Martial
Arts =
The Healing and Defensive Arts
By Sensei Robert New
The origins of the martial and healing arts are the same. They both evolved from the need for humans to defend themselves and to heal after an attack. Historically martial arts teach a healing art alongside the defensive arts in order to make the martial artist a more rounded individual and to give them a better understand of the whole or way of martial arts.1
The healing arts include shiatsu, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture and qigong (healing movement/meditation) and massage. This essay will focus on shiatsu as the healing art and karate as the martial art, due to the authors experience with them. This essay will examine the healing arts from both an Eastern and Western viewpoint in order to demonstrate a more detailed link between the healing and defensive arts.
Different schools of shiatsu have different histories. Some forms of shiatsu are ancient and based on meridian therapy (eg: Zen shiatsu, Taoist Shiatsu), whereas others are more recent and based on a Western understanding of the body (eg: Namikoshi style shiatsu). However they all have in common the aim of healing the body when it is unwell, preventing illness and optimising health, body function and performance. Thus shiatsu is a perfect adjunct to the demands of karate training which can have a physical toll on the body.
Stronger
Attacks
By performing shiatsu therapy one learns which areas are more vulnerable to pressure point attacks (such as ippon ken, yubi saki uke, ura uchi, saken zuki and others); as one gets better at the therapy, the painful and more incapacitating points are easier to identify and locate on a person. This means that they can be better targeted by attacks. This demonstrates the importance of training in both the healing arts and defensive arts – you can learn to identify and locate the vulnerable points on a person but without diligent training, you are unlikely to be able to strike (or seize, tear or squeeze) the points in a combat situation with any accuracy, power or force. This means that the two arts are complementary and that in order to have better self defence you need to practice both arts.
Stronger
Defence
Training in shiatsu teaches the practitioner several things that are useful for self-defence. The most important of these is how to read the body, for example the way an attacker carries their body or holds themself can reveal information that can be used against them. For example a raised left shoulder might indicate a tightness on that side of the body in the neck or back and could reveal that the attacker would be more vulnerable to an attack directed at that side of the body (the tension in the area would slow down their response and add to the pain caused by targeting that area, thereby increasing the effectiveness of an attack.) In this way a good understanding of the healing arts can lead to better strategy in a combat situation.
Training
Giving and receiving shiatsu can have a large impact on the martial artist’s ability to train, recover, heal and perform movements. All styles of shiatsu have the aim of balancing the human body – whether that be through improving energy flow along meridians or through the releasing and aligning of the muscles and body. Thus receiving shiatsu can make training easier. Shiatsu improves the range of motion of the body and makes it possible for techniques to be performed with less resistance (by releasing tension within the muscles and improving relaxation). This can lead (with regular training) to improved progress and technique for the karateka.
Shiatsu also enables the body to cope
better with the demands of training. It improves recovery time from strenuous
training sessions and can also speed up recovery from injuries. Shiatsu is best
suited to treating chronic injuries and not acute (or fresh) injuries – for the
first few days after an injury has occurred standard first aid is more
effective in treating the problem. Shiatsu can then be used to assist the
longer term healing and rehabilitation of the injury. For example a sprained
ankle is best treated with rest and relaxation for the first few days to a week
after being injured. Shiatsu can then be used to help restore mobility and
function.
Instruction
Practice at giving shiatsu treatments helps you to understand the form and function of the human body. As you treat someone for a stiff back, you might realise (for example) that the problem is not with the back itself but rather that the hips are being shifted out of alignment due to a strain in an ankle. This would mean that you would need to treat the legs, buttocks and back in order to fix the problem and not just the back. Such an understanding of how the body is integrated is also beneficial for martial art instruction. If a student is having a problem performing a particular technique (for example wobbling while turning), a good understanding of the body will lead to several solutions. One solution might be to do with changing a motion of the arm or shoulder and other might have to do with the changing of the movement of the hips and another still might have to do with changing the position of the feet. The point is that each correction will have the same net effect of stopping the problem. Furthermore the ability to come up with several solutions is beneficial for many students as not all students will understand a correction when given one way but may “get it” when asked to think about a different portion of the technique.
Philosophy
The linking of the defensive and healing arts is integral to the philosophy of most martial arts. Martial arts are not about attacking people. In fact the highest goal of martial artist’s should be “Tatakawa zushite katsu” (to win without fighting). The defensive arts should only be used for defence and then the healing arts can be used to help either yourself heal or your attacker. The ultimate goal, however would be the healing of any situation that might cause violence before any violence took place.
In this way being able to heal your attacker has important philosophical ramifications;
your attacker is less likely to attack you again if you heal them or show them kindness whether it be before or after an attack. Also in this way it is important not to hold grudges. As Funakoshi said “karate ni sente nashi”2 (there is no first strike in karate); if you can heal a conflict before it causes violence then that is the best outcome.
In Eastern philosophy Martial Arts would be considered the Yin (dark) part of the Tao (whole) and the healing arts would be the Yang (light). Thus in order to be a complete martial artist you need to understand both the defensive and healing arts in order to be able to grasp the whole or bigger picture. This is also the “do” or way of the martial arts implied by the name “wa-do ryu” and “karate-do.”
Philosophy
(Wa)
The style of karate that is practiced at
Tai Shi Kai is Wado Ryu. This literally translates as the “School of the way of
peace/harmony”. At a philosophical level this integrates well with the healing
arts as they aim to balance or harmonise
the body. Additionally this particular school of karate believes that martial
artists should aim to live peaceably
with all other people. Similarly shiatsu practitioners aim to be at peace and
as relaxed as possible when giving a treatment as this helps the efficacy of
the therapy. In fact the Zen style of shiatsu promotes this state as being the
most important part of the therapy. This shared emphasis on peace/harmony
between Wado Ryu Karate and Shiatsu means that they are particularly well
suited to being practiced along side each other.
In conclusion, the healing arts and defensive arts are inextricably linked and an understanding of both make up the martial arts. An understanding of the healing arts can help improve a karateka’s attacks, strategy, defence, training, recovery and rehabilitation, instruction and understanding of the philosophy of the martial arts. In particular the healing arts (and shiatsu especially) are complementary to Wado-Ryu karate on all these counts and thus integral to an understanding of the martial arts. Also in this way one can see that martial arts are made up of more than just the defensive arts and also include the healing arts. This is why many traditional martial art texts (such as the Bubishi – the bible of karate 3) have sections on the healing arts as well as the defensive arts – they are both needed to be a more complete martial artist.
Notes
All Tai Shi Kai black belts are trained in
Shiatsu.
References
McCarthy,
Patrick (1995), Bubishi: the Bible of Karate,
Ming-Dao,
Deng (1990) Scholar Warrior Harper
Collins,
Murdoch,
Lewis (2001) A Martial Arts Perspective –
Wado/Shiatsu in Pointers: Journal of
the Shiatsu Therapy Association of
Unknown (2008) Martial Art Terms URL: http://www.aibudo.com/terms/terms.html
Woodward, Linda (1999) The Lost Art in M.A. Training, (March, 1999) pgs 56 – 58, 64.