The Candy Cane Karate Ni Sentenashi

December 12, 2009

I went to see a man dressed in red orchestrate a tournament for all of the children who have been good this year, ie attend their karate lessons, practice at home, and come to the tournament to be judged. No whiskers, no red hat with a tassel at the end, no fur-lined boots – just a red karate suit on the master teacher and all of his student dressed in their white shirts and pants – all with different colours of belts surrounding their waist depending on their level of skill.

Meighan and her cohort did their sequence and were each awarded a karate tattoo and a bookmark on which is written, “A Karateka must never attach first – mentally or physically”. The message felt right in the season for me. Meighan had not decided if her tattoo was going to go on her cheek or on her arm.

Dalton and Ceilidh were called into the same sequence to be judged. I have never been to a karate tournament before – the scores are posted by the five judges, with their fingers to denote the score they are giving. The judges raise their hands at the same time with the number of fingers raised signaling the score they are giving, and then they go down the line and call out the score.

If there is a tie score at the end of the judging the competitors have to re-do their sequence, or do an alternate sequence, depending on the level of their ability. Dalton and Ceilidh had to square off against each other in a separate competition, both of them having received the same score. This time the judging was done only with one arm going to the left or right, depending on which competitor was judged superior.

I was interested in the sound that is made by the participants during the sequence, an energetic one-syllable sound that I might have made myself, after doing some hard work. I tried to imitate it, but Ceilidh told me I was not doing it right – I don’t have quite the breath control needed for a superior grunt yet. I asked her what that energy is used for. She told me that for one thing, it is a sound that is very good for scaring off dogs if they jump up on you.

My visit to the DoJo, a school or room for practicing judo, ended when all of the karate families packed up to go home, so I had to as well.