I normally write almost exclusively about the business side of the martial arts industry and do so in order to stay out of the many controversies that make up the various styles and “ways” of the genre. I did write about my own personal martial arts evolution, which was not the standard ‘path’ that most martial artists travel and which I hope to have published in a couple of months.
What was unusual about my personal journey is that I started to first learn Shotokan Karate from a very non-Japanese, Canadian-raised Instructor who could not be considered “traditional” in any real sense of the word. I mention this as we are seeing far too many references to “Traditional Karate” (or martial arts in general) these days with too many feeling we have lost touch with the true representation of whatever Karate style being discussed (or whatever martial art) based on their interpretation of ‘Traditional”.
Oxford Dictionary defines “tradition” as: “A long-established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another.” Or for our reference, as it pertains to Martial Arts: “An artistic (or literary) method or style established by an artist (writer) or movement, and subsequently followed by others.”
I feel that the second definition above is the pulpit the traditionalists of today attempt to preach from. While there is still a separation between those who consider themselves traditionalists and those who have left behind the Japanese heritage (in the case of karate) from their teaching and training curriculums, none should consider themselves superior to the other as both have their strengths and well as limitations.
Japanese Martial Tradition Leveraged
While our focus for this article will be on Karate, the traditionalist battle can be applied to number of other Japanese Budo, including Naginata or even Kendo. In fact, while the term Bushido is a well-known descriptor of Japanese Samurai martial art spirit and dignity, there is more and more evidence that Bushido never truly existed and was the fabrication of a late 19th century educator in his attempt to establish a truly Japanese moral code during the turbulent Meiji restoration period.
In this same time period, basically at the end of the 1800s, Kendo was established in its current form and Karate started to develop into more than a backyard endeavor. With Kendo, most of the previous training for swordsmanship was conducted in small groups with one-on-one training over a span of several years. With the elimination of the Samurai class during the early part of the Meiji period and the growth of Japan as an international military power, some of the political elite felt that leveraging the romanticized spirit of the Samurai would allow the new generation of soldiers to have a noble past for inspirational purposes.
This included the way the students were taught Kendo as well as what was taught for the purpose of consolidating the various sword styles into a cohesive training curriculum. Together with Government intervention, Budo was “formalized” into the Dai Nippon Butokukai.
As quoted from the www.dnbk.org website:
“… in 1895, The Dai Nippon Butoku Kai (Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society) was established in Kyoto Japan under the supporting authority of the national government and the endorsement of the Meiji Emperor to solidify, promote, and standardize all martial disciplines and systems extant in Japan.” ….
At this same time, Karate started to expand in Okinawa and slowly formalized into more organized curriculums similar to what was occurring in Japan including the transition to teaching large groups of students rather than teaching one or two students as was the custom.
Further evidence is being uncovered demonstrating that karate as it was known on Okinawa around the turn of the last century had little resemblance to what was taught prior to Karate being added to the Okinawan School curriculum. In other words, the only “tradition” being taught was basic cultural norms and not the type/style of karate (or even how it was taught).
In this light, we can therefore trace the traditional “Start Point” if you want, at least for Kendo, to the turn of the 20th century, which in the history of Japan is not all that long ago. Yet the Kendo of today can only truly trace its history to this point in time, while formalized karate itself is even younger.
Initiating Modern Martial Arts Tradition
The traditional Karate styles we see prevalent today have only existed for less than 100 years and each is hard-pressed to say theirs is a tradition “not to be touched”. In fact, it was the transition of karate to Japan proper that initiated the development of the various “traditional” karate styles now in existence.
Even Gichin Funakoshi knew that he had to modify the karate he was taught in Okinawa to accommodate the “sign of the times” if he wished to successfully propagate Karate to the Japanese population. And even though Funakoshi sensei never “named” his karate, unlike his Okinawan compatriots, it was his students who decided to name the karate they learned from him as “Shotokan”. It was around the same time period, namely the 1920 ’s and 1930 ’s when the other karate styles originated, mainly to get themselves properly registered with the Japanese Dai Nippon Butoku Kai. This included accepting the kyu/dan ranking system as well as the wearing of a uniform, which in Karate’s case initially emulated the Judo Gi.
