Foreword to "Fundamentals of Karate-Do"

I was honored to be asked to write a brief foreword to a book by my teacher, Mr. Masataka Mori, Fundamentals of Karate-Do. In it, I tried to express the feeling about his instruction that I believe all his students share. Here it is.

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FOREWORD

“Not Just Moving Your Arms and Legs”

T.J. Stiles

In 1988, I attended a dinner held in honor of the twentieth anniversary of Mr. Masataka Mori’s teaching in New York. I was not one of Mori Sensei’s senior students—far from it—but I was invited because I managed the club at Columbia University, which I had restarted on my arrival in New York two years earlier. Over the course of the evening, one instructor after another told stories about training in the New York dojo. Many of the tales were hilarious, and Mori Sensei joined in the laughter. Finally he stood up to bring the dinner to a close. “Tonight,” he said, “we are drinking and laughing.” Then his face grew stern. “But tomorrow, no more friendship!” All the instructors around the table shouted, “Osu!”

For Mori Sensei, karate-do is a serious endeavor—and endeavor is always the crucial word. Generations of students have learned that, when they line up at the start of his class, they must be prepared to practice with earnestness. He teaches with a rare intensity, as he drives his students to give more than they thought they could give, to make a greater effort than they imagined they could make.

T.J. Stiles with Mori Sensei in New York, May 2006

Perhaps the most frightening thing Mori Sensei ever says to a student is not any criticism, but an offer to stop criticizing. To paraphrase his words, he says: If you want, I won’t “push” you. It’s frightening because it suggests that the student might not want to rise above his or her limitations, to reach inside and find the mental strength to endure a difficult, demanding class. In twenty years in Mori Sensei’s dojo, not once did I hear a student accept the offer. We come to be pushed.

In the dojo, “mental strength” is one of Mori Sensei’s favorite expressions. He teaches that the most important growth is on the inside. As he often says, “Karate-do is not just moving your arms and legs.” He teaches it as a discipline that prepares us for life. Practiced with the right spirit, it imparts courage, perseverance, dignity, seriousness, and strength of purpose, as well as that self-control and respect for others that Mori Sensei often expresses with the word “manners.”

Karate-do instills confidence, as we overcome our personal barriers, but Mori Sensei also stresses that pride destroys both inner qualities and proper technique. He often corrects students by saying, “Don’t swagger.” To swagger is to walk in a muscular, top-heavy way that reflects cockiness; it’s a physical boastfulness. The word captures both the type of movement and the mental outlook that must be avoided in order to excel technically and to grasp the meaning of karate-do. The higher one rises, Mori Sensei teaches his instructors, the more humility and dedication one must have.

That spirit is reflected in Mori Sensei’s emphasis on fundamentals. Kihon—basic technique—is the bedrock of karate-do. As he has taught his students for decades, no matter how many tournaments one wins, no matter who high one rises in rank, one must come into the dojo every day with the purpose of improving one’s basics. One is never done practicing the simplest techniques—especially the simplest techniques.

Mori Sensei has been a leading karate-ka since the early years of the Japan Karate Association, teaching everywhere from Japan’s military academy to Latin America and London, not to mention more than forty years in New York. Always his spirit and lessons have been the same. This book reflects his approach, stressing the necessity of dedication to basic technique and, for instructors, to teaching beginners.

Of course, a book can only provide general directions. It is up to each karate-ka to keep alive the seriousness of purpose, the mental strength, that Mori Sensei teaches.