Quote:
|
James Linneman (Chris Linneman) wrote:
"The Funakoshi thing is fairly well known, one of his "20 principles of Karate", which states "Karate ni sente nashi" (IIRC), or "there is no first attack in Karate"."
I had heard a different translation/interpretation of this more like "there is no advantage in striking the first blow". I got this from a lecture at one of Sensi Kanazawa's seminars a while back. I realized that this is semantics, still there's a pretty big difference between "no attack" and "no advantage". Karate (at least Shotokan) also has the Ikkeni Satsu (I'm pretty sure I butchered the spelling there)which I understand as 1 blow, 1 victory (or one blow, one kill, depending on how morbid you are). Please let me know if this is off some. I don't speak Japanese.
|
"Sente" actually means "initiative", or "first move", so I suppose that a literal translation might be "there is no taking the initiative in Karate". Whether Funakoshi meant that strategically (as in "there is no advantage in striking the first blow") or not I don't know, but I do know that there is a story in his autobiography where he expresses his guilt over making the first strike in a confrontation.
As for "ikken-hissatsu", "satsu" would be the Japanese word for "kill". Curiously this was a principle that Morihei Ueshiba expressed as well.
Best,
Chris