Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Doctrine of Karate
    The Doctrine of Karate
    The Doctrine of Karate
    Ebook65 pages56 minutes

    The Doctrine of Karate

    By James Brumbaugh

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    An indepth discussion about the founding principles that led to the creation and continuing study of the art of karate as a self-defense.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames Brumbaugh
    Release dateSep 21, 2023
    ISBN9798223030362
    The Doctrine of Karate
    Author

    James Brumbaugh

    James Brumbaugh lives in northeast Ohio where he spends his time writing sci-fi, fantasy and suspense novels, training at karate, building a Japanese garden in his back yard, and taking walks in the local metro parks.  He has spent more than sixty years studying various martial arts, the last thirty focused on Shorei-ryu karate, eventually attaining the rank of hachi-dan. He continues to mentor others on their karate journey.

    Related to The Doctrine of Karate

    Related ebooks

    Martial Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Some Issues To Consider Regarding Olympic Karate

      Nov 23, 2021

      If you ever had a goal and started working feverishly on it, obsessing over it until the goal became more important than the reasons you had to take up the task in the beginning, you have an idea of how Olympic karate evolved. The original reason for

      6 min read

    • Article

      Anko Itosu

      Apr 1, 2023

      Anko Itosu
      9 min read

    • Article

      Anko Itosu

      Apr 1, 2023

      Anko Itosu
      9 min read

    • Article

      Martial Arts Vs. Fighting Arts

      Jan 12, 2021

      Martial Arts Vs. Fighting Arts
      3 min read

    • Article

      Archery: The Martial Art?

      Jan 20, 2022

      Archery: The Martial Art?
      5 min read

    • Article

      10 Years Of Travel, Part 1

      Sep 14, 2020

      Bruce lee once said, “i do not believe in styles.” He went on to explain that because we all have two arms and two legs, the techniques that are available to us and that are effective against human opponents are basically the same. For this reason, t

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Rise Of Ata Nation

      Nov 23, 2022

      The Rise Of Ata Nation
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Rise Of Ata Nation

      Nov 23, 2022

      The Rise Of Ata Nation
      11 min read

    • Article

      Featured Item

      Nov 23, 2022

      Featured Item
      3 min read

    • Article

      Featured Item

      Nov 23, 2022

      Featured Item
      3 min read

    • Article

      Hidetaka Nishiyama

      Sep 13, 2022

      Hidetaka Nishiyama
      6 min read

    • Article

      THROWS & STRIKES

      Jul 20, 2021

      THROWS & STRIKES
      7 min read

    • Article

      Daito-ryu 101

      Mar 17, 2020

      Daito-ryu 101
      5 min read

    • Article

      Cqc Sambo

      May 18, 2021

      Cqc Sambo
      8 min read

    • Article

      Unintended Consequences

      Jul 1, 2023

      Unintended Consequences
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Hidden Stuff

      May 18, 2021

      The Hidden Stuff
      3 min read

    • Article

      Rethinking Rank

      Nov 4, 2018

      Rethinking Rank
      10 min read

    • Article

      Unintended Consequences

      Jul 1, 2023

      Unintended Consequences
      3 min read

    • Article

      Building A Bulletproof Release

      Jul 2, 2020

      Building A Bulletproof Release
      9 min read

    • Article

      Get Your Kicks

      Jan 20, 2021

      Get Your Kicks
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Different Perspective On Rank

      Nov 23, 2022

      A Different Perspective On Rank
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Different Perspective On Rank

      Nov 23, 2022

      A Different Perspective On Rank
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Sai

      Sep 14, 2020

      The Sai
      7 min read

    • Article

      Suruchin Journey

      Nov 23, 2021

      Suruchin Journey
      5 min read

    • Article

      Watch Your Words

      Mar 16, 2021

      Watch Your Words
      4 min read

    • Article

      Birth Of Jeet Kune Do

      Sep 14, 2021

      Birth Of Jeet Kune Do
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Doctrine of Karate

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Doctrine of Karate - James Brumbaugh

      Dedication

      This paper is dedicated to all the sensei who helped me along my karate journey and to all those who will come after me on their own journey, both my students and those who are training under someone else.  Karate is a personal journey that can last a lifetime.  I hope the discussion within this work will spur others to think about the fabric holding karate together.

