Shotokai Karate-do, CHILE
Cita de Shigeru Egami
Karate-do, Beyond Technique
The karate practiced today is quite different from that of forty years ago, and the number of styles now is said to total nearly one hundred. Many schools send instructors abroad to propagate their respective techniques. While it can be aid that there are certain groups in the United States and Europe that, with the objective of understanding the soul of the Orient as a means of counteracting the impasse arising from materialistic civilization, place emphasis on the spiritual side of karate, the sad truth is that many styles teach only the fighting art and neglect the spiritual aspects. And the practitioners themselves, who offer lip service to the spirit of the art, have as their real objective the winning of matches. They speak of fostering an indomitable spirit, which in itself is praiseworthy, but we have to think of the results if this spirit is improperly used. As in the case of a hoodlum or madman wielding a knife, gun or other weapon against innocent people, the results could only be disastrous.
The present situation, then, is that the majority of followers of karate in overseas countries pursue karate for its fighting techniques, and it must be admitted that the proclivity to engage in combat is no less common in humans than in other animals. It is extremely doubtful that those enthusiasts have come to a full understandingly of Karate-do.
Gichin Funakoshi was an advocate of the spiritual aspects of Karate-do and placed much greater emphasis on this than on the techniques of fighting. Moreover, he always practiced what he taught. If he were alive today to see what is happening to Karate-do, what would he think ?
Those of us who are adhering strictly to orthodox karate as an art of self-defense must do all in our power to see that it is practiced in the proper way and that its spiritual side is understood to the fullest extent.
