Often used in American Martial Arts as, "Postures for fighting engagement; posture, ready or guard position; combative engagement posture; a posture that exudes spirit."
In Japan under Zen Buddhism is that one is taught that if the body and mind have been totally integrated by the combination of meditation and physical activity, the doing of a thing is as easy as thinking it - as far as the mind is concerned, thinking and doing are the same which is also validated through the recent study of the brain and belief system of the brain. This overall philosophy of mind-body integration is expressed by the Japanese through the word, Kamae or attitude.
It is possible to associate the martial art meaning since a part of attitude concerns also the bodies attitude when it communicates meaning through the posture of the body, extremities and facial expressions, etc.
In Japanese methods of skill development it is believed that any activity is learning and keeping proper attitude. Different skills through different disciplines require different attitudes. The job of the Master teacher, Sensei, is to impart on to students the proper attitude as it applies to the discipline or activity. It is then taught/known by students that to learn with proper kokorogamae that they must achieve both kamae and form. This is in martial arts form by itself is not enough but form with kamae, attitude, is the whole that provides mastery of the activity.
In ancient feudal times the samurai swordsman can judge the skills of another by observing his attitude or kamae - often before the first move in combat allowing one to achieve victory before striking.
防御の構え（ぼうぎょのかまえ） / a defensive posture, a protective position
身構える（みがまえる） / assume a posture of defense, stand on guard, take a stance, square off, stand ready
Today, kamae is often expressed as kokorogamae (koe-koe-roe-gah-may: 心の態度) which means something like, "mental attitude" or more accurately "heart attitude. (心の態度)" This is considered a key element in all training.
The differences as often written on this blog is actually the characters used to express the meaning. As can be readily seen the English words can have meaning that can only be clarified as to Japanese by the character or characters provided. It has been written in my sources that this is often the tactic Japanese use to clarify their communications, i.e. communicate in words and supplement with the written character(s).
Kushida Sensei used to say that the mind and body reflect one another. We work on one to work on the other.
ReplyDelete