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"To love [the Way of] the Fist and practice techniques is one way of cultivating, of developing, character, which is the proper aim of budo.  The fist and Zen are one: the serious karate-do student must make it his conviction that this is the ultimate goal.  Be humble!  This [i.e., proper character development] is what we talk about [in our karate training]."

~ Gichin Funakoshi

From:  The Karate-do That Began with Chinmochi1,2
Breaking Boards and Tiles is Not the Essence of this Art
By Gichin Funakoshi (Translation by Mark Tankosich, MA)
This translation originally appeared in Vol. 34, No. 2 of the Hiroshima University of Economics Journal of Humanities, Social and Natural Sciences.

The Karate Do that began with Chinmochi 

Image: Gichin Funakoshi performing the 9th movement of kata Heian Nidan
              10 March 1925

              錬胆護身唐手術 (“Rentan Goshin Karate Jutsu”), p. 70