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技術より心術 gijutsu yori shinjutsu Spirit Over Technique

技術より心術 (gijutsu yori shinjutsu), the mind's bearing over the technique, takes its key word, 心術, from the Chinese classics into a karate list of 1934.

Japanese Scroll of Spirit Over Technique (gijutsu yori shinjutsu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Spirit Over Technique技術より心術gijutsu yori shinjutsu

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

技術より心術, the mind's bearing over the technique, is the fifth of the twenty precepts of karate, a list in print by December 1934 and again in 1936, and in 1938 in 空手道大観 with a commentary by Nakasone Genwa, who says Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍 established the twenty and approved the commentary. Funakoshi's book of 1935 says the same of the whole art, that true karate places more weight on state of mind than technique (in its English of 2005), and its revised edition of 1958 has the Japanese 技術よりも心術に重きを置き. The precept's second word, 心術, is a word of the Chinese classics that the great Japanese dictionary first cites in Japanese from Dōgen's 正法眼蔵, and by the time of the list it had two senses in print, a person's inner disposition and a discipline of the mind, which the precept's pairing with 技術 brings forward.

Overview

The text. 技術より心術, gijutsu yori shinjutsu, the mind's bearing over the technique. The twenty precepts are given by the Japanese Wikipedia article on Funakoshi, citing a photograph in a 1938 book, as a numbered list [1]; this is item 5, as it is in the list of 1934 [2].

The sense. What the mind brings counts for more than what the hands know. Funakoshi's 1935 book says it of the whole art in its opening pages: True kara-te, as described later in this book, places more weight on state of mind than technique [3]; its revised edition, as the National Diet Library's full-text index shows it, has 技術よりも心術に重きを置き, the precept's own words [4]. The 1938 commentary tells of the swordsman Tsukahara Bokuden testing his sons and concludes that the point of the story is 武道は「技術よりも心術が大事だ」, in English in martial arts mental faculties are more important than technique [5][6]; the son who inherits is the one who felt the door was heavier than usual and took down the headrest set on it, so the 心術 the story praises is a trained alertness. Every reading found, from the 1930s to the English lists, puts the mind first. Where they part is on what 心術 is: a person's bearing, or an art of the mind beside the art of the hands (A reading).

The words. The twenty precepts are written in the formal Japanese of their day: 先づ with づ, 而して, 放たん, 要す. 技術, technique; より, rather than, over; 心術, the mind's bearing. 心術 is old Chinese: 荀子 sets the look of a man against his 心術 (形相雖惡而心術善, though his looks are ugly, his 心術 is good), the 禮記's record of music says that the mind's 心術 takes form as things move it (然後心術形焉), and two chapters of the 管子 are titled 心術 [7][8][9]. The 精選版日本国語大辞典 first cites it in Japanese from Dōgen's 正法眼蔵, 学道のとき、見聞することかたきは、正法の心術なり, names 荀子 as its other source, and gives Kant's Gesinnung as its second sense [10]. Brinkley's dictionary of 1896 marks it Chinese and glosses it one's motive: Shinjutsu no warui hito, 心術ノ惡イ人, an evil-minded person [11]. Both senses, the disposition and the discipline, are in print in the decade before the list (The historical record). As words: the mind's bearing over the technique.

The text in English. Brinkley's is the bilingual dictionary entry for the word; the precept's English is in the karate books, below.

