Book review: Karate-Do: My Way of Life, by Gichin Funakoshi

Last week, I reviewed Hagakure, which was written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, a Buddhist priest and former samurai, in the early 18th century.  It is a collection of very short sayings and stories illustrating certain points.  I reviewed it mainly because I had just reread it after a couple of years and I was inspired to reread it because of the recent discussions about the film Ghost Dog, which makes great use of the book.

Having read Hagakure and having been transported, however briefly, to the world of feudal Japan, I was inspired to pick up the only other related book on my bookshelves, Karate-Do: My Way of Life, by Gichin Funakoshi.  I’m not a martial artist and the extent of my involvement in the fighting arts tends to be a secret enjoyment of Bruce Lee films.  However, I did enjoy reading this slim volume, so here is what I thought…

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Karate-D0: My Way of Life, by Gichin Funakoshi

Karate-Do (affiliate links: UK, US) is the semi-autobiographical work of Gichin Funakoshi, the father of Shotokan karate and the man credited with introducing karate to the Japanese mainland from Okinawa.  In many respects, he is regarded as being responsible for the modern widespread interest in karate and it’s development in the modern world.

His way of life

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OK, so he sounds interesting.  What kind of book is it?

It’s actually very difficult to define what sort of book this is.  It’s quite a short book, to begin with, and it slides through a couple of different types of writing.  In fact, it’s probably easier to define what it isn’t…

• It isn’t a comprehensive autobiography of Gichin Funakoshi
• It isn’t a description of the birth of the Shotokan karate movement
• It’s not a history of the development of karate or of the martial arts in general
• It isn’t a description of what karate is and what different movements and forms are involved
• It isn’t an apology for the benefits of karate and how it can help people become strong and healthy

However, it does cover some ground under all of the above headings, sometimes on the same page.  Trying to review the different strands felt like trying to separate strands of wool and ending up with a cat’s cradle: kind of like biblical source criticism, for those of you who’ve had the dubious pleasure…

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You’re not really selling it to me

No, I realise that.  Let me try again!

The first part of the book sets the scene and is mostly autobiographical.  We hear how Funakoshi was born early in the Meiji Restoration, a period of modernisation and reform.  His early years were marked by the removal of the ceremonial topknot worn by traditional samurai and the banning of the martial arts.  Funakoshi found it easier to give up the topknot than the karate, however, and practiced hard in secret.

The second part of the book is an odd collection of fables, some of which feature Funakoshi himself, some featuring past heroes and some featuring more modern examples of foolish or unwanted behaviour.  This is the section that feels most like the Hagakure, as the stories are similar in structure: one scene, a couple of protagonists and a moral.  We learn about men who fight as if with lightning bolts shooting out of their eyes, men who train by withstanding typhoons to gain stability, and the foolishness of men who claim impossible tasks by the skill of secret martial arts.

The final section of the book returns to autobiography and details how Funakoshi travelled to Tokyo to set up a dojo and began to teach karate to a wider audience.  In this section, the detail of the Shotokan karate movement also comes to the fore, as decisions are made to formalise certain forms and to simplify them.

We learn that the name Shotokan comes from the pen name that Funakoshi took for himself when writing poetry in his younger years.  However, the autobiography is never far away, as the First World War intrudes and many of his students are killed.  The book ends with the school surviving the war and the art being taught to American airmen following the truce being signed.

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Why should I read it, again?

If you read and enjoyed Hagakure, then you will probably enjoy this too.  It has enough of the same feel and the same basic ethos.  It is also a nice bridge between the culture of ancient Japan and the modern world.

If you practice the martial arts (particularly karate) then I would think that this book would be of special interest, being a key part of the modern history of one of the most popular of the schools of karate.

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