Shoshin Nagamine’s Karate-Do Maxims

Achieve Fantastic Results in Martial Arts by Utilizing the Maxims of the Founder of Matsubayashi-Ryu Karate Do:

A “Modern” Application

Shoshin Nagamine seated in Zazen (Zen Meditation).

One of the earliest books that I bought as a young karate-ka was Shoshin Nagamine’s “The Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do.”  For those of you that don’t know—or only “know” because of the title of this essay—Shoshin Nagamine was the founder of an “offshoot” of Shorin-Ryu karate that he called Matsubayashi-Ryu.  But most modern martial artists probably know him—if they even know him at all—from the aforementioned book.  As I said, I bought this book when I was probably 11 or 12 years old (which means in the early to mid 1980s) at a store called “Bookland”—that’s right, kids, once-upon-a-time there were these things called “malls” that actually had relatively small bookstores inside of them.  (The other one in our local mall was called “Walden Books.”)  By the way, I at the time had never heard of—nor had anyone else—book stores that you may know of today such as Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million.  No, seriously.  I also spent, like, my entire “life savings” on this particular book.  As it must be said, I did with other books, too.  Once I had enough money, or, really, any money, I would often spend that on whatever book I most wanted, be it a martial arts book, or, more likely, a Conan the Barbarian novel.  Anyway, to be honest, at the time, I didn’t really read that much of Nagamine’s book.  I trained in a traditional Isshin-Ryu karate dojo, and Nagamine’s style was just too far from mine for me to really wrap my young head around it.  But there was one part of the book that I definitely paid attention to.  And it’s the part that I want to discuss in this essay.

At the end of the first chapter of the book, “A Brief History of Karate-Do,” Shoshin gives what he calls his “recommendations for study.”  But they are really more recommendations for practice, since, for the master, study is practice.  And that’s true.  Martial arts are something that, if you want to truly study it, you must practice under the guidance of a genuine master—or, at the very least, a high-ranking student—of whatever art that you are studying.

Instead of using “recommendations for study,” I have gone with the “maxims” of Nagamine.  And I think that’s true.  These are maxims—Shoshin also called them “mottoes,” so if you like that better, stick with it—that can be applied to really any martial art, although they will have more resonance if you practice a very traditional art.  There are 6 maxims in total.  I will list each one, and then follow each of them with my commentary, as I believe that training—especially when it comes to lifting weights—has evolved since Shoshin’s time.  However, this is not entirely true.  For instance, if traditional karate-do has evolved, it has evolved often in the wrong direction.  So my commentary in those instances will be more about how to apply the wisdom to modern martial arts, more than “updating” that wisdom.

1. Develop karate-do on the basis of its history and traditions.

This first one, in many ways, is the most important for the modern martial artist.  Is your training really based on the traditions and the history of your martial art, passed down from master to student, master to student, and so on until it reached you?  If it’s not, then go find another martial art to train in.  And if there isn’t another one in your town, then you would be better off just not training at all.  (Actually, if you’re serious, then you will drive hours to find a good teacher, and go train at that hours-away school at least three times per month.)

In the city in which I currently live in Alabama, there are a plethora of what are often referred to as “McDojos.”  And the name, insulting as it may be, is true.  The difference between those places and the current dojang I train at is like the difference between eating a burger at your average fast-food joint and eating one at a 5-star Michelin restaurant.  They’re both burgers, true, and the average person who has only had McDonald’s might actually think it’s a good burger, but when you taste one from a top-notch, world-class chef, you’re in a rarefied food air that can never be duplicated except by other master chefs.  The same with “karate-kas” that train at these mcdojos.  They think they’re doing real martial arts until they actually go up against a real martial artist.

By the way, I’m not—and this maxim isn’t—”knocking” innovation in martial arts.  My current ITF dojang is both traditional and innovative.  The grandmaster I train under encourages training in different martial arts, and in true Bruce Lee-style, absorbing what is useful to you and discarding the rest.

Also, my first black belt was in Isshin-Ryu karate.  It was very traditional.  But I also competed in Kyokushin-kai tournaments, and went to different dojos and dojangs around the state—and neighboring states—to train.  My style eventually came to resemble much more of a Kyokushin fighter than a standard Isshin-Ryu fighter, and there is nothing wrong with this if you find yourself under similar circumstances.

So, no matter how traditional or non-traditional the art is in which you train, you need to study the history and traditions of not just your own art, but all arts.  You will come away a better martial artist—and probably a better person—than without it.

2. Study and practice kata strictly and correctly.  (In order to focus all possible strength into each movement of the kata, constant repetition is required.  The body must be thoroughly trained, and this takes many years.  Even after many years, kata practice is never finished, for there is always something new to be learned about executing a movement.)

