Does Goshin Jutsu Karate Need a Centralized Organization?

As a card carrying member of a number of martial arts associations, I have been asked a number of times over the years how Goshin Jutsu Karate is organized. I describe Goshin Jutsu Karate's organization as loose confederation of karate schools. When I am asked how I feel about that structure, I usually say it has its pros and cons but I can live with it.

Historically Goshin Jutsu Karate has been a led by a Grand Master in a pre-bureaucratic structure. This structure is most common in smaller organizations and is best used to solve simple tasks. The structure is totally centralized. The strategic leader makes all key decisions and most communication is done by one on one. It is particularly useful for new (entrepreneurial) business as it enables the founder to control growth and development. The leader's power base is usually derived from traditional or charismatic leadership.
This obviously started with Grand Master Durant who created the Goshin Jutsu Karate system and that tradition has carried on with Grand Master Capela. The core Goshin Jutsu syllabus, ranking system, and the direction of the Goshin Jutsu Karate system are the responsibility of the Grand Master. This system works with a strong central figure leading the system, but tends to fall apart when that central figure is removed geographically or for some other reason.

Goshin Jutsu Karate moved to a more bureaucratic structure with the Goshin Jutsu Kyo Jujo Association (G.J.K.J.A.) in the 1980's. This association organized testing, had an annual association tournament and banquet, and promoted intra-school activities, as well as visitations between association schools. The G.J.K.J.A. was led by a president who was not the grand master and a board. The G.J.K.J.A. eventually failed when Grand Master Durant left the Erie area. The lack of that strong central figure led to a breakdown in the organizational purpose and structure, and the G.J.K.J.A. slowly faded away and Goshin Jutsu Karate became badly fractured into a number of smaller groups.

In the early 1990's Goshin Jutsu Karate tried to organize itself on a grander scale with Goshin Jutsu International. This organization was built around Nidai Soke Matthew Durant who had a board of advisors. This organization promoted a year end clinic and hall of fame banquet. The Goshin Jutsu International's leadership was broken from within due to a questionable promotion done without approval of the board of advisors. Twenty years later Goshin Jutsu karate is a loose confederation of karate schools.

Is it time to try again? The time may be right for a number of reasons. The first reason being that Goshin Jutsu Karate is in a very healthy state. It has a strong central leader (Grand Master Capela) a number of very high ranking senior students, and a geographically diverse venue of schools. Also, with Goshin Jutsu's fiftieth anniversary only a number of years away, it could be an ideal time to organize Goshin Jutsu Karate into a position where it can continue to flourish and grow for the next fifty years.

There are a number of positive outcomes that would arise from a central governing body. The first would be unity. If all of the Goshin Jutsu schools from Master Capela's branch of Goshin Jutsu (along with any other group who would like to be associated) united under one banner, all of them could be working towards a common purpose and goals. The amount of knowledge and resources that would be available would be quite impressive and could really help Goshin Jutsu continue to grow, both in its outreach to people and as a martial arts system. Currently there are no short or long term plans (evident to the author) for growth of the Goshin Jutsu Karate system. With a centralized governing body plans could be made to help open and support new schools, grow existing schools, and build the Goshin Jutsu brand.

In the short term the Goshin Jutsu Yudanshakai has a large number of yudansha with black belt ranking or extensive training in other arts. This knowledge could be shared to form new curriculums and help new or struggling schools attract and retain students. It is a very competitive market place, we have to look at what we can do make Goshin Jutsu an attractive option while retaining our core beliefs.
There are also a variety of other short term benefits that an organization can provide such as shared web space for smaller schools and instructors with less web experience. The use of social media to promote our system and schools can help raise Goshin Jutsu Karate's web presence and help grow schools and bring what Goshin Jutsu Karate offers to a larger audience.

In the long term Goshin Jutsu Karate needs to look ahead. Where will it be in the next five to ten years? With the tremendous popularity of Brazilian Jujitsu (BJJ) and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) some of the things that have been done in the past won't be viable. Goshin Jutsu Karate has so much to offer, but we need to learn to frame it to better fit the world we are living in and be able to add or take away what no longer fits.
Traditional karate tournaments are dying a fast death, while grappling tournaments are coming into prominence. Where will our students compete? Open karate tournaments are nothing resembling the karate and values we teach; very few of the core principals of our system can be expressed there. An association that can identify those fundamental core values and find an outlet for our students to experience and express them beyond the dojo walls will help keep the students we have as well as help draw in new ones. Competition is critical to growth. Without testing yourself against new and different techniques and competitors stagnation will occur.

So a centralized organization can provide a variety of benefits for short and long term growth and planning. Now the important question, just because we can, should we? For every successful organization there are several others who have failed for a variety of reasons. Through my experiences these are some of the major pitfalls associated with martial arts organizations.

Many martial arts (and other) organizations start out with the best of intentions and are very beneficial in the short term. However without a clear vision and purpose and organization can soon outgrow its purpose. If Goshin Jutsu Karate is to unite under a single banner they would need a clearly defined purpose and a plan to continually re-evaluate what is needed from the organization. It is not enough to create a successful organization to help the art grow, a system of self evaluation and opportunities for the organization to adapt and change to its members needs. An organization should serve its members, not the other way around.

Another stumbling block for many martial arts organizations is a stagnation of its leadership. The high ranking senior students take positions of power and never relinquish them. The junior students trust their leadership and over time things are being done because, “That is how they have always been done.”

A simple cure for that is to have term limits for positions of power and mandatory breaks in service for leadership positions. Term limits are certainly self explanatory, but to prevent the same people from rotating from one position of power to another and allow opportunities for “fresh blood” to enter leadership position in the organization, a mandatory one to two year break from leadership positions after a set number of years of service will help prevent stagnation and also help the organization to occasionally refresh its resources and re-evaluate itself.

No issue has caused more dissension in organizations than awarding or withholding rank. One benefit of organizations controlling rank is supposed to be uniformity of standards. And most organizations do well with setting uniform standards and time in grade up to master level ranking. It is at this level where complaints of “politics” are brought up. In many other organizations when a person is denied rank that others feel they should have, or someone who is perceived by others as not worthy is awarded a high rank, it is said issuing of rank has more to do with “playing the game” of organizational politics than merit and skill.
This can be avoided by an organization taking a very limited role in regards to rank. Their primary purpose should be setting a minimum standard and time in grade for each rank and leave the issue of promotions to each individual instructor up to say, seventh degree. There are not many instructors who are ranked high enough to promote past seventh degree so eighth and ninth degrees can be awarded by a promotions committee of the most senior members of the organization. The title of Grand Master would ideally be passed from the previous grand master to prevent arguing over the title, but in the event that it isn't the promotions committee would be tasked with naming the next grand master.
All in all I think that the benefits of the formation of an organization to oversee Goshin Jutsu Karate with a clear vision and purpose would benefit the art. Hopefully we could learn from the mistakes of the past and come together to ensure that this art that was passed down to us is preserved for generations to come.

To further discuss this article please go to the Goshin Jutsu Karate Forum