Mine honour is my life;

Both grow in one;

Take honour from me,

And my life is done.

– Shakespeare,Richard II, 11, 1

It’s been said that people without honour have no concept of what honour is, and will even scoff at those who are bestowed with that trait. Combine this with a lack of integrity, discipline, loyalty and trustworthiness and what’s left is nothing but a person who goes through life with no moral values or thoughts for anyone but himself.

Martial artists are special people. Well, they’re supposed to be, and back in the old days they adhered strictly to the codes of honour, respect, and a man’s word being his bond. There are stories of karate masters, kung fu monks and other martial artists who lived by the code of integrity, trust and loyalty.

Sadly, to a large extent, that has been watered down somewhat and all that many martial artists do nowadays is kick and punch with a whole heap of noise. But, there are still areas where the old ways are still adhered to.

Karate-Do, we’ll find out what it’s all about and what I experienced during a wonderful week of karate in New York State a few weeks ago, right after these responses to ‘No history, no culture’.

Greetings Teerob,

People without knowledge of their past, history, origin and culture are like a tree without roots, said Marcus Garvey. Our cultural influence, our history, became less relevant as we entrusted our validity as a nation to the pinball machine of globalisation. So, among many examples of our history/culture disappearing or less valued by us is football, as we have regressed since our qualification in 1998. We have no style of play that is Jamaican. Another is our identity as a nation, as more overseas countries are adapting our customs and music.

Kurt W.

Boston, USA

Tony,

I have lived abroad for almost 40 years, but I visit Jamaica and document my visits digitally to share with family and friends abroad. Today’s youth may not be interested in documentaries about our history, but this is exactly why we need to preserve and document it to be accessible to future generations. That way, our history does not become just that… history.

Wickham

Ontario, Canada

There are many people who practise martial arts who do so merely to kick and punch, win trophies and strut around with self-awarded stripes on their belts. Nothing is wrong with fighting, sparring, doing great kata or forms. But there is more to it than that. There is extreme dedication.

A true martial artist doesn’t just practice the art for glory, but lives it. That’s the ‘DO’ in karate-do. The DO, pronounced dough, is the way, the integrity, the dedication, the honour, the humility, the loyalty — what I mentioned before. Sadly, these tenets are lost on so many martial artists who are in it simply to enter tournaments and fight, nothing else.

Tournaments are great, but for some people, winning is everything and nothing else matters. That is not karate-do, but simply karate. Some practitioners love to boast how many stripes they have on their belts and strut around like spring chickens with more titles than ever. Yet, they lack integrity, plus they can’t fight their way out of a paper bag. After only three years of training, they become ‘masters’, with fancy names.

In Seido Karate the promotion process is extremely difficult and challenging and students are required to know and execute numerous techniques from a huge syllabus, blindfolded at some points. For senior black belts, this can take three or four days to complete. No one is just handed a belt; it has to be earned. That is Karate-Do.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of World Seido Karate, and between June 1 and 8 I was privileged to be a part of the celebration that took place in Purchase, New York State, USA. Endorsed by President Obama, it was named Go-En and was the culmination of over two years of preparation by the New York Seido students.

Purchase is a small university town close to Westchester, and for one week over a thousand Seido students from dozens of countries including USA, Britain, Canada, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, Korea, Chile, Poland, South Africa, Israel, Jamaica and many other countries met for the celebrations and senior promotions on the campus of Purchase College of States University of New York.

It was like a mini Olympics, complete with flag-bearing ceremony where our Jamaican flag was proudly carried by our very own Debra Lyn. This was an experience of real Karate-Do, as people from all walks of life, religions, languages met and shared knowledge for the week.

Students were asked to bring little souvenir pins to exchange and I must say, the Jamaican mementos were in great demand. Everybody wanted a piece of Jamaica, which once again reinforced the fact that our branding is so important. I literally had to give away the shirts off my back as the black, green and gold was so popular.

