"They lead out their country's team, Lodge standard bearers lead out the Grand Master."
Napier was the birthplace of Ken's karate and Lodge involvement.
It was a town where he wasn't always the most popular man around, for that blame his occupation; he was one of the "black and white" brigade-the old-style traffic cops who patrolled on motorbikes and in cherry-topped cars. When Ken enlisted, councils employed their own traffic police; playing "meter maid" was his entry-level job.
Surely there were times his karate skills came in handy on the work front?
"Gosh, I don't know whether you can print it but, yes, they did, especially if drivers had a bit too much to drink, got a bit stroppy."
Karate wasn't Ken's first foray into non-military combat, that was judo. But when a Napier man returned from Sydney with a brown karate belt he invited Ken and another local to join him to form a club promoting the Goju-ryu (hard and gentle) karate style.
Ken's the sole survivor "and last remaining karate pioneer in New Zealand". With no instructor on tap the group trained out of the What Is Karate? book.
They're made of stern stuff these karate experts. Ken tells how one leading exponent fought 45 wild bulls, winning each bout-afeat he's never been tempted to emulate.
On the home front Ken knows the difficulties of solo parenthood. His first wife left him to raise two small children. Traffic cop shift work wasn't compatible with the task and he moved to bus driving. As the children grew that included tour buses and Rotorua was a regular destination. He was bringing a busload of visitors here when he met the woman who was to become his second wife, Japanese teacher Keiko Tani.
"The other passengers were elderly and very wealthy so we went out and about together."
The couple corresponded, Ken proposed, and they were together 32 years until breast cancer claimed Keiko's life seven years ago.
Rotorua was their first home, Keiko learning English and working as a tour guide. Moving to Auckland, Ken joined the Mt Roskill Karate Club, outranking the instructor. But Keiko hankered for her homeland, Ken took her back "on the understanding it was for three years".
They stayed 15.
The tables turned, it was he who had to learn a foreign tongue. "I went to this school where they trained radio and TV announcers; after three years I could speak very beautiful Japanese, probably better than my wife." When it became obvious they'd settle, at least semi-permanently, Keiko's parents employed him in their Osaka nursery school's office. "I reckon I was the only white-skinned, white-haired person in the city."
It follows that karate continued to dominate his downtime, but finding a suitable sensi (instructor) wasn't easy.
"One I tried was tied up with the equivalent of the Mafia, there was no way I wanted to be involved in their nonsense."
Ken turned to self-training: "It's like playing the piano, you don't need a partner."
Disappointingly, the nearest Lodge was 400km away, but he kept his membership current.
Our People prods Ken for secrets from the Lodge's inner sanctum. He hits back with a verbal karate chop.
"People think Masons are a secret society but we very definitely aren't, go and look up what we do on your computer."
Suitably chastened we do-he's right when he says the movement's more ceremonial than secretive.
Charity's a major component.
"We [his lodge] give all sorts of charities financial assistance, hundreds of thousands of dollars all over New Zealand. For the rituals you have to have a very retentive memory, that's worked very well for me in my advancement in karate." Ken resumed his Lodge affiliations when he and Keiko swapped Osaka for Rotorua.
"I was approaching 65, the Japanese government said I couldn't work there any longer but I still have my permanent residency visa. In my tour bus days I always liked Rotorua so it won the 'where to live' battle."
When Keiko's cancer was in its advanced stages she returned alone to Japan. By then Ken had developed emphysema and was unable to fly. However "crook lungs" haven't put the brakes on his karate. Treating us to a private demo he slams the daylights out of a rubber pad attached to a veranda pole, sending his house swaying. He chortles that's confirmation of what 58 years' dedication to the sport's done for him.
Who would dare contradict him?
KEN McLENNAN
- Born: Napier, 1932
- Education: Nelson Park, Greenmeadows and Taradale primaries, Napier Boys' High
- Family: Son (deceased), two daughters
- Interests: Karate, Lodge (belongs to Rotorua Freemasons and Tauranga Daylight Lodges), keen athlete in his youth, the piano "playing old-time music but I can't read it". Former member Vintage and Veteran Car Club. "I had a 1952 Ford Prefect, a Jag, now my pride and joy's a 2014 8-seater Lexus."
- On karate: "Very challenging hence you have to be very, very good to get to the top."
- On Lodge membership: "It's a very worthwhile institution."
- Personal philosophy: "You get out of life what you're prepared to put into it."
