What is Karate?
Karate is a system of fighting developed on the island of Okinawa and in Japan based upon punching, kicking, blocking, and striking an opponent utilizing the rules of physics to maximize the damage caused by each blow. A person trained in Karate for several years will be able to deliver knock out blows by delivering only a few techniques or even only one technique to their opponent. Unlike boxing, the Karate fighter keeps his center of gravity low to the ground and depends upon his legs, buttocks, and torso to power his strikes. Therefore, the Karate enthusiast does not lean in while punching. Also unlike boxers, Karate enthusiasts are generally taught to strike sensitive weak points in the human body like the throat and places where large nerves are vulnerable. Unlike a Tae Kwon Do artist, Karate emphasizes solid footing, and kicking is generally shunned in favor of punching and striking with the hands. Unlike many Chinese styles of fighting, Karate involves extremely simple motions that depend upon proper timing and distancing in order to be effective, rather than complicated techniques in which both arms and one leg might be used together. Karate enthusiasts are generally taught how to fall and utilize some simple throws, but they are unlikely to do more than use some basic foot sweeping maneuvers followed by hand techniques.

What does the word Karate mean?
Karate is a Japanese word. It is written with two kanji (Chinese characters). The first is pronounced Kû or Kara, and it means air, void, or empty. The second kanji is pronounced Te or Shu, and it means hand. Karate means "empty hand." The implication, according to most armchair Japanese scholars, is supposed to be that your hand is empty because it contains no weapons. Also, the idea that your mind should also be "empty", ala Zen Buddhist beliefs, is frequently used to explain the name.

The art was originally known as T'ang Hand using kanji when were also pronounced karate by coincidence. The T'ang, of course, representing the T'ang Dynasty in China. Okinawans have long believed that their karate is something Chinese that they have modified, rather than a home-grown art form. These two kanji are pronounced "Toh-te" in Japan proper. I am not aware of how they are pronounced in Okinawa. The character for T'ang can also be pronounced "kara," so essentially the name was changed from karate to karate.

The name change is claimed by several martial arts instructors during the 1920's. Funakoshi Gichin, the founder of Shotokan Karate, is among those who claims he was the person who changed the characters. Apparently the change outraged the boys back in Okinawa, because they wrote letters to newspapers and to karate instructors all over Okinawa scandalizing Funakoshi and others for adopting the change.

The reason for changing the characters? Japan was waging war on China at the time, and nationalism was running high. Anything that could be done to separate the art from its traditional association with China would be of benefit to anyone teaching it. Funakoshi seized the opportunity to Japanify karate to make it more palatable to the very nationalistic and prejudiced spirit in Japan at the time.

What is Karate-do?
Do (pronounced "doh") is a Japanese character that means road, way, path, or method. It can also be pronounced "michi." In Chinese, this character is called Dao - often written Tao - for "The Way." It is a very Confucian concept that has been written about in great detail in China by philosophers such as Lao Tzu in his Dao Te Ching. The Way is supposed to be the way of the universe itself, and those who follow it are "enlightened." Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate, is known to have been a school teacher on Okinawa, and before he retired and went to Japan at the age of 54 in 1922, he was teaching the Chinese Classics. Lao Tzu's work is considered one of these classics.

Some people who like to think of their Karate as almost being a lifestyle might refer to it as Karate-do or "The Way of Karate." Funakoshi made this practice stylish by titling his auto-biography Karate-do, My Way of Life. However, in many of his other writings, he never refers to Karate as Karate-do. He instead simply calls it karate. His Nijukun, detailed elsewhere in this document, name karate as Karate-do only when he is referring to how things are done in Karate. This leads me to think that when he was referring to Karate-do, he was referring to how he applied to karate training to his everyday life. He was not calling his karate itself "Karate-do."

In other words, the way things are done in karate and karate are two different things, and it would probably be improper to refer to the punching and kicking participation itself as "Karate-do" as so many karate clubs do these days in the West.

