Karate begins and ends with courtesy.

Karate is for self defense only.

Develop your body, technique and spirit.

Karate is kata.

Arms and legs are like knifes and
spears.

Sensei Itosu 10 percepts

1. Tode is primarily for the benefit of health. In order to protect one’s parents or one’s master, it is proper to attack a foe regardless of one’s own life. Never attack a lone adversary. If one meets a villain or a ruffian one should not use tode but simply parry and step aside.
2. The purpose of tode is to make the body hard like stones and iron; hands and feet should be used like the points of arrows; hearts should be strong and brave. If children were to practice tode from their elementary-school days, they would be well prepared for military service. When Wellington and Napoleon met they discussed the point that ‘tomorrow’s victory will come from today’s playground’.
3. Tode cannot be learned quickly. Like a slow moving bull, that eventually walks a thousand miles, if one studies seriously every day, in three or four years one will understand what tode is about. The very shape of one’s bones will changeThose who study as follows will discover the essence of tode:
4. In tode the hands and feet are important so they should be trained thoroughly on the makiwara. In so doing drop your shoulders, open your lungs, take hold of your strength, grip the floor with your feet and sink your intrinsic energy to your lower abdomen. Practice with each arm one or two hundred times.
5. When practicing tode forms (kata) make sure your back is straight, drop your shoulders, take your strength and put it in your legs, stand firmly and put the intrinsic energy in your lower abdomen, the top and bottom of which must be held together tightly.
6. The bunkai (application of kata techniques) should be carefully practiced, one by one, many times. Because these techniques are passed on by word of mouth, take the trouble to learn the explanations and decide when and in what context it would be possible to use them. Observe principles of torite(grappling) and applications will be more easily understand.
7. You must decide whether tode is for cultivating a healthy body or for defense.
8. During practice you should imagine you are on the battle field. When blocking and striking make the eyes glare, drop the shoulders and harden the body. Now block the enemy’s punch and strike! Always practice with this spirit so that, when on the real battlefield, you will naturally be prepared.
9. Do not overexert yourself during practice because the intrinsic energy will rise up your face and eyes will turn red and your body will be harmed. Be careful.
10. In the past many of those who have mastered tode have lived to an old age. This is because tode aids the development of the bones and sinews, it helps the digestive organs and is good for the circulation of the blood. Therefore, from now on tode should become the foundation of all sports lessons from elementary schools onward. If this is put into practice there will, I think, be many men who can win against ten aggressors.

The reason for stating all this is that it is my opinion that all students at the Okinawa Prefectural Teachers’ Training College should practice tode, so that when they graduate from here they can teach the children in the schools exactly as I have taught them. Within ten years tode will spread all over Okinawa and to the Japanese mainland. This will be a great asset to our militaristic society. I hope you will carefully study the words I have written here.

Makiwara

Kata

Bunkai – application

Dojo Kun

Kokoro to waza to karada o kitae nintairyokuo yashinao, koto ga Uchinan Koryushu no honshitsu de aru.

THE ESSENCE OF UCHINAN KORYUSHU IS

PERSEVERANCE IN THE TRAINING OF

SPIRIT, TECHNIQUE AND BODY.

Words of Wisdom:

Let anger be your enemy.

Remember, an empty vessel makes the most noise

Patience is the foundation upon which security and long life rest.

Know well your station in life.

Success is the fruit of the strong and wise.

Mind you manners and your own business.

Be happy without cause and make the best of what you have.
Despair is the conclusion of fools. Tomorrow’s success is built upon yesterday’s failures. Live in the here and now. Do not see more but learn to enjoy less.

The barriers of human achievement lie only in the mind.

Eight poems of the Fist:

The human mind is one with heaven and earth.

Our blood circulation parallels the solar and lunar cycles of each day.Inhaling represents softness while exhaling characterizes hardness. Adapt to changing conditions.

Response must result without conscious thought.
Distancing and posture dictates the outcome of the meeting.

See what is unseeable.
Expect what is unexpected.

*** “Words of Wisdom” and “Eight poems of the Fist” are taken from
Patrick McCarthys book “Bubishi”

The Twenty Precepts

by Gichin Funakoshi

1. Karate begins with courtesy and ends with courtesy.

2. There is no first attack in karate.

3. Karate is an aid to Justice.

4. First control yourself before attempting to control others.

5. Spirit first, technique second.

6. Always be ready to release your mind.

7. Accidents arise from neglect.

8. Do not think that Karate training is only in the dojo.

9. It will take your entire life to learn Karate; there is no limit.

10. Put your everyday living into Karate and you will find Myo (The subtle secrets!).

11. Karate is like boiling water. If you do not heat it constantly, it will cool.

12. Do not think that you have to win, think rather that you do not have to lose.

13. Victory depends on your ability to distinguish vulnerable points from invulnerable ones.

14. The battle is according to how you move guarded and unguarded (move according to your opponent!).

15. Think of your hands and feet as swords.

16. When you leave home, think that you have numerous opponents waiting for you.

17. It is your behavior that invites trouble from them.

18. Beginners must master low stance and posture; natural body positions are for the advanced.

19. Practicing a Kata is one thing, engaging in a real fight is another.

20. Do not forget to correctly apply: strength and weakness of power, stretching and contraction of the body and slowness and speed of techniques.

Always think and devise to live the precept every day.