GOHO KEMPO KARATE

Any person who enters a Dojo comes in with a certain level of strength.  The first goal of self defense training is to evaluate that strength, help the student to have a good understanding of their capability, and put them on a program which will naturally and safely increase their strength and fitness level.  Goho means strength principle, which is the evaluation and development of strength in the proper manner.

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The most effective way to develop ones strength is through a study of Kime, focus, through the practice of blocks, punches, and kicks.  Thus the martial art that trains this principle most fundamentally is Karate, the common art of Okinawa.

 

What we normally think of as Karate was a modified art that was created to teach to school children.  Primarily the art was taught through forms that taught a person how to focus their physical energy through blocks, punches, and kicks.  To help perfect the focus, time was spent on a Makiwara, wooden striking post.

 

It has been said that Yasutsune Itosu was most responsible for this development and taught a group of instructors how to teach this method of Karate.  The idea was that young students were taught the fundamental striking art of Karate and then after graduating from school could enter the Dojo of a full Karate master to learn the Hiden Bujutsu, secret martial arts, that were still being kept secret among the Okinawan martial artists.

 

In Kiyojute Ryu Kempo Bugei this art is taught under the name of Goho Kempo Karate.  The emphasis is on developing the strength principle through focus and concentration while performing the Waza, techniques, of Karate.

 

A final important aspect of the strength principle is to always apply your strikes to Kyusho, vital points.  No matter how hard you hit if you hit the attacker on the strongest part of their body, they will be able to keep fighting, but if you take your personal weapons (i.e., hands, feet, etc.) and strike the weakest parts of their bodies (i.e., eyes, throat, groin, major veins, arteries, etc.) you will be able to stop them.  Thus as the striking techniques are taught so are the best places to use them.