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Quietly spoken, careful with his words, a friendly smile — this was my first impression of Kyoshi Arthur Moulas the first time I met him. Nothing he has said or done since has made me change my opinion, although I would probably add ‘understated’ to those impressions now. Moulas is the chief instructor for Uechi-ryu karate and Matayoshi kobudo here in Australia. A man who has spent a considerable amount of time training in Okinawa, Moulas has a rich knowledge of both systems. How did he get it? From the best place, of course: direct from the source. You don’t get any better than training personally with giants of Okinawan martial arts such as Hanshis Kanei Uechi and Shinpo Matayoshi.
Now ranked 8th Dan in Uechi-ryu Karate, Moulas started training in 1969 with American Sensei Ahti Kaend. Progressing through the ranks, he opened his first dojo in 1974 in Bankstown, then Holsworthy, west of Sydney. He later moved the dojo further west to Picton, where he has been teaching ever since. In 1985 Moulas made his first trip to Okinawa, taking his student David Calvert with him. This trip was the start of a legacy that has seen him become one of Australia’s foremost authorities on Okinawan karate and kobudo. On the island — a speck in the South China Sea, over 500km south of mainland Japan — he trained at the headquarters of Uechi-ryu under the late master (and son of the founder), Hanshi Kanei Uechi. It was during that trip that Moulas Sensei was graded by him to Yondan (4th Dan). That same year he also began his journey into kobudo. Taken to the headquarters of Matayoshi kobudo by Takehiro Gaja Sensei (master of both Uechi-ryu karate and Matayoshi kobudo), he was introduced to Shinpo Matayoshi Hanshi, Gakiya Sensei and Yamashiro Sensei. They demonstrated katas and their bunkai (combative applications), after which Moulas had his first Matayoshi kobudo lesson. Now, 25 years later, he holds the rank of 5th Dan.
This was to be the first of many trips to Okinawa for Moulas. He has travelled there almost every year since then — and many years, twice — and has been treated to some unique experiences. In the early years of visiting the island, Matayoshi Hanshi was retired from work and, prior to his passing, whenever Moulas Sensei was in Okinawa, Matayoshi would come to the hotel and have breakfast with him every day. He’d often also have lunch with him before spending the afternoon training.
“We developed a close bond; something really special,” says Moulas, who in 1996 hosted Matayoshi Hanshi in Australia. Matayoshi Hanshi was very impressed with the dedication of the kobudo students here, and gave credit to Moulas for the way he teaches and trains. Matayoshi Hanshi passed away not long after that trip, and to this day, whenever Moulas speaks of it, there is sadness in his face. Their friendship, which developed over Moulas Sensei’s 15 trips to Okinawa while Matayoshi was alive, was cut abruptly short. Matayoshi Hanshi himself had asked Moulas to promote Matayoshi kobudo in Australia, and while tooting his own horn is something Moulas is clearly uncomfortable with, he wishes to honour his promise to his master and continue to grow the style here. Certainly, he is the best man for the job, being the most experienced Okinawan kobudo instructor in the country.
Although Moulas has a wealth of knowledge and skill that he has earned the hard way, he is very open about sharing it. He tells me the ‘secret of karate’ as he learned it from Hanshi Uechi. “I asked Uechi Sensei that very question,” he said. “I can’t believe I asked such a question, but I did — I straight-out asked, ‘What’s the secret of karate?’ and Uechi sensei said, ‘Training, more training! No do kata one, two, three times, do it many times’.”
Moulas very much believes in maintaining karate here in Australia as it is in Okinawa and has tried his best to align the training here with what he has learned there. For example, Sanchin kata — the core kata of Uechi-ryu karate — is practised three times every training session. “This is something I picked up from Okinawa. Sanchin is always done at least three times every training session,” says Moulas. “In Okinawa, everything is done three times; you do a kata, you do it three times.”
The kitai, or conditioning exercises, of Uechi-ryu karate are also a cornerstone of the style. “When I started, conditioning was only arms and body, and I introduced leg conditioning when I returned from Okinawa,” says Moulas. “Body conditioning is very important. It trains the body not to react to being hit; it will toughen the body, increasing the muscles and bone density, so the blows don’t affect the mind.” But, he adds, it must be done under the direction of a competent teacher, as each student is different. “I teach it to all students,” he says, “but everyone develops at their own speed.”
The same goes with the makiwara (striking post). “In Okinawa, the makiwara is very important in Uechi-ryu,” he says, “but here, my students generally just don’t seem to want to use them; the makiwara in my dojo just don’t get used.” In fact, the punch is a relatively new addition to Uechi-ryu karate, “It was introduced by Kanei Uechi,” Moulas explains. “Before that, it was mostly boshiken (thumb-strike) and the single-knuckle strike.”
The practice of kata is also very important to Moulas Sensei, as is the practice of bunkai. I asked him if there are set bunkai in Uechi-ryu karate. “Three kata have set bunkai in Uechi – Kanshiwa, Sanseru and Seisan,“ he reveals. “They were the three kata of Kanbun Uechi when he arrived from China.” Of course, there are many applications for each technique in kata. As Moulas says, “The hardest part about kata is working out what you’re doing. You must research it for yourself, as the same movement has many applications… There is so much there, you have to open your mind to it.” Moulas himself has always been, in his own words, “hungry to learn”, and has trained consistently and constantly. After the passing of Kanei Uechi Hanshi, Moulas Sensei has continued to train with the foremost authorities on Uechi-ryu karate in Okinawa.
