Zanshin – Perfect Finish.

Zanshin – Perfect Finish.

“There is a term “Zanshin” in martial arts rarely understood fully in Japanese Budo.

In Japanese karate most philosophical terms came at the end of WW-2 when the JKA introduced the philosophical terms from Iaido, Kendo, Kyudo, etc into all Japanese arts as the emphasis changed from being combative in warfare to developing the character of participants. No one said it better then Gichin Funakoshi when he said “the ultimate aim of karate lies not in victory or defeat but in the perfection of character”. One of those responsible for this was Hidetaka Nishiyama who had studied Kendo extensively before he began karate.

General Douglas McArthur outlawed the practice of all martial arts at the end of WW2 until 1951 when the ban was lifted and this is when the change happened in martial arts although they were there as part of Bushido or the Way of the Samurai for centuries before.

The term Zanshin means “perfect finish” or “sustained alertness”.

At a recent seminar I attended with Dr. Alex Bennett I was reminded of the term and its importance.

He explained it this way. In competition there are 4 things that can happen at the end of a contest.

• 1.Quality win
• 2.Non-Quality win
• 3.Quality loss
• 4.Non quality loss.
• Each one has a separate meaning.
• Quality win is when the winner scores a perfect point and then accepts the win humbly bows out of respect to his opponent steps out of the ring and then celebrates.
• Non Quality win is when the winner scores a clean clear points and starts to celebrate before he even bows out of the ring. In traditional Japanese martial arts this person usually is disqualified.
• Quality loss is when you lose the competition and accept the fact with great humility again and simply thank your opponent who won for pointing out your weakness.
• Non quality loss is when you lose and jump up and down showing a poor attitude and complain like hell. This is of course the lowest.
• Personally I can only recall one instant that I personally experienced Zanshin. I was at a party and young man got drunk and took a shot at me. I have no idea what happened next but it was all natural. I blocked his right hand with my left hit him in the chin with my left and then buried my right hand in his stomach. This was all it took. Then as he laid on the floor in front of me I shifted back watching but far enough away that he could not attack me if he were able to and staying engaged mentally with him in case he moved and he would have then got a right front kick in the head. Thank God for him and I he did not move. After about 3 or 5 seconds I let go of him mentally and got the heck out of there while others scooped him up and thru him out the back door.
• This is Zanshin and these attitudes in this writers opinion are what needs to come back into competition but it is difficult when you have other martial arts competing in open tournaments and they have never been taught what Zanshin actually is.
• When you compete in kata the last move is when you must hold the move for a couple of seconds while you are still mentally into the kata demonstrating the understanding of the term Zanshin if the last move is not held the competitor obviously does not understand Zanshin.