What is Karate

Takayuki Mikami

Nowdays, karate is practiced often just as a sport. People want karate in the Olympic Games and so they look for guidance to the Olympic committee whose only interest is sport competition. But karate is a martial art, not just sport. What does "martial art" mean?

Essentially, any art is a discipline. With practice your knowledge of it deepens. It is not "for fun" but is serious, requiring effort, patience commitment, time. Why practice a martial art?

An athlete's career is over at a certain age while a martial artist may train, and improve all of his life. His body may slow with the years but his mind and spirit quicken, knowledge grows. He learns to control himself, control situations. He earns self-respect and, importantly, by training with others he learns to respect others. "Just train!" we say. If you do your knowledge of the art deepens.

So martial artists look for guidance not to sports committees but to The Old Masters, Shotokan Karate's own Gichin Funakoshi for instance, or the great 17th century samurai Miyamoto Musashi whose The Book of Five Rings has been in print three centuries and is a work so instructive it is required reading at the Harvard Business School. Studying a martial art, you learn much more than just how to fight.

Your aim is not to win a medal; it is to engage in a process. Training consistently, much of extra benefit is to be found in the process. If you choose, you may enjoy karate as a sport, for instance! Your health will improve. Your self-confidence will grow. So will your awareness of the larger world and your ability to concentrate on it, deal with it, cope with its stresses. Training in the Dojo regularly with partners you will discover much about yourself and others. Over time, with the sweat and aching muscles, and humbly, you will find much satisfaction.

translation by Bob Milling

Webmaster's note:
This is reprinted with the kind permission of Las Vegas School of Shotokan Karate