Remarks on the philosophy of Idokan Karate
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18002/rama.v14i2s.5975Keywords:
Martial arts, values, aims, karate, IdokanAbstract
Every school of karatedo presents some special values and norms. May be, the philosophy of Idokan Karate is partially similar to other schools, and especially represents the Ido philosophy (that is not worldwide known). It is a real, practical philosophy, internalised and used by groups of karateka, as a form of today's warrior pathway. The author tries to answer the following questions: What ethics, values and rules are prominent in Idokan Karate? What is the specific, symbolic content of this style and school? This is a single case study, involving a content analysis of literature and the wider discourse, and the hermeneutic phenomenology. The study uses the analysis of broad discourse, which concerns both scientific studies and popularizing publications. Not without significance is the fact that the author has actively practiced Asian martial arts for over 40 years. The specific, symbolic content of Idokan Karate is taken from philosophic Taoism, Chinese and Japanese tradition of martial arts, and from Christianity. Its interpretation shows that the karate athlete has to go the moral way. It is the pathway toward being a better human. Such teleology comes from special values, rules and aims. In the normative ethics, the Decalogue and the idea of nobility (the Homo creator nobilis) are most important. Tao in Idokan Karate is understood as God's Word, the principle of love and the way of the Heavens.
Downloads
Métricas alternativas
References
Burrow, S. (2014). Martial arts and moral life. In G. Priest & D. Young (Eds.), Philosophy and the Martial Artse (pp. 50-67). London – New York: Routledge.
Cynarski, W.J. (2017). The philosophy of martial arts – the example of the concept of Ido. AUC Kinanthropologica, 53(2), 95–106. doi: https://doi.org/10.14712/23366052.2017.7
Cynarski, W.J. (2019). General canon of the philosophy of karate and taekwondo. Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology, 19(3), 24-32. doi: https://doi.org/10.14589/ido.19.3.3
Johnson, J.A. (2017). From technique to way: an investigation into taekwondo’s pedagogical process. Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology, 17(4), 3-13. doi: https://doi.org/10.14589/ido.17.4.2
Kim, D., & Back, A. (2000). The Way to Go: Philosophy in Martial Arts Practice. Seoul: Nanam.
Krippendorf, K. (2004). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Mayen, J., Johnson, J.A., & Mayen Bosch, R. (2015). Taekwondo as one’s life philosophy. The Journal of the International Association for Taekwondo Research 2(1), 24-29.
Sieber, L. (2001). Characteristics of Idokan karate. Ido – Ruch dla Kultury / Movement for Culture, 2, 26-27.
Skinner, J., Edwards, A., & Corbett, B. (2015). Research Methods for Sport Management. London - New York: Routledge.
Thiel, A., John, J., & Frahsa, A. (2019). Qualitative interviews in sport and physical activity research – do not forget the body. European Journal for Sport and Society, 16(1) 1-4. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/16138171.2019.1616423
Tokarski, S. (1989). Sztuki walki. Ruchowe formy filozofii Wschodu. Szczecin: Glob.
Wyka, A. (1993). Badacz społeczny wobec doświadczenia. Warsaw: IFiS PAN.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 Wojciech Cynarski
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The authors who publish in this journal must agree to the following terms:
- The authors grant on a nonexclusive basis the exploitation rights (reproduction, distribution, public communication and transformation) of the work accepted for publication to the University of León. The authors can establish, on their own, additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (for example, placing it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), always acknowledging the initial publication in this journal.
- This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Click to see basic information and the legal text of the license.
- The authors are allowed and encouraged to disseminate electronically pre-print or post-print versions of their work before publication, as this can give rise to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and increased citing of the works published.
