JKA Victoria Article - The Road to Karate by JKA Master Hiroshi Shoji

Article

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

Part 25 Instructor Class

Ultimately anyone, even from another style of Karate, is allowed to become an instructor of the JKA, as long as he becomes a member of the JKA and adheres to its constitution.

The remarkable progress of the JKA, to the extent that it can respond without any trouble to a challenge from another style, can be attributed largely to the existence of the Kenshusei System. As an example of the results of the Kenshusei system, at the 4th All Japan Karate-do Championships held last year in which all major styles of Karate participated (Translator’s note: this book was first published in 1976) the JKA members won all the individual and team events. Besides, a newspaper specialising in Karate carried an article about the absolute dominance of the JKA which lost only one point throughout all the events. Such being the reality, some people said that the JKA was a group of professionals, but the JKA is by nature an organisation incorporated by members. The objective of the JKA is to improve Karate-do through research and teaching of Karate-do, contributing to the development of physique and sport spirits of the Japanese nation. The JKA is managed with this characteristic as its backbone. Those selected by the JKA members at its annual general meeting will be able to become Kenshusei and then instructors. Ultimately anyone, even from another style of Karate, is allowed to become an instructor of the JKA, as long as he becomes a member of the JKA and adheres to its constitution.

The salaries paid to JKA instructors and office members are remuneration for such work. We don’t get paid for our instructions of Karate.

The duties of the JKA headquarters are to promote Karate, hold grading examinations for kyu and dan grades, implement Karate demonstrations, etc. The duties of employees and staff members of the headquarters are to ensure that JKA’s approximately 200,000 members throughout Japan can engage in their Karate training comfortably and logically. The salaries paid to JKA instructors and office members are remuneration for such work. We don’t get paid for our instructions of Karate. We get paid as administrative members of the headquarters to carry out office work and miscellaneous jobs. We are acting as amateurs and members of the incorporated organisation. But I would like to maintain the spirit of being a professional. It will be more meaningful to cherish the pride of being called a professional, which will elevate our awareness of self-control, than when we over-emphasise our status as amateurs and being non-commercial. I believe that the moral of amateurism in Budo, which has aspects different to other sports, should be treated differently.

Our professionalism remains only in the domain of our spirit, not money-making. This is the reason why the Karate instructors including myself are enthusiastic about teaching Karate to Kohai although we have to put up with low salaries.

Decline in our Karate will be inevitable unless we make efforts to excel others and to maintain theories. If the amateurism will cause compromise and loss of seriousness in our stance, I would rather prefer to be professional. If you could make money from being professional, it would be even better. The salary that I get paid for being an office employee at the JKA headquarters is not all that great. I am fed up with being poor. I do not wish young Karate-ka who are following us to experience the financial hardship that we experienced. But the samurai does not have expertise in business. When my first son was born, I did not have enough money to pay the hospital. But I have never thought about changing my job to make more money. So, we are a group of funny people. Our professionalism remains only in the domain of our spirit, not money-making. This is the reason why the Karate instructors including myself are enthusiastic about teaching Karate to Kohai although we have to put up with low salaries.

The most effective way of helping the students make rapid progress is to provide them only with the essence of Karate This I have learned through my experience. But how we should provide the essence is the difficult question. Each member is different to others. If we hurry in teaching, it may cause the students indigestion. I believe that my duty is to judge each individual’s ability and give them the maximum nourishment to turn them good Karate-ka as quickly as possible. Naturally those who are Kohai to me can eliminate all the waste that I have experienced, therefore they should be able to surpass me.

Many of the instructors are strong in the usual training, but they quite often lose in competition. This is due largely to their focus on raising their students as strong Karate-ka and winning in competitions stops being their main target. In their training instructors make openings intentionally so that their students can punch or kick their instructors, so that the students can build up their confidence. Besides, the instructors will have to analyse their strengths and weaknesses, which they let their students know, and even have to teach the students how to defeat their instructors with the identified strengths and weaknesses. They help their students to develop their Karate and become even better than their instructors. Besides, in order to develop excellent successors, the instructors need to set their spiritual status at higher levels to deal with themselves.

There is a mental barrier for Kohai to surpass their Sempai and a great deal of effort is required. It needs physical and mental strength and technique built up through training to overcome the barrier. We need to continue accumulating our strength and technique, whilst waiting for a chance. When our strength and technique reach the highest point, that will be the moment for us to defeat our teachers and Sempai and to make a quantum leap in our Karate.

The ease with which he defeated his opponents, even physically much bigger westerner opponents, gave the spectators thrills. Who predicted his late blooming? His natural ability with which he was born and his hard and continued training made him bloom.

“T” who won the World Championships made rapid progress in his Karate when he was around 33 years old. It is said that no one will be able to defeat him today. His strong Karate makes us say with admiration “Um… He is really strong”. At last year’s world championships that were held in Los Angeles (Translator’s note: this book was published in 1976) which had two competition courts, when “T” fought, the journalists moved to his court and the audience fixed their eyes on his court too. The ease with which he defeated his opponents, even physically much bigger westerner opponents, gave the spectators thrills. Who predicted his late blooming? His natural ability with which he was born and his hard and continued training made him bloom.

I am currently training with Kenshusei and instructors at daytime. I expect that they will use me as their springboards and surpass me one after another. I believe that the human relations developed through the hard training between those to surpass and those to be surpassed will be mutually treasured. Therefore, it is rather pleasing to be surpassed. It is a great pleasure if a Karate-ka whom I trained wins championships.