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Jordan Pennington 1

Jordan Pennington

Professor Gary Vaughn

English 2089

21 November 2016

Kiai with Confidence: Blending into a Community

Martial arts hold an interesting place in the American consciousness, mostly informed by

old foreign films and modern pop culture steeped in stereotype. The image of a stoic Asian man

or an over-muscled white guy in white pajamas taking out a slew of foes with only a few well-

placed attacks often springs to mind first and foremost. In reality, karate is an interesting

amalgamation of self-defense, physical conditioning, and philosophy ultimately meant to

improve the mental and physical health of its students. Contrary to the concept of a lone warrior

popularized by the media, one of the most important aspects of practicing karate is the bond a

student forms with the members of their dojo, the specific school that they have chosen to study

with. While training can be a solitary practice, having more experienced members to guide you,

brothers and sisters in your rank to support you, and newer students to assist in teaching can be

much more motivating. The Yoshisu dojo, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides such a space for

the practice of the Chito-ryu style of karate. Consisting of approximately thirty members, this

tight-knit group brings together college students, professors, office workers, and individuals from

many other walks of life to pursue the study of karate.

While there has been a fair amount of research generated on the subject of the cultural

integration of an eastern creation like karate into the western world, very little investigation has

been done on individual dojos and their networks as discourse communities (Garcia). There is

precedent, however, for an athletic group to be considered as a kind of discourse community. For
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example, linguistics professor John Swales refers to a football team in the article, The Concept

of a Discourse Community, when discussing the importance of methods of intercommunication

in discourse communities. He provides examples of the possible secondary roles of information

exchange, acknowledging that they will vary according to the common goals: to improve

performance in a football squad or in an orchestra (221). With this basis, an argument can be

made for karate dojos as a discourse community using the Yoshisu dojo as a case study. The

process of enculturation for new members and the establishment and maintenance of leadership

roles within this community will also be further investigated using my observations as a student

of the dojo as well as interviews with two other members at different points in their training.

For a group to meet the definition of a discourse community developed by Swales, they

must first have a broadly agreed set of common public goals (220). The primary goal of the

Yoshisu dojo can be found on the front page of the dojos website, stating that it intends to

provide personal instruction and training in a traditional style of karate called Chito-ryu

(Yoshisu). Swales also lists methods of intercommunication between members as a defining

characteristic of a discourse community (221). The primary method of intercommunication for

the dojo is meeting three times each week for approximately two hours to train together. This

mechanism of participation involving face-to-face practice allows for students of all ranks to

meet together for the purpose of learning new techniques and fine-tuning old techniques under

the supervision and assistance of more senior members. Students are still expected to train on

their own outside of these meetings, but coming together on a regular basis helps prevent or

correct any bad habits or incorrect movements that an inexperienced student may develop on

their own. To supplement the meetings, students of the dojo also frequently communicate using

the genres of email and Facebook chat. The emails are usually more formal reports from the head
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of the dojo, Mina Ludwig, informing students of changes in schedule, opportunities for

gatherings outside of the normal classes, and any other relevant news. Facebook chat, on the

other hand, is the favored genre of students for planning to meet up and spend time together

outside of class.

These conversations are often filled with casual mentions of terms such as gi, sensei,

and yudan sha, which belong to the lexicon of the karate and our dojo in particular. Karate, like

most martial arts, also fills Swales requirement of a lexicon through the various names and

components of kata, which are stylized systems of movement created out of compilations of

individual techniques. The majority of these terms are in Japanese, but an English translation is

provided for inexperienced students, a crucial part of the grace period for adopting

community practices (Wardle 290). Some terms, such as gi, the name for the uniform worn

during practice, can be picked up by students fairly quickly, while others, such as kata names like

kihon no empi, take some getting used to. Familiarity with these terms is typically a hallmark

of an experienced, senior member of the dojo with extensive literacy in the discourse community.

Reaching this point, however, can prove quite difficult for many new students. Due to the

existence of a semester system in the university where the dojo is located, an influx of new

students usually occurs around the beginning of October each year as the school year begins

anew. Most people stay for a few classes, then vanish into thin air, never to darken the doorstep

of the dojo ever again. This low rate of retention could be evidence of a difficulty in integrating

and effectively joining the community. In an interview with a fairly new student, referred to here

as Amy, I attempted to discern what influenced her to remain in the dojo. Amy is a student in the

university, and initially joined Yoshisu at the behest of her roommate Kaitlin, who wanted to

find a new, exciting way to stay in shape (Drexilus). Initially, she described trepidation at
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attempting to breach what appeared to be a very tightknit group of people, but all members were

quite friendly and introduced themselves to her on her first day of class. Despite these initial

overtures of friendship, she still felt separated from the rest of the group for the first few weeks,

until another member of the dojo reached out and invited her to an outing at a local bar. From

there, she began to spend more time with members of the dojo outside of practice, and quickly

became more integrated into the school.

