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The sight of a battered old EK Holden chugging along, slowly eating up the miles, was a common sight in the Victorian outback of the 1970s. Although over the years the car has changed many times, the man and his devotion have not. Kyoshi Sal Ebanez continues to journey back and forth every week, heading out from Albury to visit Melbourne or one of his many country dojos such as Echuca and Shepparton. He even ventures as far afield as Western Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Australia's inland highways are the lifeline of our rural communities. The bounty of country Australia flows along these corridors, destined to feed and nurture our cities, binding city and country in a partnership of sharing.
Steady and persistent, over time Ebanez too has become part of the highway's pulse, just as his karate journey has become part of the lifeblood of our karate culture. In this way he has become part of the vital life force of many of Australia's budding karatekas.
Long respected as a technical expert, Ebanez is regarded as being quietly spoken and a man of his word. He inspires not by shouting and threatening, but by more subtle devices. According to him, the challenge must be yours - it has nothing to do with his dreams, his ambitions or his wants. This approach might seem unusual in today's society where loud, big-noting, self-serving people are often held up as symbols of success, but as Ebanez puts it: "Success originates in mastering the basics and obtaining the result."
One look at the old master and it is clear that he did not build his reputation on the bones of discarded students. He sees his role as finding the mental and spiritual connection that enables students to get in touch with their own feelings and identify their own needs. This concept lies at the heart of the very personal relationships he develops with people. Those who know him well describe him as a guide, rather than someone who claims to know all the answers and wants students to ape him or follow his advice without question. The outcome is an understanding of life's balance and the relationship between karate in the dojo and our individual journeys through life.
Over many years, Australia's top Goju practitioners, as well as many from other karate styles, regularly made the pilgrimage to the country seeking his special guidance. Lou Spizzirri, Morgan Abouzeid, Lance Carrington, Bob Allen, Warren Ross and Phil Chin Quan were among them, and what they saw in Sal Ebanez was someone unique; someone who bridged that elusive physical and philosophical divide.
One of Ebanez's most savoured memories is his first meeting and training with Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi, when the great man was still in his prime - full of vigour and power. He recalls how Yamaguchi's aura seemed to expand when he performed Sanchin kata.
Ebanez gives credit to Gosen Shihan, the second son of Gogen Yamaguchi Hanshi, for instilling in him the confidence to pursue karate. He was also instrumental in confirming in Ebanez the knowledge that he can maintain the balance between his personal philosophies and beliefs (in other words, the way of karate), and at the same time be a professional instructor.
Although similar in age, Goshi Yamaguchi Hanshi, the Chief Instructor of IKGA today, was also a major influence on Ebanez. He views Goshi Hanshi as not only a very gifted instructor, but also a person of generous humanity dedicated to spreading and living karate according to the ‘way'.
To the untrained observer, Kyoshi Ebanez's karate may appear unsophisticated, and that is the way he likes it. But appearances can be deceiving. The rapid commercialisation of karate over the past 50 years has resulted in much impractical elaboration and emphasis on showmanship, diluting and obscuring the real understanding of karate-do. Karate is the art of advantage, which really means resourcefulness. This is not simply resourcefulness in a physical sense or mere knowledge of fighting: it is a strategy for dealing with life.
Many modern karatekas confuse physical self-defence and the combat aspects of their training (that is, the ability to kill and maim) with the philosophical backbone of karate-do. For Ebanez, the crucial factors in teaching the art are prioritising the moral and philosophical rules by which life is lived, and then employing constant awareness to ensure that professional expediency does not assume dominance.
Identifiable by his jovial nature and beaming face, Sal Ebanez has earned a reputation as a kata expert. He has produced a string of national and international champions over the years, including Danielle Lamond, Morgan Abouzeid, Clare Seymour and Alexia Hunter. Because he teaches more than just the karate rudiments of punching and kicking, more than focusing on winning a tournament and more than merely the acquisition of prestige, his manner is very intimate. Such is his personality that a look, a wink, a small hand gesture or the hint of a smile is sufficient to convey a message quickly and concisely. Others could lecture for hours in an effort to achieve the same level of communication, but because his message is usually very personal, Ebanez manages to amplify the significance and relevance of the meaning.
Over the past 50 years, Kyoshi Ebanez has been careful and vigilant in preserving this ability. He shies away from being anything other than an ordinary man living by those same values he first learnt at the McCully dojo in downtown Honolulu.
Trust clings to the man like a well-worn sweater. As a society we have learned to build powerful illusions; we use the tools of our modern world to create spin and persuade the multitude that black is white. However, true human existence requires one-on-one relationships where you know by experience the value of truth. This is where Ebanez excels, in the world of personal relationships, within the original world of sempai/kohai - the teacher-student relationship - that he learned from Oshiro Sensei.
In this he is by no means unique but his example is revealing. To maintain his beliefs he has rejected fame, fortune and standing on a public pedestal. He knows that in karate, if instructors concentrate too heavily on commercial aspects they can easily turn their art into a commodity, allowing it to slip into the realm of an entertainment or a simple service to be purchased, like a golf lesson or a babysitting service. When this happens to karate, it loses its relevance in the real world.
