Karate Hitting (TS Budo Competition) and Takushin Karate Kenpo

Preface — Developing and Updating an Earlier Concept

I once proposed a concept called “Freestyle Karate.” It broadly incorporated striking, kicking, and throwing techniques. Over time, however, further practice and study changed my thinking. I came to see the need to distinguish competition from the training system itself.

The concept of Freestyle Karate was therefore developed further. One result of that process is Karate Hitting. I now define it as Karate Hitting (TS Budo Competition).

At the same time, I reconsidered the budo philosophy I had called “Takushindo.” That philosophy was also developed and renewed. Its present form is what I now call Takushin Budo.

I have also clarified the system for studying technique and principle. I call this system Takushin Karate Kenpo.

These three concepts therefore serve different purposes. Takushin Budo is a philosophy for considering the direction of budo. Takushin Karate Kenpo is a system for training in technique and principle. Karate Hitting is the name of a new form of budo competition.

This essay does not reject what I thought in the past. Many of the questions raised then remain important today. However, some expressions and arguments required reconsideration. I have therefore revised them from my present perspective.

The important point is not to justify my former ideas. Nor is it to deny them. The task is to connect experience with new understanding. I regard that continuing process of revision as part of budo research itself.

This Is Not a Rejection of Kyokushin Karate

Kyokushin Karate developed a distinctive form of direct-contact kumite. That method fostered particular techniques and physical qualities. Close-range fighting, combinations, kicking, and endurance are examples. I myself learned a great deal through this form of kumite.

Its history and culture contain values worth preserving. I do not wish to eliminate traditional Kyokushin competition. My position on that point has not changed.

The issue is not the existence of that competition. The issue arises when one form of competition is taken to represent the whole of budo.

Every competition is established through rules. Rules determine what counts as victory. They also determine what is not evaluated. Those conditions influence which techniques develop.

If punches to the face are prohibited, techniques suited to that condition will evolve. If throwing is prohibited, tactics not based on throwing will develop. This is not necessarily a defect.

A competition is a game created through defined conditions. The problem begins when ability within one game is equated with martial ability as a whole.

Being strong within a particular competition has clear value. However, that strength exists within defined conditions. I believe this distinction must be made explicit.

I therefore no longer describe traditional Kyokushin competition as immature. It is a highly developed competition with its own conditions. Yet it cannot encompass every ability found within karate. This creates a reason to establish different competitive conditions.

Not “The Original Karate,” but the Ideal of Karate

In the past, I used expressions such as “the proper form of karate.” Today, I use such language more cautiously.

We cannot assume that a completed form of karate once existed in the past. Karate itself has changed within different periods and societies.

For this reason, I do not seek a simple return to an earlier form. We must ask what should be preserved, changed, or added. Such judgments must remain open to examination.

We should not decide the completed form in advance. What I pursue is not an “ideal karate” as a fixed model.

I seek instead to continue asking:

What is the ideal of karate?

The ideal is not a finished design. It is a standard that gives us direction. I often compare its role to that of the North Star.

The purpose is not to arrive at the North Star. Its value lies in helping us maintain direction. I believe the same is true of karate.

The continuing act of questioning is itself part of keeping budo alive.

What Is Karate Hitting (TS Budo Competition)?

Karate Hitting is the name of a new budo competition. In this essay, I refer to it as Karate Hitting (TS Budo Competition).

It includes striking to the head, body, and legs. However, its purpose is not simply to compare offensive power.

It places importance on the precision of both attack and defense. It also develops distance, judgment, and tactics. Furthermore, it provides a setting for examining different technical systems.

This is one of its most important characteristics.

Because it is a competition, victory and defeat are necessary. There is also great value in trying seriously to win.

When people genuinely attempt to win, they are forced to make real decisions. Technique, tactics, and psychology then become visible.

I therefore do not reject the pursuit of victory. The problem arises when competitive victory is extended into a judgment about budo as a whole.

A competitive result is an evaluation under defined conditions. It does not prove values beyond those conditions.

A Budo Competition That Makes Use of Diversity

Karate contains many schools and competitive cultures. Their stances, distances, techniques, and tactics are not uniform.

These differences should not be eliminated. On the contrary, they can become important resources for budo research.

Karate Hitting does not establish one school as the standard model. Nor does it seek to erase the characteristics of each tradition.

Participants bring their own techniques and tactical approaches. They test them under a common set of competitive conditions.

One school may possess a distinctive sense of distance. Another may use a different concept of defense. Their methods of constructing attacks may also differ.

When these approaches meet, new problems appear. New technical questions are also created.

Weaknesses that remain hidden within one’s own system may become visible. Other systems may also reveal possibilities that one had not considered.

Difference itself therefore becomes valuable for training.

Karate Hitting is not intended to determine which school is superior. It is a place where different technical systems can encounter one another.

Its purpose is not to eliminate differences, but to make use of them. We compete through our differences and learn from them.