The majority of beginning students, however, do not become involved outside the

confines of the physical dojo, which may play a role in their failure to assimilate. Ann Johns

claims that for an individual in effectively join a discourse community, they must meet certain

costs of affiliation, things they must sacrifice or compromise on to be recognized as a member

of the discourse community (511). Based on these observations, it is likely that one such cost for

joining Yoshisu is the sacrifice of personal time for group activities. This is also supported by

observations gathered during long distance trips taken by the dojo for seminars and

demonstrations. Those that travel together often come back having formed new group-text

conversations, inside jokes, and an overall stronger bond and sense of commitment. This serves

as an example of how the choice of non-participation can lead to marginalization in the

workplace, or the dojo in this case (Wardle 289). These activities are not required to be a

member of the Yoshisu dojo, but failure to participate can show a perceived lack of commitment

to the group. This cost can be a sizeable barrier for some individuals, as committing six hours a

week is already a high bar for an activity unaffiliated with the professional lives of its members.

Another stumbling block for new students is the introduction of the genre of the manual.

In this context, the manual consists of lists of rules, background questions, vocabulary, and a

smattering of other interesting and necessary information crucial to building a foundational


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understanding of our style of karate. The size of the manual alone is a bit of a shock to some of

the new students, who may disregard it until its time for them to be tested to move up to the next

rank. After all, no one really comes into a martial arts studio with the expectation of receiving

required reading. Amy did not receive a manual until she had been a member of the dojo for over

a month, mostly due to the fact that our one student who typically handles these things was out

of town on a business trip. Once she finally got her hands on a copy of the manual, she gave it a

cursory glance, and then immediately discarded it. She had yet to see it be applied in the day-to-

day practice that occurred in the dojo, so she assumed that it was not terribly important to her

practice as no one ever really discussed it with her. Upon later realizing that she would be

questioned on the material it contained as well as tested on her forms and techniques, she was

forced to scramble to memorize its contents as fast as humanly possible. This uncovers one of the

subtler challenges to joining a dojo: the tendency of the older students to leave the new members

to fend for themselves when it comes to the expectations for new students in the dojo. This

challenge, however, is somewhat intentional. One of the most important lessons of karate is the

development of a constant awareness of your surroundings and the people who occupy them.

Leaving a new student to see if they can pick up on what is expected of them without being told

directly is a popular method of testing for this skill. If the student remains oblivious for several

weeks of training, then a higher ranking member may take them aside and quietly explain what

the new student has neglected to do.

The members who manage to enculturate themselves and remain with the dojo for years

eventually hold the highest positions of leadership in the dojo, easily identified at first glance

during practice by the black strip of cloth holding together their gi. These belts form their own

special genre, as only a student of of Chito-ryu karate will be familiar with the abilities and rank
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associated with each color belt in this style, with black reserved for the most advanced students.

These black belts, as they are commonly known, are the members of the community who have

invested the most time and energy into honing their craft. Their authority is given through both

an ability to utilize the lexicon to full effect when teaching younger students and to demonstrate

an often almost scary physical skill level. With the title of black belt, however, there are

expectations of mentorship as well as skill. Gee stresses the importance of teaching in the format

of a master-apprentice relationship that aims to

...scaffold [students] growing ability to say, do, value,

believe, and so forth, within that Discourse, through demonstrating your mastery and

supporting theirs even when it barely exists (i.e., you make it look as if they can do what

they really cant do). (Gee 488)

This is especially crucial in karate, where teaching your body to move in entirely different ways

can be very difficult without an expert in the matter guiding you directly through the process. In

order for the dojo to function in an orderly manner, there must be a suitable ratio of higher

ranking students to lower ranking students, usually hovering around one to four. For these

advanced students, this is another method of training, where they must reflect on their own

experiences and understand the techniques enough to explain them to a novice. This evolution

into a proto-typical wise master occurs over a long period of time, and the different points in

its evolution can be observed in various members of the dojo.

This development of leadership positions goes hand-in-hand with the development of

literacy, which is defined by James Gee as the mastery or fluent control over a secondary

