The Inner Art of Karate: Cultivating the Budo Spirit in Your Practice

by Kenji Tokitsu, Sherab Chödzin Kohn (Translator)

Budo, the way of the martial arts, is at heart a path of spiritual cultivation and self-realization whose aim is to develop a strategic mind that makes combat unnecessary. Kenji Tokitsu explains the philosophy of karate as budo and looks deeply at the key concepts that are essential for developing the budo mind in karate practice. These concepts are: 

   • distance and timing,
   • rhythm, anticipation, and intuition,
   • and the cultivation of explosive but focused energy.
These concepts are difficult to teach, but mastering them is the ultimate goal of any true martial artist. Tokitsu expertly guides the reader through these elusive ideas with clarity and a practical view.

Genres: Martial Arts

193 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Kenji Tokitsu (時津 賢児) is a Japanese author and practitioner of Japanese martial arts. Dr. Tokitsu has also written a scholarly work about the legendary swordsman Musashi Miyamoto. He holds doctorates in sociology and in Japanese language and civilization.

Kenji Tokitsu was born on 1 August 1947 in Yamaguchi, Japan. A practitioner of Shotokan karate since youth, in 1983 Tokitsu started his own school, the Shaolin-mon ("door to Shaolin", compare the Mumonkan) school in Paris, where he had taught Shotokan karate since 1973. The Shaolin-mon teachings were a hybrid of Tokitsu's dissatisfaction with Shotokan karate combined with what he learned of Chinese martial arts. Still later, he founded the Tokitsu-ryu Academy in 2001.

Reviews

[Anne Beardsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite martial arts books.
I don't even practice karate.

I read it for help with Japanese sword fighting and Aikido randori, both of which I do practice. The first third of this book was of only passing interest to me, being mostly a history and philosophy of karate. Then the good stuff starts.

He talks about the senses to perceive correct distance, cadence, timing, and how to develop them and practice them. He discusses physical peril and the mindset needed to free the body for combat. Tokitsu then discusses the near-magic way that high level martial artists of all types learn to sense an incoming attack, and explains how it isn't magic. He talks about how such a sense works, how it plays into combat, and how to develop it.

Along the way he explains in a practical yet profound way many difficult and extremely far east hardcore martial arts concepts.

I took pages of notes reading this book.
Very importantly, it opened a lot of mental doors for me. I was able to suddenly read texts like Musashi's Book of Five Rings (read Tokitsu's translation and look up the endnotes!) and Yagyu Munenori's Life-giving Sword with understanding instead of perplexity. After The Inner Art of Karate, classic old Japanese martial texts now are much more comprehensible to me.

[Joaquin Fernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro muy interesante tanto en su contenido como en su planteo ya que usa un formato de ensayo cientifico

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite having studied martial arts for over a decade, I have not read many books on the topic. I think this was because most of that time overlapped university, which ate up most of my reading time and when I was given some, non-fiction was the last thing I wanted to read. I’ve only just started to correct this. I mention this background to clarify that this is essentially a new genre for me and my review may be lacking.


The Inner Art of Karate is not a “how to” fight book or anything of the sort. The author focuses on the mental side of karate that can easily be forgotten in among the ridiculous crane kicks and shiny trophies. He does discuss the physical aspects, but sticks to more of the ideas behind combat techniques rather than the proper way to make a fist or which way to point your toes when you kick.


This book offers a good introduction to some of the principles of karate and had some good advice about how to fight an adversary. A fight between opponents is about more than just the physical aspect of hitting each other – strategy and awareness play a role. While I found some of the terms Tokitsu used confusing and his diagrams were difficult to interpret, I found his suggestions for combat useful and logical. Examples include: your blocks should be counterattacks as well as blocks, anticipating the strike before it comes, and so on. He also offers an excellent discussion about distance and timing when facing an opponent.


The two most interesting parts of the book for me were when he discussed the idea of cadence and when he describe the teaching of ancient sword masters. Each confrontation has a certain cadence or rhythm to it and the conflict can be won through control and variance of this cadence. The section on the ancient masters wraps up the text well and reminds the read of the deep tradition inherent in martial arts.


There was one thing that Tokitsu kept doing in the text that bothered me – hating on “the West”. Maybe it’s because I’m from “the West” but I found his constant comments about Japanese vs. Western culture irksome – especially since it was clear which one he thought was better. The book was far from offensive and yes, some Western schools have turned a martial art into a martial sport, but he seemed to lump the entire West under one umbrella and that is a bit problematic. The benefit of this issue was a window into Japanese culture and concepts of diligence and awareness.


Tokitsu’s book was a good beginning for some of the philosophical concepts of karate. It’s a quick read and with a few exceptions, keeps the technical language at a layman level.

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was wonderful. It put into words Japanese martial arts concepts that have been mistranslated or not well understood by Western martial artists and put them into clear words, with examples and excerpts from the Masters of the Japanese sword. And, gave the answer to the question, why study karate-do in modern times? I would recommend this to any martial artist, regardless of their style or weapon.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foundational concepts of Japanese martial arts. A significant work in English