Japanese Spirit -Ki-

Mariko Furukawa

Ki, a concept developed in the early time, is best defined as Japanese spirit. Ki is often called Chi in English and is regarded as the energy in martial arts. If you look it up in a dictionary, it literally means the vitality and the energy that urges and inspires us to do something. The concept of ki can be found in the majority of the martial arts.

I took a kendo class in junior high school. Kendo is a fencing-like Japanese sport which started in the Edo era, 1603-1867. In a kendo match, two players wearing black ponderous outfits must attack their opponent's head, trunk, forearms or charge at one's throat with ki, by using the bamboo sword. In terms of kendo, ki refers to the state in which one's body is filled with energy and one is well prepared and one has no distracting thoughts in one's mind. Ki should never leave one's opponent any chance to attack back.

One can give out ki in two ways, in a voice sound and in a voiceless sound. The voiceless ki is very conspicuous in aikido which is one of the martial arts without any protectors. Ki makes it possible to beat one's opponents by grasping or twisting their hands, feet or joints, which does not necessitate much energy at all. When I am filled up with the voiceless ki, I have no distraction, I am focusing on what I am doing; my body warms up and I feel a lot of energy inside me. The voiceless ki is inaudible. The voice sound ki, on the other hand, is to be heard. Generally, the louder the better and it is usually used to give out the energy or to intimidate one's opponent.

The voiced ki is emphasized in karate. Karate was formed by combining Chinese kung-fu with Okinawan martial arts and developed as the art of self-defense. Karate matches are divided into two different types: kumite, a sparring match and kata, a form competition. Even in a sparring match, the two players are not allowed to directly hit their opponent's body, which means the effectiveness of thrusts and kicks are judged by the player's ki. Needless to say, a form demonstration competition which demonstrates various combinations of techniques, is also judged by ki. Ki has to be a voiced sound in this case.

In my junior year of high school, I joined a karate club. Other students were already a half year ahead of me and I had to start with all the basics on my own. However, I soon caught up with other students and started to learn the techniques for the sparring match. At the competition that was held exactly two weeks after I started my actual practice, I won second place. It was really amazing to everybody, to say nothing of myself. I had beaten some students that were said to be much stronger than I was. However, it can really happen at any game and that is obviously what ki does. I believe that the victory happened to me because I knew what ki was and I was better at getting more ki than everybody else. The kendo experience had given the idea of ki. The weak beat the strong only because they have much more ki.

Ki is not only a martial arts term but also is widely used in routine Japanese life. It is usually heard as kiai. You would often hear people say, "Come on! Have more kiai!" meaning to be more energetic, brisk and to concentrate on what you are doing. At schools or any kind of practices, teachers or instructors often tell their students to have more kiai. Or someone could say, "I somehow did it with my kiai." which means the person would not have done it without the vitality and the spirit. People believe that their spirits make them go through their difficulties and I am an advocate of this theory. To be honest, in the final at the karate competition at which I won the second, I had to compete with my captain. I did not want to win and I was already exhausted so I had almost no kiai. I believe I could have won if I could have maintained my kiai till the end. I realized how the lack of kiai could cause the weakness of the body and the spirit.

The word byouki, disease in English, means an illness of ki. There is even a proverb that goes "the disease comes to you if you do not have enough ki." Some people actually have overcome their diseases with their kiai, for the doctors have no clue why the patients recovered. We really think that ki has a lot to do with everything. Being in the pink and mentally vigorous as well as physically healthy is always highly esteemed. We recognize the existence of ki and believe that is what is in our mind. Ki is the wonderful, marvelous spirit that has come down from ancestors in Japan.