His traditional approach, however, seems somewhat at odds with his involvement with the Australian Karate Federation (AKF). Regarding his club’s involvement in karate competition, Moulas says, “The karate school was always involved in the AKF, however, I didn’t compete until the 1970s, and started refereeing about 1973 or ’74. I’m still refereeing. I became treasurer of the NSW federation, then president of NSW AKF, then I resigned and became vice president of the AKF, then deputy president. Then last August, I resigned from that post. I was part of the national executive for about three years.”
When asked why he was attracted to competition, he says, “I’m not really passionate about tournaments. I did compete until I was about 32 years old. Competing was just a challenge; I never tried out for teams, I didn’t aim to be a champion or anything. I started to get involved more when the students started to compete.
“Tournaments are valuable to students, but it does pull them away from the traditional side — they can lose their focus,” he adds. So how does he stop students from losing their focus on the traditional side of training? “I keep the training separate, special classes for AKF competition,” he explains. “Normal training in the dojo is traditional sparring, using movements from the kata, not limiting it to just punching and kicking. You have to build the sparring from yakusoku [sparring drills] and bunkai.” This traditional sparring is quite different to the non-contact version used in AKF competition. “[We do] hard punching and kicks to the legs in kumite in the dojo,” he says, “but you control punches to the face, of course.”
Traditional karate isn’t really suited to competition, as the techniques are meant to damage an opponent. For example, “Blocking is for immobilising an opponent,” says Moulas. With that, I ask him for his opinion on full-contact fight sports like Mixed Martial Arts. “MMA is nice to watch,” he says. “It’s a spectator sport though — it’s only for the few. It’s the same with kickboxing: they [fighters] only do it for a few years.”
At his dojo in Picton, Moulas Sensei’s son also teaches Muay Thai, with the club having hosted well-known coaches and fighters such as Bruce ‘The Preacher’ Macfie. The kickboxing even brings quite a few students to the karate class. “Many of them want to learn to punch harder, so they come over to the karate class and stay,” says Moulas. It’s not that the karate and kobudo master doesn’t like MMA or kickboxing, but he sees them as professional sports, to be enjoyed as a spectator, while, for him, karate and kobudo hold a far greater depth and enable a lifetime of study.
It is to this end that he feels it’s so important to travel and train in Okinawa. “If you want to progress, you have to go,” he says. In fact, he just plain loves the Okinawan people, and has been very keen to share the experience with his students. So, besides encouraging them to travel to Okinawa, he has hosted senior Okinawan teachers here in Australia many times. He has hosted his teacher and close friend Takehiro Gaja sensei some 16 times, but there have also been many others. His reason, he says, is that there is a depth to kobudo that few people experience. While many people claim high ranks in kobudo, Moulas Sensei wants people to know there is more than just bo (six-foot staff), sai (iron forks) and tunkwa (baton, or tonfa).
“Matayoshi kobudo is more complete than that,” he says. Australian students of Matayoshi kobudo are exposed to a large array of weapons. Besides the bo, sai and tunkwa, there is nunchaku, eku (oar), kama (sickle), tinbei and rochin (spear and shield) and more. “Kobudo is complimentary to karate, but it also requires different skills,” says Moulas. “They are separate, but complimentary. Like the different weapons, every weapon is different, so there are different skills to learn.”
Is that why kobudo isn’t as popular as karate?
“It’s a bigger commitment,” Moulas muses. “In Okinawa, it’s almost as popular. In Australia though, some karate teachers are afraid of the knowledge being farmed out. They are frightened of losing students. They don’t need to be, though. Matayoshi kobudo is separate; it’s a separate style and members come from many styles of karate.” This, he says, is one of the benefits of training in a kobudo group separate to your karate group: it exposes you to more people, ideas and opinions.
With that in mind, I ask Moulas how he feels about others who claim higher rank than they’ve earned. “It doesn’t really bother me,” he says, “but it shows through.” He has a similar attitude about martial arts politics. “I can’t handle the politics,” he says, “I prefer to keep out of it, but it concerns me. Even in Okinawa, there are politics. It’s not good, but it comes as part of having associations.”
Association is important in martial arts. You can often tell who a person trained with by the way the kata is done. Shinpo Matayoshi Hanshi was even known to change kata if he didn’t trust the student, or when he was being filmed or during a demonstration. “It was to stop people copying his style,” reveals Moulas Sensei. “He didn’t necessarily always trust people because he had been used in the past.” However, if you earned his trust and trained earnestly, he was very open, and Moulas says the master really seemed to like Australians.
Even now, with his kobudo master gone, Moulas is as motivated as ever to pass on the teachings of both karate and kobudo. “It’s you guys, the students,” he says on what motivates him. “I really enjoy the quiet life,” he adds. “Just train, and after, a quiet drink and a chat.”
First impressions last, and Moulas Sensei is one to leave a positive feeling in everyone he meets. As the most experienced teacher of Uechi-ryu karate and Matayoshi kobudo here in Australia, his skills speak for themselves, but it is his open and down-to-earth attitude that really points to the calibre of martial artist that he is.
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