Recently, I read the following, and it illustrates an issue that is prevalent throughout what I will refer to as traditional martial arts. Kyoshi Noel Smith, wrote in the foreword of Hermman Bayers book (Analysis of Genuine Karate 2: Sociocultural Development, Commercialization, and Loss of Essential Knowledge) the following, and it mirrors many talks Kyoshi Noel Smith and I have had in the past. I should note that I earned by black belt and my foundational understanding of Karate from Kyoshi Noel Smith.

”For some years now, we have been seeing new and growing interest in understanding karate as it was intended to be, beginning at its birthplace, Okinawa. Karate originally arose as a martial art that aimed at protecting oneself and others. Yet senior practitioners who studied the art on Okinawa some sixty or seventy years ago point out that much of today’s karate may have lost its suitability for self-protection as it no longer contains the essential classic ways.”

Traditional Karate has become a shell of what it was intended. As it is pointed out by Kyoshi Noel Smith, the goal of Okinawan Karate was always self-protection and protection of others.

Self-protections skills are built upon simple movements applied to a variety of stress inducing attacks, or pressure testing. American Gi’s gravitated to the Karate training while stationed on the island in part because they wanted the physical aspect found in fighting, this hard-hitting mindset was brought back to America and the glory years of Karate began. During this time, associations began to spring up and the focus of the associations shifted from quality martial arts to cash-flow. The Okinawan Associations found a cash pipeline. In a short period, traditional karate became more focused on belt rank rather than quality. Kata and the various Kihon forms & Drills became a curriculum.

The Gi’s began to be promoted by the Hombu dojo’s in Okinawa, this allowed the member dojos to promote their students. Of course all these promotions required a “testing fee”. And so, there was a built in incentive for the Dojo to promote students regularly. Originally, Okinawan karate had no belt rank, but with the Japanese influence introduced one. As it was taught to me, it was originally very simple white, brown and Black.

With only 3 belts, there was a very limiting opportunity to monetize the ranks and the corresponding curriculum. Quickly, new belts were added, as well as stripes and, as you can imagine, each had a fee. As I was taught, and this teaching closely mirrored how Kyoshi Smith was taught by Shugoro Nakazato, a black belt had learned all the kata, and weapons. The number of Kata required to earn a black belt was drastically reduced. This move allowed Dojos to promote Black belt clubs.

It didn’t take long for the associations and dojos to realize that they can further monetize the training by holding back the weapons, and eventually offering weapons as a new curriculum, with no relivence to Open hand kata, and therefor with a separate ranking system from Open Hand.

With the shifted focus from self-defense skills to memorizing a curriculum, karate quickly lost its essence. This was directly because of the exponential effect of teaching and promoting black belts with a focus only on forms & ignoring function. Bunkai and Yakosuku Kumite replaced free sparring where the students can apply what they have learned in Kata. This is quite evident in competition. There is no Kata in Kumite (Sparring) . Conversely, there is no Kumite in Kata. By replacing sparring, students are not allowed to experiment with each other and learn by testing concepts. Instead, the argument is made that Yakosuku kumite provides the same experience in a safer manner. I humbly disagree.

In conclusion, I fully agree with Kyoshi Noel Smith’s assessment that karate has “… lost its suitability for self-protection as it no longer contains the essential classic ways.” While in his forward, he didn’t explicitly explain how it happened. I propose that by simply stepping back and examining the history of karate training it becomes clear how what we call the essence was lost, and further it can be laid squarely at the feet of the Seniors, including the heads of the associations, who lost focus regarding what they were teaching, and why. They made a conscious decision to shift from function over form to form over function, belt rank over quality, & drills over experimentation. Therefore, Karate has fallen out of favor with the public, not because Karate has nothing to offer but because the new guard simply doesn’t know what they don’t know.

Sean Schroeder
Director CoVA Karate
Virginia Beach