We had some classes at sunrise out in the open air. Just imagine a class of almost a thousand martial artists assembled in one place. It was quite a spectacle, and I was a part of it. In keeping with the spirit of Karate-Do, teams were formed, with each made up of students from different countries and all put through a series of challenges to garner points.

Then there were seminars put on by senior instructors, ranging from combat self-defence, rolling and falling, choke-holds and escapes, point fighting and contact fighting, defence with the wooden staff, seminars with blind students, and basic street self-defence.

That’s the true meaning of Karate-Do. In some styles of karate, you have to be young, nimble, athletic, slim, able-bodied to be a part of the system. In Seido, there is a place for everyone… Karate-Do. I mentioned the blind programme where students without sight practice karate without fear or discrimination.

It sounds far-fetched, but it happens, and if you see those students perform you would not believe that they had no sight. And I challenge anyone with sight to fight them at close quarters. You’d be in for a surprise. That is the spirit of Karate-Do.

Many schools refuse to accept people who have disabilities or who are considered too old. Seido has students in their 70s who are still practising, and maybe they can’t do a flying spinning back kick, but they are practising Karate-Do. They are not told to go home and sit on the couch and watch TV. All ages are encouraged to keep up training.

Even people who are disabled can still practice karate and have a sense of accomplishment. It matters not what your state of being is, people are encouraged to excel.

But back to the seminars. I was privileged and honoured to be selected to conduct a one-hour karate class using native Jamaican language (patwa) only. This was to a class of multinationals. Carolyn Cooper would have been proud. It was such a hit and was the talk of the town for many days after.

Everyone was intrigued by our language and wanted to know what our words meant. This brought us even closer together, despite our cultural and language differences. Truly beyond karate, but Karate-Do.

In the class I told them, “Tump de attacker inna him neck back, jook him inna him yeye, shoob him dung pon de grung, flick ova an kinpoopalik,” among other things. What a week it was, and all organised and spearheaded by Grandmaster Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura whose vision was to make karate accessible to all, hence Karate-Do. Kaicho Nakamura is truly the last of the great karate masters that existed many years ago in the era of the samurai warriors.

The traditional principles are still maintained, with respect being at the top. For any system to survive, the old ways have to be adhered to. Many martial arts schools only do karate — the physical — the kicking and punching, but disregard the Do in Karate-Do. Those schools usually fall away after a time.

Honour, discipline, integrity, loyalty, love are the tenets of Karate-Do, and should also be a part of everyday life. Take those away and civilisation will crumble. That is Karate-Do, the way of karate. This year, Seido celebrates 40 years in Jamaica with a grand celebratory tournament at UTech next Saturday, open to all styles. That’s the Do in Karate-Do. Osu.

More time.

seido1@hotmail.com

seido1@hotmail.com

Footnote: During the week of celebrations there was also a gruelling promotion exercise that included five Jamaican students who went up for higher ranking. Among them were George McFarlane who is now ranked Sei Shihan, Ronald Lyn, Debra Lyn, Vern Williams and John Royes, who are now ranked Jun Shihan. It was a difficult three-day test, but they all succeeded magnificently, making us all proud. Sensei Enid Plummer, who was not slated for promotion, was outstanding in the tournament, winning all her fights.

Just an aside, but on the Caribbean Airlines flight back a big, fat, Jamaican lady who was not in her assigned seat refused to give it up, telling the stewardess, “Mi nah move. Mi ask fi a aisle seat true mi fat, but is miggle seat oonu gi mi. Mi nah move.” Oh Jamaicans. She eventually moved.

Just an aside, but on the Caribbean Airlines flight back a big, fat, Jamaican lady who was not in her assigned seat refused to give it up, telling the stewardess, “Mi nah move. Mi ask fi a aisle seat true mi fat, but is miggle seat oonu gi mi. Mi nah move.” Oh Jamaicans. She eventually moved.