Discourse (486). Amy, as a newly minted yellow belt, which is above only the newest students,

describes mostly needing to be taught through physical manipulation, the correction of arm
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placement, breath control, or speed of a kick. While she may seem fairly literate at first glance

based off her knowledge of different types of attacks and blocks, she is actually still at a very

early stage in the development of her literacy in karate. For a student of karate, literacy is not

only the rote memorization of kata, but also the growth of a fundamental understanding of the

mechanisms underlying each and every movement, posture, and tensing of muscle. Once you

understand how the correct form of an attack should look and feel, there is opportunity for the

creation of a personal flair and a unique teaching style. I interviewed my Sensei, Mina Ludwig,

to hear her thoughts on how she developed her current method of teaching. She recalled finally

reaching the level of literacy necessary for adjusting each kata and form to suit her needs after

spending several years as a midlevel black belt. Other students can currently be observed

reaching that level in the dojo, such as one brown belt that Amy and I discussed. Brown belts are

the rank right before black belt, and it is at this point in a students practice that Mina-Sensei

expects them to begin teaching. While he has taken on more of a mentorship role as he gained

more experience, his approach to instruction is still very bare and straightforward compared to

the older black belts. There has been an observed correlation between knowledge of ones own

movements and methods of power generation and the skill with which one can confer that

knowledge to other students. Being forced to think over a technique and consider it from

multiple angles while teaching it forces a student to face the weak points in their practice and

eventually better understand the technique. Without the pressure of the expectation of leadership,

it can become more challenging to develop a literacy in the body mechanics of fighting and

formal attacks.

With this push for eventual individualism and independence, however, comes the

opportunity for conflict. Mina-Sensei described a massive amount of conflict and drama that
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she observed while coming up in her Senseis dojo (Ludwig). A high concentration of

authoritative, aggressive, higher ranking students will inevitably lead to clashes of ego.

According to Mina-Sensei, the deciding factor on whether or not these individuals can remain in

their original dojo with their teacher depends on personality, and if [the student] can still have

their own ideas but ultimately differ [to their teacher] on them (Ludwig). This is similar to

Wardles argument on authority:

Authority, then, is an intangible quality granted to persons through institutions, which

renders their pronouncements as accepted by those in that institutions communities of

practice, but which must be maintained through individuals speech and actions.

(Wardle 290)

The ability to develop an independent style of practice but still trust your Senseis judgment as

the final say in all things is necessary for a cooperative dojo environment. The moment that the

student begins disregarding their teachers guidance in their practice, they chip away at the

authority built up by their sensei. They begin setting precedent for less experienced students to

also ignore the experience and advice of their sensei in favor of their own ideas. This upheaval of

the power balance in the dojo creates strife amongst all the members, and if common ground

between student and teacher is not found, the student will eventually leave to form their own

dojo, much like a young queen bee leaves her parent hive to form her own colony.

A loss of authority can also occur due to addition of unnecessary, harmful genres to the

discourse community. Mina-sensei experienced a fair amount of this first-hand in the dojo of her

sensei, Lawrence Hawkins, and in other Chito-ryu dojos. The addition of the genres of official

by-laws, testing regulations, and other pieces of bureaucracy began to take precedence over

actually practicing karate. Getting promoted to the next rank became a political game, with older
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members lording their power over comparatively newer students by offering limited numbers of

promotions per dojo and showing favor to those who kissed up to them. This blocked the pursuit

of the actual goal of the discourse the community, which is the pursuit of excellence in the Chito-

ryu style of karate. If a student is more worried about their social standing with an older member

than the precision of their front snap kick, then the discourse community has begun to fail in its

purpose. Mina-sensei and several other black belts eventually gave up on the official, regulated

network of Chito-ryu dojos, rejecting the authority of the previous leaders and setting up their

own dojos on their own terms, one of which became the Yoshisu dojo.

Though the process of enculturation into a karate dojo can be physically demanding and

time consuming, the reward of belonging to a close group of students sharing in and guiding

each other in working towards the mutual goal of improving their skill in karate is ultimately

worth it. Dojos can clearly be defined as their own distinct form of discourse community, with

genres that can either guide students on the path to improvement or hold them back with red-

tape. The requirement of a proficiency in leadership and mentorship to be completely literate in

the discourse community is a unique characteristic of that allows for the tradition of karate to be

maintained and spread for generations to come by ensuring that every student is ready and

willing to teach those who come after them. Only with a strong, supportive community can a

student of karate truly reach their true potential.

Works Cited

Drexilus, Amy. Personal Interview. 15 November 2016.


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Garcia, Raul Sanchez, and Dale C. Spencer. Fighting Scholars: Habitus and Ethnographies of

Martial Arts and Combat Sports. London: Anthem, 2013. Print.

Gee, James Paul. "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction." Writing About Writing: A

College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,

2011. 482-495. Print.

Johns, Ann. "Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict, and

Diversity." Writing About Writing: A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug

Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 499-518. Print.

Ludwig, Mina. Personal Interview. 18 November 2016.

Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing about Writing: A College

Reader. 2nd ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014.

217-27. Print.

Wardle, Elizabeth. Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces. Writing

about Writing: A College Reader. 2nd ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. 285-97. Print.

"Yoshisu Dojo." Cincinnati Chito-ryu. Yoshisu Dojo, 2013. Web. 23 Nov. 2016.

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