Adventures of a Karate-ka

Shotokan Karate-Do is recognizable by its linear, direct punching, blocking, and kicking techniques from low stances. Shotokan emphasizes correct posture, correct joint alignment, and formality of basic technique above all else. The Shotokan expert is expected to perform using strictly defined basic techniques even under harsh conditions. Creativity and “freelancing” are not looked upon as favorable in Shotokan. Basic techniques are defined to the minutest detail, and performing them with absolute perfection is given the highest priority.  The intrinsic mastery of one’s body dynamics to generate fantastic amounts of power is really what sets Shotokan Karate apart from other styles. The modern science of Biomechanics and Sports Medicine has been fused with ancient Japanese and Okinawan training methods to produce one of the most powerful Martial Arts in Human history…. SHOTOKAN!

The Shotokan view is that purity of raw technique is most important. The idea behind this is that one elegant technique mastered so completely that it is as natural as flipping a light switch will finish off the opponent quickly and efficiently. In situations where there are multiple opponents, such an ability is believed essential because there may not be time to throw more than one technique per opponent, and grappling and getting tangled up with your adversary when two others are also trying to harm you is probably unwise. Therefore, each Karate technique is maximized at the expense of learning more complicated defenses.  In combat, less is usually more.  Simple techniques win (physical, mental and emotional) engagements.  The Shotokan belief is that nothing is more important than strong basic technique.

When attacking, the Shotokan expert will drive directly forward with straight punches and kicks while sweeping at the ankles to unbalance the retreating opponent. Shotokan experts are familiar with other types of techniques, but they generally avoid them unless they feel secure in their superior firepower.

When attacked, Shotokan fighters stand their ground. They may shift one step to the side in order to flank the attacker, but the most common defense used is a pre-emptive strike against an incoming opponent. While Shotokan is simple and does not employ a wide variety of motions, the few techniques are designed to be mastered to such a high degree of precision and ease of use that they "truly" become extremely effective weapons.



Shotokan Karate is known for its simplicity and effectiveness. Its techniques are based on the correct application of body dynamics. One also learns to apply patience, discipline, co-ordination and balance in balance with the delivery of correct and effective Shotokan techniques. We emphasise harmonious use of mind and body. At the heart of traditional Shotokan Karate training is the development of character as well as the conditioning of one's body. In karate-do, respect for others, calmness, and perfection of character takes priority over physical skills. Even though Shotokan's techniques can produce very effective results, Shotokan Karate is much more than a form of fighting. It is a discipline. For some, it is a catalyst that impacts, sharpens and improves all aspects of their lives.

Shotokan Karate has also become known as the sport with a purpose and might be considered as the most ideal physical exercise for children and adults of all ages. Shotokan style karate offers great benefits such as, greater focus, increased self-esteem, increased self-discipline, calmness, and a more positive attitude toward life, as well as knowledge of self-defence. The main focus of Shotokan Karate training is the perfection of character.

There are as many reasons to take Shotokan Karate, as there are people who take it. Each individual has his or her own reason for training in Shotokan Karate. However, three reasons stand out above the rest.

1. SHOTOKAN KARATE AS A PATH TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT.

Some people take Shotokan Karate as a means to improve themselves. Shotokan Karate can offer rigorous physical fitness training and a way to improve speed, power, flexibility, co-ordination and confidence. Shotokan Karate is also studied by some to enhance inner peace and strength.

2. SHOTOKAN KARATE AS A SPORT.

A great many people take Shotokan Karate as a recreational sport. Some take it to develop skill and technique (as demonstrated in the floor exercises, or "Kata"), while others who may enjoy competition, take it for the sparring (limited contact fighting against an opponent, or "Kumite"). Most people that begin Shotokan Karate training find that they enjoy both aspects of this sport. In addition to there being regional and national competitions held throughout the country, the International Olympics Committee has accepted Shotokan Karate as a future Olympic event.

