Miyagi Chojun's Karate-do Kun
On the rear wall of the Jundokan So-hombu dojo in Okinawa
there is a unique framed piece of shodo (calligraphy) that expresses the
thoughts of Miyagi Chojun Sensei on what karate is.
It is titled Miyagi Chojun Sensei Karate-do Kun and
translates as follows;
What is Karate?
In ordinary times, it
is an art in which to cultivate one's spirit and physical health, and in times
of an emergency, it is a way of protecting oneself without carrying a weapon.
That is, in many
cases, we principally fight with our bodies to defeat our opponents; however,
according to the timing and circumstance, it is not impossible to use
implements as well.
The shodo hangs in the Jundokan but is actually taken from
the first paragraph of the introduction to Miyagi sensei famous 1936 essay
which he presented to the Dai Nippon Butokukai. The original title of this
essay is technically Ryukyu Kenpo Karatedo Enkaku Gaiyo (琉球拳法唐手道沿革概要)
which translates as An Overview of the History of Ryukyu Kempo Karatedo,
although it is generally abbreviated to Karatedo Gaisetsu (唐手道概説)
which translates as An Outline of Karate.
Chojun Miyagi Sensei’s seminal essay appeared as a
supplementary article in two important books, Okinawa no Karatedo by Shoshin
Nagamine Sensei in 1975 and Okinawa-den
Gojuryu Karate-do by Eiichi Miyazato Sensei in 1979. An English translation was
published in 1999 by Patrick McCarthy Sensei.
While this historic piece of Shodo may largely go unnoticed by many that can not read the original kanji, a beautiful rendering of the kanji complete with an English translation can be purchased for those interested by following the link below.
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