Dotokushin Kai on Karate ni sente nashi

 

 Dotokushin Kai

May 23 at 2:52pm

Tracing the Circle – Weekly Meditations on the Practice

 

 

“Karate ni sente nashi" = “There is no ‘sente’ in Karate”

In the Japanese game of ‘Go’, A 'sente' placement of a stone is one that requires your opponent to respond to the implications of the stone you placed, ignoring it only at peril.

 

This could be thought of as asserting initiative or creating provocation for a response. The opponent realizes, of course, that the possible outcome of ignoring the sente move is "death".

 

It would be preferable to render "karate ni sente nashi" as something more on the line of "In karate, we don't incite others to fight with us, provoke others to fight with us, leave others no choice but to fight us."

This, of course, is not the same as "there is no first attack". If that were true, studying or training in karate would be useless to anyone whose profession sometimes required the initiation of violence.

 

Since we know that such training is not useless, it seems more likely that "karate ni sente nashi" represents a polite, politically correct way of assuring authorities "Yes, we ordinary subjects of the Emperor practice arts that can kill and maim but don't worry because we wouldn't threaten you."