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The Road to Karate – A Budoka’s Way To Live
By Hiroshi Shoji. Shihan of the Japan Karate Association.

Part 21 - Shigoki Initiation (Brutal Physical Punishment)

According to the dictionary, “Shigoki” means to train someone severely.

Incidents of “Shigoki” or brutal physical punishment at athletic clubs of universities are reported a few times a year, which always make me feel bitter about it. According to the dictionary, “Shigoki” means to train someone severely. If there is a word for training softly, I wonder what that word may be in contrast to “Shigoki”.

I think that any training or practice must be by default severe. I wonder if Budo or a sport that has no aspect of severity can exist. If it does exist, it will be nothing but leisure. Even if it is a leisure activity, doesn’t it require some sort of dedication? The ability to challenge to run in a 100 meter race faster by a fraction of a second or to challenge to jump a few millimetres higher will be an outcome of severe training, whether by being severe to yourself in training or by being pushed by other people. It looks to me that not only the society of Budo or sports, but also all our life is structured that way. 

By making it clear that one is an exchange of mutual trust and the other is a mere cruelty, Shigoki can exist in a healthy way.

Shigoki or extremely hard training will not exist in a one way situation. Mutual understanding of “I want to prepare you to win and we want to be prepared to win” or “I want to make you strong and we want to become strong” is important. If there is such an understanding of mutual feelings, Shigoki to a certain degree would not become news in a newspaper. But once such a mutual understanding is replaced with personal enmity or a tradition in a wrong sense, on many occasions it will become a physical punishment called Shigoki, brutal physical punishment. By making it clear that one is an exchange of mutual trust and the other is a mere cruelty, Shigoki can exist in a healthy way.

I was teaching at the lady’s division of the Japan Karate Association a few years go. The general tendency in their training I have observed is that their endurance power to sustain in a long training is superior to that of men, but due perhaps to their physical make-up, they appear to lack explosive power. 40 to 50 female members attended the special training session twice a week. They were a group of different people such as an intellectual lady who was over 60 years old, a medical student from a leading university, a university student majoring in arts, a cute high school girl, a female working at office, etc. I had my own way to “shigoki” them.

He was surprised with my “Shigoki” and told me “If you hit females overseas, it would become a court case”.

At one time when I was teaching 40 members of the lady’s division, I held a bamboo sword, with which I tightened their spirit up by banging the floor and hitting those who were too exhausted to move in the hips. An instructor who had just returned from overseas happened to see my class. He was surprised with my “Shigoki” and told me “If you hit females overseas, it would become a court case”. I could not help chuckling to myself. My method of Shigoki is to select the most capable person of the group, shed a spotlight on this person and build up the right atmosphere for Shigoki. My loud voice yelling at them flies across the dojo. The bamboo sword zaps the air. The female members withstand the hard training, gritting their teeth. As the tense atmosphere fills the dojo, the aged members and white belts will also start immersing themselves in the hard training.

If you do this training method on novices, it will become what the word “Shigoki” is now commonly referred to, i.e. brutal physical punishment. I do Shigoki to re-train those who have already trained well and who know my personality to a certain degree or who will follow me because of my humanity. Therefore my Shigoki is different to the commonly called Shigoki, which is a malicious physical punishment. The persons in the group who became a focus of my Shigoki all knew me very well as a person. Therefore, even females who I trained hard, hitting them in the hips with a bamboo sword still show their affection towards me, calling me Sensei. I am convinced that physically hard training will never be perceived as Shigoki in a wrong sense, i.e. malicious physical punishment, by the recipient, if there is a mutual understanding of each other’s heart between instructor and student and if such hard training is implemented based on the prior proper procedures.

They are tough in the dojo, but look very pretty when they are relaxed and enjoying themselves.

The members of the lady’s division whom I trained hard gave me a present of a bunch of artificial flowers on my birthday. Encountered by their unexpected feminine thoughtfulness, I was a little embarrassed but also very pleased. I looked at their faces, realising they were after all females and I invited them to my house in return for their present. They are tough in the dojo, but look very pretty when they are relaxed and enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, our toilet was just being cleaned and the smells from the toilet started drifting in. I quickly sprayed air freshener. But the smells persisted. I could not be bothered to get rid of the smells. Instead I gave them Sake, hoping that once they got drunk, they would not notice the smells. Alas, they were a bunch of big drinkers! With a slip of a tongue, I said that women should not remain single and wonder around too long and that they should get married. This cause caused immediate uproars among them. “What about marriage! marriage is not the only life for women.”

