Where are the weapons, I was asked..

[Sensei Francois]

So here I am, instructing my class and I go over to give advice to a new starter on his kata, and he says to me...

I am interested in training in the katana and the bo. At what stage do we get to learn weapons training?



After telling student x to call me Sensei, I ordered him to do research into what Karate translates to and report back to me in the next class.

[kvnsq]

Sounds like a trend, where younger practitioners sometimes feel safer/powerful by training with a weapon than in an empty hand form. Or he just had no clue.

[clouddragon]

Sounds like a trend, where younger practitioners sometimes feel safer/powerful by training with a weapon than in an empty hand form. Or he just had no clue.

I think I would go with the second choice !

[karen]

lol. Beginners are often like this, they change quickly though in a good dojo.

[Medway Tai Chi Society]

Hit him with a big stick. It's the only way they'll learn.

[Tim-Bo]

Empty hands full of weapon, oxymoron

[Alcatraz]

I realise I'm giving this thread the Lazarus effect, but seeing as it appears that other posters (including the OP) were boo-hoo'ing on the question asked by the new student, I thought it only fair to offer a counter balance.

Karate's translation as Empty Hand is an effect of the Nihonisation of Karate. As a matter of fact, when one looks at the original regional and family ryu-ha of Okinawan Karate, the original translation of China Hand IS more accurate.

As such many old school Uchinada Dojo have a fine line between what is Karate and what is Kobudo. Quite often principals of Karate are explained when teaching Sai or Eiku, and in reverse, explanations of movement from Eiku Kata can be translated into Karate terms. One need only look at the last sequence of Wanshu to see what I mean.

So the question asked by the student was not as stupid as first indicated by Sensei Francois. If Sensei Francois (should that not be Francois Sensei..And is Francois his/her first name or surname??) does not teach weapons as part of his/her syllabus, then fine, but remember, there are Karate Dojo and Karate Ryu-ha where Kobudo is part and parcel of the Karate and vice-vera.

[Entropy102]

Since this thread has been opened up again after a long time, I should also point out that you can't understand Wado Ryu karate without having some understanding of kenjutsu. Wado Ryu is karate based on a form of Koryu Ju Jutsu where defenses against a katana were used, so without understanding about how to use a katana, you can't grasp Wado Ryu fully.



I should also probably point out that 空手 (karate) was originally 唐手 (karate). The first one is the modern name of the art with the kanji for empty and hand. The second one is the kanji for Chinese (particularly usually associated with the Tang dynasty) and hand. When Japan became more nationalistic and decided that they wanted to distance themselves from China and thus remove the Chinese part of karate (and yet keep the same pronunciation). The core of karate is unarmed combat and when you are good at karate, you don't need weapons...but, that does not mean karate is 100% no weapons.

Teaching stuff for the sake of teaching it though, and teaching it out of context is a no no though. Using katana for example in Goju Ryu would be weird.

[zenman40]

well calling you sensei is good. so when student x comes back and says it means empty hand ???? does this mean you dont teach weapons?

[Entropy102]

well calling you sensei is good. so when student x comes back and says it means empty hand ???? does this mean you dont teach weapons?

I don't really know what any of that means but if someone says that karate means 'empty hand' then I will tell them that they are correct. If they make assumptions about that though I will set them straight.

Is English your first language by the way?