KARATEDO - Ayano Nakamura／Interview - IS JAPAN COOL? DOU（空手道 - 中村 綾乃）

IS JAPAN COOL? DOU
https://www.ana-cooljapan.com/contents/dou/

Now approved as an official game of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, karatedo is a martial art that originated in Okinawa. According to some sources, it is rooted in an ancient Okinawan martial art called te (meaning “hand” and pronounced “tee” in Okinawan), influenced by kenpo martial art from China, and further developed as karate (written as “Tang hand” in kanji). From the late 1910s, a group of Okinawan karateka (karate practitioners) gathered around Gichin Funakoshi started a serious effort to introduce karate to mainland Japan, and sometime around 1930, karate began to be called karatedo (the way of karate).


DOU is the way of life that comes close to reaching the essence of existence in pursuit of one’s own field.

The ultimate goal of Japanese martial arts (budo) such as judo, kyudo, kendo, karatedo, iaido, etc. is not only to acquire the techniques (waza) of these martial skills, but also adhere to the way of life that constantly trains the body and the spirit in building character.

The ultimate purpose of Japanese traditional performing/fine arts (geido) such as shodo, nihon-buyo, sado, noh (nogaku), etc. is not simply to acquire the kata (forms), actions, and manners of these artistic skills, but also bring devotion to ceaseless pursuit of perfect beauty without end.

This time, we at ANA focus on introducing the ways of Japanese traditional martial arts and performing/fine arts — legacies accumulated over long eras
and inherited by many artists from ancient times to the present.We want to help pass along these intangible cultural assets to new generations in a “tangible” manner.