Himitsu [秘密]

Secrets, there be secrets In karate! Where do all the secrets come and if they are secrets, how in the hell did they suddenly get revealed … to us who are not even native Okinawan’s or Japanese or Chinese?

The truth, it’s a game played to trigger the mind into giving something more value and importance than actually exists. It’s about making the uninitiated feel like they are getting something special. It’s a I know something you don’t know thing.

Just because you don’t know it or we’re never taught it or we’re not party to who created it does not mean it’s a secret suddenly found!

Secret: done, made, or conducted without the knowledge of others: kept from the knowledge of any but the initiated or privileged: designed or working to escape notice, knowledge, or observation: secluded, sheltered, or withdrawn: 

• something that is or is kept secret, hidden, or concealed.
• a method, formula, plan, etc., known only to the initiated or the few.
• unknown to others; in private; secretly.

First, to be a secret 🤐 in karate, founders or creators must have deliberately kept the knowledge from everyone BUT the initiated and/or privileged and that never happened … period!

Second, to be kept a secret those select few  must keep it so from all BUT the initiated and select few. This makes it IMPOSSIBLE for any of us in this time to discover, know and profess a secret is uncovered because we would have to have that validated by the very few initiates who were sworn to secrecy.

Third, secrets have been and always will be held in secrecy and if one, unlikely in this case, were one to violate that solemnly held secret then it would not be secret 🤫!

Fourth, those who would have been privileged to gain that secret would have been those of Okinawa descent and would gain nothing but dishonor to release it, especially to a GAIJIN or foreigner especially the conquering Americans.

Fifth, what would motivate a native Okinawa n karate-ka to reveal secrets to gaijin?

In the end, there ARE NO SECRETS in karate, none and if we suddenly have an “oh-shit” moment it ain’t a secret revealed, it’s a sudden oh shit moment we rediscovered something we were never taught.

Remember, there was this period before WWII that put karate in schools, a dumbed down version, for obvious and KNOWN reasons and that does not make it secret!

Wake up karate-ka, karate does not need special hidden unrevealed SECRETSto be special … IT’S FRIGGIN KARATE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD and that MAKES IT SPECIAL all by itself!!!