Fine Japanese Calligraphy

The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, PayPal accepted
Home › Library › Philology › There is No First Attack in Karate

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 (karate ni sente nashi), in karate there is no first move, went from Tokyo magazines of 1922 to a Zen temple's memorial stone.

Japanese Scroll of There is No First Attack in Karate (karate ni sente nashi) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
There is No First Attack in Karate空手に先手無しkarate ni sente nashi

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

All Fonts ›

Abstract

空手に先手無し, in karate there is no first move, is the second of the twenty precepts of karate that Nakasone Genwa 仲宗根源和 in 1938 says Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍 established, and the best known of them. It was a maxim before it was a precept: in 1922 a report printed in two Tokyo magazines called it a rule laid down from of old, and Funakoshi's first book headed a section with it, twelve years before the list of twenty is in print (1934). From the first it was read two ways, both in Funakoshi's own books: as a bar on raising the hand without cause (1922), and as the block that comes before the counter (1935). The literal reading, never strike first, was argued down in print by Motobu Chōki 本部朝基 in 1932 and by Mabuni Kenwa 摩文仁賢和 with Nakasone in 1938, who held that it forbids the quarrel, not 先手, the go and shōgi term for the first move, in a fight already forced.

Overview

The text. 空手に先手無し, karate ni sente nashi, in karate there is no first move. It is item 2 of the twenty precepts: 二、空手に先手なし in the 1934 printing of the list, 第二條空手に先手なし in the 1938 one [1][2]. The older form is 唐手に先手なし, with the older characters for karate; the 1922 preface writes カラ手に先手なし [3].

The sense. On its face the precept says that karate does not strike first. Funakoshi's own books read it two ways. In 1922 it heads a section on bu that says 徒に手を出すことがあつてはならぬ, one must never raise a hand without cause, while the preface in the same book reads it as the order of the hands: 凡て第一手が受手になつて居る, every first move is a block [3]. His Karate-dō Kyōhan gives the second reading: the front fist is used for defense and the fist held to the back is used for offense [4]. A student remembered it as meaning that one should never attack and if attacked, be only defensive [5]. The masters who wrote on it did not read it so. Motobu Chōki, in 1932: Apparently some people interpret this literally and often profess that "one must not attack first," but I think that they are seriously mistaken. … The meaning of this saying, then, is that one must not harm others for no good reason [6]. Mabuni Kenwa and Nakasone Genwa, in 1938, gave a section to the right understanding and the misunderstanding of it and concluded that a person who practices karate must never take a bellicose attitude, looking to cause an incident [6][7].

The words. 先手 (sente), the first move, is the term from go and shōgi; 大辞泉 glosses it 他より先に始めること [8]. 無し, there is none. The list writes the kana なし, and 無し is the same word with its kanji; the designs write both.

The text in English. The English begins with the karate books, and the precept is in them by 1966, when E. J. Harrison's Manual of Karate calls it the maxim "Karate ni sente nashi" [9]. What a rendering must keep is that it is a rule, not an observation.

The historical record

1922, July and August. The Tokyo magazines. 『社会と教化』 for July 1922, under the heading 琉球の唐手, and 『スポート』 for August 1922, in a report on 沖繩尙武會長富名越義珍, Funakoshi Gichin, president of the Okinawa martial society, carry one sentence: 主眼なのだから昔から唐手に先手なしと堅く戒めてある, since that is the chief aim, it has been strictly laid down from of old that in karate there is no first move, and the first goes on, これは徒らに勇氣にはやらぬ謙抑な精神をやしなひ, this fosters a modest spirit that does not rush on courage alone. It is one report in two magazines. Both magazines are behind the National Diet Library's in-library and transmission services; the sentence is the full-text index's excerpt [10].

1922, November. Funakoshi Gichin 富名腰義珍, 『琉球拳法 唐手』 (Ryūkyū Kenpō: Karate), 武俠社. Funakoshi's first book, published 29 November 1922 by its colophon, after his demonstration at the First Annual Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo [3][11]. Its appendix opens under the heading 唐手に先手なし（修業者の心得）, In karate there is no first move (what the student must bear in mind), p. 273: 武は字義の上から見ても、二人干戈を交へたるを中に這入つて止めると云ふ意義であるから、「唐手」も武の一部たる以上は能く其意味を諒解して、徒に手を出すことがあつてはならぬ, 武, bu, even by the sense of its characters, means stepping between two who have crossed weapons and stopping them; and since karate is a part of bu, one must understand that well and never raise a hand without cause; and further on, 武は仁義の及ばざる所に餘儀なくさせらるもので, bu is what one is driven to where benevolence and right do not reach. The preface by the historian Higaonna Kanjun 東恩納寛惇, pp. 18–20: 自分は豫て、富名腰氏に「カラ手に先手なし」と云ふ話を聞いて感心して居たが、成程カラ手は、凡て第一手が受手になつて居る, I had long been struck by Mr. Funakoshi's saying "in karate there is no first move," and indeed in karate every first move is a block. The one book thus carries both readings, the appendix's of restraint and the preface's of the block before the blow. The book is public at the National Diet Library, and the three pages were read at the page images [3]. The appendix runs on into the Chinese articles that Andreas Quast identifies as the first printing of parts of the Bubishi [12]. The 1925 revision, 『錬胆護身唐手術』, keeps the section, and its English of 2001 heads it There is No First Strike in Karate [11].

