When I received my last menjo (grade certificate) several years ago and saw the “shihan” note on it I thought that was pretty interesting. As I drove home that night (from Norfolk), I spent the entire drive wondering how I was going to live up to the standard of *these* guys.

Sensei Bedard was my first serious instructor.

校訓 – Koukun:

“School Precepts”

“校訓【こうくん】 (n) school precepts” – (http://nihongo.monash.edu/cgi-bin/wwwjdic?1F) We usually just call them “dojo kun”.

There is a “traditional” dojo kun that was promoted by Gichin Funakoshi, founder of Shotokan karate. In English, they read:

Seek perfection of character.
Be faithful.
Endeavor.
Respect others.
Refrain from violent behavior.

These are generally precepts to live by … understanding that they will be life-long endeavor and some of them would be very difficult to “master” … especially the first one.

Our dojo kun comes from Shuri-ryu Karate-do:

Class begins & ends with courtesy.
Actions have consequences.
We are responsible for our behavior.
We lead by example.
There’s not excuse for bad manners.

Links to other pages

Nafudakake

Training Lineage (where you “come from” as a karate-ka)

Figuring out terminology