Karate Class and Training

After a long break, I went back to my Karate class. It was not really a voluntary break as I have been focusing on my studies. Throughout the entire class I was thinking about my technique. I was thinking about how easy it is to notice flaws in other people's form and that it is extremely difficult to notice flaws in one's own form. I tried to notice all the flaws in my form and I was surprised. I noticed certain things about how I kick and how I am better kicking with my right leg instead of my left. I need to work on both in addition to my balance. Overall, though, it felt really good to go back.

Following my class, I went home and trained for awhile. I practiced specifically actually striking an object, which was my heavy bag. I am pretty proficient at striking correctly, but there are times when I kick the bag incorrectly and it is painful. It is an immediate indicator of whether or not I am doing it right.

First WISE presentation

Today was the first WISE presentation of the year and was a mandatory meeting for all students  in the program. The auditorium was more filled than I expected it to be and immediately thought to myself that I would hate to be the one presenting because I am not particularly fond of public speaking. However, as soon as it started I noticed the confidence of the presenter and how he carried himself. He seemed almost unfazed by the fact that there were so many people watching him intently. Throughout the presentation he was calm, cool, and almost friendly which made the atmosphere feel very laid back which I thought made it go extremely smoothly.

The presentation was about learning how to play the harmonica. It was very interesting for me because I am very familiar with music and music theory and I found it interesting how he applied it throughout his project. At the start of his project he was not a music person, and by that I mean he had very little past experience playing any sort of music so he was forced to learn how to read music and the theory behind chords and key signatures and so on.

It made me think about how I need to approach my project for the last several weeks of my project. The biggest struggle for me for WISE was actually just writing blog posts. I had the research done and I enjoyed my hands on practice but found it extremely difficult to set aside time for it, especially after tests began. I have been practicing for my presentation also, though I still have to time everything out and practice just speaking about it.

General History of Karate: Zen, Bushido, and Karate

Zen became an integral part of Japanese culture. Zen heavily influenced the culture of Japan, especially art. The feudal period of Japan was a very prosperous period for the samurai. They garnered the respect of many and held a significant amount of influence. They were notably influenced by Zen during the Kamakura period (around the thirteenth century). They adopted many ideologies from it, and they also contributed to the practice of Zen. Eventually their calm, humble nature was incorporated into the system. Moving forward to the seventeenth century (Tokugawa period), the samurai reached the height of their power in the Tokugawa period. At this time the samurai focused on both their intellectual studies and their physical training, which involved practicing swordsmanship. Through their studies, they created Bushido (the way of the warrior), which was a combination of kendo (the way of the sword) and butsudo (the way of the Buddha). The values of Bushido are at the core of traditional karate training.

These developments were not the only ones that were made at this time. On the Ryukyu Islands, on Okinawa, the natives created techniques that they used to defend themselves, as they were prohibited from carrying weapons. These techniques became known as "Okinawa-te" which translates to "hand techniques of Okinawa." Eventually, Sakugawa, a student of Kempo and stick fighting, formalized these techniques into a style which was called "karate-no-Sakugawa" (translates to "Chinese hand techniques of Sakugawa"). The Okinawan islands became a part of Japan in 1879. Following that, in 1916, Gichin Funakoshi and other Okinawan masters held a karate demonstration in Kyoto, Japan. Afterwards, Master Funakoshi changed the meaning of the character "kara" from meaning "Chinese" to "empty" which is reflected by the fact that Karate now means "empty hand."

(Information found in Karate: Technique and Spirit)

General History of Karate: Buddhism and Japan

Bodhidarma's teachings spread from India, to China, and through Korea to Japan during the sixth century. During this time, numerous clans were vying for the favor of the emperor. One such clan was the Soga clan, who had been heavily influenced by Buddhism and they were successful in influencing the royal family. This resulted in Prince Shotoku Taishi studying Buddhism heavily eventually becoming a scholar of Buddhism. In addition to the spread of Buddhism, China also influenced Japanese architecture, politics, etc. But Buddhism took on a different nature in Japan. After some time, it became what we now know as Zen.