Although we acknowledge that Funakoshi and others of his stature were innovators of Karate, there slowly developed a philosophy that certain elements of each Karate style were not to be “innovated” any further. What is surprising is that this philosophy never really took root until Karate started becoming internationalized, especially in the North American market. When Karate started to become popularized in North America, primarily in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the cast of characters involved was unique and diverse, to say the least.
While karate did evolve in the early part of the 20th century into several separate “styles” (or Ryu), it was obvious that the basic premise of karate was similar in many aspects. This included most stances, strikes, kicks, and in some cases even the Kata, but each with some unique aspect to their training which differentiated it from other styles. In a number of cases, unless you were an active participant in one of the styles (i.e.: Shotokan, Wado-ryu, Gojo-ryu, etc.) most of the differences would be negligible to the inexperienced spectator.
Karate starts to Professionalize
What truly initiated the separation into “traditional” and “non-traditional” martial arts was the “commercialization” of karate, which simply means that when people started to make money in karate, they did what they needed to in order to keep the money flowing in. The second main separation of karate into traditional and nontraditional was the introduction of “Sport Karate” which led to competitors who trained primarily for tournaments and shunned any “traditional” aspect to their karate training, including practicing kata or the wearing of the white Gi.
This eventually then led to separate competitions where the “Open” tournaments allowed all styles, including non-karate styles (e.g.: Tae Kwon Do and Kung-Fu/Wushu) to compete, and the more “traditional” tournaments where only Japanese and Okinawan Karate styles were permitted. It was here where the word “Traditional” started to become more focused on how the style of karate was taught more so than what was being taught.
The “traditionalists” mainly concerned themselves with ensuring standard uniforms (primarily white GIs) were worn and that certain Kata (forms) were performed with little modifications to these katas permitted. On the other hand, those karate schools that participated in more of the “Open” tournaments began to evolve into a variety of unique operations such as small school fighting teams to schools that concentrated on the new version of competition kata known as “tricking”.
While there are benefits to both variations, unfortunately, the “traditionalists” try to maintain that they are the true “keepers” of the way and hold the higher moral ground in the Karate world. Unfortunately, when realizing that we are talking of times no longer than 100 years ago when the karate we see today started to evolve, the word “traditional” has a bit of a hollow meaning.
It must be remembered that it was the “Open” concept that allowed for Karate and Martial Arts in general to evolve into variations including Kick Boxing and ultimately Mix Martial Arts (MMA). Without the inclusiveness and experimentation that the “Open” karate styles allowed for, a number of innovations to the martial arts may never have occurred, including new kata developments, expanding the use of weapons from simple farm implements to all varieties of hand-to-hand combat weaponry, not to mention the true commercialization of karate in general.
This was also the time when a number of traditionalists started to criticize these Martial Artists/Business people for “selling out” their craft. There was a philosophy that true Karateka should never profit from what they were taught and the true way was through dedicated adherence to making yourself a better person in society and helping others to do the same. For some reason, remuneration for this effort was frowned upon and it was thought that making Karate a career choice for financial gain was giving up the true way.
This is amusing as most of the early practitioners of Karate, especially in Okinawa, were of the gentry class, which means they came from families with sizable fortunes, allowing them the leisure time to train. Most of the population at that time would not be able to spare any time for such extensive study so to frown upon those trying to make Karate a life’s endeavor is somewhat “complex” to say the least.
Olympizing the Martial Arts
With many full-time and very financially successful traditional schools now in existence, the traditionalists are now defining themselves more on what and how they teach rather than any commercialization hesitations. Again, this is a somewhat complex definition especially when considering the recent push to get Karate into the Olympics. It was necessary that the traditional styles once again evolved into a more “generic” style of karate in order to gain acceptance by the Olympic committee.
