Tradition

Tradition Tradition, tradition! Tradition! Tradition, tradition! Tradition!

Definition of tradition 1a : an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (such as a religious practice or a social custom) b : a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable … the bulk of traditions attributed to the Prophet …— J. L. Esposito 2 : the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction 3 : cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions 

 As I was thinking about what Ti/Toudi would have been like as a practice, another thought came to me. And the concept of traditional karate came to mind, thinking about what were the traditions maintained within karate. 

First I must be clear, I am not against tradition within karate, or within your own system(s) of practice. 

I am just trying at a mega level to understand what tradition means in karate. 

The reasons, practices bound to the Bushi of Okinawa within their Ti/Toudi essentially did not fit what karate became. You were not training to then serve your society in a defined function. 

The traditions behind Itosu’s development of what karate could be were for a different reason, Of course the kata and techniques therein were passed along, and in some part perhaps that is the tradition. But the reasons became very different. 

So those first traditions, focused on the school karate, goes back perhaps 100 years. 

20 years later when karate began its export into Japan, other traditions arose to fit in to the Japanese society. 

10 years later the traditions again made changes. 

The kanjin for Karate changed, many other things began to be influenced by Japan. 

Then by the mid 1950’s many of those Japanese traditions became fixed in Okinawan tradition too. Where there just was the instructor, systems defining styles arose. Rank became part of the plan. Uniforms became standardized, and so much more. It can be said that perhaps that was when the bulk of today’s traditions took hold. 

Perhaps a short 70 years ago. And traditions kept evolving. 

They are traditions of course, they just do not have perhaps the same meaning of traditions which go back hundreds of years, if those do exist in Okinawan karate.