I think it was in Gichin Funakoshi’s autobiography that he introduced a bit of a riddle. He spoke about “the expansion and contraction of the body.” Karateka have been trying to figure out exactly what he meant ever since.
Some believe he was talking about extension and contraction of the muscles in executing a technique. You extend a punch, then retract it by contracting the opposing muscles – triceps out, biceps back.
Others have speculated that he meant the expansion of the body in inhalation and its contraction during exhalation. Generally, we exhale for power, as when executing a punch. At other times, we inhale for power, such as in one of the moves near the end of the Shotokan version of Gojushiho Sho kata. The standard surface interpretation of this move holds that we inhale to expand our chests as we extend and raise both arms to break a bear hug.
A third interpretation is that it refers to the expansion and contraction of the distance between bodies in a fight or match. Smart, highly skilled fighters generally masterfully control the distance between them and their opponents, closing (contracting) the distance when attacking, then moving away out of range (expanding the distance) when defending.
I have no idea what he actually meant as he never, to my knowledge, clarified it. I’ve seen some who claimed to “know” what he meant. But in logic, there is a difference between “knowing” something and “believing” it. Knowing means you have objective proof, something like you could present to a judge in court. A belief generally lacks verification and its support lies merely upon a person’s opinion. And those who would put words into others mouths have historically been greatly off. (A famous case was when the Chinese unearthed the first copy of Sun Tzu’s Art of War and asked their greatest martial minds to fill in the gaps, where sections of the bamboo strips on which it had been written were badly damaged. When they later unearthed another copy, with the missing sections intact, they found that those who had confidently, in some case arrogantly, filled in the previously missing sections were far off.)
Funakoshi Sensei could have meant none of the three interpretations I’ve put forward. He could also have meant one of them, two of them, or all three.
Perhaps there were applications there that went beyond what he actually had in mind when he said it. Perhaps there were other meanings, things he was aware of but didn’t mean when he made this specific statement. Or, perhaps there could be interpretations, things to be taken from it, that even he didn’t realize at the time.
We acquire and expand our knowledge via three sources. One, instruction from others. Two, personal experience. And, three, analysis and reflection. In the case of “expansion and contraction”, I take all I can from it that is of value to me and my students.
Someone once asked a famous poet, Robert Browning I think, what he meant by a line in one of his poems. “What did it mean to you?” he asked in return. The woman went on for five minutes about all the things she had gotten from the line, most of it clearly things he never intended or realized were there. “That’s what I meant,” he told her.
Great minds are often more than just repositories of knowledge, they are often also mediums through which great visions are channeled. So, for me, the question isn’t “What did he mean by this?” but rather “What are all the useful bits I can take from it?”
Well, I’m starting to ramble so I will stop for now. Thanks again from your support. I truly appreciate it.
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