Karate or Judo or Whatever Martial Art you decide

Let me see, who should I trust? An article that you read thirty years or so ago, or my 27 years of experience in living in Japan and my huge library of books on the subject in English, Japanese and Chinese?

Your information is wrong. Dharma (or Daruma, as the Japanese call him) did not introduce martial arts from India (or Nepal) to China. In fact there is very little historical evidence of any kind concerning what he brought from India. One thing that historians say he may have introduced is a set of breathing exercises (kiko in Japanese, chi gung in Chinese) called "The Muscle Change Classic." This set of exercises has no martial or self defense application at all. It is not a martial art, but a breathing and stretching exercise.

Now Daruma is said to have done this at the Shaolin Temple in Honan Province. However, there are actually hundreds of styles of Chinese martial arts, many of them having no similarities at all to the Shaolin martial arts that became popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. I happen to know one Chinese martial art called Tan Tui ("Springing Legs") that is practiced by the Muslims of Northern China. And of course it has no Asian mysticism in it at all. (Nor do the Christian kung fu, jujutsu and karate styles in which I hold various black belts.) :type:

 

You may have forgotten to read page two of Jun Lee's history, where he says, "During the end of the Lee Dynasty and during the Japanese occupation of Korea, Tae Kwon Do appeared to fade away, but the Tae Kwon Do spirit in Korea never died. Tae Kwon Do started to revitalize itself with the restoration of Korea's independence after 36 years of Japanese occupation."

What happened was that the Japanese suppressed Tae Kwon Do for decades until the old ways were lost. After the war, various Koreans used their karate experience to reinvent Tae Kwon Do. Nowadays many TKD forms bear no resemblence to karate, but the TKD old timers will tell you that the original forms taught in the 1950's and '60's were karate forms such as the Heian (also called Pinan) katas.

However, the Koreans, having been forced to worship the Shinto gods during the occupation, rejected all of Japanese religion. So nowadays there are many Korean Christians practicing TKD. :type:

 

I can attest to the GMAU being biblically based, as our church is a charter school through them. As a pastor, I have been to the annual conference and I witnessed christian character like humbleness, brotherly love, respect, etc. even in competition. Competitors were hugging even after an intense contest. Attitudes were checked at the door. The word of God was preached throughout the conference and the Lord was glorified through this ministry.The leaders of the Gmau are solid in the Bible and they are some of the best black belts and instructors worldwide.They expect their schools to be doctrinally sound as well, and each school needs a pastors backing. Do check out the website.

 

Amen, brother! We have a great group of people with the GMAU. I'd been meaning to put in a plug here, but you've given a great one!

Here's the website, folks: www.gmau.org