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Never Heel Up

by Michael Busha

A karate memoir shaped by loss, discipline, and a life-changing move to Japan

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A karate memoir shaped by loss, discipline, and a life-changing move to Japan

Michael Busha traces the path from a troubled childhood shaped by family tragedy to the dojo training that gave his life new direction. Beginning with his first steps onto a karate floor in 1978, the memoir follows his deepening commitment to Shotokan practice, including intensive training at Tokyo’s JKA Ebisu Honbu dojo and Hoitsugan under prominent instructors. The narrative centers on the years leading to Busha’s decision to leave his job in Michigan and relocate to Japan, presenting martial arts not simply as sport or technique but as a sustaining personal discipline during a period of upheaval.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in Shotokan karate and Japanese dojo training
  • Martial-arts memoir readers
  • Those interested in personal accounts of rebuilding a life through disciplined practice

Themes

Shotokan karatePersonal resilienceGrief and recoveryJapanese martial-arts trainingLife change

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Devastating events can lead a person many different directions, some good and some not so good. Scars can last a long time. We have to find the right medicine to treat the wounds properly.Tragedy misshaped the author's young family, leaving it in shambles. But after several years of emotional homelessness, the author finally walked into the right place, at the right time. Needing something to pull himself out of that emotional turbulence, in 1978 he stepped up onto the dojo floor of a little red-brick building and entered another world.Six years later, he found himself stepping onto another dojo floor. This time it was his first class at the JKA Ebisu Honbu (HQ) dojo in March of 1985 (taught by Tanaka Sensei) on a one-month "vacation" from his job at GM in Flint, Michigan. He trained daily with Nakayama Sensei and Kawawada Sensei at the Hoitsugan, along with many other instructors at the Honbu dojo. Realizing that this medicine was powerful and effective, Michael eventually quit his job and relocated to Japan a couple years later. This is the story leading up to that decision.Michael Busha (boo shay) is a Central States Shotokan 5th Dan, and an ISKF 4th Dan in Shotokan karate and has been practicing for over forty years, fourteen of them while living in Japan.
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