Back in Okinawa, the root systems of what would become modern karate-do were variously called; te, ti, tuite, toude, etc. Shotokan founder, Funakoshi Gichin, designed and implemented a pervasive alteration of the ancient art to transform it into a budo that would be accepted in Japan. This is very evident, even to those of you who have only experienced our ministry, when we see students who have previously trained in some of the modern Okinawan systems, notably, Shorin-Ryu. The differences, both major and minor, are visible in almost every move and posture. In addition to these physical changes, there were changes to the names of many of the katas. A very major change was renaming Te to Karate. We know that Te means “hand”, but the change to Karate has been translated most often as either “Empty Hand or Open Hand”, with the former probably being the most common.

Personally, I don’t care for defining our art as the art of the Empty Hand. I guess another meaning would be the Weaponless Art (the development of Shotokan involved removing weaponry such as the nunchaku, tonfa, sai, bo, jo, and ekku from our hands). I don’t like Empty (I’ve also seen Kara defined as Void) because it evokes a negative, nothing feeling in me. I like defining our art as one of the Open Hand. Open Hand, Open Heart, Open Mind…. these are all positives to my way of thinking. All of these phrases indicate that you can touch and feel the goodness that is contained within such a person, non-violent, non-judgmental. Of course, we all know that there is a real inner strength in Karate-Do and that the open or loose hand instantaneously turns into the famous karate fist, but only for a focused instant, to project force and defend oneself.

Yes, I’m biased towards the Open Hand. That’s why I really like it where we train. Momilani Rec Center is a covered pavilion that is basically without any walls in the direction that our members face, or that is, in one word…Open. When we train, we are continuously facing the outdoors, watching the seasons change, the rains fall, the breeze amongst the trees. One can hear the cars, the trees in the wind, the birds chirping, the dogs barking, and even the occasional siren going by. The amazing thing is, once training begins, these externals fade into the background, replaced by our inner focus on this way of worship. Soon, enough when we sit in mokuso, with our eyes closed, the sounds of the world around us come rushing right back in and we realize that we’ve been training in an open area.

Before I beat this topic into the ground, here are a couple more uses of the word: Open can mean the beginning or start of something new…. and Open also means that anyone can enter: two more positive attributes.