Traditionalism vs. Evolution

[AngelaG]

Something I have been mulling over.

In the “What is Shotokan?” thread I wrote:

IMO Shotokan is whatever you want to be. At the moment it is a handy way to pigeon hole people into styles. Go into many forums and people will tell you that Shotokan practitioners traditionally don't do bunkai, Shotokan practitioners traditionally don't grapple, Shotokan practitioners traditionally don't do throws, Shotokan practitioners move like robots and have no idea about real self defence.

Well in that case I have no idea what style I do!

It's a name for a set style, but people forget that things move forward. We should be constantly striving to be better karateka and developing our art. If we don't evolve we'll become stale; and those that stay still are doomed to die out.

I do believe this. We should all be looking for ways to improve and develop our art or we run the risk of becoming stagnant and being totally unable to adapt to new situations. We no longer live in feudal Okinawa or post-war Japan, and modern life brings with it new risks and trials. Thugs walk the streets with guns and knives and violent crime for items such as credit cards, mobile phones etc. is on the increase. There is a hazy line as to how much force a person can use in self-defence before they suddenly become the criminal. All these need to be taken into consideration when teaching a Martial Art for the purposes of self-defence.

However karate is also founded on tradition. For some, karate is more a way of life rather than a hobby, and the traditional aspect is far more important than the self-defence aspect. Modern life also brings with it a whole new set of stresses. For some going to the dojo to train is a massive stress reliever, it helps them forget about the rigours of every day life and escape from reality for a bit. Sometimes the escapism the dojo life brings is what is needed to help a person chill out at the end of the day. The traditional aspects such as bowing, respect to Sensei are good for instilling good character traits into children. It can build up respect, self-confidence, concentration amongst other qualities.

At what point does the need to keep learning and keep evolving conflict with the need to maintain the old traditions that karate is built on? At what point of change are you no longer doing anything that resembles karate? If a Shotokan dojo decides that maybe their stances don’t need to be quite as long, and perhaps they don’t need to spend that much on kata so they can spend more time on sparring, maybe terms should be in English and let’s discard of all that Oriental bowing, and the next minute there is a blurry line in what they are doing; is it Shotokan, is it TKD, is it kickboxing, is it Muay Thai?

I find that people that do karate purely for self-defence reasons tend to have little tolerance for the other aspects of the art. I’ve seen on other forums people asking why we don’t just drop kata, or why do we do something else when it doesn’t help with self-defence. I like to think that there is a bit more to it than that, let’s keep the ART in Martial Arts. Karate should have a little more finesse than the average street fight. On one hand we don’t want to be bogged down in a mire of tradition, so that we can never move on, but on the other hand we need to be careful about preserving the integrity of our art.

There are people who dedicate their lives to rediscovering the lost aspects of old karate. If we change it too much we run the risk of having people in the future trying to work out what we dropped and reintegrate it into their syllabuses. Conversely we don’t want the future karateka to have not learnt anything more than we already do, it would be hoped that every generation more information and has evolved, in a positive way, from the previous one.

[thingy]

Crikey, you have been mulling a lot.
There's enough in your post there for the conversation to go in many different directions and I'm not sure which is most apt to tackle first.

It certainly is somewhat of a catch 22 situation. As time goes on we (as human beings) know more and more. The fact that with every single olympic games, records are broken is testament to the fact that modern training methods do produce good results.
Should you refuse to take on board a new wealth of knowledge because you want your art to remain traditional? If you do, are you running the risk of being "not as good" as those that take on the new ?

Oops, I think I'm just repeating the same question you've just asked. It's a tricky question and possibly better not to think too much about it and do what you feel is right.

[Aefibird]

thingy said:

Oops, I think I'm just repeating the same question you've just asked. It's a tricky question and possibly better not to think too much about it and do what you feel is right.

I agree with Thingy - do what you feel is right.

My dojo is Shotokan in name, but is probably different form other Shotokan karate clubs. I know that we're certainly different to other Shotokan clubs even within the same organisation as us.
My Sensei has trained in other arts and other styles of karate and he likes to incorporate his training into our training - it gives us a well-rounded MA education and also gives us a feel for what else is 'out there'. Yet, we're still a Shotokan dojo.

