Listening to my Sensei talk about how Seiunchin, a kata currently taught at blue belt, used to be a Nidan kata, it got me questioning whether there really are white belt and black belt katas at all.

It’s a question I sometimes wonder about. The reality is that I don’t plan to train in martial arts at a dojo for my entire life. I don’t think that’s a secret to anyone around me. That doesn’t mean that I’ll stop studying karate though; there’s a big difference between the two. It’s just that, in a future that may include kids, more work responsibility, and shifting priorities, I often think about the role karate would play in that world.

After the conclusion of last night’s karate class, my sensei gave us a basic primer on Iaido and Aikido in preparation for an upcoming seminar some of us black belts would be attending. In doing so, he opened our eyes to a fact that I think often gets neglected in many other schools: that Japanese martial arts don’t exist in a vacuum. They were created to work with, against, and in response to other arts that were practiced at the time of their creation, and understanding these relationships can help you understand your own art more deeply.