The historical record

The word before the precept. 心術 came to the martial arts long before karate. 天狗芸術論, the sword treatise of Issai Chozan 佚斎樗山, whose preface is dated Kyōhō 13 (1728) [12], opens on it: 人は動物なり … 吾が心體を悟て直に自性の天則にしたがふことは、心術に志深く學の熟せるにあらずんばあたはざる所なり, man is a moving being … to awaken to the substance of one's own mind and follow directly the law of one's nature cannot be done unless one's resolve toward 心術 is deep and one's study ripe; read at the page image in the 1915 collection 武術叢書 [13]. In William Scott Wilson's English of 2006 the word is study of the mind, or mind technique [12]; Kazuaki Tanahashi gives Dōgen's 心術 as mind art [14], and W. Allyn Rickett titles the 管子's two chapters Art of the Mind [15]. By the decade of the list both senses were in print. A book on the psychology of shooting, swordsmanship and flying (1919) gives the swordsman's third stage as 心術技術拳術の三拍子揃ひ, 心術, 技術 and 拳術, all three in step, 心術 counted as one art among three [16]; an ethics textbook of 1926, arguing with Kant, says 心術の正善邪惡は、換言すれば其の人の品性の正善邪惡である, the good or evil of one's 心術 is, in other words, the good or evil of one's character, the disposition [17]. The two words were paired in the arts before the list, and joined, not ranked: a calligraphy manual of 1908 says 技術と心術とは不二一體, technique and 心術 are not two but one; the 1919 book says flying advances only when 技術と心術と相俟つて, technique and 心術 go together; an archery manual (1935) speaks of 技術と心術の働き, the working of technique and 心術, and a kendo reader (1937) of the place where 技術と心術とが一致する, where technique and 心術 are one [16]. The precept sets one above the other.

1934, December. 空手研究社 (ed.), 『空手研究』 第1輯, 興武館. The twenty as a numbered list, headed 空手二十ヶ條; item 5, 五、技術より心術, stands between 四、先づ自已を知れ、而して他を知れ and 六、心は放たん事を要す, as the full-text index shows them [2]. Whose name stands over the list is not in the excerpts. It is the oldest print of the four words together that the index returns.

1935. Funakoshi, 『空手道教範』. The master text opens by setting the art's feats aside: True kara-te, as described later in this book, places more weight on state of mind than technique. In ordinary everyday life one is to keep training physical strength and disciplining the mind. In the event of crisis, one does his utmost best to act according to justice. This is what true kara-te is, in Harumi Suzuki-Johnston's English of the 1935 text [3]. The 1935 edition is in the National Diet Library for reading in the library only, and the full-text index does not return it, so its Japanese was not seen. The magazine of a mining college's alumni association has the sentence from 心術 on in December 1939, in the pre-war spelling (…心術に重きを置き平生は禮讓の中に體力を鍛へ精神を練り、一朝有事の際には正義に從つて全力を盡して當る), two years before the next printing in the library's catalogue (1941) [4]; the words before 心術 are not legible in the index's text, and whether the magazine names Funakoshi is past the excerpt. The edition of 1958 has 技術よりも心術に重きを置き、平生は礼譲の中 [4][18].

1936. 慶応義塾体育会空手部 (ed.), 『空手道集成』. The list again, from the Keiō University karate club: 而して他を知れ。技術より心術。心は放たん事を要, as the full-text index shows it [19].

1937 and 1941. The precept as a teaching slogan. Two magazines pair it with a second line: a teacher in 『ペン』 for January 1937 says 吾々も折ある每に、技術より心術威服より心服、常に內面方面に重きをおいて指導してゐる, at every chance we too teach 技術より心術, 威服より心服, submission of the heart over submission to force, always weighting the inner side, and 『公論』 for March 1941 has 技術より心術、感服より心服 [20]. Who speaks is outside the excerpts.

1938. Nakasone Genwa 仲宗根源和 (ed.), 『空手道大観』 (A Survey of Karate-dō), 東京図書. The list with a commentary on each article. Its fifth article, 第五條技術より心術, tells the Bokuden story and says its point is 武道は「技術よりも心術が大事だ」といふことを教へたところにある, as the full-text index shows it [5]. The Japanese encyclopedia gives the list as 空手二十箇条 and cites this book's frontispiece photograph, dated 3 May 1938; the English encyclopedia cites the same book. The Kodansha translation of the commentary names it too: Originally published as Karate-do nijukkajo to sono kaishaku, in 空手道大観, 1938 [6]. The commentary is Nakasone's: his 1938 preface, in the translation, says The following text is comprised of short commentaries I have written on the twenty principles. Master Funakoshi has read and approved their content [6]. The same preface opens The twenty principles of karate were established by Gichin Funakoshi [6]; that is the attribution in print, and the Japanese encyclopedia gives the list under his name [1]. The English encyclopedia says it has been suggested that the twenty were documented by around 1890, citing the 2003 translation [21]; a search of that book's text returns no such date. The 1934 and 1938 books are both in the National Diet Library behind its transmission service (pids 1027727 and 1104139).

