Is our karate evolving for the current times?

 

I am going to get a bit serious here. As you know "the times they are a' changing."

From the origins of Okinawan Ti(Te) or Toudi [Pick the term that means most to you.] then changing into karate, Karate and Karate times infinity the arts kept evolving to meet the new challenges of the day.

I am going to be a bit simplistic describing these changes. From what I have been able to understand, there were about 5 different groups who developed Ti or Toudi for specific family functions to serve Okinawan needs.  Then Japan took over control of Okinawa and those functions performed by Okinawan's were no longer needed.

I believe for a time the arts remained as a way for those families keep their traditions alive.

Then Itosu came up with the idea of karate gymnastics taught in the schools, to shape the young for future military service. As that developed with success other instructors did the same. Likewise, they opened their programs for others and karate became a more public skill.

Karate also began its Export into Japan, South America, Hawaii and other places.

WWII intervened and Karate built from the past, slowly began changing for a different time and a very different need.

American service men gained instruction and that became another export of the arts that continues to this day, now worldwide.

Okinawa gradually reacted to that export and in turn even on Okinawa more change came about.

One example might be Tatsuo Shimabuku, who having trained with a variety of instructors, over his decades in the arts, began to see a need to change from how he taught. At the same time, he was likely the first to teach American service men his art (abet at times abbreviated due to the Viet Nam war meaning shorter stays for those Service people on Okinawa.

So, the art that hit America still taught self-defense, but some pushed their art for the benefit of the physical training, or for the newly developing idea of sport karate.  There was some incursion of the art into military training, but the necessity for hand-to-hand combat for the average soldier, became less as issue as warfare changed.

It is now 50 years since I began my Isshinryu studies and the world is a very different place, here in the states and across the world.

Concern about self-defense was never the reason I began my Isshinryu study. What I acquired from my training was most personal, perhaps I could sum it up most as being able to down any opponent.

But I never taught that to anybody by verbalizing it.

For youth, when I realized most of them would only train for 2 or 3 years (far below the 7-year standard to reach full shodan for my program) I realized the real-life value for their training was to show them they that which they could accomplish if they believed in themself and made a personal effort to learn.

Even those who made the 7+ year journey to Shodan, most of them would eventually more on as they lived their life. It was not to be they would remain training with me. Of course there were a few exceptions to that realization, exceptional exceptions, but it remained true. Even my son who began at 7 and received his Shodan at 17, fully advancing to full Nidan, eventually made his adult choice at 22 and moved on to other things.

Neither did I ever discuss when to choose to use karate with any of the adults I trained, even those who trained with me for decades. The training was always more important. Of course they experienced, felt, and learned well what I kept working on. How to drop an attacker.

Now for the crux of all of this.

This is not old Okinawa, which does not seem to have been a very dangerous place, this is not the States when I learnt my karate, which for the most part was a place where there was law and order.  Of course, bad, even horrible, things occurred, but not for the most part as an everyday occurrence.

Today, groups like ATIFA, BLM and pre-HAMAS appear to run rampant without any type if control being placed on them. Too many places the police presence has been forcefully reduced.  Those committing crimes are often released. Rational rule of law seems to have been ignored. Certainly, the use of firearms must be considered, I am not suggesting their ban would be a solution. However random shootings on the street, in malls, schools and in the workplace have become too common everywhere. Then there are the masses of the homeless sleeping on the streets, as well as millions of unknown illegal aliens doing who knows what in our country. All of which makes almost anything happen.

Those who attempt to defend themselves often then become charged criminals.

A far different environment as opposed to simpler assault for which karate seemed to be a reasonable answer.

Is karate still a reasonable tool for self-defense?  Is karate what people really want for these times?

Karate training certainly has a place in a possible answer, but really can today's karate instruction actually make one safer for situations of self-defense, considering the wide range of possible situations one might encounter.

I have no simple answer, just asking in these circumstances are being considered.