5/31/2012 THE WARRIOR’S CODE

 

 

The Okinawa Bushi :  Is a name or title given to the Karate men back in the 19th century.  One of the most famous of them was Bushi Matsumura, and we trace our karate back to him.

          The term of bushi was used to honor a Karate-man who was respected and revered for his martial arts skills-and for being a gentleman.   When we think of a gentleman, we tend to think of etiquette, a man who has good manners and is kind to women and children.  The Okinawan tend to thing of them  as being educated, civilized and principled.  It seems like building  character was one of the main reason of training in karate. The old masters thought of it as not one of the benefits, but the goal. Without it, there is no karate, only athletics.

          The term Bushido was a Japanese word meaning “the way of the Warrior”. It was the Samurai, who were members of the warrior class-the fighting men of Japan. The Samurai were known to be professional solders who fought with honor, valor, and loyalty. They would die for their leader. This was the soul of Japan.

“….to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right”

     The two words, Bushi and Bushido, while being almost the same words, have very different meanings altogether.  The Okinawan people always stress character building. To quote Mr. Walter Daley: “Karate makes us gentlemen, character is the goal, karate training is simply an excuse for developing character.”

          The message that these words have in common is the true warriors code; if you need to choose between life or death, you always pick death.  This is not to say that they didn’t want to live, it was by choosing death they could fight at 100%,  not worrying if they would live or die but just doing and being in the moment.   This is the main point that the old masters were passing along, from Matsumura to Itosu, to Toyama to Takazawa.  Always try, never give up, one chance one hit.

          I learned a lot about character from being around Sensei Takazawa, not just in the dojo but outside of the dojo.  Sensei was very kind, polite, and  helpful, always a gentleman, and able to fit in anywhere. When he was teaching a class or talking to the students, or answering their questions, he was a gentleman; he showed that he is the head of our karate style, while never sticking it in  our faces.

     When you enter a dojo and are just starting out, you start at the bottom, it doesn’t matter what kind of job you have or what age you are, you start at the bottom, in this way the character building begins.

          The way are art has been passed down to us  was based on being that kind of warrior, civilized with principle , but still trained in a Warrior Art.

          These type of men (old & New) never called themselves MASTER or BUSHI,   but we do.

see you in the dojo

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US Branch of Japan Keishinkan Karate