What is not a source. 正法眼蔵 and 天狗芸術論 are named here for the word 心術, not as sources of the precept.

The precept in English

1973. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-dō Kyōhan: The Master Text, translated by Tsutomu Ohshima, Kodansha International. The English of the 1958 edition renders Funakoshi's sentence true Karate-do places weight upon spiritual rather than physical matters, as we shall discuss [22]; where the 1958 Japanese has 技術よりも心術, Ohshima writes spiritual rather than physical.

1995. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, p. 82. Stevens's own numbered paraphrase of the twenty, Funakoshi summed up his views on the art in his "Twenty Principles of Karate.": 5, Rather than physical technique, mental technique. This is another version of "Technique does not make the person; the person make the technique." [23].

1995. Randall G. Hassell, Karate Ideals, Focus Publications. The list in romaji with English: 5. Gijutsu yori shinjutsu. (Spirit first; techniques second.) [24].

2003. The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, by Gichin Funakoshi and Genwa Nakasone, translated by John Teramoto, Kodansha International. The English of the 1938 commentary on the twenty, Nakasone's, which Funakoshi approved. It heads this precept Mentality over technique; the commentary tells of Tsukahara Bokuden testing his sons and concludes in martial arts mental faculties are more important than technique [6].

2012. Karate Do Kyohan, translated by Harumi Suzuki-Johnston, Neptune Publications (first edition 2005). The English of the 1935 text: places more weight on state of mind than technique [3].

Today. The two web lists give Mentality over technique and Spirit before technique [21][25]. The first is the Kodansha translation's own heading [6]. What a rendering must keep is the ranking, mind over technique, and, where it can, the art the two words share.

A reading

The precept is the fifth of a list that Nakasone in 1938 says Funakoshi established, and Funakoshi's own book of 1935 says the same of the whole art. Its weight is in the pairing. 心術 had two senses by the time of the list: a person's inner disposition, Brinkley's motive and the ethics textbook's character, and a discipline of the mind, the sense Dōgen's, the 管子's and the sword treatise's translators give as mind art, Art of the Mind and mind technique. Set beside 技術, with the 術 the two words share, the precept asks for the second without letting go of the first: the mind is trained as the hands are, and its training counts for more. The 1938 commentary reads it so, with a son who wins by noticing; Funakoshi adds the moral side, a body trained in courtesy and a mind that acts for justice. Mentality and spirit catch the disposition, mental technique the discipline; the mind's bearing is the dictionary's word for the first, and the pairing with 技術 carries the second.

