What’s in the Name of a Martial Arts School?
Okay, you've been studying the School of the Grand and Exploding Dragon. Or, maybe you've decided to start your own school, and you are going to call it the Nine Circling Wombats in Winter. The point that is being made here is that...what's in a name.
A classical school might have a recognized name, like Shotokan, but that just means the garage of Gichen. Or maybe a generic name, like Karate Do Dojo, which says it is teaching karate in a school, but nothing else. But there is a deeper underbelly to this whole scene.
Uechi Ryu is considered hard core classic martial art, but what is this thing called Pan Gai Noon? Pan Gai Noon is a system based on the three original forms taught in a Chinese Kung Fu system. The extra five forms in Uechi Ryu were taught, according to Mattson in his amazing book, for entertainment purposes.
That's right, students needed to be entertained so that they didn't wander away from the, uh, commercial enterprise. This seems like a concept rather shabby in nature, but, apparently, it is a necessary one. And, in truth, while one could fault the school for such curricular changes, and should, one also has to fault the students.
Or, to get back to Shotokan, while it is considered the ultimate legitimate karate school, Gichen Funakoshi apparently passed his authority in matters karate to a school called Shotokai. Apparently he passed his seal and other paraphernalia to shotokai, and Shotokan is (choke) an imposter. Well, one could argue which is legitimate, but both have a right to practice martial arts, and the truth will be found in the individual, not in the school.
But, to continue this profound discourse, kenpo is...not karate. Parker was versed in karate, see his first book, but his teachings ended up being based on Jimmy Woo Kung fu. He called it kenpo karate because nobody knew what kenpo, or kung fu, was.
Commercialism, and other influences, effect the naming of a system or school. Aikido went through quite a variety of different names before being called Aikido. Karate, before being transformed into the high kicking Tae Kwon Do art in Korea, had eight different kwans, or schools.
I suppose the final thought on this is that naming a school can be fun or sordid, and it can mean anything. The truth of the art, though, is whether the system is a solid manifestation of the art, whether the instruct can actually get the student to understand, and whether the student actually has the ability to learn. This is a question beyond names and labels and such, true to the heart of the matter, and what the student must consider when exploring the morass of grand and glorious martial arts names.
Al Case has researched martial arts for 4O+ years. You can Call Him Names at Monster Martial Arts.
Tags: ishin, karate, kenpo, krav maga, kung fu, Martial Arts, self defense, shito, shoalin, shotokai, shotokan, tae kwon do, uechi, wado, wu shu
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