Shotokan Karatedo is considered a traditional style of karate. Is it? Funakoshi Senseididn’t think so.
Why do I say that. Gichin Funakoshi was a karate master who trained under the two best karate masters on the island of Okinawa. He was not trained to believe that there was a style. There was no formal karate uniform. There were no belts! Unless you’re talking about the one to hold up your pants. Remember Myagi in karate kid. Yes, I have a belt, $3.99 JC Penney. That was their format. You found out their knowledge the hard way not by the color of their belt.
I’ve trained with an talked to and heard and read comments from people that claim to know the correct, or traditional way to do things. I was at a school that the Instructor corrected the pronunciation of a word spoken by a kid from another school who eventually went on to be a World Champion at the Pan American Games. I later read that both pronunciations were correct.
Was Funakoshi Sensei traditional. He trained with two primary instructors and as it was practice on Okinawa he trained with other instructors, sort of like we refer people to another doctor. There was also the practice of learning katas from other instructors and sharing with other katate-kas. Kata was a primary form of their practice on Okinawa partly because they were disarmed by Japan and it was enforced by the Samurai’s. Katas didn’t look as aggressive and still provided the necessary training. If a karate-ka was thought to be training on how to fight he may be questioned by the local Samurai.
When Funakoshi Sensei went to Japan to introduce karate, there already were the arts of Kendo, Judo and JiJitsu. Funakoshi Sensei must’ve made quite an impression, because the Japanese emperor was anxious to have him teach in Japan. Funakoshi Sensei went to work changing many of the Okinawan names of katas in an attempt to make karate more acceptable amongst the Japanese people. He changed the order of the beginners katas and added the karate gi and belt to karate. Later the stances started to get deeper as a result of their interactions with judo-ka. Funakoshi Sensei also had no intention of giving his art a name. His art was named more to honor him than anything else. Funakoshi Sensei thought that all karate should come under one name an be one happy family under the name of karate. Human nature being what it is, we still continue to create styles and change things and then say we are traditional.
I’m a modern thinking traditionalist. I believe that history teaches us the mistakes of the past and can teach us where to go from here. Karate is not a religion and Funakoshi Sensei didn’t really believe too strongly in tradition himself. He changed many things to make them apply to the modern times. We should show respect to the past but not at the expense of practicality. We must use what we have wisely and make it apply to our current world.
Funakoshi Sensei wanted to promote his beautiful art and make it better. That’s a tradition I would like to see continue. Refine it, perfect it, understand it!
Shihan Culver
