Today, the techniques of Karate (pronounced Kah-rahte), for 15 centuries a closely guarded secret of the Orient, are being taken up world-wide, as a combination of recreation, exercise and self-defence.
Karate is a good deal more than the mere forceful, open-handed chop that it appears to the untrained eye. Karate’s unequalled power comes form a repertoire of more than 50 basic techniques that thwart any known tactic of an assailant and provide a stunning counter attack as well. No movement is wasted. Karate has a purposeful strategy from the first shrill yell which unnerves the attacker to the tightly clenched fist that starts out swinging with the fingers spread apart to obstruct the attacker’s view.
Never trying to out-muscle an assailant, the highly skilled practitioner, called a Karateka, uses rapid, coordinated feints that make the assailant vulnerable. For example; an attacker punches at a woman’s head. Knees bending slightly, she tosses her head back just enough to pull the man’s driving fist several centimeters farther than he intended. Eighty percent of the man’s body weight is now tilted forward. With her foot the woman merely taps a certain muscle in his ankle to unbalance him. Gravity jerks his feet out from under him. To keep him down, the woman can strike the “knee side” of a hand into a specific place on his neck that will momentarily stop blood flow to his head, stunning him. No wonder karate has become so popular, as a remarkable art of self-defence that enables even a 40 kilo girl to subdue a much stronger attacker.
The body has more than 40 sensitive “vital points”. One such “vital point” – on the neck – has been mentioned in the example given in the previous paragraph. If the same woman hits a certain muscle, to cite another example, the man loses control of his limbs for a few seconds. If certain nerves are struck, he is temporarily paralyzed. Anyone who has endured the numbing sensation in the elbow after striking the exposed “funny bone” knows what the reaction is like.
It takes up to eight months to learn the mechanics of Karate and three years to excel. The occasional bully who starts to learn usually lacks the discipline to continue; if he becomes proficient, he loses his aggressiveness, experts claim.
The colour of the practitioner’s belt denotes one of the eight levels of proficiency from the white worn by the beginner to the black awarded to those who have passed a test before a committee of accomplished black belts. But a reminder comes with each legitimate black belt: “You’ve only come of age in Karate.” Traditionally, there are ten levels of black belt, but only a few honoured champions ever seem to advance past the eighth.
Karate’s potentially lethal techniques began as peaceful exercises in 520 A.D. when an Indian monk, Bodhidharma, travelled to China and founded the Zen sect of Buddhism. He taught the monks to cultivate their minds and bodies with a strenuous exercise combining breathing and meditation, the slashing fist of the Indian warrior, and Chinese shadow boxing. Eventually called Kung-fu, the exercise also provided self-defence against bandit attacks. As Zen spread through China, Kung-fu was taught to trusted followers who vowed never to reveal its techniques. Kung-fu’s secretive growth was dramatized during the uprising against foreigners in Peking in 1900. Guarded consulates were surrounded by so many unarmed men with their fists in Kung-fu positions that Westerners called the uprising the Boxer Rebellion.
Karate’s present style evolved when Japan invaded Okinawa in 1609 and seized every conceivable weapon. In response, practitioners revealed how the weapon of “(kara) empty (te) hand” could block spears and paralyze warriors. The bent shields and swords in Okinawa’s museums attest to Karate’s efficiency.
Karate was taught only by fathers to sons, and men denied having the knowledge of Karate even to their neighbours.
Some of Karate’s methods, however, were learnt by American servicemen befriending Karateka in Japan, Okinawa, Korea and Indo-China during the American occupation. During the 1960s, a few experts, seeing ex-servicemen demonstrate their techniques, began to relax their code and teach “pure” Karate to anyone interested and disciplined enough. Since then, Karate has spread across every continent.
