“The ultimate aim of the art of karate lies not in victory or defeat,
but in the perfection of the character of its participants.”
(Gichin Funakoshi—Founder of Shotokan)
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(Deciding who is the winner and who is the loser is not the ultimate objective of shotokan karate. Karate is a martial art for the development of character through training, so that the practitioner can surmount any obstacle, tangible or intangible. Karate is an exercise through which the student masters all body movements, such as bending, jumping and balancing, by learning to move limbs and body backward and forward, up and down, left and right, freely and uniformly. The quality necessary to accomplish this is self-control. To become a victor, one must first overcome oneself. - Masatoshi Nakayama) Karate can also be described as a martial art, or fighting method, involving a variety of techniques, including blocks, strikes, evasions, throws, and joint manipulations. Karate practice is divided into three aspects: kihon (basics), kata (forms), and kumite (sparring).

The word karate is a combination of two Japanese characters: kara, meaning empty, and te, meaning hand; thus, karate means "empty hand." Adding the suffix "-do" (pronounced "doe"), meaning "way," i.e., karate-do, implies karate as a total way of life that goes well beyond the self-defense applications. It can apply to family cohesiveness In traditional karate-do, we always keep in mind that the true opponent is oneself.

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