- Dave Lowry
- Mar 31
- 4 min read
Using a serrated bread knife, can you cut a baguette, a loaf of French bread, in a single stroke? If you can't, you have work to do in the dojo.
In our neighborhood, several families come to our house regularly for dinner. Some of them have children, and when the kids see me working in the kitchen, they want to help. TV shows and celebrity chefs have made cooking an attractive activity, making them eager to learn. I’ve introduced several young people to basic kitchen skills. The first time they handle a knife or a Chinese cleaver, I watch their body language.
These children have been raised playing video games and doing things that require fine muscle control. You can see that when they handle a blade. All their focus goes into their hands. They understand instinctively that the muscles of the hand won’t do big work, so they immediately hunch their shoulders and try to get their arm muscles to do it. They look stiff and awkward.
In many cases, they’re frightened. Most have never held a sharp object. Very often, this will have been the first “adult” thing a child of 12 or 13 has ever done. Their posture is usually awful, and their cuts are tentative, small, and ragged.
It’s no coincidence you see this same behavior in the karate dojo.
Beginners in the Dojo
Beginners often assume the same stiff-legged stances. Their sense of their body mechanics moves instantly up to their shoulders. For all the work their lower bodies are doing, they might as well be sitting in a chair. Their movements are spastic and uncoordinated—and largely ineffectual.
If you have a well-trained itamae, or sushi chef, in your town, it’s worth having dinner there to watch him use a blade the right way. Notice how he handles the long knife to slice fillets from pieces of fish. (If he’s from Tokyo, the knife will be pointed at the end. If he’s from western Japan, it’ll be rounded.) He never “saws” the meat. He slices with one clean stroke as he pulls the blade toward him.
Don’t watch his hands, though.
Pay attention to his posture.
If you’ve been doing any kind of budo for very long, you’ll see similarities in the way the itamae moves and the way good karateka move. The chef will always have his knees slightly flexed when he’s cutting. His shoulders are relaxed. The initiation of movement comes from his hips. His elbows are close to his body so his arms move in coordination with his trunk.
Lessons in Motion
If you have to do occasional yard work, it’s a good investment to purchase a Japanese-style pruning saw from a hardware store. The blade usually folds into the handle and is gently curved along its back.
Like all Japanese saws, it will cut not on the push stroke like a Western saw but as you pull. If you try to use it as you would a Western saw—with your shoulder and arm muscles—you'll find going through even a small tree limb painfully exhausting.
Try, instead, to use the saw exactly the way karate has taught you to punch harder. Keep your elbow touching your side. Instead of using your shoulder to make the movement, use your hip.
Remember that your hip is connected to your hand. Your shoulder is not a source of power; it’s just a link. Your hips provide the power. Relax your shoulder and let hip movement do the work. Try it, and you’ll be surprised how quickly and smoothly the blade rips through the branch.
The sushi chef moves the same way, essentially, as a person who’s correctly wielding a Japanese pruning saw—and exactly as you should when punching in the dojo. Your body is relaxed, your knees flexed. Your shoulders play a minimal role because, as I just reminded you, they’re just connecting your hands to your hips.
The Universality of Somatic Movement
The universality of somatic movement in Japanese culture is an intriguing aspect of how civilization has evolved there. I’m not suggesting that all Japanese people move smoothly and economically. I have seen some klutzes walking (barely) around in Japan. Rather, my point is that the efficient ways of accomplishing certain tasks within Japanese society share commonalities.
When a Japanese calligrapher makes a stroke with his brush, you’ll see his arm is connected to his body exactly as we’ve been discussing. He doesn’t use his fingers to manipulate the brush; he moves and writes from his hips while his shoulders are relaxed.
I’m also not suggesting that non-Japanese are automatically unable to move efficiently. Any good boxer understands precisely how to get his hips behind his punches. A commercial fisherman works on the heaving deck of a ship with harmonious grace. These people have learned to move efficiently.
In this context, the word “efficiently” means “gracefully.” It’s similar in the dojo. The relaxed, flowing kicks and punches unleashed by a skilled karateka have an aesthetic quality about them. It’s not the goal of karate to look good. Looking good is a byproduct of having correct, economical movement.
Get yourself a loaf of French bread and a knife. If you saw at it using your biceps and forearm, it’ll take several strokes to make a complete slice. Try it while keeping your elbow close to your side and relaxing your shoulder. Don't “pull” the knife. Instead, draw it through the bread with a steady movement of your hip.
You’ll find the knife goes right through, making a clean stroke.
If only the movements of karate were as easily mastered.
