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

Part 26 Karate in the World

The first world Karate-do championships with the participation of more than 30 countries were held in 1970 at the Budokan in Japan. Japan sent as many as five teams to the championships, which was a surprise to everybody. This abnormal situation arose due to the different interests represented by various Karate styles that were sitting on the Japanese executive committee. Also this was due to the self-indulgence on the Japanese part that Karate was a Japanese martial art. I was responsible as a manager for one of the five Japanese teams. We repeated our Gasshuku from stage 1 to stage 2 and stage 3. The team members were from a mix of different styles, all pure and honest, seeking the same path. Even though some of them might have felt some difference in my method of training and theories, they all followed me wholeheartedly. The other four Japanese teams also had hard training schedules, trying not to be left behind our team, and continued their hard training. Naturally, the atmosphere of comradeship was built up as if they had found their old friends and we did not have any problem with our teamwork.

The next stage was the training designed against fighting with the westerners who were physically bigger and more powerful than the Japanese. The key points in our training were for the Japanese competitors to be cautious of westerners’ big and menacing Jodan attacks, utilising their physical size. Based on the analysis that Chudan and Gedan areas would be their weak points, we concentrated on how we could attack those areas. The weapon that we should use was the speed in our movement. This leads to the stability of a foundation for the body movements and techniques. Hence our training was carried out with an emphasis on strengthening the basics.

I myself faced off with a number of westerners, some of whom I thought were strong, for example, Competitor Bruno from Italy, competitor Hedlund from Sweden and Schmidt from South Africa. All of them were big, towering nearly 2 meters and their movements and techniques were sharp. The very intrinsic nature of Karate lies where the physically small Japanese competitors have to fight against such competitors who are physically much bigger. This is the reason why weight division systems are not adopted in our Karate competition.

In my experience, the arms and legs of the westerners are generally longer than those of the Japanese. Therefore, their techniques tend to be bigger. This will make De-ai or counter-attack at the same time as the opponent’s attack easier. Also, they are weak against small but sharp kicks to Chudan. De-ai is a fighting strategy for death or life, requiring the mind-set prepared to face the worst case if it does not work. De-ai requires the strong fighting sprit on our side with preparedness to have our flesh cut but save our bones in the worst case. If we capitalise on a split-second chance, we can get into the opponent. On the contrary if we are too slow, they will attack us utilising their strong arms and legs. Running away is out of question, because if we run away we won’t be able to throw a technique. Therefore, it is imperative for us to get closer to them very swiftly. If we miss the chance of getting in, we will be chased. For this reason, the preparation of our mind to finish the opponent with one technique is a must. As we need to move into a lion’s den to capture a cub, we need to have confidence in finishing off the opponent with a single attack. A claim that the opponent would have been dropped if we had connected our attack with the opponent is not good enough. Whilst controlling our attack not to contact the opponent, we must execute a devastating technique that will make our opponent realise that he would have been finished off in a real situation. We put our focus on the basic training as well as speed training in order to achieve “kime” powerful enough to finish off our opponent with a single technique. With this preparation we went to the competition.

At that time Japan’s Karate had absolute superiority over other countries. My team won without any problem. My team was well trained and I was proud of the efforts made by our team members who followed me. Due to the politics within the Japanese Karate circle, five teams from Japan, the hosting country, participated in the Championships held in Japan. However, in the eye of other countries, this was construed that a hosting country could do anything they pleased. Even though the Japanese team won the championships because of its superior ability, it ended up giving other countries the impression that the hosting country would resort to any means in order to win the championships. As a Japanese national and as a person who is seeking the path in the Karate-do, I regret the fact that Japan, the origin country of Karate, implemented the championships that contravened the principle of sport spirit. We must by all means adhere to the principle of one team from one country. This incident caused the loss of confidence among the international Karate community in the Japanese Karate, leading to their retaliation to Japan at the 2nd World Championships in Paris.

At their requests I have been to Indonesia, the USA, Europe and South America to teach Karate. Among the people I have taught Karate is the headmaster of a preparatory school in Chile, which has as grandiose buildings as any university would have. He is very enthusiastic about Karate. He is now a black belt. Initially he came all the way to Japan, became a member of the JKA, trained to a certain level and went home. Since then, he has been back to Japan every time he sat for his dan grading examinations. When he was 2nd dan or around that, I received from him a request that I go to his country and teach Karate. As I was leaving Japan, I sent him a telegraph saying “Shido ni yuku”. Somebody there who was alleged to understand Japanese translated my telegraph as “I am going to Sydney”. We all burst into laughter. When I got there, to my surprise, a child whom the headmaster had taught Karate was teaching adults Karate. I don’t know if that is still the case. I am not even sure about women teaching Karate. This was a strange scene to me. Although I do appreciate their enthusiasm but still cannot get over the strange feelings and disbelief mixed with a surprise. They welcomed me warmly and asked me to stay longer. He even suggested that I marry his beautiful daughter and immigrate to Chile. As I was already married, I declined his offer politely and came home.

Those who are doing Karate overseas are increasing in numbers and Karate is no longer a thing of Japan. It has become international. Some universities in overseas countries are teaching Karate as their official subjects and Karate is making inroads into the military and police forces. They are practising Karate not only as a combative art, but also for the purpose of learning the spiritual aspect that the western society may lack by pursuing the path of the oriental martial arts. Therefore, they are establishing a better eye for the martial arts and consequently they have now achieved the ability to differentiate a true Karate from a low level of Karate. This means that they are now equipped with the ability to criticise the existence of poor quality in Karate instructors, a commercial Karate and Karate instructors whose interest is only in seeking fame and money. It is extremely frightening that, through such criticism, distrust against the entire circle of Japanese Karate is emerging. This results from Karate having made inroads into overseas countries without different groups and styles in Karate in Japan not being coordinated at all.

In principle, Karate should have been systematised first and then should have been spread overseas as a Japanese martial art. But it has been spread internationally, leaving this problem unsolved. Therefore, the current situation sees an uncoordinated Karate with different teaching methods and different headquarters to report to in Japan. There is a possibility for the overseas countries which receive Karate to wonder if the Japanese Karate is properly structured and what is going on. Also they may incorrectly interpret that to be strong is all about Karate.

Ideally all the different styles of Karate should unite their efforts and establish a presentation of Karate as a Japanese Budo. But under the current situation of the Japanese Karate circle, it is difficult to achieve it. Therefore, we should teach as many people as possible the correct Karate through the newly formed organisation, the International Amateur Karate Federation (IAKF), so that each overseas country can move up to the level where they would no longer require instructors from Japan as far as the technical matters are concerned. As far as we are concerned, we would like to be regarded by the overseas countries as a source which can offer some more, particularly spiritual aspects, that they can still learn other than the technical matters. I believe that this is the mission for the Japan Karate Association to move forward for the forthcoming future.

Read our Tribute to Shoji Sensei from November 2003

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