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Karate-do
JIKF
teaches traditional Japanese Shotokan Karate-do.
Karate
Most
people have heard of "karate". Many people can tell you, "It's
a martial art using punches and kicks."
The need
for self-defense is as old as man. The physical movements that became the
basis for modern karate originated as man's imitation of the tactics used by
animals in what is now India,
more than 2000 years ago. In those times of early civilization, survival
depended on the ability to defend oneself and one's property from others who
simply wanted it for themselves.
Moves from
the most powerful and cunning animals were adapted to the human form and
adopted as a means of defensive advantage.
These
forms of self-defense spread through China
to the island kingdom
of Okinawa, where the
people applied them to their own native self-defense system called te
(literally, "hands"). It was the birth karate, but for social and
political reasons, it was fighting system that was practiced in secret and
given only to a select few by the its teachers. Things slowly changed, as the
three kingdoms of Okinawa (Shuri, Naha,
Tomari) developed their own systems (Shuri-te, Naha-te, Tomari-te). More than
100 years ago, Okinawa became a prefecture
of Japan, and later the art spread
to mainland Japan
where it was embraced and formalized. One Funakoshi “Shoto”
Gichin, born in Okinawa, is considered the
"father" of modern karate-do for his efforts in popularizing the
art.
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The word "karate" is used by many other schools as a
marketing tool because karate is the most popular martial art in the world
today. However, these schools often teach other martial arts like Taekwondo
from Korea or
kick-boxing from Thailand.
JIKF is your source for authentic traditional Japanese karate-do.
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Karate-do
In
these modern peaceful times, however, karate was no longer required for
day-to-day survival. Still, practitioners found that karate training improved
their health, focused their minds, and strengthened their spirits. Training
continued with a new focus on karate as way to create a healthy individual
who was a strong member of family, community, and society. The Dō
(pronounced "doh", meaning "way") suffix was added to
emphasize the art as a way of life, thought and action. Karate the fighting
system became the art of Karate-do, the "way of the empty
hand".
By the
middle of the 20th century, this art had spread throughout America,
bringing the benefits of karate-do training to our modern Western world,
where it was popular despite sometimes being at odds with cultural norms of
materialism, convenience, and tendencies to favor style over substance. Or
perhaps it was popular because of these differences.
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Traditional Japanese karate-do will have at least these
things:
- Traditional values of
respect, effort, patience, honesty, and discipline
- Focus on building the body,
mind, spirit
- Conservative changes in
technique that favor substance over style
... that make it different from many modern Western or
so-called "Americanized" forms of karate.
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