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Koshiki has also brought together competitors from a variety of countries, and I hope that karate will continue to serve as a vehicle for the promotion of international exchange and friendship. It appears that at last karate will become an Olympic sport and through the efforts of Koshiki Karatedo competitors and supporters worldwide, I am sure that this is a goal we can achieve by the turn of the century.

As we enter the twenty-first century, it is with a sense of hope and excitement that I continue to promote and develop karatedo both as a sport and a way of life. I hope that by reading this and my other text, Essential Shorinjiryu Karatedo (also published by the Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Co.), that you may come to understand the many beneficial aspects of karate training and that in some way it may better your life and the lives of those around you.

1 Philosophy of Karatedo

1. Spiritual Development of the Individuality in Mind and Body

Spiritual development of the individuality in mind and body is the motto of Kenkokan Karatedo and expresses its philosophy. Karatedo, as initially developed, was a method of fighting to dispose of an adversary in the most efficient and acute way. It has evolved through the centuries and has been imbued with the Zen philosophy to become a way of life, where the goal is to further the development of the mind, the body and the spirit. From its origin, karatedo has kept the efficiency in techniques and the maximum concentration of physical and mental power that can only be possible when one's life is the issue of the fight. Zen has brought karatedo into the realm of religion. Man understood that his art, limited to destroying other men, could not liberate him from his most fundamental fear, the fear of death. The object of his fight changed from others to himself: if he could not surmount the fear of death by killing, he would do it, possibly, by living and applying the same methods against himself that he had used against others. Techniques would be a means of perfecting the body which would respond at once, and with determination. In the process of this absolute concentration of mental and physical activity, the mind would be freed from the material constraints created by the most fundamental issues of life and finally overcome the fear of death. The original goal of killing has become one of living.