Why “Lantern”?

“Studying karate nowadays is like walking in the dark without a lantern. We have to grope our way in the dark.”
An electric storm lantern that is lit.

The quote above is attributed to Chojun Miyagi, the founder of Goju-ryu karate, the style we study, by one of his early students, Genkai Nakaima. At the time Miyagi was still a young man - 34 or 35 years old - and had much hardship still to face.

Miyagi never stopped trying to learn and perfect his art throughout his lifetime.

Thankfully today we have more signposts, but it is still difficult to walk the path, to know what our practice means, and to decipher the clues from the past.

I hope Lantern Dojo can be a light for you and that perhaps we can make it further down the road together.