Not all Karate practitioners subscribe to the idea that their Karate is a way of life, although many texts and treatises on karate written in Japan and the West state that karate is character training as an absolute fact. Many people take karate for fun or simple exercise and could care less about the spiritual aspects that some ascribe to their training.

What is Shotokan Karate?
Shotokan is the kind of Karate that was founded by Funakoshi Gichin when he arrived in Japan from Okinawa. It was created in 1922, was the first Karate to arrive in Japan from Okinawa, and is known for producing very highly trained Karate players who are both fast and strong. This is the kind of Karate taught by the Japan Karate Association in Japan. There are four major styles of Karate in Japan at present: Shito, Goju, Wado, and Shotokan. Shito-Ryu has more kata training, some weapons training, and less training in pure technique than Shotokan. Goju-Ryu uses higher and narrower stances in some cases, fewer kata, and more strengthening and conditioning training than does Shotokan. Wado-Ryu is an offshoot of Shotokan that incorporates less kata, kumite, and basic technique and more jujutsu holds and locks. All four styles are rooted in the same Karate, but each takes a different strategic view of fighting and training for optimal abilities.

The Shotokan view is that purity of raw technique is most important. The idea behind this is that one, elegant technique 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 Shotokan training. Later, after technical execution development has begun to plateau after years of training, more complicated defenses can be uncovered from the kata that all Shotokan enthusiasts are required to learn.

What does Shotokan mean in English?
The word Shotokan is composed of three kanji characters in Japanese. They are properly pronounced "show-toe-kahn" (like Madeline Kahn). The sho character is taken from the word matsu which means pine tree. To is the character for waves. Pine Waves is supposed to mean "the sound that pine trees make when the wind blows through their needles." Some people also translate this to mean the waves that pine trees seem to make visually when bending in the wind. The founder of the style, Funakoshi Gichin, signed his works of calligraphy with the pen name Shoto. The word kan means building.

Actually, practitioners of Shotokan in Japan really never referred to their karate by that name. They simply called it "karate." The name comes from the world's first karate dojo, which was constructed in 1939 by Funakoshi's students. They placed a plaque over the door that said "Shotokan," in honor of Funakoshi. The Hall of Pine Waves. This dojo was completely destroyed in an American bombing raid on Japan in 1945. The word Shotokan is usually used by outsiders to describe the style done by the Japan Karate Association groups that abound, and it is used in the West to describe that style of karate.

What is the purpose of Karate training?
There are several purposes that people take up Karate as a hobby. "Self-defense" is the most widely used excuse to take karate. I've questioned my students about why they started, and I've asked my friends again and again: they either say something about having great respect for Japanese culture and tradition, or mumble "self-defense." However, when questioned more closely, I have never had a single man able to give me a solid reason for taking karate beyond this:

"Hitotsu! I take karate to learn how to open up a can of Japanese woop-ass!"

People like the feeling of power that strong karate gives. And it isn't self-mastery they're after, is it? It's mastery over others, should they decide to exercise it. However, self-defense is not the only purpose for Karate training. Some people take up Karate simply to lose weight, to improve their cardiovascular health, and to enjoy a competitive activity. Some people take the Japanese martial arts very seriously (too seriously?) and hope that Karate training will instill within them discipline and self control. Others simply take Karate up because they want to meet people and get out of the house. It is inevitable that each person tends to view everyone's Karate training from their own perspective, therefore leading to judgmental and narrow-minded assumptions about others who train for different reasons.

Karate, weight lifting and running.
Running and other cardio-oriented activities like aerobics will lessen the suffering you experience during any activity requiring endurance by expanding your aerobic capacity. You will be able to work out longer, harder, with less heavy breathing if you are in good cardiovascular shape. Cardiovascular training, usually identified as any exercise that puts your heart into your target beat per minute range for at least 20 minutes, reduces body fat as well, and can make your body more efficient, and as a result, easier to train.