References

  1. 「船越義珍」, § 松濤二十訓, Japanese Wikipedia, citing 仲宗根源和『空手道大觀』(1938) 口絵写真. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/船越義珍
  2. 空手研究社 (ed.), 『空手研究』 第1輯, 興武館, Tokyo, December 1934, scan 9 (空手二十ヶ條). National Diet Library pid 1027727, transmission service; text from the full-text index, in overlapping excerpts of the one scan, whose text layer runs what look like ruby readings into the line (ぎじゃつショッし before item 5). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1027727/1/9
  3. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate Do Kyohan, translated by Harumi Suzuki-Johnston, Neptune Publications, 2005, second edition 2012 (the 1935 『空手道教範』), Introduction, chapter 1.
  4. 船越義珍, 『空手道教範』, 日月社, Tokyo, 1958, scan 12. National Diet Library pid 2486578, in-library; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2486578 · The library's catalogue lists printings of 1935 (大倉広文堂, pid 13176898, in-library, not in the full-text index), 1941 and 1944 (廣文堂). https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp/books/R100000002-I000000791255
  5. 仲宗根源和 (ed.), 『空手道大観』, 東京図書, Tokyo, 1938, scans 47–48 (第五條技術より心術). National Diet Library pid 1104139, transmission service; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1104139/1/48
  6. Gichin Funakoshi and Genwa Nakasone, The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, translated by John Teramoto, afterword by Jotaro Takagi, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2003 (Kodansha USA, 2012).
  7. 荀子, 非相篇. Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/荀子/非相篇
  8. 禮記, 樂記 (然後心術形焉). Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/禮記/樂記
  9. 管子, 心術上 and 心術下 (chapters 36 and 37). Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/管子/第36篇心術上
  10. 「心術」, 精選版日本国語大辞典 (初出 正法眼蔵 渓声山色; その他の文献 荀子 非相), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/心術-537777
  11. F. Brinkley, An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary, Sanseido, Tokyo, 1896, p. 1280, Shinjutsu. Internet Archive, page image (leaf 1311). https://archive.org/download/cu31924082117288/page/leaf1311_w1600.jpg
  12. Issai Chozan, The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts and Other Tales, translated by William Scott Wilson, Shambhala, Boston, 2006, The Gist, and its note 4.
  13. 佚斎樗山, 『天狗芸術論』 巻之一, 大意, in 国書刊行会 (ed.), 『武術叢書』, 国書刊行会, Tokyo, 1915, p. 314 (scan 167). National Diet Library pid 945805, public. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/945805/1/167
  14. Kazuaki Tanahashi (ed.), Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Shobo Genzo, Shambhala, Boston, 2010 (EPUB 2013), glossary, mind art: 心術.
  15. W. Allyn Rickett, Guanzi: Political, Economic, and Philosophical Essays from Early China, vol. 2, Princeton University Press, 1998, XIII.36–37, Xin shu shang and Xin shu xia, Art of the Mind.
  16. 下枝観一郎, 『家伝筆法独習書』, 1908, scan 3 (pid 853115, public); 下沢瑞世 (ed.), 『射撃と剣術並に航空術の心理』, 兵事雑誌社, 1919, p. 96 (scan 58, read at the page) and scan 81 (pid 942248, public); 桑村常之助, 『正しい弓の引き方』, 大成書院, 1935, scan 69 (pid 1234743, public); 太田竜峰, 『剣道読本』, 近江屋書店, 1937, scan 24 (pid 1054927, transmission service). National Diet Library; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/853115/1/3
  17. 荻原拡, 『倫理概論』, 宝文館, Tokyo, 1926, p. 175 (scan 107), read at the page. National Diet Library pid 931019, public. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/931019/1/107
  18. 『北光』, 秋田鉱山専門学校校友会, December 1939, scan 70. National Diet Library pid 1599315, transmission service; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1599315
  19. 慶応義塾体育会空手部 (ed.), 『空手道集成』, 慶応義塾体育会空手部, Tokyo, 1936, scan 27. National Diet Library pid 1144879, transmission service; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1144879/1/27
  20. 『ペン』 2, no. 1 (January 1937), scan 39, National Diet Library pid 1890346, in-library; 『公論』 4, no. 3 (March 1941), scan 129, National Diet Library pid 1539337, transmission service. Text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1890346 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1539337
  21. "Nijū kun", Wikipedia (English). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijū_kun
  22. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-dō Kyōhan: The Master Text, translated by Tsutomu Ohshima, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1973 (the 1958 edition), Introduction.
  23. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1995, p. 82.
  24. Randall G. Hassell, Karate Ideals, Focus Publications, St. Louis, 1995. Internet Archive, full-text index. https://archive.org/details/karateideals0000hass
  25. "The 20 Precepts of Karate", Chiltern Karate. https://chilternkarate.co.uk/about-karate/philosophy/20-precepts/

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Claude Sonnet (Anthropic), 2026-09-15, citations — every claim tested at its address; about half resolve; a couple do not resolve, both right — addresses the history had short and the record had full, re-opened by hand at the page images and fixed; the rest not openable (the grouped history of that date; superseded by the s287 gate and the ten-s767 coding)

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 技術より心術 (gijutsu yori shinjutsu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/gijutsu-yori-shinjutsu.