Читать книгу Martial Arts Training in Japan. A Guide for Westerners онлайн

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The three main themes in one’s study of karatedo are kihon waza (basic techniques), kata (prescribed practice forms), and kumite (sparring, or literally, “exchange of hands”). The quality of anything one does in karatedo is grounded in basic techniques; a truism for all aspects of life, of course. The basic techniques of karatedo are much more than collections of a style’s fundamental physical techniques. Each technique offers an experience of our common fate: birth, death, remanifestation. Each technique is the first and last thing you do for the rest of your life. Each basic technique is a world in itself, having its own feeling, its own meaning, its own spirit. There is always hope. We are born. We pass away. We live again.

Kata leads one to focus on the life vehicles we use to get us where we are going. The first kata series in Japanese karatedo is called Heian, “peace.” Kata is about shoulders that carry burdens. It is about going and returning, and being stronger on your return. It carries a similar purport to one of the major scriptures of Zen Buddhism, the Prajna Paramita Sutra, which talks of going and returning. The character for “Way” (Japanese: do) is based on an image of a sailboat, a vehicle that carries one “over” and then returns. Another interpretation of the character for do is that it represents a man standing at a crossroads preparing to make a major life decision (artist and calligrapher Zhou Quangwi favors the later interpretation).