Learning Lessons

Throughout "Karate-do" Gichin emphasizes the value and benefits of his life practicing karate. He recalls experiences that illustrate lessons learned from karate. Alternatively, he highlights how the practice of karate strengthens and improves his ability to deal with life's events. For example, Gichin decides to perfect an exercise to strengthen his body and mind called the horse-riding stance. Like a modern-day extreme athlete, however, he practices under the extreme condition of holding a straw mat against the wind on his roof top in a howling typhoon. Gichin believes Karate trains a man to perform extraordinary feats by daily practice that is invaluable in an emergency.

On the other hand when he does face an emergency with other karate students he learns to use the same training in an extraordinary but unexpected way. When their party is threatened by a gang, Itosu demonstrates the meaning of karate by...