Their drunkenness fanned the uproar and it was ten odd females against me. I was completely beaten. It appeared to be my mistake that I was impressed that they had a gentle feminine sense. It was a rather enjoyable event where they repaid me well for the Shigoki I gave them at dojo. As in this case, the thinner the specific partition between teacher and student, the more easily the training can be guided towards the goal that the instructor intends to achieve.

...many of those whom I trained extremely hard when they were members of university Karate clubs to the extent that they could not stand, frequently visit my house even after they graduated.

When we were young, there was a general thinking among us that all we wanted to do was to enjoy our youthful times with Karate. But today’s youth do not seem to last long with Karate, maybe because they start Karate just out of curiosity. At a dojo in the town instructors do not train students hard. They teach very politely in detail. But their students quit. Karate looks simple and easy. But, as we have all experienced, when they try it themselves, they won’t be able to move their limbs in a way they want to move. They soon find out that Karate is not as easy as it looks. Then they loose interest and quit. In this sense, today’s youth have less perseverance. This may be due to their tendency to avoid conformity enforced by others. They like to do what they like to do at a time of their choice. But, strangely enough, many of those whom I trained extremely hard when they were members of university Karate clubs to the extent that they could not stand, frequently visit my house even after they graduated.

When I trained the students hard close to the point of hitting them with a big stick, they all stared at me with their glaring eyes filled with the agony squeezed from their fatigued bodies and the anger towards me. Such staring stabbed me from all the directions. But, no matter how hard it was at that time, when the time passed, the students quite often said that it was a great time. If you did not train them hard enough because you felt sorry for them, or because you did not want to be unpopular with the students, such a half cooked training session did not seem to remain with them.

I remember nostalgically that I did train my students extremely hard and they also reminisce the hard training that they received from me.

I remember nostalgically that I did train my students extremely hard and they also reminisce the hard training that they received from me. The memories of Shigoki may become beautified and many graduates of university Karate clubs keep visiting my house. Students from the country can do whatever they want to do and enjoy their independent life. But when we invite them to our house, they all enjoy the hospitality of my family. We also always hold a farewell party at our house for the members of the university Karate club that I taught at on the occasion of their graduation. Even if we offered dishes such as Gyoza, not specific dishes, when I heard them say that the Gyoza they had at our house was very delicious, even if it was a diplomatic compliment, it made me happy. This was the reward of being an instructor.

I am not a sociable person. I do not talk much. I quite often fall into silence even when young people are visiting me. We do not mind our mutual existence even if there is no conversation going on between us. They help themselves, opening my fridge and eating and drinking whatever they want. There exists a relationship not only of teacher and student, but also interaction of humanity based on mutual trust. Or probably only this kind of people will gather at my place.

When a championship gets closer, my house turns into a lodging place for competitors gathering from the country. Most of them have become known to the local shop owners around my house. They (local shop owners) normally greet me just with “Good morning” and no other words come out of them. But they speak to the competitors lodging at my place with more than the greetings. “Hello, such and such. Welcome back. It’s the time of the championships again this year. We wish you well at the championships.” The local shop owners give them supporting words. Although not all that important, but I wonder if the local shop owners are so friendly to the competitors lodging at my place, more than to me, because they know I am the one who always “wrings” them hard in the training and they are the recipients of my hard training. But the true reason may be that I normally do not exchange compliments with the local shop owners.

When we were young, there were some people like me who were moved by the passions of our sempai and decided to make Karate-do their lifetime path.

Those who come to my house do not have to necessarily still continue Karate. Today, not many people continue Karate after their graduation from university. This may indicate how tough the society has become today. When we were young, there were some people like me who were moved by the passions of our sempai and decided to make Karate-do their lifetime path. Among the Kohai or juniors, some are still continuing their Karate training or teaching Karate whilst working on jobs. When they tell me “Sempai, I am determined to continue my Karate until I die” I feel that this was the positive result of the hard training that I gave them and such words make me emotional.

I am currently teaching Karate at the JKA headquarters dojo and a few other places. Of those where I am teaching, there is an interesting university Karate club. At this Karate club, the fourth year students take the lead in doing everything including carrying and serving meals and the first year students are treated nicely, being placed in the guest place, doing nothing. As this situation continues, the first year students who are initially pleased with the nice treatment will start feeling uneasy and eventually will become unable to watch the seniors serving them. As a result, the first year students will start doing all the work without any resentment. Law and order is established there. There is no forcing and no being forced on anybody. Systems are created naturally there.

There is no room for brutal punishment resembling cruelty that we experienced in our student’s days to exist in today’s society.

If rules are established, that is all we need. There is no room for brutal punishment resembling cruelty that we experienced in our student’s days to exist in today’s society. Both those who give hard training and those who receive such hard training must ensure that a training method be firmly based on the mutual exchange of humanity and trust.

Read our Tribute to Shoji Sensei from November 2003

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