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WAYNE HANLEY Walks the Fire Walk and Talks the Bujutsu
© Marc Wickert Like many school kids in the 1960s, Shihan Wayne Hanley remembers racing home each afternoon to watch Shintaro (Koichi Ose) – Japan’s greatest Samurai warrior – display his lethal brand of swordsmanship on black and white television. Assisted by his faithful ninja Tombie "The Mist" (Fuyukichi Maki) – a human dispenser of star-knives and magic – the pair fought for truth, justice and the Japanese way on behalf of the Shogun. "I still have vivid memories of the show. And that influenced me towards the whole Samurai mystique, where a cool, calm and collected man of steel with all his skills at hand, is ready to use them for the good of the common people. That kind of affected me as a youth. And when I was eleven, I got the opportunity to start training in a martial art," says Hanley. At the time Wayne was living in the Sydney suburb of Monterey, and attending James Cook High School in Kogarah, where he received instruction from ‘Master Brad’ in the little-known Korean art of Soo Bahk. Four years later Wayne Hanley attained his first Black Belt in 1974. "At the time I didn’t know Soo Bahk was a Korean martial art. I commenced the art in 1970, at a time when everybody was getting into Bruce Lee movies and it really didn’t matter what style you were learning: it was a martial art! And besides, I was eleven years old: I don’t think I would have even known where Korea was at that stage." Not long after Wayne’s Black Belt grading, his instructor relocated interstate, leaving his young protégé to seek out another discipline to train in. Hanley dabbled in Karate and Kung Fu for a time, but was seeking another more complete art.
"Soo Bahk was a fairly comprehensive art in that it had four main components: striking, throwing, grappling and weapons techniques, which were based on knives and sticks. I tried a variety of other arts, such as Shotokan Karate - which was a powerful Karate, but didn’t have the grappling or weapons components – and Wing Chun - once again, much the same – they lacked the grappling and weapons work. Eventually I came across a style of Jujutsu about twenty years ago. It had most of the components I was familiar with, but it seemed to be linked a little more. That’s when I fell into studying the Japanese arts with a passion. "At the time I really didn’t know the Korean arts were the Korean arts. I just had this Asian image in my mind, and I was drawn all along towards the Japanese side of things from that first experience: from those TV shows. I’ve been with the Japanese arts ever since: simply adding to the repertoire as the years have gone by, expanding the knowledge base on those, and expanding through the various other Bujutsu arts or Samurai arts." Shihan Hanley runs a full-time dojo in the outer Sydney city of Campbelltown, where he instructs six days a week, unless conducting seminars on the seventh day. Wayne has also made numerous trips to Japan, both in his capacity as a dedicated martial artist and as an Australian/Japanese cultural exchange delegation leader. "My wife and I are involved in the Campbelltown/Koshigaya Sister City Association. We have just returned from taking thirteen local school students to Japan for a fortnight where they home-stay in Japanese houses, go to Japanese schools and experience the Japanese lifestyle. "I’ve been involved in the Sister City Organisation for thirteen years now, and we often host Japanese students who come over – both martial arts and normal school students – while they partake in the cultural experience here."
Wayne’s martial arts curriculum includes Filipino knife fighting, a study he took up after attending workshops on the subject and meeting highly ranked Kali exponent, Raymond Floro. Wayne then invited Floro to take seminars at his Campbelltown dojo and has studied the Filipino knife-fighting arts with Raymond for the past six years. Hanley has also practised European fencing and competed in Western-style archery, for which he attained three silver medals and one bronze medal at state levels. But Wayne says he doesn’t have the time to pursue these activities due to his commitment to the Japanese arts. "During this last trip to Japan, I had the opportunity to shoot Kyudo again, and that’s something that still tickles my fancy. I’d like to get heavily into Kyudo, because that would be expanding the Samurai nature of the art we teach. And we do train with a variety of other Japanese traditional weapons. The Samurai were renowned for their bowmanship and horsemanship." Shihan Hanley also encourages his students to face their fears. He states there are four primal fears: fear of burning, falling, drowning and fear of darkness. He says these are phobias commonly present in primal dreams, and phobias he has his students address in their martial arts training. Wayne reflects on the image of victims jumping to their deaths to escape the flames on September 11. "In any disaster like that, you’ll often see people make life judgements based on things such as, ‘Do I burn to death or do I jump out of a building?’ They jump.
"Fire is one of the most insidious primal fears. Drowning is another fear. Of course falling is one of the fears that is deep in our subconscious. Ask people about their nightmares and you’ll often find people are falling in their nightmares, but they never hit the bottom. The theory is, if anybody ever sees themselves hit the bottom, that’s when they die. The other fear is deprivation of senses and that’s represented by darkness." Students within the senior ranks of Wayne’s classes have to face the primal fears. Firewalking is one activity undertaken and one Hanley has participated in eleven times. Dans ranks also participate in parachuting or bungy jumping, and scuba diving. "These are tasks set along the way for students to prove they are dealing with the inner ghosts. I’ll never forget years ago, I had a 7th Dan instructor, who for all intentions and purposes, was a hard man. He had no fear. But put him on a 3-storey balcony, and he was petrified. He’d never dealt with the fear of height."
Shihan Wayne Hanley has dedicated his life to the martial arts and to helping other people through their participating in the arts. In August 2001 Wayne was inducted into the World Karate Union Hall of Fame as Kobudo Man of the Year, and was inducted into the Australian Martial Arts Hall of Fame, receiving the award for Kobudo Martial Artist of the Year. Hanley also operates the Kokoro Ryu Martial Arts Store at Shop 3, 210 Queen Street, Campbelltown, which carries hundreds of book titles, a wide range of uniforms, Japanese manga, ceramics, swords, lotions and potions, and lawful weapons: a subject Hanley feels strongly about. "I’m not a believer in the prohibited weapons legislation, as it stands. It is not weapons that kill or injure people: It is people who kill and injure others. I feel those who have a lawful reason to possess martial arts weapons should be permitted to do so. Penalties for the misuse of weapons should be severe. "I don’t do the arts and run a full-time centre as a business and for money-making purposes. I do it because it helps me support a martial arts lifestyle. Martial arts has been good to me for all these years. It’s given me pleasure, excitement and fulfilled all my requirements. Martial arts has been the only constant in my life," says Wayne Hanley.
For more on Shihan Wayne Hanley and his martial arts store: www.kokororyu.com
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