Читать книгу Empty Hand. The Essence of Budo Karate онлайн

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With regard to the fighting abilities there are some common misunderstandings. Many people are afraid when they hear words like “real fight karate” or “street fighting karate”. “Real fight situations” can be considered as rather rare occasions in the everyday life of average people unless such situations are provoked deliberately or one searches for them. But in the past few years, more and more cases of unprovoked attacks or conflicts escalating into violence in the streets or in public transport facilities have happened to occur even in Japan, which is considered as one of the most secure and most disciplined societies of the world. Especially in times of change, family members or friends might be threatened and forced to fight. So, one should be prepared. The best way to escape such situations is to avoid the attack of an enemy or to hit him at vital points in order to gain time to flee.

Normal people are only confronted with a real fight when they have to defend themselves. For the samurai in times of feudal wars, or for the soldiers in the world wars “real fighting” meant simply to kill each other. At this point I must admit that the masters of karate, like myself, practice day by day a bujutsu3 karate that surpasses the limits of self-defense. And, frankly speaking, techniques that surpass the limits of self-defense are techniques to kill people, called satsuhō. It sounds a little bit daring to say it, but this was the starting point of karate as budō, i.e. as “martial way” or “warrior’s way”. But it should be taken into consideration that by practicing budō karate one is doing the same as members of military units are doing who acquire techniques to kill in order to defend their homeland, the land of their ancestors.