Povestiri

Once you attain a perfect understanding of the other person, you can attain unity with him and word such as victory and defeat stop having meaning.

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It has many times been said that sport karate and Karate-do are not the same thing, whereas there are others that express exactly the contrary. I would like to give my personal opinion on the subject.

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Budo is the way of the warrior; it embraces all the Japanese martial arts. It explores through direct experience and in depth the relationship between ethics, religion, and philosophy. Its association with sports is a very recent development; the ancient writings are essentially concerned with a particular form of cultivation of the mind and a reflection upon the nature of the self: who am I? What is I?

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This term refers to the moral code principals that developed among the samurai (military) class of Japan, on a basis of national tradition influenced by Zen and Confucianism. The first use of the term apparently occured during the civil war period of the 16th century; its precise content varied historically as samurai standards evolved. Its one unchanging ideal was martial spirit, including athletic and military skills as well as fearless facing of the enemy in battle.
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Egami Sensei writes in his book “The Way of Karate (Beyond Technique)”:

While it can be said that there are certain groups in the United States and Europe that, with the objective of understanding the soul of the Orient as a means of counteracting the impasse arising from materialistic civilization, place emphasis on the spiritual side of karate, the sad truth is that many styles teach only the fighting art and neglect the spiritual aspects.

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“All the birds of the Universe often got together to sing hymns praising nature and God. Among them nightingales, canaries, finches, etc. they all sang together… and also the crane, with its disagreeable squawk! It was too much and the other birds decided to exclude him from the group. Suddenly the king appeared to find out why he could no longer hear the voice of the crane… When the rest of the birds explained, the sovereign replied: “You have acted wrongly! The singing of the crane is part of creation’s concert and its inharmonious notes help to heighten the beauty of the harmonic notes.”

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I will tell you the story of the samurai who came to see the legendary master Miyamoto Musashi and asked to learn the true way of the sword. The master agreed. Having become his disciple, the samurai spent all his time, as instructed by the master, carrying and chopping wood and fetching buckets of water from a distant spring. He did this every day for a month, two months, one year, three years. Today, any disciple would have run away after a week or even a few hours. But the samurai went on, and in the process he formed his body. At the end of three years he had had enough, however, and asked his master, “What kind of training are you giving me? I have not touched a sword since I got here. I spend all my time chopping wood and carrying water. When are you going to initiate me?”

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Perhaps it would be more modest to let another person describe one’s youthful feats than to do so oneself. But resolutely swallowing my sense of shame, I shall here quote the words of Yukio Togawa, the author, taking no responsibility for them beyond assuring my readers that the incident described is a true one. The reader may see a touch of madness, but I have no regrets.

“The sky above,” writes Mr. Togawa, “was black, and out of it there came a howling wind that laid waste to whatever stood in its path. Huge branches were torn like twigs from great trees, and dust and pebbles flew through the air, stinging a man’s face.

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In Okinawa, there is a very poisonous pit viper called habu. Happily, its bite is no longer quite the fearsome thing that it was in my younger days when, if a person was bitten on hand or foot, the only way to save his life was immediate amputation. Now an eflfective serum has been developed, but it must be injected as soon as possible after the bite. Our Okinawan habu, which grows to a length of six or seven feet, is still a good beast to avoid.

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When morality is missing in Karate, Karate no longer exists.

Once there was a man exactly like that, let’s call him Kuwada.

Kuwada had just begun his martial arts training with the wish of becoming the man most feared by all the rest. But he soon found out that there actually are no shortcuts in the road from beginner to master.

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Matajuro Yagyu, son of a renowned master of the sword, was relegated by his father, who believed his efforts were not sufficient to become a true master. Matajuro, who had decided, despite everything, to conquer that objective, traveled to mount Futara with the intent of finding the famous master Banzo, but this master only confirmed his father’s judgement:

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This is a very famous story, told in many different versions, which helped Matsumura win his “bushi” (warrior) title. It shows that a true martial artist does not only need to be a good technician but an intelligent and resourceful person too.

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Two hundred years ago in Japan, before the Meiji storation, there was a kendo master named Shoken, whose home was infested by a huge rat. This is a different cat-and-rat story, and it is called “The cats’ martial arts assembly.”

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Budo is the way of the warrior; it embraces all the Japanese martial arts. It explores through direct experience and in depth the relationship between ethics, religion, and philosophy. Its association with sports is a very recent development; the ancient writings are essentially concerned with a particular form of cultivation of the mind and a reflection upon the nature of the self: who am I? What is I?

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Five years ago, I had a beautiful experience which set me on a road that has led to the writing of this book. I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. Being a physicist, I knew that the sand, rocks, water, and air around me were made of vibrating molecules and atoms, and that these consisted of particles which interacted with one another by creating and destroying other particles. I knew also that the earth’s atmosphere was continually bombarded by showers of “cosmic rays,” particles of high energy undergoing multiple collisions as they penetrated the air. All this was familiar to me from my research in high-energy physics, but until that moment I had only experienced it through graphs, diagrams, and mathematical theories. As I sat on that beach my former experiences came to life;
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Karate-do Nyumon was published in Japanese in December, 1943. The present English edition marks the first tanslation of this book into a foreign language.

