“In Tokyo 2020 I saw nothing more and nothing less than a sort of fights with some sporadic technique. I was horrified when our champion, Busà, charged with his head down, head first”
If you think that it is already September soon, you would like to be fifteen again to knock on a gym and savor the dream that the Olympics in Tokyo suggested to you, where karate was seen for the first time at the Games. You have seen the gold won by Luigi Busà for the fight, the bronze of Viviana Bottaro in the kata (the individual exercise on pre-established sequences) and then you, who are now fifteen years old, say why not try this sport that was – or is – a martial art.
Whether or not it manages to return to the Olympics (there will not be at the next edition), karate will benefit from a harvest of new followers thanks to Tokyo 2020, which will give rise to some champions and future masters still unaware of becoming one day. To greet those who start a dream you have to go to those who have already dreamed and let them tell their dream from a long time ago. Born in 1937, the master Augusto Basile, a Roman in via dei Crociferi behind the Trevi Fountain, wore the white cotton karategi for the first time in 1958.
Master, a good sixty-three years have passed since then. How did the pioneer of Italian karate feel when he saw his discipline at the Olympics? It was time?
Let us assume that karate has served a historical division between two international federations that were competing for hegemony. Many years ago, as a member of the European technical commission, I participated in a meeting with the IOC, the Olympic Committee, in which the need to unify the federations was reiterated. But the Japanese, who are a bit stubborn in some things, couldn’t agree. The Koreans, on the other hand, were more pragmatic: they were able to overcome internal diatribes and thus obtained the introduction of tae kwon do at the Games, burning karate. Personally, however, I have always been against participation.
For what reason?
I am a traditionalist: I saw and I see karate as a martial art. Competitions are welcome, but when I was competing I still believed in the motto ‘win or die’… karate was karate. Shot control, to put it mildly, was often right on the edge: after a match in Paris, I spent the whole night with my testicles in a jar filled with ice to soothe the effects of a kick.
Didn’t you like the Tokyo 2020 fights?
Races generally lead to a positive evolution, just think of motor racing which has favored important technical progress for engines, tires, fuels. It was not like that for karate: at the Olympics I saw nothing more and nothing less than a sort of fights with some sporadic technique. I was horrified when our champion, Busà, charged with his head down, head first. Only the physical preparation of the athletes, which in my day we dreamed of, was splendid.
Because?
We relied on the gymnastic training of the Japanese, which would have proved deleterious. All the old karatekas find themselves with knees, ankles, hands smashed. The workouts were exhausting. It continued indefinitely, as happened to me, even with a dislocated arm. But that was karate. Have you seen all those leaps of joy in Tokyo immediately after the victories? They are very far from the spirit of a karateka. I only reconciled when a Japanese kata winner first went to the opponent’s trainer, knelt and greeted him, then returned to the center of the tatami and knelt again to thank the audience. This is the essence of karate.
That of Bushido, the code of the warrior. Do you think it is incompatible with the Olympic spirit?
I think it is different: the rules of bushido are substantiated in courage, compassion, respect, integrity, honor, self-control, justice. Karate is a martial art. I started practicing it because I felt weak, then slowly I understood its true purposes. I didn’t see them at the Olympic Games.
And the specialty of kata? Those ancient sequences remain, the soul of karate and also its technical warehouse.
In the kata I noticed something better, even if there were too theatrical interpretations, some histrionics in the looks to captivate the referees, because the expression gives score, and certain pauses or certain kiai, the sound breath emissions, too prolonged. The kata do not come from gestures, but from what we feel in our interior during the execution of a fight against one or more opponents, even if they are imaginary. I do not agree with a karate that has as its maximum purpose the behaviors to finish first. Call it by another name, not karate.
She is a ninth dan black belt of the Wado-Ryu style. Almost at the top of a very long pyramid.
