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At
Okinawa, a miraculous and mysterious martial arts has come to us
from the past. We say that the one who has mastered all its
techniques can defend himself efficiently without any weapons and
can accomplish remarkable feats: break many big boards with his fist
or break a roof beam with one kick. He is capable of killing a bull
in one hit with his Shuto "The hand's blade", he can
pierce the flank of a horse with his opened hand, he can cross a
room with his fingers hanging on the roof's beam, he can crush a
stick of green bamboo with his bare hand, cut a hemp rope by a
simple twist or crush a soft rock between his hands. Some
people consider these aspects of this martial art, miraculous and
mysterious, are the essence of the Karate-do. These facts are only a
minor part of Karate, analogue to the test of bale in Kendo and it
is wrong to think that Karate stops there. In fact, the real
Karate-do insists on the spiritual part of things, much more than on
their physical aspect. The real Karate-do consists, in real life, in
training the body and mind with humility and that, in critical
moments, we are capable to entirely devote ourselves to
justice." KARATE-DO
KYOHAN, Gichin Funakoshi (1868-1957). "Definition" Karate
is the Japanese form of a fighting technique without weapons, bare
feet and bare hands; it is a method of attack and defence that
relies exclusively on the rational use of the natural possibilities
given by the human body; it consits in a set of hits (atemis),
either by the upper body (fist, hand, elbow, forearm) or the lower
body (foot, knee); those hits are given on exact and vulnerable
points (vital points) of the body of the opponent, or on the foot or
arm, with which the opponent attacks; in this case, the technique
used is called a block; it is then directly followed by a decisive
counter-attack technique, generally with a hit. In its
characteristical form, Karate is like fencing but with arms and
feet, both used equally to block a hit or to ripost; it is completed
by dislocation techniques, throws; in fact, Karate includes every
single way to put an attacker out of order; nothing, no hit or throw
is forbidden. During training, nevertheless, for a partner work to
be possible, hits are given with violence but always completely
contained before the impact; this rule in a respected dojo, and the
fact that throws are not very common, explain that the Karate
practiced in sports halls does not involve any danger for the body
but still being a tough sport because bruises to the body cannot be
avoided during real assaults." Shotokan KARATE-DO, Roland Habersetzer.
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Introduction
