Karate Technique & Spirit. Tadashi Nakamura

this is too fast. When you sit in zazen, you must let your breath “sit” also. An experienced practitioner can breath quite normally at five cycles per minute, some even slower. Quite a difference!

      The Zen concept of breathing is tied up with the concept of hara, roughly equivalent to the belly. Western people, whose behavior is dominated by the frontal lobes of the brain, have their breath centered in the upper parts of their bodies. They tend to breathe with their shoulders and necks. This shallow breathing is called “intercostal breathing.” In Zen, we are taught to center the breath in the hara; in karate, the body is centered in the tanden, a spot about four fingers directly below the navel. It is the center around which our arms, legs and bodies move.

      IBUKI

      A Student has filled his lungs with air, starting with lower abdomen. Now he begins the exhalation.

      B With mouth open, and abdomen tensed, exhale forcibly as the arms uncross.

      C Exhale all the air from the lungs, using a small cough to clear out the last residue. Note how the abdominal muscles are active.

      ZEN EXHALATION

      D Exhaling in zazen. The mouth is slightly open and the tongue is between the lips.

      E Squeeze the lower abdomen as the body leans forward at the waist.

      F Finishing position.

      Karate

      Exhalation Using Ibuki Breathing

      • Hold abdominal muscles tight.

      • Keep the lower abdomen tensed, with awareness of the muscles gripped tight.

      • Open mouth wide, throat open and relaxed, windpipe free, tongue relaxed, held in lower palate.

      • Squeeze from the hara, forcibly and audibly exhaling until lungs are completely emptied of air.

      • Expel last trace of air with small cough.

      Zen

      Exhalation

      • Let belly fall back in and breathe out slowly, at twice the count of the inhalation. This is the active phase of the breath in Zen. When exhalation is complete, feel a squeezing down in the hara.

      In order to bring the breath down to the hara, we must first have good posture, which means the spine erect and long, and the abdominal area free. The diaphragm, a thick, membrane-like muscle that is stretched across the body, is pulled down when we inhale. If we are relaxed, when the diaphragm pulls down, the belly just naturally pushes outward. When we exhale, we are forcing the diaphragm upward, compressing the volume of the chest cavity like a piston and forcing air from our lungs. When we do this naturally, the belly falls in. Thus, when we watch our own breath, we see our belly moving in and out gently, like waves moving in and retreating from the seashore.

      Basically, the chest should be relatively stationary when we breathe. Everything is directed to moving the breath down to the hara, or tanden. In karate, the tanden is the source of power. When an experienced karate-ka is going to break a brick or a stone (tameshiwari), you may see him reaching inside to clutch at his hara, or tanden, to see that it is firm and full of breath and spirit. This is where real power, mental and physical, comes from. This is one of the unique features of the martial arts as opposed to other physical systems of exercise.

      Eugen Herrigel, the author of Zen and The Art of Archery, was a German professor who went to Japan to study Zen. He was told, “It is very difficult. If you want to study Zen, you should practice a martial art first.” Herrigel was very good with a rifle, so he took up kyudo (archery). But it took him six years before he understood how to breathe. He understood about “pushing down with the intestines,” and he realized that the arrow was released at the end of the outward breath. When you are breathing out, you are strong—you can break a board, you can throw an opponent in judo, you can absorb a blow and not be hurt. When you are inhaling, you are weak. In karate, you may often hear a student give a loud shout (kiai) as he/ she is executing a kick or a punch. The student is training to time the execution of the technique with the exhalation. This maximizes the power applied. The shout encourages and facilitates the forceful and complete exhalation of air. So this is just the application of the Zen principles of breathing in action.

      Breathing

      Nogare (Short Wave/Long Wave)

      • Breathe only using the nose.

      • Fill up the lungs from bottom to top (long wave), letting belly rise first, then the stomach. Holding these stationary, fill up lungs below shoulders by letting upper chest rise up also.

      • Holding abdominal wall taut, take quick inhalation, letting belly move out rapidly (short wave).

      Breathing

      Inhalation

      • Breathe only using the nose.

      • Center the breathing in the belly, letting the breath out naturally without using the abdominal or chest areas at all.

      In karate and Zen, therefore, the principles underlying the breath are the same. The mechanics of some breathing techniques are slightly different, but they arise largely from the setting, i.e., zazen versus moving Zen.

      As with all phases of karate, experience is the key to understanding. Experience is gained through individual practice. An experienced teacher and the atmosphere of a zendo or dojo are important in creating the atmosphere for serious study and for giving the student the proper grounding so he/she may learn correct techniques. If you want to learn how to breathe, just sit shikantaza.

      NOGARE

      A The hands, starting at your sides, come up, as you inhale through the nose.

      B Fill the lungs with air, starting from low stomach.

      C Finishing position.

      ZEN INHALATION

      D Beginning inhalation cycle, using the nose.

      E Inhale as the trunk comes up.

      F Finish erect in zazen. Make the exhalation cycle twice as long as the inhalation cycle.

      Postures