Yū – The Power of Play

yūbu	遊武
yū	遊	play
bu	武	from budō, the martial arts
asobu	遊ぶ	to play

The kanji for yū comes from the Japanese verb, asobu, meaning to play. The play of yū is not play in the sense of messing around or killing time. Nor is the play structured or engaged in for a purpose, like a sport with rules and the ultimate goal to win. Yū can be likened to a child at play who is totally absorbed in the play.

From Learning to Play

Satoru Iyoda, contributor to Chichi (致知), a popular magazine of Japanese philosophy, tells us that our world is a world of opposites: ignorance for knowledge, hatred for love, suffering for fun. However, he claims that play has no opposite. It is an absolute mental state. It is precious to attain the stage of yū. The path to yū can be summarized by:

Learning
Reading books to learn, is like storing knowledge in a warehouse.
Study
If you organize the knowledge and make it your own this is study.
Immersion
If one immerses oneself in a study, learning becomes as natural as breathing.
Fluency
Finally, learning blends into the body and you and the scholarship become one. This is yū.

The four stages of learning can be applied to mastery of any endeavor: music, dance, painting , acting, calligraphy and athletics – including the martial arts.

Example: Learning a Language

Learning a language can be achieved in four stages:

Learning
The first stage of learning a language is passive. The student learns the lessons the teacher provides. The student is given grammar rules to follow, vocabulary to learn and pronunciations to master. As the student’s knowledge increases there may be a growing desire to learn more.
Study
The student may then begin to study on their own, branching out from the teacher’s requirements.
Immersion
The student may become so interested that he or she decides to immerse themselves in the language, reading literature in the new language or speaking with native speakers. A few may even travel to the foreign country for a time.
Fluency
Students who immerse themselves in the language and culture may reach the point where they can truly appreciate the nuances of the language and converse like a native speaker. This last phase is yū.

Example: Becoming an Artist

Learning
A painter is not born creating great art. Typically the budding artist begins by learning the core elements: color, form, line, shape, space, texture, and value.
Study
The budding artist may begin to study the works of established artists to learn how to apply the core elements. He or she may attempt to copy a favorite artist’s work to study in depth how the artist achieved his particular style.
Immersion
The budding artist then begins to develop his or her own particular style – not by sitting around thinking about how to be different, but through practice. The artist becomes immersed in their art, painting or thinking about painting constantly.
Fluency
The artist begins to see inspiration everywhere. They can’t wait to bring their ideas to life. They paint – not because some class requires it but because it brings them great joy. This combination of ability, creativity and enjoyment is yū.

Example: The Words of a Quilt Artist

The words of quilt artist Patricia Mendez (Yes, quilters can be artists, too.), expresses her path to yū in relationship to her quilting life:

I started quilting 20 plus years ago making traditional quilts, but through the years, I have evolved into creating my own designs and thinking outside the traditional quilt box. This quilt (pictured in the magazine) reflects what I do when I’m thinking of a new project – the ideas that come to mind and me daydreaming about them. At one point you are carrying on with your life, and suddenly you find yourself lost in your ideas. Eventually you put aside everything that’s not important and jump into creating.

Patricia Mendez
Quilt artist featured in Quilting Arts magazine, Summer 2023

Patricia’s path to yū :

Patricia began learning her craft by making traditional quilts.
She has evolved from exploring the traditional to becoming an accomplished quilt artist.
She immerses herself in the process of creating, becoming lost in new ideas.
She has attained fluency, understanding her art and capable of bringing her innovative ideas to life.

From Shokyū, Chūkyū and Jōkyū to Yūbu

Kinjō Kaichō created shokyū, chūkyū and Jōkyū to nudge us along the path of learning.

Learning
Students begin by learning the core elements of karate: punching, kicking and blocking. This result of learning the fundamentals is shokyū.
Study
The student may begin to study how how he or she can create power, movement and control without sacrificing the accuracy of shokyū. This individual pursuit is chūkyū. The student pursues powerful and efficient body movement through taisabaki waza practice and develops a true understanding of the kata through bunkai.
Immersion
The student who immerses him- or herself in their karate training will develop speed without sacrificing the accuracy of shokyū and the power and control of chūkyū is jōkyū. Speed is the result of training to the point that the movements become truly ingrained. Speed is not just moving faster. It is efficiency of motion. Simultaneous block and attack is a feature of jōkyū.
Fluency
Through practice the movements have become as natural as breathing. The martial artist will begin to devise new applications and possibilities. Again, the combination of ability, creativity and enjoyment is yū.

Following the Path

In 2018, Kinjō Kaichō presented an advanced version of Kanshiwa called yūbu. Of course, everyone wanted to learn this new kata, completely missing the point. Just as you cannot progress from shokyū to chūkyū to jōkyū by imitation and rote learning, you cannot achieve the mental state of yū by copying the order of movement of a kata. There are no shortcuts to mastery. The path to mastery takes constant effort, lest you fall off the path altogether. What is hard won is easily lost.

Karate is like boiling water, if you do not heat it constantly, it will cool.

Gichin Funakoshi
Principle Number 11

Rekindling An Interest in Karate in Okinawa

Unfortunately, while karate and kobudō remain popular worldwide, in Okinawa there has been a waning interest in this unique part of the Okinawan culture and history. In order to counteract this, the prefecture of Okinawa has asked selected karate sensei to teach karate in junior high schools. Kinjō Kaichō and Masami Shihan have participated in this program. The hope is that, through exposure, some students will like it enough to choose to learn more. Of those, a few may become the karate experts of tomorrow.

Play
Yū (遊)
Chichi (致知), December, 2017