1932. Motobu Chōki 本部朝基, 『私の唐手術』 (My Karate), pp. 58–59. A section headed 唐手に先手なし. In Mark Tankosich's translation: There is an expression, "karate ni sente nashi." Apparently some people interpret this literally and often profess that "one must not attack first," but I think that they are seriously mistaken. … The meaning of this saying, then, is that one must not harm others for no good reason. But when a situation can't be helped … when an enemy is serious about doing one harm, one must fiercely stand and fight. When one does fight, taking control of the enemy is crucial, and one must take that control with one's first move. Thus, in a fight one must attack first [6]. The Japanese book is behind the transmission service; the heading is in its contents [13].

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: 一、空手は禮に始まり、禮に終ることを忘るな。二、空手に先手なし。三、空手は義の補け。四、先づ自已を知れ、而して他を知れ。五、技術より心術… The earliest print of the list that the full-text index finds; the book is behind the transmission service, and the list is read in the index's excerpt, which does not show whose name stands over it [1]. The same book carries the maxim in its older form in the painter Kosugi Hōan 小杉放庵's 唐手傳, which his 『工房小閑』 of the same year also prints: 唐手に先手なし、と云ふ金科玉條、其通りに守つて居れば喧嘩にならぬわけだが, "in karate there is no first move," the golden rule: keep to it and there would be no brawls, but [1][14].

1935. Funakoshi's own word on it. His Karate-dō Kyōhan, presented to the Emperor on 19 July 1935 by its English title page, reads the precept as the order of the hands, in the English of 2005: it has been said since old times that "there is no first move in kara-te." You can see this in both the kata and kumi-te of kara-te. The hand you position closer to your opponent is the hand to defend with. The hand you position behind it is the hand with which to attack. Therefore, the hand that moves first blocks the attack that came from your opponent, and, without a moment of delay, the other hand crushes the opponent [15]. In the magazine 改造 for July 1935, in an article Tankosich cites as Karate no hanashi, Funakoshi calls the precept the essence of karate-dō, as Tankosich reports it [6].

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. The commentary's second article, 第二條空手に先手なし, opens 「刀はみだりに拔くべきものではない」といふことは、武士の平常の…, that "a sword must never be recklessly drawn" was, in the daily life of the samurai…, as the full-text index shows it [2]. In the English of 2003 the commentary goes on: the precept is an extension of the basic samurai principle that one must avoid the reckless use of weapons. It underscores the absolute necessity of patience and forbearance; it reads 武 as to stop and halberds, as the 1922 appendix does; and it ends, in a worst-case scenario where combat is unavoidable, it is proper to take the initiative, attacking time and again until victory is achieved [16]. The Japanese encyclopedia cites the book's frontispiece photograph for the list, and the English encyclopedia cites the book [17][18]. The commentary is Nakasone's: his preface of 1938, in the English of 2003, says The twenty principles of karate were established by Gichin Funakoshi as way of guiding his disciples and The following text is comprised of short commentaries I have written on the twenty principles. Master Funakoshi has read and approved their content [16]. The book is behind the transmission service.

1938. Mabuni Kenwa 摩文仁賢和 and Nakasone Genwa, 『攻防拳法空手道入門』. A section headed 「空手に先手なし」の正解と誤解, the right understanding and the misunderstanding of "in karate there is no first move", p. 82 in the seventh printing of 1940 [7]. In Tankosich's translation it names two misreadings: the outsider's, that the precept is a passivity foreign to Japanese budō, and the karateka's, that it is a literal, behavioral rule to be rigidly followed. It allows that when one is already facing a battle, it is an accepted truth of strategy that one should try to take sensen no sen and forestall the enemy's actions, and concludes that the precept means a person who practices karate must never take a bellicose attitude, looking to cause an incident [6].

