QUESTIONS OR FAITH?

 By Phillip Starr

When martial arts were first introduced to the West by Japanese and Korean (and later, Okinawan and Chinese) instructors, students were not encouraged to ask questions. Those who did often received very painful answers. I know I certainly did! Eventually, most of these teachers came to understand that this is how Westerners learn; we ask questions about everything. But even today in modern Japan, Korea, and China, to question the teacher is considered an affront his authority. Not only is it considered rude, it is also seen as an implication that the teacher may be teaching something incorrectly and/or doesn't really know the answer. The safest and courteous bet is to simply do as you're told and keep your mouth shut.

This attitude about asking questions stems from the tenets of Confucianism, which places the teacher (of anything) on a very high pedestal. His authority is never to be questioned in any way. It still holds true to this day and I witnessed its effects in the high school (in China) in which I taught; students did not dare to question the teacher.

Martial arts students took everything on faith. And it shows. The revered “Father of Japanese Karate”, Gichin Funakoshi (who introduced karate from Okinawa to Japan in 1923), was warned by his seniors in Okinawa not to show the Japanese “too much” (the Okinawans and Japanese didn't think much of each other)...and that he should also bear in mind where his family lived...Okinawa!

The bunkai (applications) of the forms that he taught was subsequently skewed. In some cases, he taught no bunkai at all, leaving it up to his students to do it themselves. This resulted in some serious errors being made in the bunkai, many of which are still taught to this day. Numerous Western teachers altered some of the kata because they didn't understand the applications of certain movements. Others tossed them out altogether, ending up with a soulless, blank slate of what was once a martial art.