Shotokai Meeting in Almada
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At the end of October, the first Shotokai meeting took place in Almada, Portugal, representing the main Shotokai groups with the exception of the Japanese.
From the numerous questions that were asked to me, I take it that this gathering really met a desire of the students for the Shotokai groups to get closer. Therefor we have to thank the people who prompted this project as well as the Portuguese who did everything for a perfect organisation of the event.
We gathered in a friendly and consensual atmosphere which befitted a first reunion. It was indeed a reunion for most of these students who had worked together with Master Murakami except for Rob Jones, an Englishman, who had been a student of Master Harada and Mr. Heyden and his Mexican student who had practised with one of Harada’s students.
Yet this first-sight harmony, necessary perhaps for a first meeting, could only be maintained by not talking about Karate. A second meeting planned to take place in Italy will only make sense if we face the truth and speak frankly with one another.
Moltoni, an Italian, drew the following conclusions from this meeting: "No harmony will be possible as long as the persons in charge work by referring to their memories. We shall have to wait until the present persons in charge have retired so that the future generation can build something in common“.
I share this pessimistic but lucid view. Yet I would like to gain on time by starting the debate that hasn’t taken place so far today. For this, the internet seems to me to be the ideal tool. We can take time to think and develop our ideas without the passionate confrontation of a face-to-face discussion.
Can we wait for the next generation to reach a mutual understanding? This I think is a risky thing to do; in France Shotokai will only survive as a shadow of itself. Indeed, it will have disappeared before long if the various groups will not become aware of the tragically low or even caricatural technical level of their performance.
I have recently talked with a regional technical director of the French Martial Arts Federation. Their view of Shotokai Karate is far from being flattering. Much of this bad image is due to all that losing of balance at the end of the attack. Even for me who knows the reason behind it what comes out of it really looks ridiculous.
How did we get into this situation? Is this really the legacy of Master Murakami’s teaching? This is in fact not what I recall of the Master’s teaching. Some of today's performances border on caricature. In order to see the difference between Master Murakami's teaching and what has been made of it, we only have sufficed to look at the numerous photos of the Master in the magazines and books exhibited in Alamada. None of them shows him in a very low position; he always stayed in a position high enough to move naturally.
I still vividly remember the Master practising Oitsuki in front of the mirror in Mercoeur Dojo, the way he moved and the sound he made. Everything was fluid, harmonious and light; the opposite of what I have seen during this seminar.
Yet working by some people's memories only is the cause of the problem at hand - and it all started at the Master’s passing away. No successor either in France or abroad had been designated which actually was a good thing. For technically a couple of students had reached approximately the same level and could thus all legitimately claim the Master's succession. But they all were second dan only which is, let's face it, not a very advanced grade.
But one can only judge by one's own standard and we see in others only what we can do ourselves. Each one has thus retained from the Master what his own level had allowed him to see. When some pledged fidelity without thinking twice and now still pretend to do the same thing as he did, that was wrong from the beginning. It inevitably had to end up in the dead end they are caught in right now.
Dead end because this attitude has frozen the Master's teaching at one moment in time leading to mere repetition ruling out doubt and reflection which are a lot more prolific for any teaching. Between faithfulness to the letter and faithfulness to the spirit, it would have been better to choose faithfulness to the spirit as Master Murakami, always striving for evolution, did himself. Dead end also because as soon as we refer to an idealized memory of someone we are bound to the past. Going to see what happens elsewhere then appears to be betrayal whereas on the contrary this is fantastically enriching.
For want of progress some have been repeating the same thing over and over for more than fifteen years. They have succeeded in freezing and fossilizing a style of Karate based on suppleness and openness. I cannot approve of this since I have a different conception of Shotokai.
A misunderstood and blindfolding faithfulness does not lead anywhere. Yet the desire to create something completely new is not without risk either, proof of which was given at this seminar where a new form of Karate was presented. A style of Karate built entirely on a sort of Midare where one continually passes on the inside. Depressing. The inventor admits that he has never succeeded to do Kanku Dai properly. He then draws the conclusion that Kanku Dai is not a good Kata and therefore takes the liberty to invent a new one. I'd say, drawing my own conclusions, that he is not yet apt to create anything worthwile.
Another threat for the future of Shotokai in my view is the complete lack of interest in technique, replaced by a muddle of "philosophy" made up of love, harmony and openness, not meeting its own standard in actual life. Why talk about love when it is obvious that everybody cordially dislikes everybody?
Why talk about ’harmony‘ between body and spirit and, why not, with the cosmos, when technically there is not even harmony between one's own foot and fist? How can some people promote ’openness‘ when the only people they are open for are those who share the same ideas?
This smokescreen of kind and generous feelings serves as a cover up for the poor technical and theoretical level of practice. Let only those speak of what lies "beyond technique" who really have reached what is beyond.
Doing poorly technically and then claim the important thing is harmony is ridiculous. Or else there is in fact no link between Karate practice and its supposed results in which case we may just as well set out becoming accomplished Karateka by, let's say, making pottery.
But it is Shotokai Karate, not pottery, which is a distinct and precise way of practising techniques of attack and defense. Let’s do them as well as possible. This is a fascinating endeavour because we quickly realize it takes our whole being. Will this endeavour, this search, make us more open and better balanced? This is Pascal’s wager, nothing is certain and nothing can be gained in advance.
But one thing is sure, personal qualities and great feelings must not be boasted. And they can't be talked into existence.
Are the various Shotokai groups prepared to co-operate, to learn from one another, to question themselves, to become more open-minded, to think about the future and not about the past, to define a common basis just as the seminar hoped to do? Time will tell. As for me, I shall be delighted to discuss all this with anybody interested in Shotokai Karate.
© Copyright Patrick Herbert, Technical director of Shotokai Europe, February 2004