Welcome to Karate-dō Tsunami online
If we develop - as the training progresses - the awareness how easily, i.a. as a result of use of Karate techniques, one can be injured or killed, we can better understand and appreciate the value of life and health. This art of combat develops also respect not only for one's own life and health, but for other's, too. In this manner it helps to approach the second goal of self-improvement - nehan (harmony with the environment). Thus, in accordance with Karate-dō Tsunami system, Karate is very useful in the process of self-improvement. It facilitates:
- physical self-improvement,
- the development of self-discipline,
- efficient self-defence,
- intensification of understanding of life and health value.
History of Karate-dō Tsunami
The basic principles of self-improvement system, referred to today as Karate-dō Tsunami, were defined in 520 in China by a former Buddhist patriarch Bodhidharma (Puti Damo in Chinese; P'u-t'i Ta-mo; Bodai Daruma in Japanese), who lived from 412 to 532. He went down in history as a person of an extremely strong personality.
He spent tens of years in India and China, which were then intellectual and cultural centres of the world and he studied in-depth the theoretical foundations of the four most important religious - philosophical systems of the East: yoga, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, as well as their implementation at that time.
As a result of his observations and reflections, in 510 - when he was 109 - he announced in the Chinese Shaolin cloister the assumptions of his system of complete self-improvement in two aspects: mental and physical. He did not name the system and soon following Daruma's death, the group of his ideological heirs divided into two parts. This division is visible even today: in the West and in the East
One of these groups, called today Zen-shu ("school of meditation" in Japanese), concentrates on the mental aspect of a human being, focusing on its mind only. This group approaches the body as an insignificant material cover, which facilitates only mental practices.
The other group, nowadays referred to as Karate-dō ("the way of the empty hand" in Japanese), focuses on the physical aspect of humans and, therefore, almost exclusively on their bodies. It appreciates the mind and uses it, but only to such extent which is necessary to improve the physical skills, which are slight. This is the dead end for both these groups. The attempts of both groups cannot yield appropriate results, because they do not account for the laws of nature, and in particular of the basic, common and universal principle of dualism. Therefore the results they achieve are very tenuous as compared to extensive funds and efforts.
In 1980 the representatives of ten Polish Karate-dō clubs referred to the historical ideas of Daruma, recreating the initial self-improvement system of the Shaolin cloister and calling it Karate-dō Tsunami. The word "tsunami", which means in Japanese "a huge reverting wave", emphasises:
- a great significance of this self-improvement system for all people,
- the return to the initial ideas developed by Daruma.
For the reason of its extraordinary simplicity, pertinence and attractiveness of its assumptions, this system gains a great momentum and a growing world-wide importance.
