HOW TOURNAMENTS SAVED KARATE

by Phillip Starr

As all of you know, WWII ended badly for the people of Japan. The country was devastated. Almost an entire generation of young men had been wiped out and the economy had collapsed completely. Many thousands of people were left unemployed, homeless, and starving. A foreign power (America) now occupied the island nation and it seemed as though the spirit of the people had been broken. Naturally, people looked for a scapegoat of sorts. Why had this happened to them and their beautiful homeland? It didn't take long for them to find the fall guy, as it were. They pointed their fingers at the budo and the bushido (the martial arts and the “way of the warrior”). Hadn't their leaders expounded the wonderful virtues of these things and told them that they must understand and embrace the spirit of the budo as they marched into war? Not fully grasping the real meaning of the budo, they held them up as the primary reason for their being duped into fighting a war that could only end in their defeat and the destruction of their cherished nation.

Of course, the truth is far different from what the masses believed. The spirit of the budo had been perverted; it had been tainted and twisted to serve the wishes of the military machine that was led by Gen. Hideki Tojo and inspire the troops and the people of Japan. Thus, the budo fell into hard times and there was a very real danger that they would be abandoned altogether.

At that time, Funakoshi Gichin's “Shotokan” karate was, by far, the most popular form of karate in Japan. Other styles of karate had been introduced to Japan from Okinawa since Funakoshi first introduced it to the Japanese people in 1923, but none of them were nearly as popular as Funakoshi's art. The Japan Karate Association was formed in 1949 with Masatoshi Nakayama as its Director and Hidetaka Nishiyama as the Chief Instructor.

It was noted that judo and kendo, both of which conducted regular tournaments, were beginning to flourish once again. But there was little interest in karate and enrollments were at an all-time low. After all, it wasn't really a Japanese martial art; it had been brought to Japan from Okinawa! Nakayama, Nishiyama, and other senior members of the early JKA decided to formulate strict rules, thoroughly train officials, and present karate as an exciting new sport. If they didn't, karate would likely shrivel up.

In 1957, the first All-Japan Open Karate Tournament was conducted in Tokyo and to say that it was a huge success would be a serious understatement. The public was enthralled with the fine performances of both kata and jyu-kumite. This event, and the competitions that followed, ensured karate's survival and subsequent worldwide growth. It didn't take long for karate tournaments to catch on and before another decade had passed, America would conduct its first karate competition in Chicago in 1963. This was directed by the United States Karate Association (USKA). The following year, Ed Parker would host the International Karate Tournament in Long Beach, California. As a competitive sport, karate was off and running at full-steam.

Now, karate tournaments in Japan and those conducted in the U.S. are two entirely different animals. The JKA maintains precise, strict rules for competition and conducts very rigorous training programs for judges and referees. They are certified them at different levels (Regional, National, and International). In the U.S., most competitions are judged by officials who have never attended any kind of training camp for officials. What's more, rules generally vary from one tournament to another. These and other factors have contributed to a general deterioration in the quality of competition in the West.

In his later years, Master Nakayama lamented the decision of the early JKA to “sportify” karate. Although the level of competitive karate in Japan is extremely high as compared to what we witness in America (this is a nice way of saying that Japanese competition standards are one or two galaxies ahead of the U.S.), he believed that the emphasis on competition had become to great and that contemporary students and instructors alike were focusing too much on winning contests. Their karate had no soul, he said. No spirit. And that, Nakayama asserted, is the true purpose of karate (as well as the other martial disciplines).

Even so, I must say that we should all be grateful to this man for bringing karate into the limelight as he did. Considering the time and place (post-WWII, Japan), I have no doubt that he did exactly what had to be done to keep this wonderful art alive. We have failed to maintain the high standards that karate demands of its practitioners; we have placed too much emphasis on winning pretty trophies or cash and in doing so, we have missed the message of karate. But it's never too late to change things...