I recognized the ninth dan but I asked to stay at the eighth, because I would not have allowed myself to share the same level as my teacher Hiroo Mochizuki. Now that he’s been awarded the tenth, I could get the ninth. I am also seventh dan in iaido, the art of traditional Japanese katana, and sixth in kendo.
Why did he become interested in the sword?
On the advice of my teacher. He said: you will reach an age that in karate you will no longer be able to do the things you do now, choose a discipline by then. And he headed me to iaido.
What is a katana?
It is the spirit of Japan.
And a punch?
An ancestral gesture of man to defend himself and strike.
Who is a karateka?
Those who adhere to the rules and code of martial virtue not only in the gym, but in everyday life. Respect, help others, self-discipline, preserve personal integrity.
Have you ever used karate outside the dojo, in the training room?
Once, when I was still a brown belt, to ward off violence against a woman. And on two other occasions, as a black belt according to Dan, to put thieves on the run. As a young man I had a smoky temperament, with the head of now I would have been more thoughtful. And then maybe today if you defend yourself you risk going to jail with the accusation of hurting the aggressor.
You have written 17 books on karate and related disciplines, such as Okinawan weapons. Two of his volumes, the only ones in Italian, were owned by Bruce Lee in his vast library. He bought them in Rome when he went to shoot ‘Chen’s Scream Terrifies Even the West’.
It is a circumstance that flatters me, also because Bruce Lee was a beautiful mind, a true lover of philosophy and martial art.
How important is theoretical knowledge?
Very very much. Culture is important: it cannot be taught being ignorant nor can it be taught to be ignorant. Practicing without culture leads you to make huge blunders.
What is the tradition you spoke of earlier?
It is understanding and respect for the rules of life that our ancestors discovered, developed and adopted.
What do you think of the Japanese?
They are sometimes very closed as the result of a rigid upbringing. We Italians are more imaginative, but on the flip side we are also much less patient. We want to conclude: those who go to the gym immediately aspire to the black belt and once obtained aim for the sixth dan, so they can wear the red and white one.
Which one are you wearing?
Always and only the black one.
What do you recommend to a guy looking for a good karate gym?
It is like playing the lottery: today the poison of the practice is represented by the sports promotion bodies, which distribute champion and master titles here and there, or qualify for refereeing at the end of superficial courses. A teacher, especially someone who teaches young people and children, if he is not good can ruin your passion by leaving you in the illusion of having learned well.
Who should check?
It is not up to Fijlkam or to Coni, it would be up to the state. In other countries there is a Ministry of Sport that supervises and a state exam to be passed by giving proof of preparation. It would take a state qualification, not a federal one. In this sense we are all outlaws.
Do you remember the first time you set foot on a tatami?
In 1954. My father served in the Navy where he learned about judo. One day he said: – Come and see a gym. He was on the third floor of a building in via Sistina and taught us a teacher who would become famous: Tommaso Betti Berutto. I still remember that climbing the stairs I heard the thuds of falls… So I started judo, until one day in 1958 a champion, Vinicio Volpi, asked me if I wanted to try karate. Later I would travel to Paris to take lessons from Mochizuki, and travel around Italy from North to South to found clubs and give free demonstration courses. Those who came after my generation found the food ready.
What do you remember of the master Betti Berutto? With his judo manual, ‘From White Belt to Black Belt’, he raised generations of practitioners.
He always said that the best way to defend yourself is to keep the sword in its sheath. I have no doubt that he was right, but I remain convinced that when I am there …
Who is the most exemplary practitioner you have ever met?
His name was Masao Yabe, a master of iaido and kendo. A noble man, a figure of the past with an elegant spirit. In the morning in Tokyo I used to train at his house from seven to nine. Then he went to the lipstick factory he owned while I returned, exhausted, to my quarters.
Master Basile takes his leave, blaming those who complain too much about the August heat, because a budoka has to endure. “And then, if this summer is hotter it is the fault of man who attacks nature, while other madmen set fires. Those who self-destruct take it out on themselves. Man is really stupid ”.
A little more karate wouldn’t hurt.