3. SHOTOKAN KARATE FOR SELF-DEFENCE.

Shotokan Karate is a very effective way to counter an attacker. It teaches techniques to subdue or disable. It conditions the reflexes to react instinctively if attacked. Best of all, no weapons are needed, so Shotokan Karate can be used whenever and wherever necessary.

Regardless of your reason for taking Shotokan Karate, the time invested in it will return a lifetime of benefits.

  Karate has been taught outside of Japan for almost 40 years, and was exported to the rest of the world along both stylistic and organizational lines. By now, the namesof most karate styles have become familiar to martial artists everywhere.

   Of all the traditional karate systems Shotokan, Goju-ryu, Wado-ryu, Shorin-ryu, Kyokushin, Isshin-ryu, and Shito-ryu among them Shito-ryu remains the most obscure. Several of its leading practitioners, such as the charismatic Fumio Demura and the prolific Touro Hayashi, do have widespread fame, yet Shito-ryu remains little understood outside its own schools. Shito-ryu had been most often described as a combination of Shotokan and Goju-ryu. It is also generally known that its teachers utilize formal exercises (kata) from many Okinawan sources. Unfortunately, such explanations fail to adequately describe just what Shito-ryu really is.

   In truth, Shito-ryu, along with Goju-ryu, Wado-ryu and Shotokan, is one of the four major karate systems of Japan proper (the Japanese islands excluding Okinawa). It was founded by Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1952), who, like most of karate’s old masters, was descended from Okinawa’s so-called warrior (bushi) class or aristocracy. Members of his family served Okinawan lords for hundreds of years. Mabuni started karate training at the age of 13 under Anko Itosu (1830-1915), the man who organized early karate in the Okinawan school system. Itosu was a student of one of Okinawa’s most famous karate masters, Sokon Matsumura (1792-1887), the forefather of Shorin-ryu. Itosu took a strong liking to his young pupil and Mabuni learned some 23 kata before the elder man died. Itosu’s death so grieved Mabuni that he built a shrine in front of the master’s grave and stayed close by for a year, practicing his kata daily.

   Itosu was not Mabuni’s only teacher, however. While still in his teens, Mabuni was introduced by his friend, Chojun Miyagi (the founder of Goju-ryu karate) to Kanryo Higashionna (1853-1915). From Higashionna, Mabuni learned Naha-te, a Chinese-influenced karate style. Mabuni also trained under the reclusive Arakaki Kamadeunchu (1840-1918), who taught a style similar to Higashionna’s. Arakaki also taught Tsuyoshi Chitose, the founder of Chito-ryu, Gichin Funakoshi of Shotokan, and Kanken Toyama of the Shudokan school. Arakaki, who was an acknowledged bo (staff) expert, taught Mabuni the unshu, sochin, niseishi, arakaki-sai and arakaki-bo forms. During the 1920’s the insatiable Mabuni participated in a karate club operated by Miyagi and Choyu Motobu, with help from Chomo Hanashiro and Juhatsu Kiyoda. Choyu Motobu was a master of Shuri-te (the antecedent of Shorin-ryu) and gotende, the secret grappling art of the Okinawan royal court. Hanashiro was also a Shuri-te expert, while Kiyoda came from the same Naha-te background as Miyagi. Known as the Ryukyu Tode Kenkyu-kai (Okinawa Karate Research Club), this dojo (training hall) was one of history’s gems. Experts from diverse backgrounds trained and taught there, and it was there that Mabuni learned some Fukien white crane kung fu from the legendary Woo Yin Gue, a Chinese tea merchant living on Okinawa.

