Standardizing The Subjective

Firstly I want to make this clear. I am not going to give my personal opinion about any grading syllabus, or say whether I think it’s a good or bad thing. What I will say, however, is the uses of the grading syllabus and what it has done in the evolution of karate. 

Karate always has and always will be highly subjective, but yet we still see areas in our karate structure which has created a standardised form of our martial art. This is the grading systems.

Before the birth of what we now formally see as Shotokan there was no formal grading system. People practised karate and that was it, no different colour belts, no grading examinations, only personal development. When reading “Karate-Do, My Way of Life” By Gichin Funakoshi Shihan we read about many anecdotes that describe old karate masters challenging each other and people wanting to demonstrate their skills to other karate adepts. Their was no way of knowing what standards someone’s karate is, the only way you could find out was through watching kata demonstrations or even within a battle. However it is important to remember that the social setting that karate held in those days was extremely different to that of today, karate was a hidden art, people did not openly practise it for hundreds of years. Therefore there was no need to a rational way to view karateka.

Where as in our modern times, karate is openly practised all over the world, the social setting that its placed under is now a lot more accepting to the art compared to hundred years ago. There is a need now to be able to rationally categories people into grades. There is a need to have a standard for each grade, to what needs to be achieved in Shotokan karate; there are criteria that one must be able to achieve too reach into the next category. Therefore we need a system that can clearly show how people are progressing in karate, which in Shotokan is our belt and grading systems. The best way to describe what a grade in karate is is to relate it to an education system. Imagine that there are a number of years in a school, to progress to the next year the students have to pass an examination that tests their knowledge that they have learnt in that year and in the years pervious. The whole system has a flow, with people continuously learning, continuously progressing, by gaining new knowledge. The same applies in our grading system in karate. We attend lessons, we learn, we show our understanding and we progress to the next grade/belt.

The reasons for this change are never really looked at. Why did Funakoshi Shihan decide to create this system for a martial art that had no base note? Well for one society, and the popularity of karate, were both changing when Funakoshi Shihan designed a system of grades. More and more people were training and more and more were records and classification required in a lot of daily institutions. And since the initial system it has evolved to what it has in our modern times, it now not only makes sure that students are at a certain standard but also works in many other ways.

So what do we get from the grading system?

By grading we achieve not only a new belt and a certificate, but also achieve a level of social transformation. Any karateka will know that when a chance to grade comes up things begin to get intense; you’re pushed to your limits both physically and with your knowledge of karate. You go over your kata (Forms), your kihon (Basics) and you’re Kumite (sparring) to get every detail right. Then on the day of your grading you become nervous, but your exited the adrenaline makes you shake, you feel that whatever you do is not ‘good’ karate. Then you achieve the next grade, you feel pride and accomplishment and can’t wait to the next lesson where you can show off your new belt. It’s this transition time where the social transformation begins, not in the sense of changing, but instead character building that one achieves by going through this process. We learn to push ourselves to reach the standards set out in the syllabus, and then we have an examination which tests you to perform under tense and pressured situations. Not only do we achieve the belt but also the skills that it takes to get the belt. In many ways these skills are just as important as the grade itself, as they are transferable and can be used in both karate and in everyday life. Skills like confidence and self belief, and the ability to perform in strange conditions, which takes a level of concentration and relaxation.

These skills are the essential point that I’m trying to make here. Back in Funakoshi Shihan’s era these skills were born from one’s karate, but via a completely different way to our modern karate, they had no system to create such situations and learned these skills through different means. However in modern karate we have a system to thank for the transference of skills, it creates a social setting that pushes for these skills to be used. In some ways this could even speed up the ability of these skills, the settings of grading are unique purely because it’s a self motivating experience where one can notice the important of such skills.

The achievement of passing a grade is half karate half spirit. 

Some Thank Yous

It feels a bit early doing this, considering its only my fourth post. But I would just like to say a massive thank you to all the people that have supported me with this blog and for the wonderful comments from others. 

Selby Shotokan Karate blog, has recently posted about this blog and about me personally, with very kind and inspiring words. All I can say is THANK YOU. Our club has only joined the JKS earlier this year, and since then we have meet some fantastic and inspirational people from all over the UK and Ireland. And I promise as soon as i figure out how to put links on here you will be added ;) Osu

Another thank you goes out to my Sensei's Andy and Jackie Jones. Im my eyes two of the best karateka around. They have supported me through a lot over the last couple of years, such as my shodan grading and competitions, always encouraging me and always very supportive.  Osu

Also, I created this blog to make people think, to get them to make their own views. So please if you have a comment about anything I've posted on here, even if you agree or disagree your comments are most valued. As without them we only hear my ideas, and I want to hear yours =) 

I'm already working hard on my next post, which should be up either tonight or tomorrow, so watch this space. 

Thank You again everyone Osu

The purpose of Fighting styles

This is a piece I wrote a couple of weeks ago, All the information is based on a article written by Scott Langley Sensei in his kensusei reports. Very thought invoking and extremely interesting. Enjoy. 


When people think of martial arts the automatic assumption is that they belong to eastern cultures (Japan, China, Korea, Etc). However martial arts or indeed fighting styles in general, have a long history spreading across the globe, and have also had a strong influence on the west (Europe and America) as much as they have on the east. 