Weight lifting for strength is a fantastic addition to anyone's training regimen. The primary concern, though, is maintaining full range of motion of muscles that are exercised. This is why many body builders are not able to move very effectively. Weight lifting by itself does not condemn you to becoming slow and stiff, however. In fact, weight lifting, coupled with Karate training to relax and stretching to increase flexibility, can be a tremendous benefit to anyone training in Karate. It will increase your muscle mass, speed up your metabolism, speed up your execution of motions that you exercise, and strengthen your ultimate striking ability.

However, the demands placed on the body by Karate training are very specific to those actions, so the only really effective way get in "karate shape" is by doing karate exercises. The muscles and flexibility necessary for good Karate ability are not those that are typically exercised by running and weight lifting, and you will get sore despite the good shape that you are in when you first begin lessons.

Karate uniform.
The white uniform is called a gi. Say gee. The karate uniform was taken [stolen] from the uniforms used in Judo. Until the 1920's, there was no official uniform of Karate. The entire thing was the creation of a Judo instructor, and he also created the color belts that people wear in karate schools and other martial arts as well. The Karate gi is lighter and weaker material than the average Judo uniform these days. It is also bright white, where Judo uniforms are usually off white or wheat colored. There was a time about 70 years ago, when training in street clothes was the norm.

In Okinawa, a miraculous and mysterious martial art has come down to us from the past. It is said that one who masters its techniques can defend himself readily without resort to weapons and can perform remarkable feats: the breaking of several thick boards with his fist or ceiling panels of a room with a kick. With his shuto ("sword hand") he can kill a bull with a single stroke; he can pierce the flank of a horse with his open hand; he can cross a room grasping the beams of the ceiling with his fingers, crush a green bamboo stalk with his bare hand, shear a hemp rope with a twist, or gouge soft rock with his hands.

Some consider these aspects of this miraculous and mysterious martial art to be the essence of Karate-do. But such feats are a small part of karate, playing a role analogous to the straw-cutting test of kendo [Japanese fencing], and it is erroneous to think that there is no more to Karate-do than this. In fact, true Karate-do places weight upon spiritual rather than physical matters, as we shall discuss. True Karate-do is this: that in daily life, one's mind and body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility; and that in critical times, one be devoted utterly to the cause of justice.

KARA

Karate-do is a martial art peculiar to Okinawa in its origins. Although it has in the past tended to be confused with Chinese boxing because of the use of the chinese "kara" character in its earlier name, in fact for the past thousand years, the study and practice of masters and experts, through which it was nurtured and perfected and formed into the unified martial art that it is today, took place in Okinawa. It is, therefore, not a distortion to represent it as an Okinawan martial art.

One may ask why the chinese "kara" character has been retained for so long. As I discuss in the section "The Development of Karate-do," I believe that at the time the influence of Chinese culture was at its peak in Japan, many experts in the martial arts traveled to China to practice Chinese boxing. With their new knowledge, they altered the existing martial art, called Okinawa-te, weeding out its bad points and adding good points to it, thus working it into an elegant art. It may be speculated that they considered "kara" (with the chinese character) an appropriate new name. Since, even in contemporary Japan, there are many people who are impressed by anything that is foreign, it is not difficult to imagine the high regard for anything Chinese that prevailed during that period in Okinawa. Even at the time of the present writer's youth, lack of a full set of Chinese furniture and furnishings in one's home was a serious impediment to the social influence of any leading family.

With this background, the reason for the choice of the chinese "kara" character, meaning "Chinese," as a simple case of exoticism is apparent.

Following tradition, the writer has in the past continued to use the chinese character. However, because of the frequent confusion with Chinese boxing, and the fact that the Okinawan martial art may now be considered a Japanese martial art, it is inappropriate, and in a sense degrading, to continue use of the old "kara" in the name. For this reason, in spite of many protests, we have abandoned the use of it to replace it with the new character KARA.

THE MEANING OF KARA

The first connotation of kara indicates that karate is a technique that permits one to defend himself with his bare hands and fists without weapons.

Second, just as it is the clear mirror that reflects without distortion, or the quiet valley that echoes a sound, so must one who would study Karate-do purge himself of selfish and evil thoughts, for only with a clear mind and conscience can he understand that which he receives. This is another meaning of the element kara in Karate-do.