There was a Japanese monk, known as Dogen who wanted to learn Buddhism from those who first sincerely developed it, the Chinese. For this reason, he traveled throughout China observing the practice of Buddhism in many temples but he never liked what he saw. Not until he resolved himself to go home did he come across a senior Chinese monk who was "drying mushrooms in the sun." Dogen then questioned the monk, asking him why he was performing such a menial task when it should be the task of a "junior monk." 

The monk then responded:

"If I do not do this, if I do not work here and now, who could understand? I am not you, I am not others. Others are not me. So others cannot have the experience. I must dry these mushrooms here and now, today, at this moment. Now, go away so I may work!"

Dogen then spent a year studying under that monk's teacher and returned to Japan, introducing the practice of Zen. The two fundamental ideas that Dogen based Zen on were "direct, personal experience" and "practice of zazen" which is the practice of "seated meditation."

(Information found in Karate: Technique and Spirit)

General History of Karate: In China

Normally I leave informational posts on one of my research pages as updates, but there is no easy way to place the general history of karate in my blog, or even the general history of martial arts. According to Kaicho Nakamura, Karate originated in China. One Bodhidarma, also known by the Japanese as Daruma, left from India for China and arrived at the Shaolin Monastery, which is on the slopes of Song Mountain around 520 AD. The reason Daruma left India was to spread Buddhism, which he felt was decaying in India. During his stay, he spent a significant amount of time in meditation and physical training, during which he developed techniques to defend himself against wild animals. Daruma passed these techniques on to the Shaolin monks who incorporated the techniques into their training who eventually became well known for them. As a result of their fame, they were drawn into politics and were the most powerful under the T'ang Dynasty, which was when they had hundreds of fighting monks as well as people who worked the Shaolin farmlands. In 1928, the monastery was burned down and following that, the practice of martial arts was banned. These two actions were taken to reduce the power of the Shaolin Monastery. The self-defense techniques developed by Daruma were organized into a style which was called Wushu. Since then, kempo (temple boxing) has taken it's place.

(Information found in Karate: Technique and Spirit)

Night Training

Today was the first day I trained outdoors at night. I did not know what to expect because I have never really spent that much time outside past dark save for the occasional bonfire that my family and I would have. Nevertheless, I was not disappointed. The atmosphere was so peaceful and tranquil. The only thing I heard was the wind in the trees and the occasional snapping of tree branches.

There were several things that I accomplished outdoors. The first and foremost was practicing my kata. After  the detailed update I posted in my Seido Research page, I have been eager to practice my kata which for me has been rather stagnant, meaning I have not seen or felt a significant improvement. There was one minor improvement I noticed though, and it was in the way I turned around. At the beginning of my training, it was difficult for me to consistently turn far enough for any kata, but now I am doing it with relative ease. One major difficulty I was not accustomed to was how uneven the ground was. I have always practiced my kata on a wooden or cement floor and took it for granted how level everything was which made it more difficulty.

The two other things I accomplished tonight were working my lower body and practicing my self-defense techniques. I went over all of my self-defense and as a result of both the kata and self-defense, I also got a very intense leg work out. On top of them, I also did a form of jumping squats which has made my legs so sore, it is kind of difficult to walk.

General Progress

Earlier this morning, I woke up and started to train. It has been awhile since I was able to get up in the morning and work out, as I would always sleep through the multiple alarms that I set up, but today was different. As far as what my workout was, it consisted of push ups, sit ups, pull ups, and a wide variety of other exercises that worked on my arms. I do need to however, start stretching a lot more in the morning because I was extremely tight at the beginning of my work out, which made doing any sort of exercise that much more difficult.

As far as my presentation goes, I still have a significant amount of research to complete. I need to expand upon what I already know about my style and Kyokushin Karate as well as describe the origins of certain aspects of karate, specifically kata. I have the general layout of my presentation down, though, which will be me describing the history of karate and all the other "informational" parts of my project, then I will move onto actually demonstrating all of the kata and self defense techniques that I have been practicing.