A clarifying example
could be the following: How long do you think you could hang from your hands on
a fixed bar with your feet twenty centimeters from the ground? Fifteen minutes?,
half an hour?, maybe. But, if instead of twenty centimeters, there are five hundred
meters of free fall under your feet and your life is at stake. Much longer of
course, because it is not any longer the same arm, nor the same muscle.
KEIKO (training), must thus be the school of the will.
It is also the school of harmony and the understanding of others. How can
you obtain this objective? Through concentration and the work in direction of
anticipation, thus the importance of "unlimited" movements. This movement is trained
by two: an attacker and an attacked. The attacked party concentrates strongly
on the adversary and anticipates the attack, in other words, when the attacked
party feels the attack, he evades it and counterattacks. To obtain this a very
strong concentration is necessary; all the brains activities must be concentrated
on the adversary, the body must be completely relaxed, without any type of contraction.
Only the spirit is in this "unlimited hyperalert" state, this is combat, because
in the course of a real combat, a factor that must not be forgotten, to be able
to win, is to be in harmony with your adversary. I think that during Keiko, you
learn human relationship, you learn to live among others, to be in harmony with
nature. To get "there" work always lower (lower stances) and always try to jump
longer.
I will write here what I would say about competition. Personally I am against
it. The reasons are very simple: the first one is an almost philosophical reason.
You must not practice Martial Arts to be the best one but to be a better person.
What benefit would I obtain knowing I am the best karateka in Japan? None whatsoever.
But on the contrary, to know I can stay more time in Kiba-dachi than yesterday,
I show myself that I have won a bit compared to my "I" of yesterday.
The second reason is the following: In Europe, and maybe even more so, in the
U.S.A., all the work is oriented towards the efficiency in combat. The Budo philosophy
has been completely abandoned. Karate thus becomes purely a sport. I would have
preferred that it should be given some other name, because even the basic techniques
have been modified (in many USA clubs, the Kata are no more than symbols).
Convince yourselves then, that Karate-do is a state of the spirit, a way of life,
a philosophy. To discover this idea, the narrow tunnel is opened by the years
of practice. Here in Japan, we go even further. Once you attain a fifth dan, which
you obtain faster than in Europe, we practice normally three hours a day here
at the Chuo University. Master Egami was our true judge; he taught us "spiritual"
Keiko. This may be difficult for you to understand.
In the beginning, we worked on concentration. During three months, regularly,
every day, we would stay one hour with a bokto (heavy wooden sword), in
guard, without moving and without closing our eyes, later, after an hour, we'd
do a single movement, in which we would liberate all the energy we had stored
up during the preceding hour. In a second phase, always with the same regularity,
we'd run four kilometers as an average, in twenty minutes and this without transpiring
(I told you I would it would be difficult to understand!). To do two kilometers
in usakotobi-geri (rabbit hop) is also a part of the "spiritual" Keiko.
Why this? Well, once more, to strengthen ourselves, to break our bodies, to develop
the will, to be in harmony with the universe and to learn more about breathing
too. Do not forget that all Martial Arts have the same goal: to learn how to breath,
it is our breathing that permits us to live and this is attained through the practice
of Karate-do.
Interview of Master Kyooka.
By Henry Kan in Tokyo,
From the "Karate" Magazine, 1992.
Translated to english by M. Gallardo
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Concepción Chile.
Today,
Karate, as many other Martial Arts, has become a fashion in Europe, but I must
ascertain, with some sadness on the other hand, that for the great majority, the
Martial Arts are not understood or they are knowingly modified. In fact, many
people have a tendency to believe that Karate is a sport as boxing, tenis, etc.