Karate a wildly popular form of modern sports in our history and its roots goes back to it being an form of effective and deadly marital arts. While it is less practiced as a marital arts nowadays, many people have the common perception that karate is a violent and aggressive marital arts, created by warriors. Was this really the case? If we interviewed 20 people on the streets, the answer would probably have been yes from most of them.

Totally true or not, what we do know is that the founder of modern karate, Mr Gichin Funakoshi was an advocate for peace. He did not believe in violence and wrote a series of essays on his principles and thoughts on the art of karate. He also promoted the idea that in karate one should not strike first.

What does this mean? Usually in most other martial arts, the practitioner usually makes the first move so as to maximize speed and attain victory. In the case of Gichin Funakoshi he emphasized that karate was meant for self-defense, hence one should not attack first unless provoked.

That is you would noticed in some martial arts there are only killing blows and no blocks while in Karate there are a variety of blocks, trapping and grappling moves designed to not only ward off attacks, but also subdue the opponents. If karate was solely designed for killing enemies, these specific katas would not have developed.

So what does this mean for those of you who are aspiring to learn karate? It means that when you start to learn karate, you not only practice it as a form of self-defense and sport, but a kind of philosophy as well. What good does it do if the person practicing a marital art is strong and powerful but is just a bully?

In conclusion, we can see that despite common notions that karate was just a violent marital art used for killing, there is actually a broader and deeper side to it, where in the case of Gichin Funakoshi,the founder of modern karate, brought out brilliantly these thoughts in his written works.