what do -do, -jutsu mean? [explained by a REAL Asian.]

[KyokushinDan]

Hello everyone! It seemed to me that a lot of people wondered what –do or –jutsu and such meant. So, being an authentic Asian who read too many history books and a kyokushin karate practitioner, I decided to write a little article explaining such matters.

First of all, you all need to understand that Chinese-based words [China, Korea, Japan have a whackload of common cultural grounds] or Asian words in general are very metaphorical and have more than their literal meaning.

**Jutsu (術: in Mandarin, pronounced "shu") simply means "skill" or "skills", in a larger context "a set of skills".
**Do (道), literally means "way". In the cultural context, it's more of "persistently going one way every day to improve". This word has more "spiritual depth" (due to our Buddhism influence) than simply meaning "skills". But this shall NOT be an excuse for bullshido.

Funny however, Chinese merely saw fighting as a set of skills or something to improve their health with (but bullshido liers have always existed), nothing more (in their Buddhism, light physical exercise was used to help achieve religious goals). Hence they just called it "martial skills" -"武術". In Mandarin, pronounced "Wushu".

In Korea, unlike in the past, from around 1100's, they - where I'm from - looked down on fighting (which inevitably led to idiot politicians dismissing soldiers and such) and praised arts, individual fighting was merely called as "martial ARTS". (武藝). In other words, it was highly impractical. [Between 1100-1800, Korean army’s strength lied within superior cannons and marine tactics rather than individual soldiers] Note that from 1400, Buddhism was oppressed until quite recently.

However in Japan, individual fighting was more than just fighting. Due to their cultural background, samurai ranks – soldiers – dominated the society for a long time. With the influence of Buddhism (but never really made it in Japan as big as in other two) mixed with their things, slowly people began to turn brutal fighting skills into more of a mental/spiritual exercise (hence the suffix -do). That’s why they meditate and such in their training. Also, since they put “do” at the end of their things, they were to train very vigorously and persistently, nearly religiously. In short, Japanese mixed fighting with some essences of Buddhism – they created budo(武道: martial “ways”). Such essences include meditation, philosophy on everyday life, humbleness and once again, persistent effort – hard work. It’s nearly a religious practice, without being a religion. In short, practicing fighting skills became self-improvement and most of all “fighting against yourself” thing in Japan. Nonetheless they still teach that if you want to learn budo, you will train as hard as you can to overcome yourself, and if you have to fight, you will fight hard. [Hence they turned it into a sport for modern context and hold competitions to test everyone’s skills] It’s quite insulting to see people like Steven K. Hayes…that monkey mocks the fundamentals.

If you have a REAL instructor, he/she’ll tell you to simply roll more or hit the bag longer if you have time to think about chi and craptistic **** like that.

*note: traditionally karate(空手) wasn’t a –do art, but it seems that nowdays they are forcibly putting that suffix with karate. But I think that they’re doing so for marketing purpose.

Judo, for example, should not be understood as its meaning “the gentle way”. It’s a –do twist on Jujutsu 柔術 (translating to “soft skills” but “soft” because it’s not as “hard” as striking the opponent. Trust me, joint locks and throws really hurt.)

Unfortunately, nowdays, either mental exercise component is completely gone (i.e.: Gracies with their cockiness) or too much bullshido (i.e. aikido) is around. Or, “-do” has become a plain suffix for a new bullshido. What a heartbreak. But I believe that there are lots of humble yet deadly BJJ practitioners or, etc.

I hope this answers a lot of your questions out there.
Osu!


p.s. Sorry guys, but TKD sucks. I did it for years until I realized that I was learning a very small part of fighting, so moved onto kyokushin. Taking up Judo soon.

[PizDoff]

Moved from Bullshido Classics and Mega Threads forum.
Best I can tell, he started the thread there.

Enjoy.