How You Train and Think About Martial Arts Might Be Fascist

“Militaristic perfection is literally embodied in the incessant practice of physical refinement and conformity.”

The martial arts lecture “Does my Forward Stance Look a Little Fascist? Meiji-Era Karate and Embodied Politics” by Dr. Peter Katz has a liberal lens to it and doesn’t extend its analysis beyond karate. It also doesn’t examine the pedagogy of drilling, or, more importantly, the intent behind drilling. Nonetheless, it’s insightful when thinking about the intent with which we train martial arts.

The way we train martial arts in the West is heavily influenced by Western militaries. Drilling itself is a military term and concept. This martial pedagogy is also influenced by the colonial education system, which even inspired belt ranks by way of Japan.

Belts and ranks were a way to transfer the American-invented system of letter grades to martial arts. Letter grades themselves were a way to stratify, judge, and rank children. Since it’s now so normal, we take for granted the significance and implications of grades.

Then there’s the Western industrial capitalist factory system. The student is treated not only as a product but as a potential future factory worker, soldier, or police officer.

There is one other major influence: Japanism. It not only shapes how we train martial arts, Japanese or otherwise, but it has also shaped the intent behind our training.

Nearly all martial arts and practitioners in the West have, in one way or another, become more Japanese because Japan has become the Western benchmark for martial arts.

But what is Japan’s appeal to the West?

From Susan Sontag:

“Fascist aesthetics ... they flow from (and justify) a preoccupation with situations of control, submissive behavior, extravagant effort, and the endurance of pain; they endorse two seemingly opposite states, egomania and servitude.”

This reflects the desire to live up to the largely mythologized image of the samurai and bushido (which is completely made up).

Peter Katz writes:

“Nazi imagery fetishized death through powerful Teutonic warriors. For example, the SS death’s head crest. Showa fascism fetishized death through imagery of the lone soldier who dies on the battlefield... In Showa fascism, death and violence become beautiful submission.”

This same logic transforms American individualism into something heroic and poetic rather than what it is: selfishness. Free-market hyperindividualism becomes the beautiful ronin, the lone samurai. You are correct in perceiving yourself as the main character.

This romanticization of death argues that, for you to live, the Other must die. This is the logic of “defense” used by both the United States and Israel: you must go out and kill them so you can be free, so you can live.

Bodily practices can be joyful somatic experiences. Fascism redirects bodily practices toward death and murder. Under fascist logic, you lift weights to increase your capacity to kill. Martial arts exist so you can become better at murdering another human being.

Karate came from Okinawa, and Okinawa received it from China. It was once called the “Chinese Hand.” It was later reinvented as a Japanese art. Likewise, taekwondo emerged from karate, a Japanese art derived from Chinese traditions, and was later reinvented as a Korean national art by the south Korean intelligence agency.

Venerating founders on the wall, belt systems, the warrior code and submission to the master (”bushido”) were carefully cultivated during Showa fascism before becoming pop culture and unquestioned. What many people believe to be the authentic ethos of their own non-Japanese martial art may actually have roots in Japanese fascism.

Japan even changed how we think about martial arts. Rather than skill, martial arts became militarized “ways.” The student seeking to learn skill was recast as a soldier. Not always literally, but in spirit, nonetheless.

In the military, you mindlessly drill and follow orders. But soldiers are adults. Martial arts became a tool to condition children to military culture much earlier in life. It’s the promise of ultimate discipline. Start earlier, and by adulthood you have the ideal soldier.

Peter Katz writes:

“Militaristic perfection is literally embodied in the incessant practice of physical refinement and conformity. ... [C]lass will likely spend most of its time repeating the same movement, aiming for every muscle in motion to be exactly, precisely the same in every execution across every body. Bodily differences are made to submit. There is a right way to perform this strike ... and it’s always this way.”

Is this not the standard way most people think about physical practice?

Is this not what people mean by perfect practice?

Is this not the dominant model that even non-fascists have adopted when it comes to physical training?

Is this not drilling and the intent behind it?

Peter Katz writes:

“The rendering of movement in grandiose and rigid patterns lies at the core of fascist aesthetics.”

The West loves the way Japan does things because it is so orderly, uniform, and militaristically perfect.

Then, there is the uniquely Japanese fascist aesthetic.

Stillness. Explosion. Chaos. Stillness. Explosion. Chaos.

Aesthetic in the sense of beautiful and awe-inspiring. A Western aspiration.

Fascist martial arts should be serious, powerful, intense, and deadly rather than playful and fun. Violence is treated as serious and sacred, and martial arts become merely a vehicle for violence. The human being becomes a weapon.

That should reveal itself not only in how you move or do a technique, but also in your joyless face.

If you want soldiers who will blindly harm Others, this is a useful “way.”

But people killed bushido-ly isn’t barbaric but aesthetic. For all their crimes, both Japan and the United States are still aesthetic rather than grotesque—according to each other.

I write daily about martial arts and other topics from a liberatory perspective. If you like my work, upgrade your subscription. You can also support me on Patreon or make a donation. Find Southpaw at its website. – Sam

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