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Where does Karate begin and end?


OHSHIMA Shotokan Dojo (USA)

Some definitions...

When we think of karate, we think first and foremost of techniques performed with various parts of the body, which have become natural weapons. And we're not wrong: "atemis", whether "Atewaza" (hand techniques) or "Geriwaza" (foot techniques), are the fundamental part of Karate. Although, ethymologically speaking, it refers only to the hand, whether "Chinese" or "empty", depending on the interpretation of the associated ideograms. The idea of an "empty hand" should be understood more as "being without a weapon", as showing the foot for this could be misunderstood or considered offensive.

Let's go back to the origins

As is often the case when looking for the answer to a question, it's useful to go back to basics. And these remind us that Karate, like other Martial Arts, has its roots in Jyiû-Jûtsû (or "supple techniques"), which constituted an immense reservoir of extremely varied techniques. Many of these techniques were highly dangerous and considered inappropriate for "mass" teaching. Moreover, there was a certain reluctance to divulge techniques that could provide a decisive advantage in a confrontation. This was particularly true of strangulations, dislocations, pressure on particularly unpleasant vital points (which we won't mention here), and others. There were also projections, alone or combined with the previous ones.

Karate evolution

Before the flowering of styles, schools, trends, Ryû, Kaï and Kan of all kinds, if we set aside Kendo and disciplines with weapons, Judo, Aïkido and Karate formed the basic martial trilogy, derived from Ju-Jitsu. Keys, chokes and projections were the prerogative of Judo, atemis that of Karate, while Aikido taught victory through emptiness and absorption through the mythical "T'aï Sabaki". But little by little, under the pressure of the different forms of combat that were emerging day by day, it became necessary in Karate to return to the origins, and to open up to other technical forms left to the "specialized" disciplines. Seizures, releases, keys, projections ("Nage Waza") have become indispensable and are now worked on without reserve, under the name "Karate Jutsu" for some, "Ju-Jitsu applied to Karate" for others (cf. Bernard CHERIX, Ju-Jitsu expert and pioneer of traditional Shotokan with Master OHSHIMA in Switzerland), etc. We can no longer conceive of Kata applications ("Bunkaï") without these "ancillary" techniques, which moreover have a realistic, aesthetic and spectacular character to match, the good old "Gyaku Tsuki Jodan" being deemed highly insufficient, if not as the conclusion of a sequence of sequences.

Let's broaden our field of exploration

In the words of Master Shigeru EGAMI, a pupil of Master FUNAKOSHI and founder of Shotokaï, Karate must not be regarded as static, but must constantly evolve as a result of its practitioners. This may seem paradoxical, and must be handled with the utmost caution. It should not be taken to mean that anyone can or should introduce, modify or remove whatever they wish, according to their own vision of the moment, but that Karate lives and evolves through the infinite sensations it induces, and that each practitioner will feel and share with others. Without changing anything in a Kata, we can then look for ever different sensations, based on techniques other than simply those of "struck blows".

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