Learn Karate - and You can Walk on Ceiling

Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette 

Friday 25th November 1955

 A method of attack and defense - so deadly that it was long kept secret - is now spreading as a sport in Japan. 

 Karate, which literally means "the empty hands", is an import from Okinawa, and had few followers until the end of World War II. The Japanese were forbidden to carry or use any sort of arms.

 Most then adopted Karate as a form of defense in unsettled times. Today it is estimated that 300,000 practice it. 

 As a sport, it has some disadvantages. A blow can be fatal, so experts practicing together must hold their attack within safety limits. 

 In Karate, the bare hands and feet are used. One of the best known Karate blows is with the edge of their hand. The fingers, wrist and forearms are stiffened and can be swung with the effect of an axe. Experts also use straightened fingers, thrust forward like a sword point. 

300 YEARS OLD 

 Karate as a form of oriental self-defense is more than 300 years old. 

 Japanese youngsters flock to exercise halls, foreign service-men and military police study karate, and some Japanese women take it as calisthenics. 

 Karate was introduced to Japan from Okinawa some 300 years ago. It had been taught in secret to a limited number of persons for a long time. 

 Tiday, the Japan Karate Association has more than 200,00 members. 

 The Association's exercise hall in Tokyo has a class of 30 United States Air Force personnel. 

 Two instructors went to Thailand last year to teach Karate to the Thai Army, and police, and others visited Canada, Mexico and the United States in 1953.

 The Association has recieved a few inquires from other foreign countries for Karate instructors. 

 Ten women are among the 150 persons who came to Tokyo hall each day to practise the technique under 30 instructors. A man who has mastered Karate can break three one-inch boards, ten Japanese tiles or a 132-lb-chunk of ice with one hand. He can root out the horn of a bull with his hands. 

 An official of the Association said: "Those things are not miracles. With months and years of training to strengthen hands and feet a man can do things which look impossible." 

CHILDREN CAN DO IT 

 A man need not possess enormous physical power, he explained, because Karate is an application of dynamics. 

 "Women, children and elderly persons, or almost anyone can do it. You use every part of your muscles and it is good sport and calisthenics." 

 Students start by learning the forms of Karate. Then they practice raising their feet to the height of a face and hitting a sandbag or any other sort of hard object. 

 The official said that after two or three years a man would have a working knowledge of Karate. If his fingers and toes became strong enough after years of training, he could grab the frame of a ceiling and look as though he was walking on the ceiling upside down. 

 One reason why Karate became known in post-war Japan is that Rikidozan, the wrestling champion and one of the most popular men of the day in Japan, uses what is called the "Karate Chop".

 Karate is now becoming a sport, the official continued. Matches are held , although there is a problem because one man cannot hit the other properly, as a blow might be fatal. Nor can they wear any sort of protectors because these would retard movement. 

Link to original article (subscription needed to view)