   By this time, Mabuni had become a highly respected police officer and made several trips to Japan after Funakoshi introduced karate there in 1922. Mabuni spent many of his early traveling years with Koyu Konishi, a friend and sometimes student who later founded Shindo-Jinen-ryu karate. In 1925 Mabuni and Konishi visited Japan’s Wakayama prefecture where Kanbum Uechi, the founder of Uechi-ryu, was teaching. It was after training with Uechi that Mabuni devised a kata called shinpa. But Mabuni actually spent most of his time in Osaka, where he taught at various dojo, including the Seishinkai, the school of Kosei Kokuba. Choki Motobu also taught at Kokuba’s dojo. It was Kokuba who later formed Motobu-ha (Motobu faction) Shito-ryu. In 1929, Mabuni moved permanently to Osaka. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese martial arts sanctioning body, the Butokukai, pressured all karate schools to register by style name. At first, Mabuni called his style hanko-ryu (half-hard style), but by the early 1930’s Shito-ryu was the official name. It was coined from alternative renderings of the names of Mabuni’s two foremost teachers, Itosu and Higashionna. Not everyone agreed with separating Okinawan karate into factions through the use of style names. In fact, shudokan headmaster Toyama questioned Mabuni and others about their use of what he called “funny-sounding names.” Mabuni countered that giving the style a name would not only satisfy the Butokukai, but would give people something they could identify with and feel a part of.

   Among Mabuni’s earliest students was Kanei Uechi (not to be confused with Kambum Uechi’s son of the same name), who by 1935 was also teaching in Osaka. In 1950, Uechi returned to Okinawa and established the Shito-ryu Kempo Karate-do Kai. On Okinawa, Uechi is considered the true successor to Mabuni’s art, but internationally, Mabuni’s eldest son, also named Kanei, is acknowledged as the head of shito-ryu and runs the Shito-kai. Younger brother Kenzo Mabuni (1927-2005) also aknowledged as the head of Shito-ryu was asked by his mother Kamae Mabuni to take over the style. Kenzo Mabuni was unsure and could not decide at the time what to do. So he went into seclusion in the city of Nagoya to train diligently and contemplate the great responsibility of carrying on the karate of his father. At the end of what became a two year retreat - most of it spent living in a utility-less dwelling, though he did spend some time training with Ryusho Sakagami and Ken’ichi Watanabe, Kenzo Mabuni decided to accept this great responsibility and hence became the inheritor of his father’s lineage. Kenzo Mabuni lived in the original family home in Osaka, where it is still headquarters for his organization the Nippon Karate-Do Kai.

   Kanei Mabuni and his younger brother Kenzo head the karate programs at several universities, a task inherited from their father. Still other early students of Mabuni have their own distinct organizations and followings. Ryusho Sakagami, a contemporary of Kanei Mabuni, established the Itosu-kai just after Mabuni’s death. Sakagami’s son, Sadaaki, now oversees the Itosu-kai from the Yokohama area. In 1948, Chojiro Tani organized the Shuko-kai, where he taught Tani-ha Shito-ryu. Ever innovative, the Shuko-kai, under the present leadership of Shigeru Kimura in the United States, appears somewhat different in technique from the other Shito-ryu groups.

   Since the 1970s, several other Shito-ryu factions have formed. Most prominent Hayashi-ha Shito-ryu under Teruo Hayashi. Hayashi was a protégé of Kosei Kokuba and also trained directly under Mabuni. Hayashi became president of the Seishin-kai sometime after Kokuba’s death. For awhile, he co-led that organization along with Motobu-ryu style-head Shogo Kuniba. Together they integrated the Tomari-bassai kata into their systems. The assertive Hayashi even studied in Okinawa under Kenko Nakaima, head of the longtime secret family art of Ryuei-ryu. Ryuei-ryu is derived from the same Chinese teacher who taught Kanryo Higashionna, a man named Liu Liu Kung. Another, younger member of the Motobu-ha group, Chuzo Kotaka, established Kotaka-ha Shito-ryu in Hawaii, revising all the kata and devising many new ones which he taught to his American students. And in Europe, a Tani-ha Shito-ryu student named Yoshiano Nambu broke off on his own, first founding the Sanku-kai and later the Nambudo. But possibly the world’s most famous Shito-ryu exponent is Fumio Demura, a former sparring champion who has taught Itosu-kai Shito-ryu in southern California since 1965.

