Nakayama Masatoshi Sensei famously emphasized that
“...irrespective of how much something resembles karate, anything action
without kime is not true karate”.
Today I’d like to talk about this statement from my personal
experience and, in doing so, hopefully contribute towards people’s understanding.
To begin with I need to point out that while I’ve spent well
over a decade training here in Japan, I never trained with nor met Master
Nakayama. Actually, when I first came here in 1993, it was just over six years
after he had passed away. Furthermore, I never had the opportunity to attend
any of his classes outside Japan.
With this in mind, I need the clarify that most of the
information I know about Nakayama Sensei is from his publications. Asai
Tetsuhiko Sensei, Osaka Yoshiharu Sensei et al., (and other prominent personal students) have told me about him, but only
minimal things and mostly not technical. In actual fact, I learned the most
about him from Nakamura Masamitsu Sensei, but again, primarily personal stories
outside of the dojo.
So, it’s fair to say that the publications have been the
most informative source for me, about Nakayama Sensei’s actual karate
technique.
That brings me to his statement about kime.
What does it mean? Well, clearly it means everything!
Literally, anything without kime is not karate...
But what is kime?
Indeed, I’ve written a lot about this in the past but I
still find that many people still fail to understand kime in karate.
Yes, kime means to be ‘decisive’ (kimeru, to make a
decision/to decide) but, again, what exactly does that mean?
Is it only in waza which abruptly stops/concludes on one
point in space or on/through a target? Then, and if so, can it also be in say, continuous
flowing movements? Can it be anything which is ‘decisive’? Or must it be
specifically defined?
The answer in karate is a combination of both intent and the
sufficient ability required for that intent to fulfill the technical objectives
of the art. Therefore, precise actions and effectiveness cannot be independent
of each other. Accordingly, yes, pinpoint precise waza and flowing waza
potentially have kime; however, abundantly lacking in either of the two
aforementioned criteria determine that kime is not there or insufficient.
One may believe that ‘capacity’ is not important, however,
in budo that is like having a gun without real bullets in the chamber. Even if you
can rapidly draw the weapon and have precise targeting, that means very little
if the ammunition is made of Styrofoam.
Consequently, a seemingly good performance of karate may be
seen as having kime but, in actuality, if the individual is unable to apply the
waza effectively in freestyle, it does not have kime.
What’s so sad is that ‘performance karate’ coupled with ‘car
salesman kuchi-bushi’ skills is extremely commonplace now. What’s even more sad
is that so many people are unable to perceive this, and believe it to be ‘real’
and ‘good karate’. This is because, irrespective of organization and grade, they themselves do not
understand what kime is (nor seemingly wish to). Thus, everything is based on
‘sound' (talk) and 'vision' ('movement' performance) which, needless to say, is pathetic in
any form of ‘so called budo’.
Never forget that kihon, kata and kumite are inseparable,
they are a trinity which are held together by this correct understanding of
kime, without which, as Nakayama Sensei said “...is not true karate”.
This is why all the greats excel in both kata and kumite.
Why? Because kime technically permeates everything they do: and kime means that
“kihon, kata and kumite are truly one”. To conclude, whilst I never met Master
Nakayama, this is what he meant about kime in karate.
© André Bertel. Oita City, Japan (2023).
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