Seido Philosophy

Martial arts have become competitive on the amateur and professional levels as individual promoters and organizations strive to control this fast-growing sport. Karate certainly develops strength, stamina, and physical well-being; however, this is not the heart of karate-do.

Karate is a way of life, a way of being. Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura has committed over 50 years of his life to the study, practice, and teaching of the martial arts. He is convinced that karate has much to offer men, women, and children as we move forward in the twenty-first century. "My purpose in founding Seido Karate was to show what I feel is the true essence, the kernel of true karate-do: the training of body, mind, and spirit together in order to realize the fullness of human potential".

Seido aims not only to develop students with the highest level of physical skills. It also strives to cultivate individuals of the highest moral character who can then make significant contributions to their family life, the workplace, and to society at large.

This goal is achieved by the integration of Zen meditation into the practice of each and every student. Seido is unique because it stresses the unity and inseparability of karate and Zen. This is not a new idea. Rather, it is a return to the origins of the martial arts. By returning to the roots of karate, it can be made extremely valuable for men and women in this century and the next.

Zen is not taught as a religion in Seido. It is a practice which has no religious overtones or content. However, it is an essential counterpart to hard physical training. The samurai, whose lives and values gave so much to karate, strived to develop 'bushido' spirit. Today, our lives are much different from the samurai's, but the bushido spirit remains applicable to each individual's development.

Seido seeks to develop in each student a 'non-quitting' spirit. No matter what the obstacle or difficulty -- emotional, physical, financial -- we want students to feel that, though they may be set back, they will never be overcome by any of these problems. The sincere practice of karate can impress this idea into the spirit. This is the modern interpretation of the bushido spirit of the samurai.