   Technically, the karate of most Shito-ryu factions looks pretty much the same. Not surprisingly, there are minor differences in the kata between the various groups, mostly due to the proclivities of their founders. Regardless, all Shito-ryu looks a lot like Shorin-ryu in application. A long, linear style, even its Goju-ryu-type kata (those derived from Higashionna) are performed in a lighter, more angular and rangy fashion than they are in schools derived from Naha-te alone. Shito-ryu is much like Shotokan in that it relies heavily on the reverse punch and front kick. The style also seems to place a strong emphasis on sparring. In so doing, Shito-ryu stresses speed, and fighting is generally initiated from a higher, more upright stance than Shotokan employs. On the other hand, because the style has so many kata, a great deal of time is spent perfecting any one of its 40 to 60 forms.

   Shito-ryu has never forsaken its Okinawan roots when it comes to kobujutsu (weapons arts). While Mabuni trained under weapons experts such as Arakaki, many of today’s Shito-ryu teachers learned most of their kobujutsu from Shinken Taira, the man responsible for popularizing kobujutsu during a time when interest in this peculiarly Okinawan art was at its lowest. It seems that Shito-ryu schools were the most receptive to Taira’s art. Both the younger and elder Sakagami, Demura, Hayashi, Kuniba and Kanei Mabuni all trained with Taira at one time or another.

1. Karate-Do begins with courtesy and ends with rei.
2. there is no first strike in karate.
3. Karate is an aid to justice.
4. First know yourself before attempting to know others.
5. Spirit first, technique second.
6. Always be ready to release your mind.
7. Accidents arise from negligence.
8. Do not think that karate training is only in the dojo.
9. It will take your entire life to learn karate, there is no limit.
10. Put your everyday living into karate and you will find "Myo" (subtle secrets).
11. Karate is like boiling water, if yiou do not heat it constantly, it will cool.
12. Do not think that you have to win, think rather that you do not have to lose.
13. Victory depends on your ability to distinguish vulnerable points from invulnerable ones.
14. The out come of the battle depends on how you handle weakness and strength.
15. Think of your opponents hands and feet as swords.
16. When you leave home, think that you have numerous opponents waiting for you.
17. Beginners must master low stance and posture, natural body positions are for the advanced.
18. Practicing a kata exactly is one thing, engaging in a real fight is another.
19. Do not forget to correctly apply: strength and weakness of power, stretching and contraction of the body, and slowness and speed of techniques.
20. Always think and divise ways to live the precepts of karate-do every day.

     there are many myths and misconceptions about karate that get circulated about.  People see a karate class in movies, and believe that in karate a student is taught to fight using extremely rigid looking poses that must be used exactly, or else they are inept.  Training a person for hand to hand combat can be a tricky thing.  Teaching a student specific attack can be effective, but it doesn't yield a very versatile fighting method - it would take years to develop any kind of repertoire that would be useful.  In karate, the idea is to teach a student a new way to move his or her body.  Think of the stances and techniques of karate as training tools - they teach a student which muscles to contract, which to relax, and how to align his or her joints.  A karateka learns to glide from stance to stance effortlessly, and align his or her body precisely to transfer force from an impact point to the floor.  Once this muscle control is learned, a person can be physically confident, effective, and practical in any situation - whether self defense, or playing a sport.

     After students gain proficiency in basic technique, they begin to learn to apply it in sparring.  A karateka learns to read an opponent, and control the distance between them.  By controlling the distance, a student learns to fight using good timing, attacking in the open spaces between an opponent's movements, with the ultimate goal of defeating them in a single blow, directed at one of the body's weak spots.  Everyone fights with a natural rhythm, and an experienced karateka will try to learn that rhythm, and exploit it.  If a student can learn to anticipate and read an opponent, he or she can even "counter" attack before the opponent attacks, at the moment that opponent initiates an exchange. 

     While the principles of traditional karate are, for the most part, straightforward and simple, it can take many years to train the body to do them properly.  Learning karate is a constant process of refining one's body motions.  Bad habits must be unlearned, and replaced with more efficient, relaxed motions.  Often, when one bad habit is corrected, another pops up.  There are many subtleties involved in learning good form, and many small muscle groups that can be difficult to control independently.  For training purposes, Shotokan is divided into three areas; Kihon, Kata, and Kumite.

