Martial Arts Roots & Shaolin Temple

Do you know your martial arts roots? Techniques, methods, and systems are passed down from instructor to student with varying degrees of success. Harold L. Hankins studied a number of martial arts and acquired proficiency in a few. Some of his teachers did the same.

Harold Hankins pushed his teachers to teach him the way their teachers taught them, even if it meant personal pain and struggle to himself. This way, he felt he could reach back, through his teachers, into the past, to get more of the essence from which their martial arts came. He wanted to gain the spirit of the art as well as the techniques.

These roots of martial arts grow deep and reach back to the Shaolin Temple. The roots often intermingle and cross along the path. Sometimes a student learns from his teacher, his teacher’s teacher, and his own classmates. For example, Choki Motubu learned not only from Itosu, but also from Itosu’s student, Kentsu Yabu--just as Harold Hankins learned, not only from Ki Wang Kim, but Kim’s student, Albert Cheeks, or was taught by Sifu Leung as well as Hankins' classmate, Dave Meadows.

Some of Master Hankins’ students also had access to his teachers, such as Duncan Leung, Shiyogo Kuniba, Ki Wang Kim, and others. The amazing thing is that his students did not have to seek out Master Hankins’ teachers, they also came to his school and taught. The little school on 537 W. 35th Street, in Norfolk, Virginia, was privileged to have witnessed some of the world’s greatest and most renown masters and legends. A brief lineage of three such masters who visited and taught at his school, is listed below. Their roots go back to the Shaolin Temple,

Tang Soo Do .................................Motobu Ha Shito-Ryu

\....................................... /
HAROLD L. HANKINS
/ .......................................\
Ki Wang Kim ...............................Shiyogo Kuniba
Kanken Toyama....................................... Kosei Kukuba
Kentsu Yabu .................................Choki Motubu
\......................................... /
Yasutsune “Anko” Itosu
Sokon “Bushi” Matsumura
“Tode” (Karate) Sakugawa
Kusanku


Wing Chun Kung Fu
Duncan Leung
Yip Man
Leong Bik
Leung Jon
Wong Wah Bo (hard style) and Leung Ye Tai (soft style)
Leung Bok Chau
Yim Wing Chun
Ng Mui

Other styles studied by Master Hankins:

• Boxing from Roy Luson;
• Judo & Jiu-Jitsu from LT. Charles O. Neal;
• Pa Kua and Hsing-I from Robert Smith;
• Aikido from Akio Mitake and Nebuhiro Hayashi;
• Tae Kwon Do from Kwang Hyung Kim, Ilhoi Kim and Jong Kwan Park

Additional Training from classmates:

• Tang Soo Do from Albert Cheeks
• Wing Chun from Dave Meadows

The tradition continues. Several of Grandmaster Hankins' students now teach. At least 3 have prospering schools in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia; Willie Hunter, Herbert Lee Fayton, and Jack Dark, III.

Masters Dark & Fayton have also expanded their martial arts training by gaining expertise in Haidong Gumdo under Master Dong Jin Park, USA Haidong Gumdo President.

Jack Dark Tae Kwon Do Champions

Fayton Martial Arts Academy

Tiger Martial Arts Academy