I suppose it depends on what you describe is Shotokan - if we decide that there are basic principles and beliefs behind "Shotokan", then, in theory I could take those principles and use them to open a Shotokan Ju-Jitsu dojo, or a Shotokan Tae Kwon Do school - all from using the principles of Shotokan.

However, if Shotokan is a set way of performing movements, then I'd better cancel the order I've just placed with a T-Shirt printing company for t-shirts for my club. They say "Shotokan" on them, but if shotokan is nothing more than a set way of performing a movement or technique, then my dojo ain't Shotokan!

Anyway, that was a round-about way of saying that I feel that each club or organisation has to stick to what they feel is correct. My dojo might train in 'non-Shotokan' kata (for example), but we feel that the term "Shotokan" covers what we are.

Getting back on the topic, I agree that change is necessary. The modern world is a different place to how it was 100 years or 50 years or even 10 years ago. There's a place in the martial arts world for highly traditional MA schools that place no emphasis on 'realistic' or 'street' training (my former Aikido club was one such dojo), just as there is a place for martial arts clubs and styles that teach how to survive in the modern world.

It's a fine line for a martial artist to have to walk. In an art like karate, which has a tradition and a history and a background it is important to remember the past, but also recognise that maybe we can't all stay the same forever.

On the wall in the room where I am now, I have a picture that I brought back with me from a jaunt in Ghana. It is of a bird that has its body facing forward, but is looking back over its shoulder and has taken something from behind it in its beak. The story behind the picture is that the bird is facing the future with its body, but is looking back into its past to bring something (not everything) from it's past into the future with it. I thought it was a good representation of how karate ought to be - remembering the past and the history, but moving forward all the time.

Anyway, what was my point again? ;D

[AngelaG]

thingy said:

Crikey, you have been mulling a lot.

Yeah when I mull I mull deeply. ;D

[paulhe]

An analogy that my sensei used is that `Karate is like a new suit or an outfit of clothes, they look different on everyone'.

I personnaly think that we should take and apply the basic principals and fundamentals of Shotokan, but then not be afraid of changing aspects to suit us as individuals. We all have different body types and we should make the most of what our bodies give us.

However, even if we adhere strictly to the traditional fundamentals of Shotokan we've still implemented a natural evolution. I learnt from Enoeda Sensei, who was a student of both Nakayama and Funokoshi. But even then, Enoeda Sensei would say that there was dramatic evolution just from Funokoshi to Nakayama's JKA style. Then Enoeda Sensei would teach and pass on his style of Shotokan. Although I kept his principles at the heart of my Karate, I adapted his Karate to suit my body and so the style of Shotokan that I teach has now evolved through Funokoshi to Nakayama to Enoeda to Me to my students.

I can honestly say that in the past 2 years my own Karate has become less aesthetically pleasing. However a trained eye will see that the function of it far outweighs the form itself. I don't believe that my kata would any longer win me championships, but the feel of the kata itself is far greater and the applications effective.

I believe that Karate should be personal and perhaps known more as a set of concepts rather than just a rigid style.

[Aefibird]

paulhe said:

I believe that Karate should be personal and perhaps known more as a set of concepts rather than just a rigid style.

I agree. Good post paulhe.

[subzero72]

aefibird said:

paulhe said:

I believe that Karate should be personal and perhaps known more as a set of concepts rather than just a rigid style.

I agree. Good post paulhe.

I agree too

[AngelaG]

As time goes on, and we get further and further away from Funakoshi Gichin (and Yoshitaka's influence) then the more and more it is going to change from the original model. However there are now several different lines of people teaching Shotokan, and bringing their own alterations to what they do. Therefore as time goes on, and inevitably we get even more divisions, there will be more and more differences apparent from lineage to lineage. Who actually preserves Shotokan? Who defines what Shotokan is? I'm sure the JKA will claim that it is them, other will disagree.

Surely at some point in the future we will come into a situation where two schools claim to do Shotokan and yet what they do is not comparable to each other?