1944 onward. The judo novel. The maxim reached the general reader in the older form, through Tomita Tsuneo 富田常雄's 『姿三四郎』: a 三四郎 scenario printed in 映画評論 for October 1944 has 唐手に先手なしと云ふ, and the novel's editions from 1950 explain it, 唐手に先手なしと稱すると共に防禦と攻擊は一つである, karate says it has no first move, and with that defense and attack are one [19].

The precept in English

1966. E. J. Harrison, Manual of Karate, Sterling, New York; first published by Foulsham, London, 1959. A note in its library record calls it an amalgam of two Japanese works on the subject, primarily the Karate-do nyumon, or, Introduction to the karate way, compiled by the Society for Study of Japanese Karate, and to a lesser degree, Karete no narai-kata … by Reikichi Oya [9]. Ōya Reikichi 大家礼吉's 『空手の習い方』 carries the maxim in its 1955 printing: この「空手に先手なし」の精神は、空手の稽古の主体をなす「型」に如実に表現されている, the spirit of "in karate there is no first move" is plainly expressed in the kata, the core of karate training [20]. Harrison: congruent with the maxim "Karate ni sente nashi" which can be freely interpreted to mean that there is no first attack in karate [9].

1973. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-dō Kyōhan: The Master Text, translated by Tsutomu Ohshima, Kodansha International. The English of the second edition, whose preface is dated 26 April 1958, on the first anniversary of the master's death, and says he died without having completed the new manuscript. The precept as a maxim, three times. Twice on the Taikyoku kata, which the 1935 text in its English of 2005 does not carry: the real meaning of the maxim, "In karate, there is no advantage in the first attack", and "There is no sente … in karate," the state of absolute passiveness, said of the kata's movements as a single transcendent movement. And in the section on sparring, as in 1935: It has long been said that there is no first hand (sente) in Karate, and whether performing kata or kumite, the front fist is used for defense and the fist held to the back is used for offense [4][15].

1975. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-dō: My Way of Life, Kodansha International, p. 64. The caption to the memorial at Engaku-ji 円覚寺, Kamakura: This memorial to Master Funakoshi was erected at Enkaku-ji temple in Kamakura in 1968. The calligraphy at the right is by the master; that at the left is by Asahina Sogen, chief priest of the temple, and reads, "Karate ni sente nashi.", the precept brushed by a Zen abbot [21]. Funakoshi's grave is elsewhere, at 善正寺 in Kawasaki [17].

1995. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, p. 82. Stevens's own numbered paraphrase of the twenty: 2, There is no first attack in karate. This is Funakoshi's best known maxim, and it is engraved on his tombstone. The stone known to this study to carry it is the Engaku-ji memorial; the grave is at 善正寺 [22][21][17].

1999. Mark Bishop, Okinawan Karate, A & C Black, p. 64. A student's memory of the precept's meaning: 'Funakoshi,' Kaneshima remembered, 'was well educated and a good youth leader; his famous adage "Karate ni sente nashi" had meant that one should never attack and if attacked, be only defensive.' [5]

2001. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-Jutsu, translated by John Teramoto, Kodansha International. The English of the 1925 book. The section is headed There is No First Strike in Karate and reads the true meaning of bu is to intervene between two struggling parties to put an end to their fighting. Of course, since karate is a form of bu, it is important to understand this significance well and to never thoughtlessly start trouble [11].

2003. The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, by Gichin Funakoshi and Genwa Nakasone, translated by John Teramoto, Kodansha International. The first English of the 1938 commentary. It heads this precept There is no first strike in karate; the commentary opens "A sword must never be recklessly drawn" was the most important tenet of conduct in the daily life of a samurai. Jotaro Takagi's afterword: The most famous of the twenty principles is the second, "There is no first strike in karate." This principle can be interpreted as meaning that karate begins with defense, rather than a call to remain passive. Master Funakoshi wrote, "Never in any circumstance should you be the first to attack, but your mental attitude must constantly be one of seizing the initiative …" [16].

2004. Mark J. Tankosich, "Karate ni Sente Nashi: What the Masters Had to Say." A study in English of how the early masters read the precept; it translates Motobu and Mabuni and Nakasone, and finds that both strongly believed that striking first does not necessarily violate the sente nashi principle [6].

Today. The two web lists give There is no first strike in karate and There is no first attack in karate [18][23]. The first is the 2003 translation's own heading [16].

