Are we practicing Bujutsu or Budo?
Or, does it matter? By Kousaku Yokota Chairman, JKS Americas Are you practicing karate as Bujitsu or Budo? Do you care? I hope you do. I believe it does matter and we must ask this question to all karate practitioners and instructors. Unfortunately, many of them do not care. Even if they do, they either fail to understand the differences or they are too lazy to research these concepts. Let’s look at the popular reasons for the people to pick up karate and practice: Self defense Health/physical conditioning Stress reduction/mental wellness Competition/tournaments All these reasons are good and respectable ones. We must not pass judgment on any of the reasons or to regard any of them as better than the others. Though I am glad to see the people practicing karate for whatever the reasons, I have a strong concern with the current trend of tremendous amount of participation in the tournament activities, especially by the children and the youths. In fact too much emphasis is put on winning.
