From the efforts o f Andres Quast
Kinjō
Hiroshi:
From
karate 唐手 to karate 空手 – Introduction
Posted
on March 8, 2017 by Andreas Quast
More than one century has passed since the creation of karate 唐手 in 1905. About seventy-five years ago, in 1936, karate 唐手 was renamed to karate 空手. Since I have had made karate 唐手 my life-task in 1926, about eighty-five years have passed through the three eras of Taishō (1912–1926), Shōwa (1926–1989), and Heisei (1989–). And so I lived in this world throughout the greater part of the history of both karate 唐手 and karate 空手. When looking back on my long karate life, I strongly feel that it was a series of really fortunate coincidences.
I survived
difficult-to-cure diseases, begun with meningitis and pneumonia during my
childhood days, as well as pulmonary tuberculosis and typhoid fever as an
adolescent. Reaching my young adulthood, after about five years in military
service and having narrowly escaped death, I was repatriated. Having reached an
old age, I also survived lung cancer. Today, at more than 90 years of age, and
despite having a variety of adult diseases, I—by and large—enjoy good health
and spend every day in peaceful gratitude with reading, exercising, and
writing. I also think I lived a little longer than expected.
From childhood to
young adulthood I was able to meet most of the people that are referred to as
the prominent figures and masters of karate 唐手
at the time (to be precise, the Shuride of that time). In addition, by
an integrated analysis of the fragmentary teachings by each of the aforementioned
masters, and furthermore through a comparison with the literature related to
karate 唐手 of that time, I was able to roughly understand the
true picture (real-life image) of the techniques and the historical facts of
karate 唐手. However, I guess the image of karate 空手
among the general public is something considerably different.
I feel a sense of
duty to by all means communicate to future generations the true picture
(real-life image) of karate 唐手 that I have
obtained, thus filling in the blanks in the history of karate 空手.
Especially as regards handing down our ancestors’ teachings I have the profound
feeling that my own life is not solely mine alone [Note: in sense of owing to
the masters].
In 1905, nascent
karate 唐手 as a compulsory subject entered the regular
curriculum of Okinawa Prefectural Middle School and Okinawa Prefectural
Teachers College. Because it was the first attempt by the prefecture, the
educational outcomes of karate 唐手 were tried out at
the Middle School. In addition to this, Itosu Ankō, as the person responsible
for karate 唐手 instruction, reported back ten individual clauses.
His written report of ten clauses are the so-called “Itosu Ankō’s Ten Articles
of Karate 唐手.” However, because of its contents, I promote it
under the name “Itosu’s Ten Maxims (Itosu Jikkun),” as a “holy book”
advocating the spirit of respect for human beings. Without knowing “Itosu’s Ten
Maxims,” it is impossible to talk about both karate 唐手
and karate 空手.
What is the difference between Todi, Karate, and Karate?
Since the creation of
karate 唐手 about one century ago, its name has been changed
from karate 唐手 to karate 空手,
and by borrowing the [Western] method called “sports competition” (kyogi
競技), its rapid expansion up to a global scale was
brought about. The global karate 空手 population is said
to amount to fifty million people. Born with a strong local flavor in one
solitary island of the southern ocean, who would have expected today’s global
prosperity of karate 唐手? Of course, karate 唐手’s
development and spread to the global scale is something one should be pleased
with. However, I also cannot be happy about it with all my heart. Because it
was a course of rapid spread and development, isn’t it likely that important
things were left disregarded? What are these things left disregarded? Frankly
speaking: they are spirit and tradition.
What is the spirit of
karate 唐手?
It has been shown in
Article I of karate 唐手’s original text, “Itosu’s Ten Maxims,” that
“…by word of honor,
(the quintessence should be) to never injure human beings by means of one’s
fists and feet.”
This is the
philosophy of peace, with the spirit of respect for human beings as its
keynote.
What are the
traditional techniques?
In Article VI of
“Itosu’s Ten Maxims” it is said that
“…the methods of entering,
receiving, disengaging, and the seizing skills, of which there are many oral
instructions.”
So the traditional
techniques are techniques of oral instruction (orally instructed, i.e. in
personal teaching). In due course I will inform you about these techniques of
oral instruction as well.
In accordance with
the spirit of karate 唐手, antisocial or inhuman techniques within the
framework of the fourteen kata were modified or deleted.
Notwithstanding, in the karate 空手 tutorials from the
world of the ordinary people, techniques such as poking the fingers into an
adversary’s eye or dislocating the jaw are introduced. A quite provocative text
can also be found, called “One strike, certain kill” (ikken hissatsu).
Such absurd remarks are unrelated to karate 唐手,
which was created for the purpose of school education.
Within its
development and spread to a global scale, karate 唐手
in technical terms has also been discovered as a combat sport (kakutōgi)
ever more. However, it is difficult to determine whether these techniques were
newly developed, or are techniques of karate 空手,
or are techniques borrowed from other combat sports. In the transformation from
karate 唐手 to karate 空手,
the framework of the fourteen kata has been forgotten. Karate 空手
has become something which only is reminiscent of karate 唐手
in appearance. Strictly speaking, karate 空手
has even become something like the kata of Chinese kenpō. This
might appear like rushing to conclusions. But in its current form, there is no
way around it that karate 空手 is being criticized
and dismissed by the circles of scholarship and logic.
As for me, it is not
the case that I wish for the revival of karate 唐手
by karate 空手. It is also not my intention to denigrate
karate 空手. Rather, in order to understand the true nature of
karate 空手, and furthermore to support its rich future
prospect, I think it is necessary to correctly recognize the history of the
creation of karate 唐手. This is especially true as karate 空手
is one of the contemporary budō (gendai budō) which will be
introduced as compulsory subjects in the middle schools, starting in the school
year 2012. What must be taught through the practice of karate 空手?
What must be learned? It would be a blessing if this book of mine would become
a good guidepost for karate 空手.
August 2011
Kinjō Hiroshi
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