Qing Fei Tui (The Flying Legs of Yang Qing -Yang Qing is a character
from Water Margin Story-). But Eric was really interested in Northern Mantis and shifu Patrick only knew
a little at that time, therefore Patrick advised him to go California to from
shifu Li Da Chong (who was the only one at the time teaching Northern Mantis in
the US (advice that finally Eric took moving to CA). Eric always remembered Patrick as a friend and teacher, and whenever
Eric visited his home in Hawaii he would bring him a gift of lup cheong (Chinese sausage)
or Kwan Yin tea. Eric and Patrick kept
their friendship over the years.
Around 1974 Eric met shifu Anthony Chuy in Hawaii
through a friend at the military base. At that time Eric was eager to learn
Praying Mantis from shifu Chuy and the latter shared his Tai Ji Tang Lang Quan
and Qi Xing Tang Lang Quan knowledge with Eric, training with him every
week. Eric learned from shifu Chuy some
forms and they eventually became friends and kept their relationship over the
years.
Around 1975
shifu Anthony Chuy introduced Eric to shifu Ross Mobley who had spent years
both in Malaysia and Hong Kong studying basically Wu Style Tai Ji Quan, but he
had also learned a rare Northern style called Qi Xing Quan (Seven Stars
Boxing). Eric learned from shifu Mobley
the form Heavenly Fist, one of the two surviving forms of this style.
Eric kept training under shifu Anthony Chuy until
the later left Hawaii in 1976. After his training under shifu Chuy, Eric
decided to continue studying the Northern Praying Mantis System under shifu
Huang Han Xun lineage on the continental United States.
Later Eric met
an immigrant from South Korea (who was of Chinese descent). This person had been trained in the Korean
branch of Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan (Plum Flower Praying Mantis Boxing). Eric learned three sets from this person:
the Korean branch version of Dai Fan Che (Big Tumbling Chariot), Mei Hua Luo
(Plum Flower Falling) and Jin Gang Quan Quan (Buddhist Goddess Boxing). Eric
only kept training the third one that he particularly liked.
TRAINING IN CONTINENTAL US
Eric had a
choice of relocating to San Francisco, Colorado, New York, or Hong Kong to look
up a Praying Mantis School. Eric did
an visit to San Francisco, California (USA) in 1976 and visited various
schools, including shifu Wong Jack Man (Jing Wu representative), shifu Kuo Ying
Yee, shifu Y.C. Wong and shifu Li Da Chong.
He took lessons with shifu Li Da Chong for the remainder of his extended
vacation.
Eric ended up
moving up from Hawaii to San Francisco in 1978 and he lived in the Bay Area
until he passed away in 2000. At first,
when Eric arrived to San Francisco he was just training under shifu Li Da
Chong, then he was introduced to shifu Peter Kwong (who was shifu Li Da Chong's
elder classmate and gong fu brother).
Shifu Kwong held two types of classes, one was an "open" class
(mixed races) and the other one was "closed", that was only intended
for Chinese students. Eric ended up being able to join both classes and he was
the only one in the "closed" class that attended the other
"open" class too. This training under shifu Kwong lasted more than
one year.
Somewhere around
this time Eric was also introduced to shifu Xu Ji (Adam Hsu) and Eric also
started learning Liang Yi (an internal style related to Ba Gua Zhang) under
him. There are two sets that Eric
learned from shifu Xu Ji, the Hand set and the Leg set. Eric kept practicing
Hand set. Therefore, at that time he
was training under three different shifus, although two of them belonged to the
same style.
During 1979
Eric's grandfather back in Hawaii became very ill, just after Eric's
grandmother had passed away, and he went back to Hawaii for a little
while. When he returned to the San
Francisco Bay Area, shifu Kwong had stopped teaching and Eric was told by shifu
Li Da Chong that he had to make a decision between shifu Xu Ji and shifu Li Da
Chong. Eric chose to keep training
under shifu Li Da Chong and quit training under shifu Xu Ji. He kept learned
under shifu Li the next 20 years.
Eric kept
studying with shifu Li Da Chong, even after he was given verbal and a written
document stating that he could teach.
