With the ever increasing numbers of karate and/or martial arts organizations coming into existence today, why do we need another one? This is a valid question. The Shidokan Kokusai is unique in its conception whereas an American-based federation has been formed that provides its members an opportunity to experience a “harmonious” relationship between East and West.
Organizations in general come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, from the rational to the irrational. Style bias, cultural bias and nationalistic bias permeate the martial arts community in general and governing organizations specifically. In an attempt to remedy this ever increasing conflict, the Shidokan Kokusai considered a number of the prevailing issues often encountered and designed a fair and non-partisan federation to meet the needs of the martial arts community.
First of all, the cultural and ancestral heritage of the Asian combative arts as an entity is held in the highest level of esteem by this federation. This is achieved void of the common practice of “recreating history”. The profound relationship that historically existed among the Japanese, native Okinawan, Chinese, and Korean people is both acknowledged and carefully preserved under the mission statement and purpose of the federation.
The administrators of this federation, as active instructors/practitioners of both native Okinawan and Japanese systems are fully cognizant of the effect the roots and influence of the existing Chinese and Indonesian concepts, ideas, theories and techniques have had and continue to have upon the classical martial arts as practiced in Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Europe, and the Middle East, the rest of Asia and the United States today.
With this understanding in mind, the Shidokan Kokusai is able to deliver services to its members in an open and global format that promotes solidarity as an organizational entity while preserving the membership’s individuality.
We recognize the fact that from a fundamental cultural point of view, the United States is a melting pot of diversity. In addition to this diversity and the cultural differences, the large number of practitioners in the United States encompass a wide range of age groupings, cross gender practice as well as a variety of distinct individual value systems in conjunction with religious beliefs and physical/psychological and academic variances, all of which make the effective teaching of the martial arts challenging to our instructors.
In order to facilitate the effective teachings of a diverse and expansive Asian based martial art to an equally diverse American population a number of translations, reorganization, negotiation and compromise must be reached in an attempt to create a harmonious relationship between East and West. This federation fully understands the need for this marriage as well as the responsibility to maintain the integrity of the traditional teachings while addressing a modern western population who are searching for a family program that provides them with more than just a class in self-defense. We feel that the Shidokan Kokusai will offer its membership an opportunity to provide a holistic, pro-family life long program to its students.