Max Gottwirt – February 5, 1919-December 28, 1983

Today marks the 28th anniversary of the passing of my first influence in the martial arts – my father, Max Gottwirt.

Being very young when I heard this story, and being old now with a shaky memory, here is what I remember: My father joined the Army during WW II. Having bad eyesight, he was kept stateside, where, besides being a clerk, he assisted in training the troops in hand-to-hand combat in the Maryland-Virginia-D.C. area.

As a young child, I had no indications whether my family was poor, lower-middle class, or middle class, I just knew we weren’t very well off. From 5th grade thru high school we lived in a cooperative housing development called Rochdale Village in South Jamaica, Queens. We could only afford carpeting in the living room, the kind of room that was off-limits to family, for ‘company-only’ use. When I would misbehave my father would say, “Come, Steve, I want to talk to you in the living room.” Once on the carpeting, he would say something like, “You didn’t listen to your mother, huh?” and the next thing I knew I was laying on the floor staring up at the ceiling. He’d then tell me to stand up so he could ‘talk’ to me some more. Each time I’d end up with a lovely view of the living room ceiling. As I lay on the carpet I’d think, “I gotta learn this stuff.” This was a literal meaning of the phrase: ‘being called out on the carpet’.

Before you go off screaming ‘child abuse’, keep in mind that my father was foot-sweeping me very lightly onto plush, padded carpeting, not slamming me down to the ground. Also keep in mind that this was the 1960s, when ‘child abuse’ was called ‘parenting’. You may doubt his ways, but there’s no doubt that he got my attention. I don’t think my generation turned out t-t-too b-ba-bbba-badd for being raised this way.

Less than a year after my first personal introduction to the living room carpet, I discovered a Tae Kwon Do program being offered in the Rochdale Village Community Center. I signed up in 1967; thus began my (to date) 44 year career in the martial arts.

On this, the 28th anniversary of his death, I honor the father, salute the veteran and bow to my first martial arts influence. Osu!

Okuru

Many American martial artists live and die by titles. They insist on calling themselves ‘Master’, ‘Grandmaster’, etc. One martial artist who used to associate with me would always introduce himself as ‘Sabumnim so and so’ (name omitted to protect the innocent – or is it the guilty?). The Japanese take a very different view of titles. Others may call you a specific title, but you never refer to yourself by title. If ya gotta tell folks how important ya are, mebbe ya ain’t as important as ya think.
A while ago, when ordering a new obi for myself, I had correspondence with Hamid, a very knowledgeable gentleman from www.kuroobiya.com in Japan. Here are excerpts from him on the subject:

“I would like to discuss something with you and please don't take this as a sign of disrespect to mention but at kuroobiya we don't just want to make any old product for customers, just to make money, but we want to make sure that they can wear their products with confidence that they are as accurate as possible and do not embarrass the wearer or the reader. That is why I feel I must inform you of the following:

I know the place where you got the belt embroidered before probably didn't tell you, but to be honest, it is considered incredibly arrogant or not humble by Japanese to have Hanshi on your own belt. In Japan, as a sign of humility, one never refers to oneself by title. Titles are conferred upon you by others, so teachers (sensei), doctors (sensei), masters etc. never refer to themselves as such and would never write the title next to their own name. If someone else writes it on an invitation lets say, they will even go as far as to cross it out as a sign of humility and their humbleness.

However as I said masters do not have their titles on their belts UNLESS the belt was given as a gift. In this case it is OK to wear the belt, and this is indicated on the belt with an additional kanji before the name on the belt to "signify" it was a gift. I really recommend getting this on the belt if any Japanese people are ever likely to read your belt. (In fact I recommend this to all foreign hanshi I serve. So far everyone has agreed).

Please let me know if you would like this and I will adjust the embroidery for you and resend before you order. You are of course free to ignore my advice (though my very-Japanese wife will not be happy about it when ordering the belt for you!!! Just kidding!)

Hamid Abassalty”