Books: Importance of Spiritual Karate: Self-Defense for the Body and Soul

There is a philosophical thread that runs through any discussion in the world of karate. The thread is respect - respect for oneself, respect for others, respect for the art and respect for those who have gone before, the great Masters.

Master Meitatsu Yagi is a much-honoured name in the karate world. He is the eldest son and successor to Grand Master Meitoku Yagi. He has been training and teaching for nearly sixty years. He is the chairman of the International Meibukan Gojyu-Ryu Karate-Do Association, which has its headquarters in Okinawa, Japan, the birthplace of karate. He has seen much over the years - the global growth of Karate-Do, the increasing acceptance of karate as a self defense activity that builds not only the body, but also the heart, the soul and the mind.

Having traveled extensively teaching seminars, Meitatsu Yagi has witnessed many changes in how karate is perceived and taught as karate has developed and grown around the world. Not all of the changes have been positive - karate has its philosophical origins in the art of self-defense, yet there are those factions that teach karate as an aggressive, combative art.

Meitatsu Yagi takes issue with this and his new book Importance of Spiritual Karate goes some distance to remind the karate adherents that karate, at its core, is much more than competition and combat. It is, in fact, a way of living, a way of looking at life itself, that obliges its practitioners to live a respectful life, based on humility, modesty and courtesy.

The author's views in Importance of Spiritual Karate are reflected through the pens of Ken Trebilcock and Steve Lyons, two respected Canadians who have devoted much of their adult life to the art and artistry of karate. They tell the story of Meitatsu Yagi's life in the karate world with clear respect for his views and with a dignity befitting his honoured position within Traditional Karate-Do.

Importance of Spiritual Karate is very clearly a book aimed at an audience of karate adherents, particularly those who may hold an interest in karate's history and its world-wide development. There is much to be learned in Meitatsu Yagi's words of wisdom -- and there is also genuine value in expanding our understanding of traditional martial arts and Okinawa Karate in particular as contained in Importance of Spiritual Karate.

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