January 2014 PRESERVING THE ART

Preserving the Art

1.2014

Happy New Year,

This will be 41 years training in Keishinkan Karate.   Over the holidays I read a book by  Christopher M. Clark, Ramblings from a Ten Foot Square hut , Which got me thinking about the why of our karate and why I train.

Mr. Clarke’s book brought up a number of great question about the “why” of karate.  There are so many ideas and explanations about how and where karate started, how the bunkai came around, who taught who, and what the old masters really knew.

Training is a very personal thing, people come to the dojo for a number of different reasons, to keep in shape, to learn self-defense, to be part of something that is living history, or maybe just to reenact the old ways.

The Bunkai (applications) of the kata have been analyzed and worked over for years and years. When we look at old books where the masters are demonstrating a technique, it seems like a pretty simple explanation to the movement, but is this wrong or bad?  With all the time we have had to work on these  applications and with the help of the old masters (from their books), we have come up with a lot of  our own applications for the kata.

Karate has to be your own, it is natural to make changes ,since we are all different we come up with different ideas and just see things differently than someone else. Mr. Clark also brought up the point of self-defense, and how karate really doesn’t work in a real life situation.  So what are we really doing?  Are we in the same class as the Civil War guys who dress up as the North and South to recreate different battles?  Or the people who try to reenact the life of Mountain Men or people who dress up to go to  a Renaissance fair?   Remember you can practice Ninja ways but you will never be a Ninja.  I still love to train and practice kata,  I can defend myself on the street, but  would I like to get in a cage with a top MMA fighter? I don’t think so.  Would I try to protect myself or my family against a crazed madman…YES.  Has it made me a superman…NO. Karate has given me the courage and ability to try, win or lose and that is what it is all about.  Knowing what you can do and knowing  I will step up is really a big thing.

So whats this all mean?  Should we just buy a gun for self-defense,  get a big dog, or a baseball bat? These things would be a lot easier than doing thousands of punches and kicks, and practicing  all the different applications. But, this is what  keeps the warrior spirit alive in us which is a very important part of self-defense.  Does it really matter that we don’t know all of the who, what, or why of karate or  the exact bunkai the old masters were thinking of 200 years ago? I don’t think so; what really matters is just the DOING (I know you heard this a 1000 times), but it is the truth. What I think and believe is that we will never really know the true answers to these questions and that’s okay.

Karate keeps me in good shape, keeps me healthy, and just gets me through the day (life).  We are very lucky that we can trace our style to the original source; to be able to pass on the essence of our art, which is so rich in culture and heritage, this reason is (to me) good enough, to PRESERVE THE ART.

 

See you in the Dojo

Leave a Reply

US Branch of Japan Keishinkan Karate