     In Shotokan a student learns to use their body to its full potential to deliver a strike.  Karate is a fighting art composted primarily of basic punches and kicks, utilizing the legs on all techniques to develop a strong foundation.  The style is known for its driving stances, which are important for creating power in a technique.  Ideally, the karateka learns to put their entire body mass into a technique, with the purpose of finishing an opponent in a single precision blow.  Students learn to initiate techniques from the center of their body, driving the hips into a strike for maximum mass and power.  Power is generated through the use of hip rotation, hip vibration, body contraction, and body expansion.  Posture is also extremely important in developing a technique to its maximum potential.  The body's joints must be properly aligned to allow force to transfer from the fist through the shoulder, through the torso and hips, down through the legs and to the floor, and then back to the fist again.  If any one of these areas aren't properly aligned and focused, they will absorb the shock of impact and severely weaken the blow.  In Shotokan a student strives to achieve a natural posture and ease of motion so that none of the body's joints are restricted, allowing for the quickest movements in response to an opponent.  Besides technical expertise, a Karateka also develops control over his or her breathing.  Proper breathing further connects the areas of the body together, and can serve as a mental aid to enhance concentration, focus, and willpower.  Executing multiple techniques using a single exhalation helps a student flow from technique to technique more smoothly and quickly as well.

     Karate is also well known for the dance-like, flowing motions of kata.  Traditionally, kata was the core and essence of karate training.  With little in the way of organized instruction, commoners in Okinawa relied on interpreting and practicing kata, which could be taught and passed from person to person.  Kata served as study aids, leading by example in possible counters and attacks.  While still used in this fashion for training today, many of the intended purposes of these kata have been lost and forgotten.  Kata also function as exercise drills, with some kata emphasizing different muscle groups and techniques.  Lastly, kata can be quite graceful when used as a performance art, and is a popular tournament event in modern karate.

Shotokan karate is a form of Budo - basically a Japanese martial art.  Kendo, Aikido, and Judo are all forms of Budo (Pronounced: boo - doe).  Budo, translated literally, means military way, or martial way.  Budo is composed of two characters - "Bu" meaning "martial", and "Do" which means "way".  The word karate is constructed of two kanji characters as well - "Kara", meaning "empty" and "te" which means "hand".  Many of the names of Budoforms also end with the "do" term, - hence, karate is often referred to as karate-do, the empty hand way, as Shotokan is a weaponless method of fighting.  Referring to Shotokan as karatedo generally implies karaste as a way of life, and following the philosophical aspect of karate.

Shotokan is one of several forms of traditional karate, including Wado-Ryu, Goju-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu, and Shito-Ryu.  These five are the foremost styles referred to as "Traditional karate" and practiced worldwide.  While there are few facts concerning the common origin of many ancient martial art styles, it is known that traditional karate originated in Okinawa, a small island to the south of mainland Japan, during the 17th century.  Forbidden from possessing weapons, peasants were forced to develop ways to protect themselves from bandits in secret.  Not until the early 1900's was karate introduced to the Japanese public, by a man named Gichin Funakoshi.  Funakoshi learned traditional karate on Okinawa, and word spread after he performed several demonstrations.  Soon after,  found himself performing karate demos in Japan.  In 1939, he founded the first public karate school in Japan, called the Shotokan.  Shoto was Funakoshi's pen name, so Shotokan stood for the hall of Shoto.  For several years he taught and demonstrated karate, and its popularity grew.  Funakoshi was friends with the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, who used white cotton uniforms with colored belts signifying rank for his students.  Funakoshi then introduced a similar system for his school.  Students donned the uniform, called a Gi(Pronounced Gee, with a hard 'G'), and wore various colored belts to represent their progress in the art.  In 1948, karate proponents established the Japan Karate Association (JKA).  through the efforts of the JKA, Shotokan quickly spread to other countries throughout the 1950's, and karate was introduced to the world.