Dirty Tricks in Karate and Other Martial Arts

Asian martial arts are often seen as a way of life. That's why many Japanese arts like kendo, judo, aikido, etc. have the \textit{do} (道) at the end which means way. This means that in these traditional martial arts, honor plays a role. Gichin Funakoshi wrote dojokun (道場訓) which are moral rules for every karate practitioner. The rules are:

• Seek the perfection of character.
• Defend the way of truth.
• Cultivate the spirit of effort.
• Respect the etiquette.
• Avoid violence.

What is a dirty trick? A nice example from karate is what a famous Shotokan master Masahiko Tanaka often did during tournaments. He used distracting moves to confuse his opponent. For example, pointing at something outside the tatami so the opponent looks there and opens his defense. A nice example is at time 1:34 in the video below.

This idea was also adopted in the anime Hajime no Ippo where one character looks away during a boxing match to make the opponent look in that direction as well. Apparently, somebody tried this as well in a kickboxing match as shown below.

Another example might be faking the greeting at the beginning of the fight. Instead of touching the hands, sometimes the fighter tries to surprise his opponent by attacking right away as shown . Some fighters ignore the opponent tapping as shown here.

In some shotokan kata, we can see techniques that can be considered a bit dirty. For example, the hand lifting in Unsu at 0:57 below. This can be interpreted similarly to the Tanaka-sensei's distraction move.

Another move like that is the eye strike in Chinte at 1:09 below. Similar distractive move to the face might also be the hand lifitng in Heian Shodan before the ageuke technique.

There are two ways to look at these dirty tricks in karate. One is that no matter what happens, the opponent should focus on the fight. If the opponents fall for such a trick, their combat awareness, also called zanshin 残心, is disturbed. Their fault after all. One example is here where one of the fighters did not notice that the referees did not actually stop the fight and got thrown. Another way is of course seeing this as a completely dirty and dishonorable behavior.

To me personally, there are actually two situations in karate where each of these views is legit. One situation is a training or tournament. I am not into tournaments, but I have been to some. I've always thought of my opponents there as fellow karate practitioners. I trusted that their goal was not to hurt me, nor was that my goal. Once I hit a guy in the head with uramawashigeri and of course I stopped the kick as much as I could. He then thanked me for this moment after the fight that made me feel really good, as I felt the bond between us, people who practice karate as a hobby. I think that mutual respect is important in karate and that is also why I find it strange when I see people at the tournaments hitting someone, turning away, shouting, jumping, and celebrating. Here is a lot of examples. Not only is it a complete loss of zanshin, sign of unstable emotions, it is also disrespectful toward the opponent. I was always taught to bow to my opponent but never to look at the ground. Always look in front of me even at the lowest point of the bow.

A match during a tournament is to me the same as kumite training or randori during the training session at the dojo. We are people who are learning from each other during such fights. Mutual trust is important; otherwise we would never be able to try new things and risk being hurt. That's why the dirty techniques, in my opinion, are not very suitable for these occasions. The distraction of looking away might sound ridiculous, but in our dojo, one of my friends tried this on me as well, and it actually worked. I thought somebody came in or something so I looked around and got hit. Of course it was a light one, we laughed then a lot and I never fell for this again even when he tried. But when somebody does this with an intent of hurting someone else during the tournament or training, I don't think this is in accordance with the karate principles.

The other situation is a street fight. When someone attacks someone else outside, without the training intention shared by both sides, the attacker must be prepared for the consequences. One of the main goals of karate is self defense. Karate is a martial art, and when someone is attacked, everything is allowed. Of course, when the practitioner can end the fight peacefully or at least without causing serious injury to the other person, this is ideal. But sometimes, such fights might be questions of life and death and that's when such tricks might be the elements that decide whether the fighter survives or not. Spitting to the eyes, biting, groin attacks, pretending injury, whatever. Of course, karate should not be used for violence and attacking others. Funakoshi sensei said Karate ni Sente Nashi which means There is no first strike in karate. It doesn't mean that karate practitioner cannot be the first one to attack, sometimes it is clear that the fight can't be avoided. It means that karate should not be used recklessly and for the building of our own ego. I understand that my view on karate might be for many people too deep but just wanted to share my thoughts.

Keywords: bushido, shotokan, kyokushin, warrior
#karate #martialart #bushido