In 1984, the Japan Karate-do Shotokai held various commemorative events to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the rebuilding of its central dojo and headquarters, the Shotokan. In 1986, we observed the thirtieth anniversary of Master Gichin Funakoshi’s death. The publication of this English edition is therefore quite timely, and I consider it a great honor to write this foreword.

It is said that in the master’s youth his study and practice of karate included learning over one hundred different kata. As a result of years of research and investigation into these formal exercises, the master reduced the number to fifteen traditional kata. These fifteen kata, familiar under such names as Bassai and Kanku, together with the five introductory Heian kata, form the central core of Shotokai training.

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Twenty years have passed since publication of the first edition of Karate-do Kyohan: The Master Text. I recall with some feeling publication in 1922 of the earliest book, Ryukyu Kempo: Karate, and subsequent publication of the second, Rentan Gosshin Karate-jitsu, which went to several editions. The honor afforded by the reading of the second book by the emperor and members of the imperial family was a source of deep gratification and humility to me. Then, after more than ten years of further training and experience, and about two years of review and correction of incomplete parts of Karate-jitsu, I published Karate-do Kyohan: The Master Text. The joy I felt at the appearance of this book remains as real to me as if its publication had occurred yesterday.

As a result of the social disorder that followed the end of World War II, the karate world was dispersed, as were many other things. Quite apart from a decline in the level of technique during these times, I cannot deny that there were moments at which I came to be painfully aware of the almost unrecognizable spiritual state to which the karate world had come from that that had prevailed at the time I had first introduced and begun the teaching of karate.
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Around 1650, a Chinese bonzo called Chen Yuan Pin went to live in the Yedo region (today’s Tokyo). He had crossed the Western sea to teach calligraphy and poetry. Isolated in a room of the Kokushoji temple, he lived alone and could only be seen whenever he was teaching. Discreet as a cat, calm as a lake’s surface, the old monk seemed as frail as a jade lantern.

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ISTORICUL SUMO

Sumo a fost pentru prima oara mentionat in scris in Kojiki (cel mai vechi document japonez). Se spune astfel ca posesia insulelor Japoniei a fost determinata de un meci de Sumo intre doua zeitati. Documentul descrie, ca acum 2500 de ani zeii Takemikazuchi si Takeminakata s-au luptat pe malurile din Izumo, de-a lungul coastei Marii Japoniei, pana cand cel din urma a pierdut.
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1.1 Era dimineaţă şi un soare proaspăt strălucea în aur peste clipocitul mării domole. La o milă de ţărm o barcă de pescari legase prietenie cu apa, iar chemarea pentru organizarea de dimineaţă a stolului în scopul obţinerii hranei plutea în aer pînă cînd a apărut un stol de o mie de pescăruşi care, prin şiretlicuri şi încăierări, încercau să obţină fărîmiturile de hrană.
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Inceputul istoriei Samurailor.
Perioada Nara – sfarsitul Perioadei Heian (sec. VIII – XII).

In anul 794 dupa Christos capitala Japoniei a fost mutata din Nara la Kyoto. In acele vremuri, puterea aristocratiei japoneze era mentinuta de inca puternica religie shintoista cat si de mitologia descendentei imparatului japonez din zeita soarelui Amaterasu. Aceasta data a a avut o importanta cruciala in istoria Japoniei, fiind inceputul unei perioade dominate de reforme si modernizare a tarii.
Principala sursa de bogatie a tarii pe atunci erau impozitele care se colectau dupa modelul chinezesc, familiile care detineau pamint fiind obligate sa plateasca regulat impozit imparatului.
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S-a petrecut imediat după sfârşitul războiului, în timpul ocupării Japoniei de către aliaţi… În Tokio, la hotelul “Sanno”, care fusese rechiziţionat de ofiţerii americani, japonezii organizaseră un concurs de dans. O atmosferă de bună dispoziţie lipsită de griji domnea în sală, în timp ce foştii inamici petreceau. Dintr-o dată un sentiment de încordare străbătu sala.
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INTRODUCERE

TAO TE KING înseamnă “Cartea Căii şi a Virtuţii Supremului Adevăr”. Este un text fundamental ce conţine 5000 de caractere (din această cauză, uneori este supranumit în chineză şi “textul celor 5000 de caractere”). Acest text este atribuit lui LAO-TZE. El constituie baza taoismului filosofic (Tao-chia) şi a taoismului religios (Tao-chiao). Tradiţia susţine că acest text a fost scris de LAO-TZE în secolul al VI- lea înaintea lui Christos, dar astăzi se ştie că textul a fost scris în secolul al IV-lea sau al III-lea înaintea lui Christos.

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