How Karate Evolves | ART OF ONE DOJO

In the four to five years we've been doing this channel, I've noticed a common trend in the comments, and particularly in the way people refer to martial arts, or how they categorize and view the martial arts, especially when comparing different styles of karate to kung fu to MMA, and even the discussion between modern martial arts versus traditional martial arts, which one's better. And I wanted to offer more of a unique perspective, at least from my point of view, and maybe even challenge the way some of you are looking and categorizing the martial arts in general. Now I do like the way that Jesse Enkamp, he's got a fantastic way of looking at the martial arts, because first of all, there's a big discussion about, you know, there's a lot of purists out there who want to keep the martial arts and their karate styles pure. And the thing about that is, I don't know if there really is such a thing as a pure martial art, just by the nature of the beast, and that's what we're going to look at. Jesse Enkamp has a great way to express it. He looks at different karate styles as, karate's a mountain, and each person's style is their own path they take up to the mountain. Every path is different, they see different scenery, they've got a different way to get there, but eventually you all get to the top of the mountain. And when you're on top of the mountain, you can see other mountains from a different perspective. I think it's a fantastic representation, because especially, a lot of people will talk about karate being an art, kung fu being an art. They're not arts, they're categories. Karate is just a type of fighting style, a type of martial art, where you've got many different levels of different karate styles in there. Kung fu is the same way. Kung fu is not an art. You know, in the Chinese martial arts, there's hundreds of different styles and versions of them. Kenpo is not an art. There are many different types of kenpo, many different types of jiu jitsu. These are categories. They are not arts. So I think part of the problem is trying to compare, oh, well karate versus kung fu. Well, you're comparing category to category. You've got to get more specific. I personally like to look at martial arts styles as a tree. Each category is a tree. And by looking at it from this perspective, I think we can kind of understand that, this is what I mean by there's no such thing as a pure style. Styles are going to evolve. Arts are going to evolve, whether you want them to or not. And you can even try to preserve the traditional way to do it, but it's still going to evolve. And what I mean by that is I want to refer to the martial arts as trees. And for example, I've got my good friend here. Yes, this tree's name is Miyagi. This is a bonsai tree. It's actually really a ficus tree that can be treated as a bonsai tree. Banyan trees and ficus trees are very commonly used as bonsai trees, but every art is a tree. So this could be shotokan. And you've got the main base trunk of the tree, which is your core style. And as practitioners grow and students begin to teach, they're going to branch off into their own splits. Even in the ones that try to stay pure and close to the style will be more of the core branch-offs. But over time, no matter how pure you try to keep it, your influences, your perspectives, your prejudices, your focus, your preferences, your individual style is going to impact the art on some level. So no matter how close you try to keep to the original, it's going to deviate at least slightly. Then you've got your main branch-off, but then you have people who actually will take a style and go a completely different direction, and that's where you get the different offshoots. And this tree doesn't have too many leaves on it, but if you think of each leaves being a practitioner, or trees will drop seeds and can propagate more trees that are going to grow their own ways as well. Especially banyan trees and ficus trees, I like this example too, is they've got these aerial roots. As the tree ages, these roots will develop and they'll droop down to the ground to the point where they will actually take hold and embed themselves and become roots themselves. And it expands the tree. And we see this trend in the martial arts. You will see arts that, you know, practitioners will branch off and make their own styles, but a lot of times they will reach back to the roots. Or in some cases, like in Japanese karate, a lot of trends in Japanese karate, such as the belt ranking system and gis, and some workouts and traditions, worked back to Okinawa and were picked up by Okinawan arts, and so sometimes you see the roots going backwards. So I like this analogy of the banyan tree being that visual representative of how arts can branch off and evolve. And we've had this little guy himself personally for about, going on 20 years now. This is a 20 year old tree. He lived in our office happily for a good while, and now he's a resident of our patio. So we try to take good care of Mr. Miyagi. And I just think that that's a good visual way to look at the arts from a very basic fundamental perspective. And for those who know me, you know I love the Karate Kid. And I think this sentiment is best summarized in the conversation that Miyagi and Daniel had in Karate Kid Part 3, in which Daniel talked about, he does karate Miyagi's way. And Miyagi goes, well, you know, just like bonsai tree, you have your own root, and one day you will grow. And he goes, yes, but I do karate your way. To which Miyagi says, one day you do. So instead of looking at martial arts as a, you know, a list of different styles, or what's better, or on, you know, looking at a sheet of paper, I prefer to look at a martial art style as this. As a flourishing, living, intricate, dynamic, intertwining tree, that continues to grow new roots, branch off, drop more seeds, and the healthier the tree is, the stronger its roots are going to be. So to take this analogy one step further, arts branch out, and a lot of practitioners will cross-train, and they'll pick up other influences, and they'll make hybrid arts. So imagine now that you've got two of these trees growing right next to each other, and over time, as they both reach for the same nurturing source, aka the sun, or whatever tension you give it, they're going to get closer and closer, and their roots are going to eventually intertwine. If you take a step back from that point of view, and instead of seeing karate, kung fu, jiu-jitsu, kenpo, MMA, whatever, you take a step back, and you see a forest. This is how I like to look at the martial arts, the whole universe of martial arts as a whole. It is a giant, intricate, living, organic, breathing forest that continues to grow, continues to drop roots, continues to expand, and propagate seeds, produces more fruit, and just keeps growing bigger and bigger. And as a person entering the martial arts, you are now entering this forest, and while you're in there, you're going to choose your path. You're going to choose your own walking path, you're going to choose your own campsites to station at, you're going to pick your own trees to climb. After doing this channel for a while, and studying different types of histories of different arts, and listening to all of you talk out there, I just noticed that there's a lot of trend, and a lot of separation people put, like these hard, delineating lines between what defines this and this, and what defines pure, and traditional, and modern. I don't think those lines really, truly exist, because I don't think there is one single version of an art that exists across multiple people. Everyone, to some degree, is going to make their own flavor, and over time, as a person practices, and Shotokan's a good example of this. You know, Shotokan was created by Ginchin Funakoshi. He took what he liked from the Okinawan styles, and he propagated it, and he built what he thought were his values. And he softened it a little bit, he narrowed his stances, and he made his own style. But his son, on the other hand, who taught the night classes, he preferred deeper stances. He preferred more competitive, more powerful styles. So right off the bat, right from the very base of the tree, Shotokan branches off like this. So, just think about the generations that come from that. That tree's going to continue to grow in all sorts of vast, different ways, and Shotokan's going to merge over here with Gojiru, and make a Kyokushin tree. So that's just the way I like to look at it. Like I said, it's a big, giant, organic, living, breathing forest. We all choose our own paths, and our own trees that we want to grow and propagate. So let me know what you think. I'm kind of curious to know what your perspectives are on this. I just try, you know, we try to blur the lines a little bit, and get rid of the separation, become more of a community, and joining ideas together. I just think we're much more productive that way. Now, the next question is, what defines a system, a style, an art? Do they mean the same thing, or is it more arbitrary? Is it a hard-line definition? So we talk about that right here, and you're going to want to check this out, because I think we take a look at different ways we can interpret these, and we apply our definition, and see what it takes to create a brand new system of art that falls under that category. So, be sure to check that out.