Zen Shaolin Karate: The complete Practice, Philosophy and History

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To include a comma in your tag, surround the tag with double quotes. Skip to content Skip to search. Home This edition , English, Book, Illustrated edition: Physical Description p. Check copyright status Cite this Title Zen Shaolin karate: Subjects Karate -- History. Karate Summary Kata, the preset movements forming the backbone of all karate styles, have been a source of endless confusion for the vast majority of karate students. All students learn how to perform the kata, but there has never been an effective explanation of how they are applied.

The neo-bushido was enforced in pre-war Japan by Dai Nippon Butokukai on all martial arts under its supervision, including Karate and Judo. Buddhist influence in martial arts is not "ancient" or "original" but its undeniably there and in all propability not going anywhere even if the origin is provably false. Allow me to demonstrate: If we strip the philosophical and ethical considerations, then karate etc. Keep stripping away later added influence and you peel the onion into nothing. Althought the title is "Karate and Zen are one" the text explains exactly the opposite. It seems Okinawa was not a strongly buddhist land and Mokuso and Zen was latter introduced in karate in Japan, probably the same way the name of the art changed from To Te to Kara Te, that is as a means for cultural marketing and adaptation for main Japanesse land.

So the connection is not western, yet nor Okinawan original, but Japanesse. We all know that many changes occurred to karate when moved from Okinawa to Japan. I mentioned Mokuso meditation in karate dojos. It seems perhaps it was introduced by Shoshin Nagamine who recognized there was no Zen Buddhism in original Okinawan karate. The article says he introduced zen meditation in Karate in Japan. But still does not makes us sure if some kind of meditation with no buddhist creed existed in Okinawa before and if was related to any Karate dojo.

The article also reffers to Motobu's quote perhaps wrongly translated by Patrick McCarthy as "Karate is also a confuit through which learners can discover and transcend the source of human weakness. With its help, firmness and tranquility are maintained. It works in a spirit similar to the one of Zen ". So Motobu maybe was not saying Zen had influence in Karate.

I have also read that one of the masters of Itosu perhaps was Gusukuma, disciple of Annan and Jion, this last one a Buddhist monk who teached the kata known today as Jion. But i guess it is a mistery if he teached any zen buddhism to Gusukuma that passed on to Itosu and to Karate, thought it would have been little if any, according to what I say in my previous comment. I just say but it is most probably anecdotal.

If any, perhaps no religious doctrine but some moral comments and advices. After all, moral advices in karate do exist and are very similar to Buddhism. But paralelism does not imply correlation. I had also found some interesting things Chojun Miyagi wrote once. Perhaps I have a mistake translating this because there may be an editing error in the website I found it, where I'm not sure if some words are from Miyagi or from the editor. He tended to believe that perhaps origins of Karate came from Boddhidarma and the foundation of Shaolin Temple.

I don't know if he wrote it because he heared it after Karate was passed to Japan, or, even if he or most Okinawans were not buddhists, there existed that legend accepted by Okinawans. I don't say that Miyagi says Karate comes from zen contrary to what Itosu wrote, but that he perhaps believed that traditional hype. At the same time he says Shaolin styles must be a mix of previous existing styles from India and China. Some paragraphs after, he writes "I guess the ultimate formula to truth is Tao, the way".

Later on, he says there is a static begginers practice for Sanchin which implys standing quiet and breath armoniously till you start to feel the "sanchin trance". So here we have some kind of meditation. Perhaps Jutsu meditation more than Do meditation? Or any meditation is Do already?

Then he adds "There is a point to focus which is between your eyebrows. I have heard that zen and other meditation arts are the same than for Sanchin". There we have another paralelism not yet correlation, at least in Okinawa, but perhaps yes in China where Sanchin comes from. I did however also quote Roman poet Horace. So does that mean that karate is influenced by roman ethics? The lessons of the martial arts have parallels in many, many places; but the co-existence of certain principles does not mean common origin. I would suggest they are entirely independent. These are fine ethics regardless of the source, but common ethics does not dictate common source.