This is the only maxim that I suppose is applicable to only traditional martial arts that practice various forms (katas), although there are even MMA fighters—such as “Wonderboy” Thompson—who also practice forms, believing that it’s important to keep some of the traditional aspects of one’s art even if it doesn’t apply to whatever martial art “sport” that you might be competing in.

To really excel at your art, only traditional forms should be practiced.  As with the first maxim, this doesn’t mean that you may not practice an “innovative” form, or even one of your own creation if you’re advanced enough to do so, but even a “new” form should be based on the traditional basics of the art.  (By the way, if you are practicing any kind of “form” where you twirl a “staff” in the air as if you’re a cheerleader, you DO NOT practice a form, and you can go ahead and stop reading this article right now, as you probably won’t like a LOT of what I have to say here.  Or, of course, you could stick around and read it, and decide to actually go practice a real martial art.)

Constant repetition is required.  For this to be successful, I believe it’s best to actually limit the number of forms that you practice.  And, to be honest, any more than 7 or 8 forms simply isn’t required.  It’s just like practicing the basics.  You’re better off practicing, and perfecting, a handful of techniques (or forms), instead of knowing twenty, thirty, or forty movements, but never really becoming proficient at any of them.

Just remember: most of the time, quality will trump quantity.  The only difference is when getting in many quality forms, because quantity is important.  It’s so basic that it almost seems dumb to say it, but if you want to get good at something, really good, then you need to make sure that you are doing that one thing multiple, multiple, MULTIPLE times.

Remember the quote from Bruce Lee—who was really just paraphrasing Musashi—when he said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

3. Study and practice kumite (formalized and free-fighting), not primarily for tournament purposes, but to acquire “ma-ai,” to develop the martial art sense of reading another opponent’s movements,and to develop kiai and stamina, which cannot be fully attained through the practice of kata alone.

Believe it or not, Shoshin’s statement here would have probably been at least slightly controversial at the time he wrote it, for there are many old Okinawan masters who have never even done much, or any, kumite throughout their lifetimes of training.

Kata and basics are good for learning and practicing movements, but for application you MUST do some sparring.  I’m of the opinion that it’s actually good to compete in kumite competitions, even though some traditionalists are not apt to say such things.  (And I do consider myself something of a traditionalist.)  Even when I trained in a VERY traditional Isshin-Ryu dojo, I would go to different sparring competitions; JKA-style tournaments, Kyokushin tournaments, as did a few of my fellow practitioners.  Here’s the thing: my fellow competitors who went to tournaments and I were always the best fighters in the dojo.  And we consistently got better than our fellow karate-kas, who did some sparring in the dojo, but tended to regard kata and basics as more important.  One of these fellow karate-kas once (started) to say to me, “yeah, you can beat me in sparring in the dojo but in…” and before he could finish his sentence, I punched him so hard in the solar plexus that he dropped to the ground in a heap.  I was young.  I was arrogant.  Both are true.  But I made my point.  Because in a “real fight”—I’m sure that “but in a real fight” were about to be the next words out of his mouth—you have to be ready for anything at any time, and just doing kata won’t cut it.  If it did, he would have never let me hit him in such a manner.  In other words, because he didn’t do enough sparring, he wasn’t able to “read another opponent’s movements.”  (It must be at least briefly noted that, in that first dojo, I made a lot of “enemies” because of the arrogance of my youth, which, at the time, I just assumed was due to their jealousy, but it was probably also my attitude.  The fellow karate-ka that I punched never spoke to me again, and I would gladly apologize to him now—assuming he’s still alive.  My technique and “execution” may have been very good, but the “spiritual” side of martial arts would take much longer for me to develop.)

Although Shoshin doesn’t make this point in the statement above, I believe that you should also “branch out,” and go to tournaments where you face different styles, and possibly a better level of competition than you will face if you just stay in your own dojo/dojang, and only fight your fellow karate-kas.  If I would have only stayed in my dojo when I was a youth, I would have just been a “big fish in a little pond,” and that never gets you anywhere.  And, in case you’re wondering, I sometimes got my ass absolutely royally kicked!  But those are also the times when I grew the most, and got better.  The man who always wins will never grow.

4. Fully utilize methods such as rope skipping, exercises with barbells, dumbbells, chishi (an ancient form of dumbbells), sashi (iron-hand grip), etc., to develop the muscles and physical power.

When I was in that Okinawan dojo of my youth, there were a few “old-timers” who didn’t believe in lifting weights, but this train of thought comes more from western boxers than it does the Okinawan arts.  Hojo Undo (translated as “supplementary training”) has always been a part of traditional Okinawan styles of fighting.  In fact, it was just assumed in “old” Okinawa that all karate-kas engaged in it.  And when Okinawan karate made its way to Japan, the Japanese—although they didn’t do “traditional” hojo undo training—trained regularly with other forms of resistance training.

