Traditional Karate in Modern Times

Following is a resume written by a brown belt preparing for his shodan. Do YOU think he is ready?

Classical karate is a state of mind. It is the approach a student takes which determines whether or not he/she is a classical martial artist or merely someone who chose martial arts instead of co-ed volleyball as a way to spend two nights a week in a social setting.

Classical karate's approach to the arts is one of reverence for tradition, bunkai and philosophy, not trophies, tournaments and flashy moves that impress friends and family. Sport karate has produced some phenomenal fighters and trains its athletes to be quick, strategic, extremely agile and highly motivated. This is impressive and not to be taken lightly in the street, but a classical martial artist is concerned with being a better person progressively as opposed to being better than someone else.

It is a fool who thinks that karate is just moves and stances and combinations of these. Karate is every man and woman that has ever trained. I don't just learn from the sensei how a punch is thrown, I learn how "his" punch is thrown. It is through trying to understand the teachers who have gone before and not just the techniques they show us that the spirit and essence of karate are truly passed on in a traditional manner. Classical karate trains the mind, body and spirit and to memorize a move to technical perfection. Without understanding something about the person who teaches you, or the "masters" who first trained the moves, is to deny the spirit and the roots of its evolution. Karate learned from a book cannot be considered classical for this reason. Tradition approached through respect and appreciation for the people who have established the art will allow karate to build on all the masters' knowledge handed down for generations. In my dojo I am not following karate's rules, I'm following the sensei's rules. While it may be necessary to change these as the arts evolve, the tradition of strict respect for the sensei should always recontent.

Bunkai is necessary to classical karate. Bunkai is the explanation of how the techniques in the kata relate to practical application. Kata without bunkai has no soul. A martial artist can be a world champion at kata without a clue as to why they're moving in such a sequence. A traditionalist may never even compete but will find new depth in every kata their entire lifetime because of bunkai. For example; the first Gedan Barai in Pinan Shodan could be blocking a kick, applying a wrist lock followed by a throw or three consecutive strikes followed by a break. Only a classical approach could yield such fruit from the first move of the first kata taught.

Everybody is on their own journey and classical martial arts allows a student to arrive at their own perspectives and wisdom through their training experiences. In this way everyone may achieve their own inner peace and 'victory'. In competition karate, a person's worth and victory is judged against another person. In classical martial arts one becomes more aware of the inner self. This is the philosophy which allows a student to find 'the way'. A sport fighter thinks only of winning a trophy at the end of the day and with one eye so firmly fixed on the prize there is only one eye left to find 'the way'. The philosophy of a classical student is 'one punch'. This means that ultimately one punch is all that is needed to decimate an opponent because the focus and harmony of the technique can cause deadly results. On the other hand all techniques require full concentration, as when one is in a state of meditation it helps the student to fully realize the moment.

What time is it? ... now. Where am I? ... here. This is a philosophy that is often ignored but a classical state of mind will teach it.

To my mind the word classical in front of karate is redundant. It is unfortunate that it has become necessary to distinguish between people who don't understand the true values in the martial arts and those who are humble enough say, "Sensei, help me find 'my way'."

By Shaun Benson ...1st Kyu, Giri Dojo