A reading

The precept was a maxim before it was a precept. In 1922 a Tokyo report called it an old rule, Funakoshi headed a section of his first book with it, and his preface-writer had heard it from his mouth; the list of twenty is in print twelve years later. What it says, it says with a board-game word: 先手 is the move that takes the initiative. From the first it was read two ways, and both are in Funakoshi's own books. One is about bu, stepping between two who have crossed weapons: never raise a hand without cause, for bu is what one is driven to where benevolence and right do not reach. The other is about the hands: the first move is a block and the counter follows without delay, which is how his manual of 1935 explains it. Neither forbids the first blow in a fight already forced, and Motobu and Mabuni and Nakasone said so in print against those who read it to the letter, as one of Funakoshi's students later remembered it. I read it with 1922, as a rule about the spirit one brings to a fight rather than the order of the blows.

References

  1. 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); scan 14 (小杉放庵, 唐手傳). National Diet Library pid 1027727, transmission service; text from the full-text index, in overlapping excerpts of scan 9, whose text layer runs what look like ruby readings into the line and reads 字子 inside item 1 (禮に終ることを字子忘るな). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1027727/1/9
  2. 仲宗根源和 (ed.), 『空手道大観』, 東京図書, Tokyo, 1938, scan 46 (第二條空手に先手なし). National Diet Library pid 1104139, transmission service; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1104139/1/46
  3. 富名腰義珍, 『琉球拳法 唐手』, 武俠社, Tokyo, 29 November 1922: preface by 東恩納寛惇, pp. 18–20 (scans 20–21); appendix, 唐手に先手なし（修業者の心得）, p. 273 (scan 165); colophon (scan 171). National Diet Library pid 971654, public. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/971654/1/165
  4. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-dō Kyōhan: The Master Text, translated by Tsutomu Ohshima, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1973 (the second edition, preface dated 26 April 1958).
  5. Mark Bishop, Okinawan Karate, A & C Black, London, 1999 (© 1989, 1999), p. 64.
  6. Mark J. Tankosich, "Karate ni Sente Nashi: What the Masters Had to Say," 広島経済大学研究論集 (HUE Journal of Humanities, Social and Natural Science) 27, no. 1 (June 2004): 17–27. https://hue.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/1165/files/kenkyu2004270102.pdf
  7. 摩文仁賢和 and 仲宗根源和, 『攻防拳法空手道入門』, 7th printing, 京文社書店, Tokyo, 1940 (first published 1938), p. 82 (「空手に先手なし」の正解と誤解). National Diet Library pid 3456304, transmission service. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3456304
  8. 「先手」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/先手-509381
  9. E. J. Harrison, Manual of Karate, Sterling, New York, 1966 (first published Foulsham, London, 1959). Internet Archive, full-text search, and the item's library record (description). https://archive.org/details/manualofkarate0000harr_h0w3
  10. 「琉球の唐手」, 『社会と教化』 2, no. 7 (July 1922), pp. 69–70, scan 39, National Diet Library pid 1479622, in-library; 『スポート』 4, no. 6 (August 1922), scan 16, National Diet Library pid 1511305, transmission service. Text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1479622 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1511305
  11. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-Jutsu: The Original Teachings of Master Funakoshi, translated by John Teramoto, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2001 (the 1925 『錬胆護身唐手術』).
  12. Andreas Quast, in Patrick McCarthy, Bubishi: The Classic Manual of Combat, Tuttle, 2016.
  13. 本部朝基, 『私の唐手術』, 東京唐手普及會, Tokyo, March 1932, contents (唐手に先手なし, p. 58). National Diet Library pid 1881845, transmission service. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1881845
  14. 小杉放庵, 『工房小閑』, 竹村書房, Tokyo, 1934, scan 144. National Diet Library pid 1233038, transmission service; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1233038/1/144
  15. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate Do Kyohan, translated by Harumi Suzuki-Johnston, Neptune Publications, 2005 (second edition 2012), the section on kumi-te (the 1935 text).
  16. 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); Nakasone's preface, pp. 15–16.
  17. 「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
  18. "Nijū kun", Wikipedia (English). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijū_kun
  19. 『映画評論』 1, no. 10 (October 1944), scan 38, National Diet Library pid 2256123; 富田常雄, 『姿三四郎 全』, 春歩堂, 1951, scan 110, National Diet Library pid 1659325. Both transmission service; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1659325/1/110
  20. 大家礼吉, 『空手の習い方』, 金園社, Tokyo, 1955, scan 11. National Diet Library pid 2476482, transmission service; text from the full-text index. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2476482/1/11
  21. Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-dō: My Way of Life, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1975, p. 64.
  22. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1995, p. 82.
  23. "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 and Opus 5.5, 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

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 空手に先手無し (karate ni sente nashi)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/karate-ni-sente-nashi.