Over the years, people of all lifestyles have been attracted to Sal Ebanez for this very reason: his quiet but genuine nature; confident and self-assured, yet unassuming, generous and - above all - caring. Sometimes those with no real knowledge or virtue rely on bluff and eloquence to deceive, as if a coat of fresh paint can obscure the rotten timbers on a leaky boat or bright colours can hide the smell of a toilet. Not so with Ebanez. Sensei Morgan Abouzeid, the state coach for Karate Victoria and the assistant national kumite coach with the Australian Karate Federation (AKF), is quick to explain that Ebanez rejects notions of self-importance and has no attachment to things or appearances.
Kyoshi Ebanez opened his first Australian dojo in Echuca in 1970, and opened his second dojo in Shepparton shortly after. At the time he was driving from Melbourne to the country regions every week, so in 1972 he decided to move to the country permanently and opened his main dojo in Albury-Wodonga on the Victorian and New South Wales border. Then in 1986, Ebanez formed his own organisation, Goju Ryu Australia.
Since arriving in Australia, he has held numerous official coaching positions at state and national level, consistently receiving high praise from athletes and coaches. One testament to his enduring impact on the karate scene is his multi-style kata coaching. For over 24 consecutive years, he has enjoyed widespread coaching success and influenced generations of competitors and coaches.
Yet he still lives in the country and teaches daily classes. In line with his strong belief in continuous learning, over the past 10 years Ebanez has also found time for daily tai chi practice. Renewed interest in weapons and the old-style karate also led him to seek further instruction from Okinawan masters, including Senaha Sensei. According to Ebanez, people tend to misunderstand the Okinawan and Japanese arts - in his opinion, they are not different. He considers each system to offer much in the way of rich history, and each has abundant valuable lessons for the genuine seeker of knowledge. Karate's true values are very important to the old master, but even so, there is one principle he lives by that he never tires of explaining: simply put, karate is part of life; life is not karate. This means that inside the dojo, the sensei is the boss and the source of all technical knowledge. Outside the dojo things are different and positions are often reversed. For example, if your car suffers a mechanical breakdown, the mechanic becomes the sensei.
Around the time Ebanez set up house in Albury, he also organised his first winter gasshaku (the Japanese term for a training camp) at Nug Nug, a campsite located in a picturesque little alpine reserve, nestled deep in the Victorian High Country.
In typical Ebanez fashion, this is a camp with a difference. Nug Nug in winter is bitterly cold and very close to nature. In the early days, this meant you bring your own tent because there were no facilities: you washed in the Buffalo River, which sources from the melting snowfields nearby. (Today amenities have improved with the connection of electricity to sites and a toilet block. But there is still no running hot water.)
Ebanez has stamped his own personality on Nug Nug. You get up early and head down to the river to wash. Outdoor training is done either in the river, on a rocky riverbank or an open field, and cooking is done over camp fires. It is all there and over the years this camp has been a magnet for the committed and the adventurous karateka. There is one Nug Nug story that today is almost legend. It concerns an early-morning training session restricted especially for half a dozen senior grades.
At five in the morning they all trotted down to the misty riverbank, freezing and sleepy. Stripped to the waist, each silently prepared to wade into the sub-zero waters where they would sit in the icy flow of the rapids and enter a state of deep meditation.
Their sensei surveyed the group of tough, superbly fit young karateka, steeling themselves and concentrating on the ordeal that lay ahead. Ebanez snapped the command: "Let's go." Instantly the group surged forward as one tightly disciplined unit. There was splashing and cries of shock as the shards of cold penetrated soft body tissue. Loud yelling erupted, accompanied by more splashing. Then silence. Teeth began chattering. Then a slow rumble built swiftly into a roar. Waist-deep in water in the middle of the swirling Buffalo River, a single, lonely, trusting soul turned stiffly to look at the riverbank, where he saw Ebanez and the other senior Black-belts, still dry, rolling around on the ground in fits of laughter.
Nug Nug has survived for over 30 years to be not only an annual event but also a major attraction. Every year people return, lured by the man with the golden smile.
Those who know Ebanez will recall fondly one of his favourite sayings, that his aim is to help students to be better than him. Another of his favourite aphorisms urges: "Do what you believe is right, not what you think I want or what anybody else wants." In other words, he guides people so they make their own decisions and they take responsibility for themselves and their actions. That is the true measure of the teacher.
It takes only a small effort to imagine the sacrifices involved in getting where Kyoshi Sal Ebanez is today. He has also been forced to endure many tough times over the last 50 years, but as far as he is concerned, one cannot abandon beliefs and obligations in preference for an easier lifestyle, more money or even a prestigious position.
Now in the early 21st century and four cars later, Ebanez still makes these same ritual journeys by road and by air. He keeps on his odyssey, following the karate way and helping other fellow travellers. Only now he has 50 years of learning and karate training under his well-worn belt.
Sal Ebanez is karate, and karate is of the soul.
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