Right, heres whats going to happen. I'm going to post a question and I want people to give a quick answer for the questions in the commments part. Please don't just put yes or no, put some reason behind your answer.
Question 1.
Do you think that we can use the term 'Modern karate'?
Osu
Despite the art form being older than my lifetime, I believe karate in itself is a modern art. The person who studies karate-do becomes its wearer; thus karate-do lives, breathes and evolves with that karate-ka.
ReplyDeleteGood or bad, that wearer stamps themselves upon the art. This blog (or the notion of a blog) is a 1st Dan's attempt at giving meaning to their own karate-do. The modernity of using a blog to communicate ones karate-do only adds to the cannon of karate understanding (or lack of).
I bring modern teaching methods to my classes, to hopefully instill karate-do more efficiently to my students.
So for that reason I will say yes
Ossu
I say yes also but for different reasons to Sensei James. I believe that we (the JKS) practice a "Modern karate" a karate that has been developed by our Shihan, this is different from say Funakosi Sensei karate, and the great that followed Nakayama, Kanazawa, Enoeda, Kase, Tanaka, including our own Asai Sensei. As the understanding of body dynamics moves forward the principles set by previous masters can be let say refined. Let us not loose the budo but improve the dynamic into a developing "modern karate". The quality and depth of understanding in our Senior instructors, Kagawa, Kanayama, Yamaguichi, Langley, Koike, Campbell Sensei etc will build on the framework handed down by Asai Sensei to develop a "Modern Karate"
ReplyDeleteOn a personal note I am very proud of my karate roots with Kato Sensei, I asked him many questions, to which he seldom gave me a straight answer. He would ask me what I thought and why and then develop my own response. Sensei was not being awkward, but was attempting to develop a student that could think for themselves. Develop modern karateka to develop modern Karate, but do not stray from the framework that was laid down by our Shihan.
An interesting point, Paul Sensei. I think one cannot deny that the treatment of karate-do is very much in the hands of our sensei.
ReplyDeleteI suppose what I was trying to say was 'if everyone grew two extra legs, would karate-do have to adapt to suit this new body type?'.
Sounds obvious to say yes, but in essence that is what has happened (not the extra legs!). Japanese Men no longer go to war so the focus of karate-do has shifted and so has its treatment. The increase of westerners and western body types studying karate has led to subtle changes (and less subtle) to accomidate this new race of karate-ka.
Competition must also play a factor in the modernisation of karate-do. Watch any YouTube clip of kumite now and then watch every year previous to see the complete difference.
Ossu
I’d compare and contrast ancient (pre-1950s) and modern karate in this way to illustrate the existence of modern karate.
ReplyDeleteAncient Karate
In ancient karate, when a student wanted to study karate he had to search for a teacher that he could have complete faith in. Then he had to prove his good character and upstanding citizenship in the hope that the teacher would accept him as a student. It could take some time for the teacher to decide whether you were a worthy candidate to learn karate.
- the teacher was not only critical of his new students but expected them to obey his every instruction without question. After all, he was the master and therefore he knew best – which is why you came to him in the first place.
- the teacher instructed on an intuitive level – i.e. observe, copy, and learn by experience. He repeated the move until the student had learnt it. The student took his knowledge from the teacher and applied his mind and body in order to understand it.
- the teacher believed that learning was a process of trial and error , thus making mistakes was part of the process. He only pointed out one or two serious errors within a class and assumed that the student would correct most of the minor errors by himself.
- the number of training sessions in a dojo per week was a lot more than nowadays and a student was expected to practice in his own time. The students were taught fewer moves in a session and had to repeat them over and over until they were correct
Modern karate (a generalization, not intended to represent any particular organisation’s training methods)
In modern karate, the teacher has to advertise himself to potential students as being the best and has to convince the student of his abilities.The student then decides if he wants to join.
- the teacher takes a risk if he asks his students to do something that they do not want to do. should they decide to leave. He answers all questions and avoids too much repetition in order to keep everyone interested.
- the teacher instructs on an intellectual level. He explains verbally over and over again so that less thinking is required in comparison with above. The teacher may even place the student’s hands and feet in the correct position. The teacher gives his knowledge to the student.
- the teacher may spend a considerable part of the lesson pointing out error after error, sometimes all errors may not be corrected.
- the number of training sessions is only a few a week and the students often do not have time (or inclination!) to practice on their own. To keep the interest going in training, teachers cover more moves with fewer repetitions.
Thank you for all your answers and your comments. Keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteOsu
Hi, really interested in this. Is karate modern? well yes really if we think about it karate as in "empty hand" was only coined around around 1920. It was "china hand" and Funakoshi Sensei who changed it to make it more marketable to the japanese Public. The training methods that we know now are modern, i.e. kihon ido (up and down the dojo kihon) was a form of training against the karate practiced in Okinawa and was very much a western influence as Japan was trying to modernise and abot a lot of western practices, i.e. army like Germany and Navy like England!
ReplyDeleteIn terms of karate being modern the sporting aspect is major modern aspect is a modern area. Karate was "designed" (evolved?) as a civil/cultural defence tradition and practice now what is left of it is really a sporting endevour. For example when bunkai or application of kata is praticed it is defences against karate waza where karate against karate equates to sport as the kata movements were designed to be against the "non trained" opponents. if one watches a kata championships we can see athletic and aesthetically pleasing kata being performed more than others, at a recent championship I watched unsu being performed and the jump was applauded...if we think about it the jump is really irrelevant in unsu!
However, evolution is good...there is a bit of a paradox happening, do we want to preserve or conserve tradtional karate? preserve would be to mkeep it in it's original state...it would not be relevant in today's society, conserve would be better, keep some of the traditional aspects but acknowledge the modern world. Personally I think the problem is we have kept the bowing etc but lost the practicality...well in general lost this. I am sure it was Funakoshi who said, "cherish the old and enbrace the new"!