Читать книгу Chojun - Goran Powell - Страница 15

The Hard And Soft School

Shortly after the renaming of our art, another important name was decided upon. Jinan Shinzato had been in Tokyo, where he had performed a demonstration of our karate to the crown prince of Japan. When he returned, he reported that his demonstration had been well received and had created considerable interest in Miyagi’s art, but he’d been asked by the prince which style of karate he was demonstrating and hadn’t had an answer. Miyagi’s personal brand of karate did not have a name.

A few days later, Miyagi called our class together once more and announced that our school needed a name to be known by. He recited a poem from the Bubishi—a book of martial strategy from China that he called ‘The Bible of Karate’––which read, ‘Inhaling is softness, exhaling is hardness.’ He’d decided to take his inspiration from this line, calling his karate the ‘Hard Soft School’ or Goju Ryu—‘Go’ meaning hard, ‘Ju’ meaning soft, and ‘Ryu’ being school or association.

Over the weekend I made a wooden sign and painted the words ‘Hard Soft School’ in lettering that I was proud of and presented it to Miyagi on Monday.

“What’s this, Kenichi?” he asked in surprise.

“A sign, to hang above our door. It will tell everyone about our school.”

“Why would I wish to do that?” he asked.

“To attract new students, Sensei. Lots of schools are doing it now. It’s called advertising.”

Miyagi held the sign at arm’s length and regarded the lettering carefully. “It is a nice looking sign,” he said at last. “Thank you very much, Kenichi.”

He put the sign aside, by the wall, and later took it home. It never hung outside the dojo. Miyagi never advertised his karate, he never courted students, and to do so now would have been one change too many for him.