Seibukan Karate Dojo Edmonton

Over the past couple of days, I've read posts on social media that say things like, "Live your life so that people won't say terrible things about you when you die."

I get the idea, but personally, I'm trying to live so that fascists, racists, homophobes, misogynists, bullies, cowards, narcissists, and liars will exult at my death and say really horrible things about me.

I hope they're saying horrible things right now.

Live your life so the bad guys want to put you down.

It was “yūgen” [幽玄] which derived from a Chinese term to describe what is lying too deep in space to be observed or grasped. It also appeared in a Buddhist context. In this case, it refers to ultimate truth that could not be understood through intellect. In Japan, the term gradually came to signify an atmosphere of ambiguity, calmness, darkness, depth, elegance, sadness, secrecy, or transience

Fujita Haruhiko 藤田治彦, “The Ways of Arts or Ethics in Aesthetics”

Laura, Shinya, and Emma trained at the Hirakata Seibukan Dojo in Japan. Thank you, Yoshikawa Sensei, for taking such good care of them.

I and the rest of my dojo feel lucky to be part of the international Seibukan karate family.

空手は人格を作るものではない。本性を明らかにするものだ。

"Karate does not create character; it reveals one's true nature."

Martial arts in North America attracts the good and the bad. I've met karateka who are racists, homophobes, Islamophobes, anti-semites, misogynists, narcissists, and braggarts. I've known abusive teachers and completely self-centered students.

But there are such very good people in karate, too: humble, kind, welcoming, dedicated, respectful; practitioners who cherish and uphold the principled traditions that they are heir to. I am grateful and proud that my dojo is full of such karateka, like Genna and Craig.

Character always gets revealed on the dojo floor.

I've never been a fervent patriot; I've always believed allegiance to humanity should come before allegiance to nation. Lately, separatists in Alberta have made me rethink that to a degree, because Canada is so much greater than this province.

Still, I teach in the dojo that the aim of training is to take what Springsteen says seriously but replace "your country" with "the person you could be." You carry in your heart a better version of you that karate can make real if you look at yourself clearly, recognize your faults, and train to be better, not just as a karateka, but as a human being.

Scottish journalist and boxer Frank Gilfeather wrote, "You don't need the perfect body, the perfect gym, or the perfect plan. You just need to begin—and keep going."

I'm 70 and I try to do my karate every day. The value of "keep going" transcends the boundaries of martial disciplines and nations.

On Poilievre and "warrior culture."

On the left is my friend Kris. He served in Afghanistan. His tour was cut short when his patrol was hit by an RPG. He was grievously wounded and had to be medevacked to Germany. The only thing left of the soldier standing next to him was his boots. Kris underwent many surgeries and months of recovery.

And then he went back to Afghanistan. He's the bravest and toughest man I've ever met.

He's a warrior. You're not a warrior because you go to martial arts classes twice a week. You're not a warrior because you submitted someone at a tournament. You're not a warrior because you punched out a drunk guy at a bar twenty years ago.

Warriors kill people. Warriors know they may be killed. Warriors have seen with the real horrors of war with their own eyes. Kris is now a retired Colonel and every time he returns to Edmonton, he visits the graves of the soldiers who served with him, came back to Canada, and killed themselves. They were warriors, too.

I take my karate seriously. It is a noble fighting tradition. But I tell my students that they must never call themselves warriors unless they've been to war. And you sure don't get to invoke warrior culture because you put on a cowboy hat and a sparkly shirt.

Lucy and Kelly doing ippon kumite.

Some martial arts clubs can legitimately boast of their medal-winners or tough full-contact fighters. But one of our members wrote, "We have lots of strong women in the dojo! Picking up karate helped me get some of my confidence back after a very tough year."

That's what our dojo's about.

At the Urasoe Seibukan dojo in March with Arakaki Sensei. When we go to Okinawa, we train there every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Such excellent instruction and people.