Next, he who would study Karate-do must always strive to be inwardly humble and outwardly gentle. However, once he has decided to stand up for the cause of justice, then he must have the courage expressed in the saying, "Even if it must be ten million foes, I go!" Thus, he is like the green bamboo stalk: hollow (kara) inside, straight, and with knots, that is, unselfish, gentle, and moderate. This meaning is also contained in the element kara of Karate-do.

Finally, in a fundamental way, the form of the universe is emptiness (kara), and, thus, emptiness is form itself. There are many kinds of martial arts, judo, kendo, sojitsu ("spear techniques"), bojitsu ("stick techniques"), and others, but at a fundamental level all these arts rest on the same basis as Karate-do. It is no exaggeration to say that the original sense of Karate-do is at one with the basis of all martial arts. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form itself. The kara of Karate-do has this meaning.

Kyokushinkai Kan

by Masutatsu Oyama

    Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of the largest Karate organization started and established Bare-knuckle, Full-contact tournament system one of the top authoritative and influential figures in the world of Martial Arts history one of the pioneers in spreading the Asian Martial Arts to the West and to all over the world ever pursuing, ever a practitioner, he is recognized to be reached to the level of the true Mastery.

Sosai Masutatsu Oyama (1923 - 1994)

Kyoku = Ultimate, utmost Shin = Truth, truthfulness Kai = Organization Kan = Building, School

The kanji (Japanese characters) calligraphy, worn universally on the front of the gi, simply means "Kyokushinkai", which is the name given by Sosai Mas Oyama to the karate style he created.  It is composed of three characters:

 Kyoku  meaning "Ultimate".

 Shin  meaning "Truth" or "Reality".

 Kai  meaning "Society" or "Association".

Kanku

The symbol of Kyokushin Karate is the Kanku, which is derived from Kanku Kata, the Sky Gazing Form.  In this kata, the hands are raised and the fingers meet to form an opening through which the sky is viewed.  The top and bottom points of the Kanku represent the first fingers of each hand touching at the top and the thumbs touching at the bottom, symbolizing the peaks or ultimate points.  The thick sections at the sides represent the wrists, symbolizing power.  The center circle represents the opening between the hands through which the sky is viewed, symbolizing infinite depth.  The whole Kanku is enclosed by a circle, symbolizing continuity and circular action.

Masutatsu Oyama

Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin Karate was born on July 12, 1923 in Korea. He lived on his sister's farm in Manchuria from infancy until age 12, during this time he studied Kung-Fu. Returning to Korea, he continued his martial arts training, then travelled to Japan in 1938. He trained in various martial arts disciplines in Japan earning his second degree (nidan) black belt in karate at age 17, and fourth degree (yondan) at age 20. The progress he made in his studies of Judo were equally astounding, achieving the rank of yondan in less than four years.

One of Mas Oyama's instructors in Karate, So Nei Chu, was to have a profound influence on Mas Oyama, when he advised him to make a firm commitment to dedicate his lifeto the martial way. Heeding his words to "seek solace in nature", Mas Oyama subjected himself to the rigours of daily training in the mountains of Chiba prefecture in order to strength his own body and spirit. He was accompanied by one of his own students, but after six months of isolation, the student secretly fled, leaving Mas Oyama to continue his vigourous training alone. Returning to civilization after one year of solitude, he tested his abilities in the karate division of the first national martial arts championships, and won.

Mas Oyama then imposed on himself a further period of solitary training, again in the mountains, and upon his return, demonstrated his remarkable ability by fighting bulls. He fought a total of 52 bulls, killing three and breaking the horns off 49 others.

His fame as a karateka spread rapidly as his feats were unparalled and in 1954 he opened his first dojo in Tokyo, Japan. This dojo was the beginning of the Kyokushin KaiKan. In 1964, the Tokyo Honbu (headquarters) was officially opened and the International Karate Organization (IKO) was established. Today, the IKO, headed by Kancho Shokei Matsui, is the largest karate organization in the world with over twelve million members in 135 countries