Within this short paper the aim will be place on the way in which social, political and power changes have evolved international fighting styles. Fighting styles are not just simply affected by great masters that study rare and unique exercises, the arts are affected greatly from the world surrounding them, and the best way to look at this is by looking at the differences between the changes in eastern arts and western arts and the ways that have been evolved. The origin of fighting arts is not important in this analysis, it could even be said that many arts had similar styles. “For example, the British based Knight Templar is reported to have had strong connection with the fighting monks of the Chinese Shaolin Monasteries” (Scott Langley, 2002). Fighting styles did have some level of similarity when it came to style, but they had different social forces that changed and adapted these arts.

It can be seen that eastern fighting styles are seen as dominant over western fighting styles, and indeed they have even become apart of our society, but why has the east dominated, when there were similarities? One possible answer can be said to be with the way that society has gone through early modernity and become more ‘civilised’.

 One main difference is that the UK has had a sustainable government for nearly a thousand years. “It was the first democracy in the world, the first to stop the feudal system, it had the first industrial revolution and it was the first country to franchise its whole population” (Scott Langley, 2002). British society quickly and rapidly produced a level of equality within a hierarchy that gave people both citizenship rights, such as that of voting and the right to a fair democracy. This changed the face of British traditional fighting styles. These styles would have initially been created so that people or groups had the ability to battle. They, like eastern arts, produced great warriors by training and by looking rationally around the way the body works. But as government grew stronger and people gained more rights, when laws and moral codes were created these styles lost their initial purpose, resulting in them withering away. Instead people used ‘formal’ and ‘civilised’ ways to deal with problems and quarrels.

Eastern societies, like Japan, only experienced this sort of social change only recently, with the Meiji Restoration not even two hundred years ago. In these society people were forbidden to carry weapons, only those within a gentry’s class were allowed, so there was still a need for people to protect themselves from deviance from society. This is where martial arts were still used and practised, as they taught people how to protect themselves in and affective way. It can be said that it is due to the traditional culture of fighting styles that have embedded them into the Japanese culture, with many still practising these arts.

But what was produced by these changes?

Well, the British adapted and borrowed aspects from its martial arts and used them to create sports, as there was still a need for competition between groups, regions etc. These sports, similar to British fighting styles, allowed people to still show superior skill and gave the fighting styles new functions. Boxing is the prime example of how traditional fighting styles were adapted “In the 17^th Century the British Aristocrat, the Marques of Queensbury, created the first rules for boxing, most of which are still used today.” (Scott Langley, 2002). From the British passion for competition and the need for sports it can be seen that the majority of team sports were created and flourished within Britain. Rounders evolved into baseball. And American football was adapted from British rugby.

The Japanese have taken this in a different view, within many Japanese styles of sport and indeed within Japanese marital arts the function of sports is not to satisfy a need for competition or pleasure. Instead the Japanese look to sport for character building, to produce well rounded people, in which focus, dedication and determination is embedded into their self image. Japanese Baseball, for example, houses entirely different reasons compared to American Baseball. To the Americans professional base ball can be seen as a job, they train lightly and reward individualism. Whereas in its Japanese counter-part baseball is a lifestyle, like martial arts, where individualism is not tolerated and training is hard, long and rigorous. (Whitting, 1990)

To conclude, societies change into civilisation has had a profound effect upon the way in which fighting styles and martial arts have been viewed. The birth of government and citizenship has found new platforms for people to settle differences, politics has created a place for people to argue and debate. Battle fields and ‘the way of the warrior’ are no longer a key function in our daily lives. That is not to say that marital arts are dead across the world, the traditional fighting styles from across the globe can still be seen in full swing. In the east martial arts still have a key function to there culture and society, due to their long need for fighting styles. Whereas in the west martial arts can be seen within sports such like boxing and wrestling. But it is the differences in our civilisation process that has allowed for these changes. If it were to have happened that the east gained government and citizenship earlier than the west, then British fighting styles may have the same affect that eastern martial arts does today.

All the information in this post comes from:

-Langley, Scott. 2002. “Kenshusei Reports” – Part 5: What is the difference between western and eastern fighting styles?. From www.scott.thejks.com/article_kensusei2 accessed on 21/06/2011

-Whiting, Robert. 1989. “You Gotta Have Wa”. Macmillan, New York.

My Aim

Right here's my aims and targets for this blog. I really want to make this clear as I dont want this to be just any karate blog, I want it to have focus and direction.

Firstly lets get the boring bits out the way with first.
My Names Lewis, I study karate at Kaizen No-Michi School of Shotokan Karate in Grimsby (Link>>>http://kaizennomichi.co.uk/). The club I train at is affiliated to the JKS (Japan Karate Shotorenmei) and I am a Shodan grade (1st Dan Black Belt).

The reason for me starting a blog
Well, I'm at currently about to go into my third year at the University of Hull, where I study sociology, where I am getting ready to tackle my dissertation. I'm going to write about Karate and Modernity, or to put it simply, the way that karate has been changed by society and societies changes. This blog will hopefully bring discussion and new ideas for my dissertation.

What this blog will not do
I don't want to blog about 'karate politics'.
I don't want to blog about my own karate experiences, unless relevant.
I don't want to blog to offend anyone in my blogs.

What I want this blog to do
I want to blog to get people thinking.
I want to blog to shear my appreciation for karate.
I want to blog to steer my interest in Karate and society.
I want to blog to discuss the movement of karate-do.

My main aim is to allow people to think. If you have a comment about anything, Please join the discussion. The majority of discussions here will be mainly based on opinion, no one is wrong. So enjoy, interact and think.

Thank You.