Importance of the Dojo Kun

Sitting at the front of most traditional Karate Dojos is a nice calligraphy poster that looks like squiggly lines and often does not have a translation attached. These five rows of writing (often from Nakayama Sensei) are the five lines of the Dojo Kun.

The Dojo Kun is a set of five “sayings” or “rules” that were created to guide our training and daily life in Karate. Were the Niju Kun was written by Funakoshi Sensei to specifically guide us in our physical training in Karate, the Dojo Kun was reportedly created by Kanga Sakagawa in the 18^th century to guide us morally through our training in an art that was originally meant to teach people how to kill with their hands.

The Dojo Kun’s five lines cover everything from what we should be working towards as a human being to the way we should honor those around us that help us on this ever so short journey we call life. The first line of the Dojo Kun is “Seek perfection of Character”, this is one of the most overlooked and misunderstood lines of the whole Dojo Kun. It does not say “Be a perfect person” or “you must be perfect”. It simply tells you that you should be trying to improve yourself as a person and show good character in your dealings with others.

The first line fits with the fourth line very well. “Respect others”! Again, how you deal with others shows a great deal about who you are. Respect is not something that is DEMANDED by others, it is given to others. Demanding respect is kind of like trying to hold onto a hand full of water, its an illusion and often what you get is not what you think it is, you are simply fooling yourself. When you demand respect you get fear back, fine for some, but not the same thing. Giving respect however shows your personality, and in that you will get respect back.

Another Character development line is the “Be Faithful” rule. Being faithful means a lot of things to a lot of people. You need to be faithful to others that you have pledged your services to, to your word, to your family and like Shakespeare said “to thine own self be true”! Be faithful to yourself as well as others. Make promises to yourself and keep them. One big point of this is to be faithful to your art and your instructor.

One line that is often misunderstood is “hitotsu, doryōku no seishin wo yashinau koto“ Or “Foster a spirit of Effort”. A change that our instructor made was to say “Endeavour to excel”. To be frank I don’t know if he made this change or if he borrowed it from someone else trying to explain the line…but it works for me. It does not say you must be perfect, only that you need to try to be better and to get ahead of where you are now. This can be at work, in your family life or at the Dojo. Children should remember that you wont all get A+ on your report cards but you need to work at it to be the best you can be. Admittedly I did not get a lot of A+’s on my cards, but even with a learning disability I pushed myself to learn, and today I have a wide variety of knowledge in different areas because I don’t believe that the struggle to learn and excel ever ends.

The last line is perhaps one of the more confusing and strange lines to have in a Karate moral rule set! “Refrain from violent behavior”! In a Combat art? No violence? Really!!!! Just because we throw punches and kicks at each other does not make us violent people. And really it is more a caution about using your skills outside the Dojo. Being violent means acting physically against someone and harming them. We do NOT train to do this. Karate is a defensive martial art, a reactive art. By “reactive” I mean acting upon violent stimulus to end the ability for harm to come to us or our loved ones. Not that we don’t punch or kick first, but we only react to a violent assault in kind. If we see students becoming bullies we must end that behavior quickly. Karate is about defending yourself and those around you, not about being aggressive or violent. That is not the true spirit of Karate!

At the start of each line we say the word for “ONE” in Japanese to show that each line is very important and no line is more important than the next one. In Japanese we say “Ichi” for one, but the other word for one or single is “Hitotsu”. Ichi is more a number, were as Hitosu is more a place or signifies a location…like Ichiban is number one place, Hitotsu means first! Hey the Inuit have 100 words for snow, the Japanese can have a few for one!

Koto! Is a verbal representation of “!” It is used to symbolize how important that line was. Each line is just as important as the last and VERY important! So, “hitotsu, jinkaku kansei ni tsutomuru koto” means “FIRST, Seek perfection of character, !” Each line is said to be as important as the next so the Hitotsu and Koto are used in all lines to signify this.

So, is the Dojo Kun an important Guiding light in Karate or a quaint tradition that is simply said at the end of class as a traditional component of a class to show that the instructor feels that “Tradition is important” but not to be taken literally? I think it is even more important today than it was when it was first created in the 18^th century. First off we have higher end athletes training in Karate with more time on their hands and often a focus on Shiai Karate over Budo Karate. This means that they are more focused on scoring points, getting trophies and having pretty Kratty over learning more about themselves and training to defend themselves.

I hear of so many instructors and seniors who are not following the Karate way and doing things like accepting rank that is well above what they should be at, or working politically for more power and influence, leaving organizations because they feel like they deserve more and some instructors that even do illegal things and use Karate to break the law! The Dojo Kun should be a guiding light in life, not a quaint tradition performed to be showy and pay lip service to being traditional!

When you train in Karate, go to class, warm up and work hard in class. Pay attention to your instructor and perspire as much as you can, show great spirit and give your self to the class. But after class, when you are done Mokuso and your mind is clear, say the Dojo kun with an open heart and listen to yourself while saying it. Be the best person you can, Live up to your personal expectations and honor those that brought you to this point, Respect those that earn your respect and don’t demand anything in return, and do not live life violently! That is all the Dojo Kun is, a personal reminder of these things!