空手に先手無し karate ni sente nashi There is No First Attack in Karate

空手に先手無し is a rule, and Funakoshi's own books read it two ways: never raise a hand without cause, and the block that comes before the counter. 先手 is the opening move, a word from go and shōgi. His manual gives the second by the hands: in kata and in sparring, the front hand guards and the rear hand strikes. The precept stands on Funakoshi's memorial at a Zen temple in Kamakura, brushed by its abbot.

Some designs write the last word 無し in kanji and some write なし in kana; it is the same word.

The precept heads a section of Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍's first book in 1922 and is the second of the twenty precepts of karate, a list in print by December 1934, which Nakasone Genwa 仲宗根源和, printing it with his commentary in 空手道大観 (1938), says Funakoshi established.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 空手に先手無し.

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