Lip Service

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What is lip service? How does this apply to martial arts and karate regardless of intentions in practice and training? Lip service is an, “Insincere agreement; to, “pay lip service” is to consent in one's words while dissenting in one's heart.” I have and still see a huge amount of lip service being used in martial arts and karate, i.e., “Sensei support the consolidation of the arts while never committing him or herself to the implementation of it in any substantial way.” 

One example of reality is the phrase bandied about in dojo, “Ichariba Chode [行逢りば兄弟] or Once we Meet, we become Brothers and Sisters.” Many dojo promote this as the institutional belief of a brotherhood often found in military services and other such professions. It is touted as a means of establishing and promoting things like respect, social interactions for the benefit of the dojo and its members, and a camaraderie of practitioners that glue them together much like the human group dynamic of survival.  

One definition actually states: 

Ichariba chode (行逢りば兄弟) is a Japanese phrase meaning “though we meet but once, even by chance, we are friends for life”.

Ichariba Chode, as a work of fiction, is a story that follows the unnamed and scrapped concept of a female protagonist for the first generation games – one commonly referred to in fandom as “Beta Blue” or “Classic!Leaf” and one referred to in-story as just “Blue” - as she travels alongside Red and his Charmander, starting in Pallet Town and ending at the Hall of Fame.

and another says:

(http://beokinawa.jp/). "Ichariba-chode" is an Okinawan saying and approach to life, meaning "once we meet, we become brothers and sisters."

Now, here is where I get a bit concerned as to its true meaning, the characters/ideograms when translated at one site gave me the English words of, “Yukiairiba kyōdai,” with a translation of, “brothers.”  Another less concise translation is, “Journey, meeting elder or big brother or younger brother and those faithful to elders.” I can’t use the word clarity on the last but you can come to a conclusion that it could, may and might mean when traveling one can encounter others where friendship is found. A stretch I might add but …

Some of the strangeness in translation may come from the belief that it is an Okinawan phrase used when meeting someone new, i.e., meaning though we meet but once, even by chance, we are friends for life. Where this means more to my views and theories is in my studies of the Okinawan’s throughout their history and from sources of others not Okinawan, even European, it is always said of them just how friendly and kind all Okinawan’s are. Even today, the phrase is being used to convey the friendly atmosphere of Okinawa in regard to visitors for the promotion of tourism so even if it dose not originate in some ancient form it is meant to be relevant and accurate toward the modern views both of Okinawans and those not of Okinawan origins. 

It is interesting that my research didn’t actually find any sources that state in some form that the phrase is used in martial arts and karate circles even tho, in general, it is a cultural use so naturally would be in the dojo as it would in any other venue of the Okinawan culture. 

Lip service, is this actually something given to lip service in the agenda driven meaning that helps sell martial arts and karate commercially or its it really something believed in and lived in dojo’s around the country? 

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