What is Karate?

Deciding who is the winner and who is the loser is not the ultimate objective of karate. Karate is a martial art for the development of character through training so that the practitioner can surmount any obstacle, tangible or intangible. Karate is an exercise through which the student masters all body movements such as bending, jumping, and balancing and learns to move limbs and body backward and forward, up and down, left and right, freely and uniformly. The quality necessary to accomplish this is self-control. To become a victor, one must first overcome oneself. (Masatoshi Nakayama)
Karate can also be described as a martial art, or fighting method, involving a variety of techniques including blocks, strikes, evasions, throws, and joint manipulations. Karate practice is divided into three aspects: kihon (basics), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring).

The word karate is a combination of two Japanese characters: kara, meaning empty, and te, meaning hand; thus, karate means “empty hand.” Adding the suffix “-do” (pronounced “doe”), meaning “way,” i.e., karate-do, implies karate as a total way of life that goes well beyond the self-defense applications. In traditional karate-do, we always keep in mind that the true opponent is oneself.

Shotokan founder Gichin Funakoshi has said that “mind and technique become one in true karate.” We strive to make our physical techniques pure expressions of our mind’s intention and to improve our mind’s focus by understanding the essence of the physical techniques. By polishing our karate practice, we are polishing our own spirit or our own mentality. For example, eliminating weak and indecisive movements in our karate helps to eliminate weakness and indecision in our minds, and vice versa. It is in this sense that karate becomes a way of life as we try to become very strong but happy and peaceful people.