This family extends beyond the students at the small Shorin-Ryu and Shorinkan karate dojo nestled within the St. Anthony strip mall. The practice of martial …show more content…
“Right!”
Elizabeth’s ongoing exploration of Shorin-Ryu and Shorinkan culture is very in line with the values present in said culture. She demonstrates respect, honesty, and ability to take charge of her own journey.
The origin of Shorin-Ryu and Shorinkan is very apparent in the values most revered by their culture. When compared against fundamental Japanese culture numerous ideations match. A quote from Spencer bound the Japanese culture and his dojo culture together, “as for the culture respect is highly valued. In the dojo, if you respect me, I’ll treat you with respect.” (Heller)
Elizabeth shared similar thoughts when discussing etiquette, “there’s a lot of just small etiquette things, bowing, that’s just showing respect, that’s the Japanese culture.” (Von Der Marwitz)
The Dojo Kun solidifies the key theme of respect, the code of conduct lists five principles to guide students,
“1. Strive for a good moral character. 2. Keep an honest and sincere way. 3. Cultivate perseverance or will for …show more content…
The denotation of the colored belt is something that signifies your ranking. Although, the interviewees described the artifact as something far more. Spencer explained the significance of the belt, “hard work and determination. Just family, the culture is like a family. It symbolizes a responsibility, to live out what is expected of me, be as good as I can be, have good character.” (Heller)
The symbolism of the belt to Spencer touched on a recurring idea in my conversation with Elizabeth, family. “The culture that karate has, especially our style, is just really an open community. We really consider ourselves family. And I don’t remember the Japanese saying for it, but one of the sayings is ‘once we meet, we’re brothers.’ So it’s really just this great support system, you know, a lot of people get that through religion and things like that. For me, it’s through karate, that’s our karate family.” (Von Der Marwitz)
The karate belt serves not only as a physical object to indicate status in the journey, but also a symbol for an essential value and component of participating in Shorin-Ryu and Shorinkan