December 2014: PEDAGOGY

December 2014 Striking Post

“Pedagogy”

Pedagogy: the method and practice of teaching, a Greek word that literally means “to lead a child”.

I’ve been thinking about this word, what it means to Karate, and how the old masters passed on their method of teaching.

Master Takazawa thought that 80% of all Marital Arts are basically the same, what makes a style is the way it is taught and handed down to students.

In the old days, the old Masters usually had one or two students training at a time.  They hand picked the person that they wanted to teach and trust with their method of Karate.  While this is the way karate was always passed down to us, it changed in the early 1900’s.  By turning into a group class with students learning at different rates, the pedagogy of karate was changing.

What I find fascinating is the way the old masters passed kata down to us. The refinement of karate and kata would have been going on all through their years of training. The techniques and the kata might have changed as they made improvements to them.  Since the old masters lived for a long time and had a number of students through the years,  they would have taught different students different ways to do the techniques of the kata.  While the rules might have changed, the principles stayed the same.  This could be why there are so many ways to do one kata.

One thing I have always been interested in is the small details that Master Matsumura and the rest of the old masters handed down to us. While Matsumura was teaching kata to Master Itous, the same small details he emphasizes are what was  passed on to Toyama to Takazawa to me. This is the real meat of the kata, the techniques are the reason of  kata,  (remember techniques came first then put into kata for studying and teaching to students) The reason that they are still around today shows the significance of these small details, these details make the kata flow or make the technique work.

This is what I love about the long history of our karate, we can trace back kata from teacher to teacher.  Just think that the small details that Sensei taught to me is what I’m passing on to you,  that was passed on to him.  That is so cool!!

As we are going into a new year, I still feel proud that we keep these traditions going. To keep passing on our ‘way’ and the pedagogy to the next generation, just another part of this Art we call Karate.

 

 

See you in the dojo

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US Branch of Japan Keishinkan Karate