Can A Style Survive?

[sensei8]

Can a style survive WITHOUT a Soke/Founder?

I've place the word 'a' above in bold type because I'm not speaking of THE Soke/Founder. No, I'm speaking about the existence of that said title within the style's heirarchy.

Could the following chain of command exist without any Soke type?

*President

*Vice-President

*12 member Board

Would this be sufficient?

Or...

*Soke/Dai-Soke/San Dai-Soke/or...

*President

*Vice-President

*12 member Board

Would this be more sufficient?

[Dark Planet]

Yes, the style itself would continue to exist, but the unity of its practitioners may suffer.

Peace to you.

[tonydee]

The President et al sounds like a potentially healthy school, while the Soke et al sounds like a style that might transcend schools. So, I guess it depends on whether you expect the style to split into independent schools for financial or administrative reasons, but think there might still be enough good will to keep some loyalty and connection on a martial level....

Cheers,

Tony

[bushido_man96]

I think it could. I don't know why it wouldn't, really. I think if you have the president, then you have what you need, with the board and vice to help out.

[Wa-No-Michi]

Here is the current Management table of the JKF Wado-kai - the original group set up by Ohtsuka to practice Wado-ryu Karate.

https://www.karatedo.co.jp/wado/w_eng/e_index.htm

Ohtsuka sensei (I've never really heard of him referred to as Soke) died in 82, after leaving the Wado-kai and setting up a private organisation (Wado-ryu renmei) to which he appointed his son as chief instructor.

Still by far the biggest wado association in the world is that of the Wado-kai and as you will see there are no Soke (Dai or San) to be seen.

But the groups still produces some of the best martial artist in the world today imo.

WNM

[DWx]

I think it depends whether your President and board members are concerned with the buisness side of things and/or the style side of things. In some case it may be more appropriate to have a Soke or similar leadership figure to overlook the style and the board members can be concentrating on the buisness and organisation instead.

[JusticeZero]

Well, how tightly are you defining style? My art in general is pretty darned open source, but a specific kernel/lineage generally can be traced to some extent or other for a few steps at least. Improvisation, personalization, and grabbing of useful stuff that can be made to fit the kernel structure is more the norm than the exception in a lot of ways.

[isshinryu5toforever]

The style will survive, but extreme fractures are bound to occur. It takes someone impossibly driven and strong to keep an organization together. The same things happens to corporations when a strong leader passes on leadership to someone lesser. If that lesser person isn't strong enough, diplomatic enough to keep everyone together, there will be no unity. In the case of martial arts, that means many organizations, some independent teachers, etc. In a corporation, that can mean death.

[wouldbemaster]

If the principles are past on right to all then styles will survive, after all the human race has survived in this way for a very long time and whilst some have lost their way their re still many good people in the world to keep the flame of principles alive.

[sensei8]

Interesting posts and fair enough!

The management team has always been in place, but now, minus the 'headmaster', but, what if, for example, the current 'headmaster' is incapacitated for one reason or another, and the current 'headmaster' can't/hasn't name(d) a successor for one reason or another? What's the management team suppose to do meanwhile?

Edited September 16, 2009 by sensei8