Thursday, March 05, 2009

Karate-do - aikido - same thing?

A while back in a discussion about karate and aikido, a pretty smart guy quoted some old dead oriental guy as having said something to the effect of, "There is only one martial art."  The idea being we all practice subsets of the one martial art and practice under different names.  Could it be?
I got to thinking about this quote the other day while watching some karate vids on YouTube. I think we're all familiar with Shotokan (though maybe not with this particular kata)...
But some might not know that Shotokan split into two groups, with one group calling themselves Shotokai and practising the same stuff a little differently...
But how many of y'all knew that a group of Shotokai guys went completely off the deep end and started doing aikido, or something that would be easy to mistake for some aikido practices. I give you Shintaido...
Did I say they went off the deep end? Did that seem kinda harsh? How about Shintaido telepathy, ki blasts, and remote controlled ukes...
I'm sure some of you might come back with some talk about untapped human potential and possibilities and unexplained phenomena... Well, I for one would just as soon leave that kind of potential untapped.  My remote control for uke is called shomenate (you might know it by the name palm-heel-to-the-chin).
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  1. We're on the same wavelength again, my friend!
    I just posted a review of a Chi Gong book that has psychic aspects,
    See today's Dojo Rat

  2. It all comes down to intent and philosophy. Karate and aikido the same thing. Yes, no, sometimes, depends, no no no, ok maybe. Depends on the artist.

    I tend to group the arts. Judo and Aikido are sisters. Karate - even though I studied it for a cousin.

    Fun blog entry!

  3. Hmmm--not exactly where I expected you to go with this, but interesting nevertheless.

  4. A few years ago I traded some videos with a friend. One that I got was from a Shotokai group in France. I foung the whole thing a bit odd. I remember someone once telling me how much the French love Jerry Lewis... then it all made sense.

  5. I've been looking at bunkai in kata recently and the striking thing about it is there are a lot of 'hidden' throwing or hand locking techniques in there which is why this post of yours jumps out at me.

    As Sensei Strange says in considering whether they're different: "Yes, no, sometimes, depends, no no no, ok maybe." On the surface of things we look at them and see two different animals: one striking and external and the other soft and 'evasive'. I just can't help the feeling that there is a commonality here which runs through many (maybe not all) styles.

    Take for example Iain Abernethy's book 'Karate's Grappling Methods' which shows these locking and throwing techniques within karate kata. Good book!

    To also consider:

    For me this data shows that there is more to karate than I thought and maybe there is more common ground between striking and throwing arts than I had thought.

    Furthermore your succession of videos reminded me of a post you made concerning the 'art' of martial arts. What *I* see is the same basic 'input' and various different practitioners' interpretations. Can it be said that the differences between styles is down to artistic or cultural interpretation?

    Maybe. Certainly within a school we see artistic / cultural differences (Tang Soo Do / Shotokan / Shotokai ...) but I'm not sure this can be stretched to show differences between schools (aikido / karate).

    Maybe I'm wrong....


  6. Karate-do+cold showers+sake=Shotokai seems pretty clear to me.



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