Sokes Back ground

Soke S. Papasan Canty was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY in the Brownsville Projects. At the age of seven, he was introduced to the arts of Judo and Jiujitsu by his Uncle Marion Wallace AKA “Gunslinger”. Marion was a New York City Housing Authority Police Officer who served in both the United States Air Force and the Navy, where he practiced both of these arts. As Soke grew older, so did his expertise in the martial arts. Since his beginnings in Brooklyn, he has added Shotokan, Moo Duk Kwan, Goju and Kyokushinkai Karate as well as Tai Chi, Boxing and Aikijiujitsu to his repertoire. His ideas for formulating Kuroshi-do came out of his frustrations of being limited by those traditional martial arts.

So after persuading Lusayne S. Alston and Haisan Kaleak on the benefits of combining all of these arts, they reluctantly agreed and the blue print for their art was formulized. Since its meager beginnings, Kuroshi-do boasts the opening of 19 dojos from New York to California, Georgia and Florida. Soke Papasan has been an advisor on many other arts, Styles and Systems to include, Aki-Elmore-Ryu Jiujitsu, Sugar Ryu Jiujitsu, Don Jitsu Ryu Jiujitsu, Woo Li Dancing Masters, and Combat Aikijutsu. He has had the distinct honor of teaching, men, women, children, military and law enforcement personnel his art of Kuroshi-do.

Soke has had the pleasure of wearing a number of different hats to include: Founder, Instructor, Showman, Director, Author, Soldier, Narcotics & Police Officer, Politician, Thespian, Producer, Tournament Promoter, Graduate, Husband Father and Grandfather. A man who is never satisfied with his accomplishments and still finds the time to go out of his way to help others. He has been inducted into or nominated for over 75 Halls of Fame, and just finished writing and publishing his first work: “Help the Bear, A Road Map to Grand Mastery”. Add this to his two videos on Kuroshi-do, Tape 1 “Basics Throws” and Tape 2 “Advanced Throws”, his long running all styles tournament named “Papasan’s Martial Arts Classic”, a series of martial arts tournaments he promoted in the late seventies and early eighties. The question is, where will it all end? We know that he will be hosting his first Hall of Fame on November 8^th 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. We also know that he is one of the founders of M.A.G.I.C. (Martial Arts Grandmasters International Council), one of the largest martial arts councils in the world.

Considered the Architect of Kuroshido, Soke can be found teaching at his dojo in Lithonia, GA daily and on Saturdays where he enjoys training his students and black belts in the finer arts of Kuroshi-do. He plans on retiring from competition on his 60^th birthday in November, but then again with over 600 trophies to his credit, who knows?

Soke Papasan would like to thank the following individuals for his martial arts growth 

Sabanim Harry E. Rowe,