Zen Shaolin Karate: The Complete Practice, Philosophy, and History

These are good ethics that are not exclusive to Buddhism, Christianity, Karate, etc. Well, we still have the art itself, but we would lose the more modern aspects of karate. So I would say the karate ethics are entirely independent of Buddhism, do not originate from Buddhism, and the stories that purport to show a link are demonstrably false. Your karate is propably is influenced by roman ethics.

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Few devoted students and years is all it takes for the influence to be widely distributed throughout whatever will be called karate then. Or replace them with something less intertwined with Zen? I don't have an answer to those questions. I would love to continue but I have to be at dojo in 20 minutes.

Meaning I dont have anything constructive to add to this thread. Thank you for discussion. Apart from having clear the hystorical fact than religion is not the source of martial arts and Okinawa karate was not originary into Zen Buddhism, I think we can not deny that cultural encounter between martial arts, buddhism, confuncianism or taoism have occured in some places and moments Shaolin, Sanchin, Mokuso, Tai Chi, Funakoshi perhaps receiving moral teachings which he added to Karate, For me the answer is yes.

Not for no reason sporters from other disciplines also include meditation in their training. I'll explain why meditation for me sometimes is or is almost the same as zen itself. I have just read one hour ago or so some articles in the blog of Jesse Enkamp. These days I'm having a discussion with a friend about the importance of meditation for health and scientifical evidences of that or the lack of them, while the main aim for meditation is not physical health but peace of the mind.

Jesse Enkamp has the same point of view on karate as my friend on meditation, that there is no need for misticism nor magical concepts in karate even in deeper levels. But Jesse Enkamp defends the idea that Mokuso has to be done in karate and Reigi has to be present and not just handshakes.

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As I have been saying before, meditation is not "Zen buddhism", but for me meditation is almost zen and sometimes is already zen. Well, my point of view is because I am a Soto Zen buddhist. Soto enphasizes the idea that zazen itself is the Buddhism and will teach you way more about Buddha spirit than thousands of buddhist philosophy readings.

So when people is making Mokuso, for me they are almost or already touching "Buddha" for a slight moment. The point is about what Soto Zen and I believe "Buddha" is. Frequently, Soto Zen denys the importance of labels in doctrine "if you see Buddha, kill him!

Making Ikebana is not neccesarily zen. Tea ceremony is not neccessarily zen. Zen is being what things are, and sometimes official labels, rituals are fake and hardwork has no spirit. Also Buddha is far from being a deity for us. So it's just a matter of language and zen distrusts language. And when "having a peaceful mind" is only "having a peaceful mind", there is no need for Buddha, and that is zen.

What I mean is that while is perfectly possible that any moral or spiritual teaching in karate exists not thanks to buddhism or taoism but perhaps just thanks to the insight of karatekas, even if the stories of Zen being the craddle of karate are BS, anyway having karate mixed somehow with Zen is not a loss but a win.

If other sports practicioners are incluiding meditation in their program, Karatekas can make it yet, even now we know Zen and Martial arts have not common sources, and without the need for specially labelled philosophy.

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You dont need to read Dogen but you can make Mokuso, and it's ok. But that's what Dogen would do! D Only sit and wait. At the end of this other article, Enkamp explains very well what I usually name as "knowing how to think" as opposite to "knowing not how to think", related to mokuso and meditation practice to empower both mental clarity and karate training.

I also think that perhaps Deshimaru was right when he said that meditation alone helps achieveing hara breathing faster than martial arts practicing. That would be an incorrect assumption. My martial arts have always been entirely independent of any religious component. Not a single one of my instructors has overtly expressed any Buddhist values, ideas or practises in all my time in training. My exposure to Buddhism — what little there has been — has come through both school and self-education predominately the later i.