In fact, organizations like the World Karate Federation and its National/Provincial counterparts (KarateCanada and KarateBC) have affiliated themselves with the National Coaching and Health Agencies which again has affected what and how the “traditional” styles of karate are taught. There is a document put out by KarateCanada known as the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) initiative which actually makes recommendations to move away from “styles” of karate and for competitive purposes, they should follow the LTAD program which is also used by most sports organizations.
All this puts the word “traditionalist” into a quandary as the “white Gi”, limited Kata, specific Kumite, and Kihon routine “karate styles” are continuing to evolve into an “Olympizied” version that doesn’t look very similar to what was developed by Funakoshi Gichin and his compatriots. Nevertheless, even though there is a myriad of reasons why we can define traditionalists as simply a variation of what is being taught in today’s martial arts industry, including all the new/old eclectic styles, we should try to focus on the desire of the instruction, rather than what is being taught.
We should examine the philosophy behind what is being taught as well as the sincerity of how karate (or martial arts in general) is being taught. Even with Traditionalists, there has never been agreement on uniforms, kata or proper kumite practice, but what they all have in common is respect for what they were taught and respect in how they treat those who follow them.
Traditionalists have very little timelines to defend their “nothing should be touched” mentality, yet some of today’s Karate Instructors who are considered the true traditionalists are actually innovators of today’s karate or even other Budo. For example, Atarashii Naginata is considered a traditional Budo and the way it’s taught, together with the techniques being taught are considered sacrosanct by most of the Naginata leadership, yet the Budo itself was not “organized” until 1955 with all previous versions being offshoots of Kendo practice.
Traditional is a mindset
One of the leading proponents of Karate, Kanazawa Hirokazu, and one of the most talented instructors of Naginata, Kimura Yasuko, both felt that their Budo would be enhanced by allowing innovation to be included within their Budo’s training curriculum. Whether this innovation was listening and learning from non-Japanese “experts” or simply trying to be more inclusive in the training and propagating of the Budo itself.
It is therefore best to qualify Traditionalists as those who have their Budo’s best interest in mind and prefer to leverage some of the best “processes” (to use business vernacular) of what is more aptly described as “Classic Karate” but only in the use of the Uniform/Gi, Kata’s and Basics. You will seldom find similar training techniques and in a lot of cases, the execution of the techniques is still different within the same style. Yet the atmosphere within the school is respectful, energetic, forward-looking, and ultimately fun!
If you are training at one of these “traditional” schools working bi-weekly out of a community center or local school gym or if you are training within a full time professionally run modern business/school, which is totally equipped with all type of training tools, just remember that as long as the learnings you obtain from your experience is fulfilling, educational, effective in getting into better shape as well as enhancing your overall outlook on life, then you can say you’re training at a traditional school.
Traditional is some endeavor we “do” in such a noble way that we truly wish to pass on this excellence to others. Remember the word we call our teachers in Karate is “Sensei” which simply means “those that have gone before us”. No better or worse, just experienced. Learn and Enjoy your Budo tradition, whatever you make it out to be.
Pruim Shihan has regularly travelled to Japan in order to train with one of the world's foremost Karate masters, the late Kanazawa Hirokazu Soke (10th Dan Shotokan Karate) and his present instructor Shuseki Shihan Manabu Murakami (8th Dan).
Pruim Shihan also attended the International Budo University, located in Katsuura, Japan on several occasions for advanced Budo training where he was introduced to Atarashii Naginata.
Andries Pruim has written several articles over the past 30 years, with his most recent work focusing on the business side of the Martial Arts Industry.
- My Japanese NaginataExperience - September 8, 2024
- Sports Karate Business Benefits - August 1, 2024
- Using Martial Arts AI to create Article on Sumo - July 8, 2024
Fantastsic article. A lot of time is spent by ‘traditional’ karate teachers and schools criticizing other ‘traditional’ teachers and schools. Defining original Karate and traditions is a matter of opinion, and we can argue it to infinity and still not make Karate better. I believe that if we are training in Karate that has true meaning and value to us, then what we are doing is correct.