Karate: an Intangible Cultural Heritage -
Evolved within a Diaspora - Minority Commune
Synopsis/Pre-reading for April 24, 2014 and July 31,
2014
Lecture by Gosei Yamaguchi
Synopsis
April 24, 2014
The karate instructors, in Okinawa, refer to the purpose
of learning the art of karate
through the phrase, “hitoni utarezu, hitoutazu, kotonaki, kotowo,
mototosuru.”
Translated, this means “...thus no one can harm you nor
can you harm anyone,” and as
such both parties survive without hurting or eliminating
others.
Another phrase they would introduce to you is, ”karate
ni sente nashi” which means
“karate practitioners do not make the first move.” The
practitioner never initiates a
confrontation; the first action taken by you is to defend
yourself from an individual who
intends to harm you physically. This concept is reflected
in all kata in that kata always
begin with a block. However, you counter this first
attempt of defense by an offensive
move with all katas concluding with a defensive move.
Many have understood the principle behind karate as a
discipline of self defense. And
yet, this interpretation has been mistakenly used to
justify an act that could be used
against the offender that would punish them, and if
necessary, fatally harm them. In
some Christian societies, there is a sentiment to justify
an act of violence if that violence
was a result of defending one’s self or family.
On the other hand, ethnic cultures who are a minority
within the community or a host
nation, develop a wisdom in order to survive - they have
learned that it is not
advantageous to harm a member of the authority class or a
member of the majority.
Within a ghetto or minority commune, the legal and civil
rights of the minority may be
poorly protected by the host state or authority,
therefore, their acts of self-defense will not
be protected.
Ryukyu or Okinawa once was a colony of the Satsuma clan of
Japan and consequently
became a prefecture of Japan during the 19th century.
While the islanders are now
Japanese citizens, they have maintained their traditional
social ethics as reflected by their
cultural heritage.
Between 1930 - 1940, university students from mainland
Japan were attracted to the
exotic Okinawa-originated martial arts,
唐手.
They referred to this art as “karate” which
means “Chinese hand.”
This group modified the Okinawan art to include
free-sparring forms despite the fact that
free sparring was strongly discouraged in Okinawa by
Okinawans. At the end of the
Pacific War, during the U.S. occupation of Japan, General
Douglas MacArthur purged
Budokukai, the Japanese legislature of martial arts. He
and his staff were threatened
by
the very institution which promoted military aggression of
the Japanese empire.
Consequently, most of the martial arts as well as karate,
were reformed into a competitive
sport in order to survive during the U.S. occupation of
Japan.
It is my view that the tournament aspect of karate
represents only a part of the art. I have
reminded the karate society in Japan to reevaluate the
origin of the art as it evolved in
Okinawa. I suggested to my fellow instructors in Japan
that their teaching method and
practices be more closely informed by teachings from the
era of Okinawa, bringing about
a renaissance of karate. The athletic
events of contests originated in ancient Greece. The
Olympic events started as far back as 6th century BC. The
contest aspect of events in
Hellenism also contributed to the spectacles for public
entertainment. Romans adapted
these ideas into the contests among gladiators of which we
are familiar today.
To make martial arts more palatable to the authorities of
the West, the practices were
converted into sports events as a political gesture to
acquiesce to the war victors. This
enabled the arts to continue and the associated heritage
maintained.
Since the reformation era beginning in 1864, the Japanese
swiftly converted their
political and social structure into a nation state adopted
from the European political
structure. According to 19th century historians, ancient
Greek political philosophy
influenced Western culture. The concept of nationalism
derived from the Greek political
philosophy, “big nation with big roots.” To convert
the art of karate into the western
concept of sport was successful from a political point of
view. However, in the process,
most Japanese karate instructors lost the thread in that
they had lost the origin of the art.
The terms “post-colonialism,”
“nationalism,” “globalism,” and “multicultural nation”
have been offered by scholars of the social sciences as
concepts for intellectual
discourse.
In this lecture I will explain to you the metaphysical
ideals taught by the karate founders
in Okinawa and how these ideals fit into the modern
multi-cultural nation (such as the
U.S.) as well as global society of our time.
July 31, 2014
Synopsis
July 31, 2014
The narrative of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11.1-9)
describes how the variety of
different languages confused people, and therefore,
instead of remaining in one
centralized community, the people scattered throughout the
face of the earth.
That event has come to symbolize a condition which has not
changed since those biblical
times. Our current international political society is
composed of nations where
populations speak different mother tongues and are of
different genetic make-up. This
has led to suffering among many particularly among the
immigrant minority within the
hosting nation.
For example, the United States’ constitution and its
various laws and regulations serve to
protect the basic human rights of the individual,
including minority citizens. The United
States could represent a microcosm of a multicultural
society, and extendable to the world
at large.
The Okinawan concept of the art of karate is effective as
an educational tool to establish a
common sense of global citizenship. Every citizen needs to
develop a mentality whereby
coexisting with different groups of people is a critical
component of its values and
ideologies. To pass these values on to our children so
that they are ready for that society
which then enables the society to flourish, we need an
educational model to build the
mentality.
The Okinawan mentality, “hitoni utarezu, hitoutazu, kotonaki, kotowo,
mototosuru.”
would be effective to shape such a society.
The traditional hierarchical society, has groups of
minorities who suffer and are
victimized by the hosting majority people and the
authority the majority possess. Some
of those victimized have experienced many generations of
anger, regret and envy. As
quoted by scholars of sociology, there is a significant
sociological and psychological
tendency for a member of the minority community to feel
some degree of hostility toward
the majority. The French term, “ressentiment”, is thus
applied.
The late August Wilson, an African American playwright
wrote the Pulitzer Prize
winning play, “Fences.” Here he presents a significant
example of the black American
society and its resentment toward the majority.
We all could be a minority in one way or another due to
our mother tongue, gender, racial
and physical appearance, financial status, political
beliefs, educational and career status,
and even religious beliefs.
In this lecture, I would like to point out how to
understand an exploited group of people
by studying “ressentiment” and how the Okinawan
concept can ameliorate our
understanding of the multicultural world.
Copyright © 2015 by Norimi Gosei Yamaguchi and Goju-Kai Karate-Do, U.S.A.
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