Resistance training, when done correctly, will never make you slow.  Just stay away from “bodybuilding-style” workouts—lots of reps on different exercises, and quite a few sets.  Instead, opt for heavy, power workouts with really low reps and a fairly low amount of sets.  I would say do somewhere between 3 to 5 exercises for 2 to 5 reps at each workout.  I have TONS and TONS of workouts on this blog that can point you in the correct direction.  A recent one that would be great for martial artists is my 3x10x3 article.  Here are some others that will aid you if you want to be able to kick like a mule on steroids and hit like the proverbial Mack truck:

• Mass and Strength Made Fast and Easy!

• High Frequency Training with the 3x5 Program

• Tailor-Made Strength

• Grease the Groove: Explosive Strength and Power

• The 30-Rep Program

Those should be a good place to start.  But, remember, there are plenty more articles where those came from.  But if you’re new to this style of training as a martial artist—especially if you’ve been fed all that crap about how you should only use your bodyweight to train, or you should only use high reps—and you have more questions, please feel free to email me any questions that you may have.

5. Study the use of the makiwara from every possible angle in order to develop atemi, or concentrated destructive power.  This force is manifested in such demonstrations as the breaking of boards, tiles, or bricks with the hands or feet.

I love makiwara training, and always have since I first took up karate around the age of ten.  As my first sensei used to tell us pupils (and I’m paraphrasing here): “Just think of a hammer.  It’s so hard that you don’t have to hit something very hard in order to break it.  Make your knuckles like hammers.”

In addition to makiwara training, we would do all of our push-ups on roof shingles in order to further enhance the “hardness” of our knuckles.

Don’t be afraid to use different styles of makiwara.  I have one that I use at the dojang where I train that is bolted to the wall, and has a bit of “spring” to it, so that it gives a little when you punch it.  This type of makiwara is better for more high-volume training.  Conversely, I have another makiwara at my house that is nothing more than a long hemp rope wrapped around a circular post I planted in the ground.  It doesn’t “give,” or at least does so very little.  It’s better for more lower-volume workouts, and it’s also good for toughening one’s shins.

In addition to utilizing a makiwara, I also recommend punching and kicking heavy bags—traditional heavy bags are quite hard, especially when you don’t use any sort of gloves or hand wraps.  And I also have a sandbag filled with rocks that I like to punch and kick, as well.  All are good supplementary implements, no matter your martial arts background.

6. Include zazen (seated Zen meditation) in karate practice for further mind training and understanding of the essence of karate-do and Zen as one.

If you’re familiar with any of my “Budo Zen” articles, then you will know that I’m a fan of incorporating martial arts with spirituality.  Martial arts have always had a spiritual element to them, although this aspect of martial arts is so misunderstood in the west that it’s almost laughable.  Even most books written from a “spiritual aspect” or even a Zen one, are little more than westernized ideas of Asian spirituality, usually full of “New Age” mumbo jumbo, or they think Zen is equal to such stuff as “being calm” or “peaceful.”  One of the worst of these books, which is somehow a perennial favorite, is the book “Zen in the Martial Arts” by Joe Hyam.  Very little in that book has anything to do with actual Zen practice.

Fortunately, there are some very good books on the subject.  Two of my favorites are “Zen Combat,” by Jay Gluck.  Written well before the atrocious “Zen in the Martial Arts,” Gluck definitely knew his stuff, and presents an entertaining read that is still true to the real spirit of both Budo and Zen.  Another of my favorites is the Zen master Taisen Deshimaru’s “The Zen Way to the Martial Arts.”  If you can’t find either of those books, then at least pick up a traditional book on Zen.  And if not that, you can always read a few of my essays here at Integral Strength, such as my series on Musashi’s “The Dokkodo.”  And if those are even too lengthy for you, here are a few of my posts that can get you started:

• Zen Combat

• The REAL Connection Between Zen and the Martial Arts

• Living Budo: The Zen of NOT Sitting

After you read some of my suggested material, keep in mind that Zen training is very similar to martial arts training in that it does little good to talk or read about it.  It must be practiced.  And to practice Zen, you have to sit down, shut up, and simply do the work of “sitting not sitting” (to paraphrase Zen master Dogen).

In closing here, let me say that I have only touched upon these 6 maxims.  In truth, I would probably have to write a book—or at least multiple articles—in order to really flesh out these mottoes of the great Shoshin Nagamine.  But I hope what I have written has, in the very least, been helpful.  And if not helpful—if you disagreed with some of my points, for instance—then maybe it at least got you to think.  And, perhaps, even more importantly, it will encourage continuous study AND continuous training.