This principle lies at the heart of Karate Hitting.

It recognizes and respects diversity. It then converts that diversity into technical research.

It provides a place where the tactical skills of different schools can be developed. Through this process, each participant can contribute to mutual advancement.

The winning method should not automatically be treated as the only correct method. Valuable techniques may also exist on the losing side.

A method that fails under one condition may work under another. Competitive results must therefore not be confused with the total value of a technical system.

How We Understand Protective Equipment and Safety

Protective equipment is used in Karate Hitting.

In earlier writings, I stated that equipment allowed participants to practice safely. I would now revise that wording.

No combat sport can guarantee complete safety.

The purpose of protective equipment is not to guarantee safety. It is to reduce risk as far as reasonably possible.

It also allows techniques to be practiced repeatedly. Technique cannot be examined through a single successful action.

It must be attempted, tested, failed, and corrected many times.

Protective equipment therefore supports technical research. However, wearing protective equipment does not recreate actual combat.

Equipment itself changes distance and technical choices. It is therefore another form of conditional setting.

Its advantages and limitations must both be understood.

The presence or absence of equipment should not be equated with realism. We must always ask what we intend to learn under a particular set of conditions.

Competitive conditions should be designed according to their purpose.

The Relationship with Takushin Karate Kenpo

Karate Hitting is a competition. It is not the entire training system.

I call the broader training system Takushin Karate Kenpo. It is a system of technical and principled training based on Kyokushin Karate.

Takushin Karate Kenpo does not restrict technique to one competitive ruleset. It studies striking, kicking, defense, distance, body movement, and related skills.

It also studies the principles governing how those skills should be used. Competition becomes one setting in which those principles can be tested.

Techniques are not accepted or rejected simply because of their school of origin. We observe what actually occurs.

We examine the strengths and limitations of each method. We then reconsider its place within the training system.

Competition must therefore not dominate the whole of training. Nor should the technical system be narrowed solely for competitive success.

Competition and training should continually return information to one another. That circulation allows the technical system to develop.

Kumite as a “Dialogue Through the Body”

For many years, I have used the phrase “do not create enemies.” I have also emphasized dialogue with one’s opponent.

That principle remains unchanged. However, I no longer understand dialogue only as a moral idea.

I also understand it as technical interaction within kumite.

In kumite, one does not act alone. When I move, my opponent changes.

When my opponent changes, I must also change. Kumite is the interaction created through this process.

I currently organize this interaction through the concepts of the A-axis and B-axis.

The A-axis represents initiation or activation. The B-axis represents restraint, reception, and transition.

An A-action is followed by B. From B, another A-action can emerge.

Kumite is therefore not a one-way release of force.

We act, receive information, change, and act again. Technique and judgment develop through that sequence.

For this reason, I describe kumite as a dialogue through the body.

An opponent does not move according to our wishes. That unpredictability is precisely what gives interpersonal training its value.

Through another person, the limitations of our own technique become visible. The other person is therefore indispensable to the training process.

How Should We Understand Strength?

Strength cannot be measured only by destructive power.

Avoiding an attack is also strength. Remaining stable after receiving an attack is strength.

Recovering after losing balance is also strength.

Recognizing danger and creating distance are important abilities. At times, choosing to leave a dangerous situation is also necessary.

Such abilities preserve the self. I therefore regard them as part of strength.

Takushin Karate Kenpo does not place primary value on contests of force.

It also studies methods of receiving an opponent’s power while allowing the line of force to pass away from oneself.

I describe this principle as:

“Make contact without clashing.”

Contact and avoidance are not treated as opposites.

Strength does not always mean moving forward. Nor does it mean attacking continuously.

One must know when to initiate and when to restrain. The ability to make that judgment is also part of strength.

Strategy and Tactics Review as a Required Practice

Karate Hitting requires a review after every match.

The formal term is Strategy and Tactics Review. Its commonly used name is Match Review.

This is not an optional discussion of impressions.

Strategy concerns how the match was designed as a whole. Tactics concern what was selected in each specific situation.

The two are related, but they are not identical. Both must therefore be examined after a match.

The Match Review does not focus only on victory or defeat.

Participants examine what they intended to do and what they actually achieved. Distance, technical choices, and changes in initiative are also examined.

Mistaken decisions are reviewed concretely.

The winner also has matters to examine. The loser may also have used valuable techniques.

Competitive result and technical evaluation must not be treated as identical. That distinction is necessary for serious research.

Participants should also put into words what they learned from the opponent.

A different technical system can be especially valuable. Difference exposes blind spots within one’s own system.

Diversity therefore becomes a research resource here as well.

There is a clear reason why the Strategy and Tactics Review is mandatory.

A competitive experience should not end with a simple result. Experience must be examined and returned to future training.

Through this cycle, competition becomes research.

For this reason, the Match Review is considered part of the competitive experience itself.

