What do you think?
Rate this book
Karate: Beneath The Surface: Spiritual Content of Kata
Why does a fighting form end in a posture that resembles the Grand Buddha?
You may have practiced the movement for years without asking. Then life changes. Age, experience, and circumstance alter the need—or the ability—to fight. The kata remain. What are they teaching you now?
Karate: Beneath the Surface explores the questions that can emerge after years of Goju-ryu karate practice. Familiar movements, breathing patterns, and postures become starting points for an inquiry into the emotional and spiritual dimensions of the art.
Approaching kata as connected stepping stones, Roy Kenneth Kamen considers how discoveries in one form can deepen the understanding of another. Drawing on martial practice, personal reflection, and Buddhist and Taoist ideas, he invites readers to look again at movements they thought they knew.
Why repeat the same forms throughout a lifetime? What changes in your practice when fighting is no longer its central purpose? What might you have passed over while concentrating on technique?
This is a personal exploration of meaning within kata, written for practitioners seeking more from familiar training and readers drawn to martial philosophy. The questions open the door. The discoveries unfold in the book.
You may have practiced the movement for years without asking. Then life changes. Age, experience, and circumstance alter the need—or the ability—to fight. The kata remain. What are they teaching you now?
Karate: Beneath the Surface explores the questions that can emerge after years of Goju-ryu karate practice. Familiar movements, breathing patterns, and postures become starting points for an inquiry into the emotional and spiritual dimensions of the art.
Approaching kata as connected stepping stones, Roy Kenneth Kamen considers how discoveries in one form can deepen the understanding of another. Drawing on martial practice, personal reflection, and Buddhist and Taoist ideas, he invites readers to look again at movements they thought they knew.
Why repeat the same forms throughout a lifetime? What changes in your practice when fighting is no longer its central purpose? What might you have passed over while concentrating on technique?
This is a personal exploration of meaning within kata, written for practitioners seeking more from familiar training and readers drawn to martial philosophy. The questions open the door. The discoveries unfold in the book.
- GenresEbooks
158 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 18, 2017
About the author
Roy Kenneth Kamen
6 books1 followerRoy Kenneth Kamen, known professionally as Roy Kamen, began studying Isshinryu Karate in 1965 under his brother, Robert Mark Kamen, creator and writer of The Karate Kid. He later studied Shotokan under Toyotaro Miyazaki and, in 1980, earned his second-degree black belt in traditional Okinawan Goju-ryu karate from Master Seikichi Toguchi, a first-generation student of Goju-Ryu founder Chojun Miyagi and Master Seiko Higa.
Kow Loon (Kayo) Ong awarded Roy his eighth degree in 2017. In 2024, Roy was awarded ninth-degree black belt certification by Tetsuhiro Hokama, a tenth-degree Goju-ryu karate master and curator of the Karate Museum in Naha, Okinawa.
Roy is chief instructor of One World Dojo and teaches karate at Active Studios NYC and in New York City public-school after-school programs. He is the author of Karate: Beneath the Surface: Emotional and Spiritual Content of Goju-ryu Kata. Drawing on more than six decades of practice, he explores the questions that arise as a martial artist’s experience, circumstances and reasons for training change. His book approaches familiar kata as connected stepping stones into deeper inquiry.
Outside the dojo, Roy owned and operated Kamen Entertainment Group, Inc., producing more than 40,000 radio, television, film, fitness, music and live-theater projects that earned over 140 industry awards.
Kow Loon (Kayo) Ong awarded Roy his eighth degree in 2017. In 2024, Roy was awarded ninth-degree black belt certification by Tetsuhiro Hokama, a tenth-degree Goju-ryu karate master and curator of the Karate Museum in Naha, Okinawa.
Roy is chief instructor of One World Dojo and teaches karate at Active Studios NYC and in New York City public-school after-school programs. He is the author of Karate: Beneath the Surface: Emotional and Spiritual Content of Goju-ryu Kata. Drawing on more than six decades of practice, he explores the questions that arise as a martial artist’s experience, circumstances and reasons for training change. His book approaches familiar kata as connected stepping stones into deeper inquiry.
Outside the dojo, Roy owned and operated Kamen Entertainment Group, Inc., producing more than 40,000 radio, television, film, fitness, music and live-theater projects that earned over 140 industry awards.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 9, 2024
This book is essential for Goju-Ryu practitioners.
This book is absolutely essential for Goju-Ryu practitioners. It mirrors ideas and concepts from hundreds of conversations that I had with Gary Gablehouse and Tenshin Arakawa Ajari Sohei three decades ago. I was instrumental in bringing Gablehouse and the author's tutor, Kow Loon Ong together for John Roseberry's 50th Year Karate celebration. I was very close to Kayo for a decade.
I really highly recommend the book for any karateka. In the early nineties Gablehouse and I were almost alone in the discussions that would sometimes leak out on the cyberdojo, and other L-Serve formats, regarding mudra, mantra, and mandala. The numerology was also almost exclusive to Gary and I on the boards. Of course, Kayo was versed and could speak on it and Roy does an excellent job on all aspects of esoterica germane to Goju-Ryu
It is good to have this almost perfect book as a wonderful sumation of thoughts that were under the radar in the West heretofore and by in large. Wonderful.
Matt Henderson
This book is absolutely essential for Goju-Ryu practitioners. It mirrors ideas and concepts from hundreds of conversations that I had with Gary Gablehouse and Tenshin Arakawa Ajari Sohei three decades ago. I was instrumental in bringing Gablehouse and the author's tutor, Kow Loon Ong together for John Roseberry's 50th Year Karate celebration. I was very close to Kayo for a decade.
I really highly recommend the book for any karateka. In the early nineties Gablehouse and I were almost alone in the discussions that would sometimes leak out on the cyberdojo, and other L-Serve formats, regarding mudra, mantra, and mandala. The numerology was also almost exclusive to Gary and I on the boards. Of course, Kayo was versed and could speak on it and Roy does an excellent job on all aspects of esoterica germane to Goju-Ryu
It is good to have this almost perfect book as a wonderful sumation of thoughts that were under the radar in the West heretofore and by in large. Wonderful.
Matt Henderson
October 29, 2017
A spiritual approach to kata
Kamen outlines some very different and unique views of kata as a spiritual and emotional journey are not what you hear about in the dojo, but whether you agree or disagree with Kamen, it is important to your karate practice to always be looking at your kata with a beginners mind, shoshin. There are some new perspectives I'm excited about trying out with kata after reading this book, and thinking critically about my practice. But, you really need to know some karate to understand this book, but it can apply to many kata outside of goju-ryu. A great read if you're reaching a dead end with your kata training.
Kamen outlines some very different and unique views of kata as a spiritual and emotional journey are not what you hear about in the dojo, but whether you agree or disagree with Kamen, it is important to your karate practice to always be looking at your kata with a beginners mind, shoshin. There are some new perspectives I'm excited about trying out with kata after reading this book, and thinking critically about my practice. But, you really need to know some karate to understand this book, but it can apply to many kata outside of goju-ryu. A great read if you're reaching a dead end with your kata training.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews