In fact, it was karate’s lack of nationwide popularity in Japan that allowed it to flourish after the Second World War, evading the demilitarization program imposed by the Allied occupying forces that suppressed other ancient combat arts. And its origins are not in mainland Japan at all: It was born in the archipelago of Okinawa, a long-independent kingdom whose culture was heavily influenced by China and which maintains its own identity today. Japan officially recognized karate as a martial art only 86 years ago. Though people outside Japan tend to regard karate as quintessentially Japanese as sushi or cherry blossoms-a seemingly timeless practice whose traditions are shrouded in Zen mysticism-many of karate’s most recognizable elements, including the uniforms and the hierarchy of expertise designated by colored belts, are not ancient but arose in the 1920s. The Beatles performed here in 1966.īut it’s also an opportunity to consider the surprising historical nuances of the martial art. The iconic Nippon Budokan, site of judo and karate events for the 2020 Games, is also used for concerts. This article is a selection from the July/August issue of Smithsonian magazine Buy Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $12 And there is certainly a pleasing symmetry to having karate debut at the Tokyo Games, in the same arena where the first World Karate Championship was held in 1970. Although karate is not on the schedule for the Paris Games in 2024, the moment is still a significant breakthrough for the sport’s estimated 100 million international practitioners. In early August, 80 finalists, half men and half women, will face off in two competitions in kata, ritualized solo exercises, and six competitions in kumite, the sparring that is more familiar to foreign audiences. It’s in this stadium that karate is set to debut this summer as an Olympic sport. The corridors are teeming with sweaty karateka, or practitioners, in white uniforms and colored belts, while the cavernous arena resounds with the roar of some 10,000 spectators, cheering on six competitors as they spar simultaneously in three courts below enormous video screens, their dancelike steps mixed with the familiar kicking, punching and chopping. But on a pre-Covid visit, the serenity dissolves the moment you enter the portals during a karate tournament. There, the Budokan, built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, hovers over the foliage like a postmodern pagoda: It was modeled on one of Japan’s most ancient and beloved Buddhist temples, the Hall of Dreams, and its octagonal roof, whose shape is intended to echo Mount Fuji, is topped with a golden onion-shaped giboshi, a traditional ornament believed to ward off evil spirits. Steps away from some of the busiest avenues of the hyperkinetic city, a pedestrian road leads past the stone fortress walls and tree-lined moats of the Imperial Palace into the forests of Kitanomaru Park, a natural refuge first landscaped for the shoguns in the 17th century and only opened to the public in 1969. Nippon Budokan, in Tokyo, is a revered center for budo, or Japanese martial arts.

Tony Perrottet Photographs by Jun Tsuboike

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