The contest is not complete when the match ends.

Participants examine it, express what occurred in words, and identify the next task.

Only then is one cycle of learning complete.

The Five Pillars of Karate Hitting

In my earlier conception of Karate Hitting, I identified five important elements. I now reorganize them as follows.

The first is philosophy and competitive ethics. The second is etiquette and mutual respect.

The third is precision in offensive and defensive technique. The fourth is the accumulation of competitive experience.

The fifth is Strategy and Tactics Review.

This fifth element is a required part of the training process.

Merely recording victory and defeat does not create research. Experience must be put into words.

Cause and effect must be examined. The resulting knowledge must then be tested again in training.

This is an important characteristic of TS Budo Competition.

These five pillars do not exist independently.

Without competitive ethics, technical examination can easily become distorted. Without actual competitive experience, theory can become self-contained.

Without review, experience does not easily become accumulated knowledge.

Technique, Skill, Theory, Psychology, and Ethics

In earlier writings, I proposed four elements for a more developed budo.

They were technique, skill, theory, and shinpo, or cultivation of the mind.

I now separate the final area more precisely. Psychology and ethics should be distinguished.

I therefore consider five domains:

technique, skill, theory, psychology, and ethics.

Technique refers to the method itself. Skill is the ability to apply that method in practice.

Theory explains why it functions. Psychology concerns judgment and self-control.

Ethics asks why and for what purpose that ability is used.

Even advanced technique can become problematic when used wrongly.

At the same time, noble ideals without technical substance cannot constitute budo.

The two must therefore remain connected.

These five domains should operate in a continuing cycle.

Theory is tested through practice. Practice returns to theory through examination.

Ethics continues to question the direction of the whole process.

Common Principles Rather Than “Rules of Belief”

In the past, I thought Karate Hitting required something resembling a strict code.

I no longer use that expression.

Participants do not need to share identical beliefs. People may hold different views.

Those differences should themselves be respected.

However, common principles are necessary for people to compete and train together.

Safety, fairness, respect, and examination form those common principles.

The purpose must not be simply to injure the opponent.

Human value must not be determined only by competitive results.

Different schools and ideas can coexist only when common principles exist.

Yet those principles are not a demand for ideological uniformity.

They are minimum conditions that allow diversity to remain intact.

Once again, the important point is not to erase difference.

We do not need identical beliefs. Nor do we need identical technical systems.

We need only enough common ground to allow differences to function constructively.

Turning Budo Competition into a Place of Research

Karate Hitting produces winners and losers.

However, competition should not end with that distinction.

A match is also a place for testing hypotheses. It is a place for examining techniques and tactics.

The opponent is not merely an enemy.

The opponent is also another person who reveals the reality of our technique.

An opponent with a different technical system may be especially valuable.

Through that person, weaknesses within our own method can become visible.

For this reason, the Match Review follows the contest.

Both winner and loser reconsider their decisions.

They examine their differences and return what they learned to future training.

Victory and learning are treated as separate questions.

When this process continues, competitive experience is not simply consumed.

It returns to the development of the technical system.

Differences among schools can become research material rather than sources of conflict.

I see in this process the possibility of a new form of budo competition.

Competition is therefore not the conclusion.

Competition should generate new questions.

Those questions return to the practice of Takushin Karate Kenpo. They are then tested again through competition.

This circulation is one of the central functions of TS Budo Competition.

Conclusion — Applying Budo to Life

Freestyle Karate developed into Karate Hitting. Takushindo developed into Takushin Budo.

Takushin Karate Kenpo was then organized as the training system connecting technique and principle.

These three concepts have different roles, but they are related.

Takushin Budo considers direction and philosophy.

Takushin Karate Kenpo develops technique and principle.

Karate Hitting provides a competitive setting in which those abilities can be tested.

Competition must not dominate the entire training system.

Karate Hitting does not impose a single correct answer.

It recognizes diverse schools and technical systems. It seeks to make constructive use of them.

We compete through our differences and learn from them.

For that purpose, fair competitive conditions must be established.

Every contest is followed by a Match Review.

Strategy and tactics are examined, and experience returns to training.

Competition and research therefore form a continuing cycle.

This is a fundamental principle of TS Budo Competition.

What I seek is not the strength to dominate others.

I seek the ability to govern oneself, respect others, and allow both self and others to flourish.

Technique must be developed toward that end. Its meaning must also continue to be questioned.

I regard that continuing process as budo.

Apply Budo to Life.

This principle continues beyond competition.

What do we learn through karate? How should we live through that learning?

There is no completed answer to those questions.

That is precisely why practice and examination must continue.

Karate Hitting is not a finished system. Takushin Karate Kenpo is not a finished system.

Takushin Budo is not a fixed doctrine.

Each must remain open to examination through practice. Each must also be revised when necessary.

I believe that this continuing pursuit is itself the path of budo.