Eric wanted to teach but he considered the interest level for people
wanting to study tang lang was very low and a studio room was too costly,
therefore he preferred to continue studying under his master and assisting him
with some instruction during the normal classes.
Eric was a sort
of mantis encyclopedia, he knew most of the shifu Huang Han Xun lineage "solo" and sets except
for:
Ba Zhao (Eight
Elbows), Xiao Fan Che (Small Tumbling Chariot), Lian Huan Jin Tao (Chain Link
Silky Suite) and the Zui Luo Han (Drunken Arhat) that he really had no interest
in learning. He also knew both sides of
a bunch of two-man sets of shifu Huang Han Xun lineage, including:
Beng Bu
(Crushing Steps), Shi Ba Sou (Eighteen Old Men), Duo Gang (Conceal the Hard
with the Soft), Bai Yuan Tou Tao (White ape steals the peach), Tao Hua San
(Peach Flower Umbrella), etc.
He also knew
many weapon forms (solo and two-man) including some rare forms such as: Dan Dao
Dui Qiang (Single Broadsword Versus Spear), Shuang Bi Shou Dui Qiang (Double
Daggers Versus Spear), Qi Men Gun Dui Qiang (Long Staff Versus Spear), etc.
OTHER TANG LANG QUAN TRAINING
In September
1991 Eric traveled to People's Republic of China and he competed in the
"Jinan International Traditional Wushu Competition and Demonstration
Festival". Eric won the First Prize in Group C of Men's Boxing. He went to China again in 1994.
Eric was open
and willing to learn, therefore he trained with several masters in seminars or
special classes, learning a bunch of forms, in addition to his main style
curriculum:
Special seminar
type classes from shifu Zhang in Honolulu Hawaii, Tai Ji Tang Lang Quan
(Supreme Praying Mantis Boxing) from shifu Zhao Zhu Xi (Chu Chuk Kai) lineage.
Special seminar
type class from shifu Lee Kam Wing in Hong Kong where he learnt the form Tang
Lang Bu Xuang Quan (Mantis Stepping Whirlabout Boxing)
Five Linking
Methods, a set based on items taken from the Lan Jie Quan (Intercepting Boxing)
All Plum Flower
sets from the Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan (Plumb Flower Praying Mantis Boxing)
branch
Seminar in
People's Republic of China from shifu Lin Dong Chu from Yantai branch of Qi
Xing Tang Lang (Seven Stars Praying Mantis Boxing), where he learnt PRC mantis
Beng Bu (Crushing Step) form.
In Jinan (PRC)
he took a seminar on Tai Ji Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan (Plumb Flower Supreme
Praying Mantis Boxing) and he learnt Xiao Fan Che (Small Tumbling Chariot)
Shifu Zhang Bin
Dou, Tai Ji Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan visiting San Francisco (USA) taught shifu Li
Da Chong students the set Bu Chan (Catch the Cicada)
Wu Shu Mantis
form called Xiao Tang Lang (Little Praying Mantis). Eric learnt this form from
shifu Li Da Chong when the latter returned from one of his trips to PRC.
OTHER INTERESTS
Besides Tang
Lang Quan, Eric had some other interests.
He had a collection of antique Chinese Weapons including several dan
daos, guan daos, pu daos, daggers, jians, hatchets, chain whips and spears.
Eric enjoyed
Sci-Fi movies and techno and trance Music (he was previously into heavy metal
and 70's & 80's Punk). He was part
of two different rock bands one which was a new wavish band (named Seppuku) and
the other was a Heavy Punk Metal band (named Gutless), which released a 7"
record.
Eric's nickname
SEP (short for Seppuku - ritualistic suicide to protect one's honor) stuck with
Eric for long time. Apart from this,
Eric loved Chinese food and was a good cook (Asian food).
Eric passed away
at 2:17 a.m. on Sunday, December 10, 2000 at Mills Peninsula Hospital after
fighting against Leukemia for some time. His passing away is a great lost to
all the Praying Mantis Community. We have lost a great martial artist and a
veritable fountain of knowledge but also a big friend and a beautiful soul. He
will truly be missed by many.