The addition of these Zen labels are part of this false history. As I stated in my previous post, the existence of common ideas does not imply common origin or inextricable links.

Zen Shaolin Karate - The Complete Practice, Philosophy and History (Electronic book text)

As we know, there was no Zen in the martial arts of the past; and all inferences that there was can be shown to be historically false. Nevertheless, they fought effectively enough. I would suggest it should be recognised for what it is and cleaned off. Just before he does so, he reflects on the words of his coach when he was younger. They excelled in the art of invisibility so well that Chinese today believe that a Shaolin priest can walk through walls! A Chinese mystic and wandering Yamabushi monk, Gempin fell in love with a Japanese woman. Gempin also founded the art of Yawara-Jutsu, a short rod self-defense system on which the modern Kubaton is based.

Takenouchi went on to establish the first official Ryu or school of Jujutsu near Kyoto. Akenkai, received a Chinese Kempo system from Kosho, a Shinto priest. Kosho traced his lineage to Ta Mo. He eventually took the Mitose family name. In a dream, he received new Kempo secrets and renamed his system Kosho-ryu Kempo. Mattera before any connection to modern Shaolin Kempo was ever made. This significant coincidence demonstrates the continuity of our Shaolin Kempo lineage through the decades.

Peasants and farmers mastered Martial Arts that were once the exclusive domain of the military and upper classes. In , the armies of the Japanese Satsuma Clan conquered Okinawa and banned all weapons. The Okinawans were ready for the Japanese, having mastered Okinawa-te Karate, Chugo-ku Kempo and Kobudo, and with simple farm tools to thresh and harvest grain readily at hand in the field for use as weapons.

At advanced levels of Okinawa-te Karate, students learned Shaolin animal forms, specifically the tiger, crane, butterfly, eagle, bear and snake. Major Okinawan arts have strong Chinese roots. The Okinawans steadily increased their Martial Arts know-how. Legend states that an Okinawan, Sakugawa, left for China in and was not heard from again for many years. He reappeared in Shuri, Okinawa, demonstrating advanced Shaolin Kempo techniques that attracted hundreds of pupils.

They succeeded in creating so many Kempo students that Japanese authorities could not stop the spread of the art. The Japanese soon threatened his life and deported him, since his Kempo art was far superior to existing Japanese Martial Arts and he had attracted too many followers. Kosokun decided to fragment his total Chinese Kempo system to prevent the Japanese from copying it.

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In Okinawa, he taught only fist techniques; in Taiwan, thrusting with the fingers; in China, hand and foot fighting. The Koreans also acknowledged the Chinese influence on their Martial Arts. He felt that a Chinese name would hamper the spread of Karate among the nationalistic Japanese.

This change angered the Okinawans, but they later agreed to change their Kara ideograph to conform with the Japanese version. Kempo masters have always been at the forefront when it comes to new techniques and training methods. It is a hard sparring art where fighters wear heavy protective equipment.

This allowed other Chinese masters to come forth and reveal their Martial Arts secrets to anyone, regardless of race. Mitose felt that most Americans could identify with the term Jujitsu, an art popular in the islands at the time.

He taught Kempo Jujitsu as a fighting art made up of eight aspects: He did create a grappling system with an Aikido-Jujitsu flavor that avoided extreme body contact. For all intents and purposes, the terms Kenpo, Kenpo Karate and Kempo mean Shaolin-based arts; those who use the reversed term Karate Kempo imply an affiliation to Okinawan Karate based partly on Shaolin arts. Some Kempo stylists have gone so far as to call their art Zempo or Kempa, to give it a unique identity.

When all is said and done, Kempo is Kenpo, and vice versa. Of below-average height, Chow was strong, quick and accurate.

Chow called his art by three names: He believed, as did Mitose before him, that the Hawaiian people would more easily recognize the term Karate or Jujitsu. A demanding teacher, Chow stressed full contact training. Few students trained with Chow very long. Chow taught only basics for five years.

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