Last Updated on 16 June 2020 by Group headquarters office

The dojo is committed to essential and moral education.
During training, of course, all necessary matters are summarised in the dojo kun and read out by everyone at the end of the training.
The essential and moral story is then told in three minutes in a language that is easy to understand and appropriate for the age of the child.
Some children surprise us with a solid understanding of essential content, even in the lower grades.

■ Enhancing introspection.

Body also teaches the natural behaviour of the human body (natural body), rather than just exercise.
What is needed is not just repetitive practice, but a deepening of 'physical sensation'.
In martial arts, this is called 'enhancing introspection'.

It is the ability to feel the very existence of the body, how it is and how it moves, down to each cell, including the beating of the heart, the flow of blood, the position of the centre of gravity and the feeling of the soles of the feet against the ground.
The centre of the practice is the breath, so the practice starts from the state of the breath.
This introspection is the root of strength of mind, intelligence and athletic ability.
The recent boom in 'mindfulness' is also close.

Gymnastics is, as the word implies, the manipulation of the body.
Do not manipulate your body. The goal should be a natural body.
It might be better to say 'bodily'.
When introspection is low, the body is ignored and the mind tries to rule as it pleases.
This does not improve performance and leads to more injuries and illnesses.
Above all, it can lead to a controlling habit in the mind.

Especially today, many people seem to have a dulled inner vision because of the strong artificial stimuli in the outside world, such as the influence of TV and smartphones.
This is why they ignore what the body is and try to manipulate it to do what they want.
If things don't go well, you slap or scold them physically.
'Bullying through the body', for example, is a pitfall that people with low introspection are prone to.

The failure of education is to build people who are only highly capable.
If you are insensitive, you will not see what you are doing and you will not stop being annoying and behaving roughly.
If the heart is poor, it will not stop because the heart is not pained by evil.
If the ability is low, the level of annoyance is low, but if the ability is high, the level of annoyance increases.
Competence without heart is more dangerous.

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Masanori Sugihara, Kyokushin Karate 4-dan Secretary General of Kyokushinkaikan Group Head of Kyokushinkaikan Tokyo Headquarters He has numerous martial arts experiences and also organises learning dojos from the perspective of both the monbusho and the bujutsu (martial arts). He researches youth education through martial arts and regularly publishes the 'Karate News' at local primary schools. He also writes a martial arts column in the economic field. https://budo.tokyo/