Kime and the Moving Body: Somatic Codes in Japanese Martial Arts

Body & Society, Vol. 12, No. 4, 73-93 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1357034X06070885
© 2006 SAGE Publications

Kime and the Moving Body: Somatic Codes in Japanese Martial Arts

Einat Bar-On Cohen

This article concerns kime, a somatic code used in the ‘empty hand’ Japanese martial art of karate. Kime is a tactile-kinesthetic entity born out of practice, coming into being in a social setting through the specific organization of the body-self, fusing body and self into one stance and movement. Kime is entirely embodied, yet can only be operated and recognized inter-subjectively. It plays a crucial role in combat and at the same time also indicates a spiritual possibility that depends on eradication of emotion and volition. An analysis of kime shows how cultural understandings can emerge without necessarily using symbolic representations or verbal discourse in their construction. These somatic non-dual understandings can come to form an entire world-of-meaning directly through the moving body. The moving body shapes itself within itself even as it interacts with and contributes to shape its immediate environment. This is a world-of-meaning that includes complex inter-subjectivity founded on the speed and ambiguity of the interface between the innerness and the outerness of the body. 

Key Words: body • Japan • phenomenology • practice