      Included are three related essays, Doctrine, Strategy, Tactics: Who Cares and Styles: Marketing Tool or the Foundation for Learning? and The Mind and the Martial Artist.

      I hope readers will find these writings thought provoking.

      Introduction

      What is karate?  What is the basis for it as a martial art of self-defense?  These questions are repeated over and over in dojo around this country.  Often the answers are unsatisfactory.  Students want knowledge, and yet the truth is not easy to pin down.  On the surface, karate appears to be a simple art that involves punching and kicking.  It seems to be about learning unique mechanical motions called techniques.  As students train and learn more than the basics, what seemed simple begins to take on a complex nature. The more complex it becomes, the more perplexing the true nature of karate appears. As the karateka advances, similarities to other martial arts are observed. Asking questions about karate's roots and trying to trace the history of the art only leads to more confusion. The history of karate seems irrevocably intertwined with other martial arts so much so that the demarcation between arts has been lost, if it ever concisely existed.  The more one searches for clear-cut answers, the more the question becomes whether karate ever actually existed as a separate entity. 

      And yet there is something unique about karate, something distinct.  There is a different feel to it.  When did karate separate from other arts and why? If karate does exist as a separate art, then there must be a distinctive foundation of general, underlying principles that provide the groundwork for the art.  So, how can these principles be discovered? Searching the literature for clues to the nature of karate reveals no simple answers. The principles that guided the founders are vague or unrecorded.  Despite the confusing and contradictory information found in most of the literature, it is possible to reach certain conclusions by extrapolating. 

      Karate is generally accepted as an antique martial art that was formulated, or translated from, various Chinese martial styles of chuan-fa through a few Okinawans who blended the Chinese styles with the Okinawan art te sometime between the late 1700s to early 1900s.  It is also generally accepted that karate was initially a self-defense, either for palace guards as suggested by Choki Motobu¹ or for the nobility as suggested by Mark Bishop² or even for the general populace as suggested by Peter Lewis.³ The best-known early masters studied chuan-fa by traveling to China personally or from Chinese practitioners who visited Okinawa.  While in the case of the earliest Okinawan masters there is sometimes confusion as to the exact details of their training, it is apparent that the roots of the martial arts they practiced are traceable to China.  One such example is Sakugawa, one of the most important early karateka.  Depending on the source, he was reported to have either traveled to China to learn Chinese boxing⁴ or he learned it on Okinawa⁵.  Kanryo Higaonna, another important figure in Okinawan karate, is reported to have done both, learning from experts in Okinawa and visiting China to further his training and knowledge.⁶ If so many of the early masters who were instrumental in the formation of karate trained in chuan-fa, then when and how did these Chinese systems become karate?

      Simply identifying its origin is not enough to define karate since the art has certainly not been static.  In the last seventy-five years, karate has evolved beyond the status of a little-known yet practical self-defense, into a way for self-refinement (do), a sport, and now into various fitness/conditioning programs.  The relation between karate and self-defense has blurred to the extent that many respected karateka are asking if karate as it is now taught contains the necessary elements of a useful self-defense.  Vince Morris notes in the preface to his book on kyusho-jutsu that there was the proliferation of Japanese-centered styles post World War Two which concentrated on developing and promoting the newly emerging sporting aspects of karate with little attention to, nor knowledge of, the more profound and dangerous non-sporting, self-defence constituents.⁷ Many authors feel this transition away from karate as a self-defense was initiated at the beginning of the 19th century by Ankoh Itosu.  A. S. Rench suggests, "By the late 1930s, the majority of karate practiced was

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1