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# Tohkon — Fighting Spirit 闘魂
- URL: https://www.gojukarate.com/tohkon-fighting-spirit/
- Published: 2023-09-19T15:30:28.000Z
- Updated: 2023-09-19T15:30:28.000Z
- Description: Fighting spirit powers us through, over, under, and around the obstacles that we are sure to face as we pursue the objectives that support our goals. We practice our fighting spirit on the dojo floor so that we use it when we need it outside the dojo.
- Author: Goju Karate
- Tags: Karatedo

**Tohkon 闘魂** **\[** **pronounced "toe-kon"\] “koh-koh-row”** literally means “fighting soul”, or “fighting spirit” – **tohkon** is the energy and strength inside your spirit that helps you to power through obstacles, to make your way through a forest of difficulties and come out the other side, accomplished and fulfilled.

### Synthesizing Fighting Spirit

To have **tohkon**, we must practice so many other fundamental parts of karatedo. We need ***wa*** (harmony and balance; [read more](https://www.gojukarate.com/harmony-wa/)), we need a strong ***kokoro*** (spirit; read more), and we need ***kime*** (the focus of knowing and pursuing our goal; [read more](https://www.gojukarate.com/kime-decisive-and-more/)).

**Tohkon** is one of the concepts in karatedō that is easiest to talk about and most difficult to have. In general, our need and appreciation of our fighting spirit usually comes at a time when we need it most: on the fourteenth pushup of a twenty-pushup set; when our legs hurt and ache and yet there is another half-hour of kicking drills left in class; when our project at work has nay-sayers and detractors blocking progress and sapping our energy.

Still, it is for this very reason that **tohkon** needs to be experienced, practiced, and cultivated in class. 

Powering past the fourteenth pushup despite the burning in your shoulders will train your **tohkon** as much as it will train your pectoral muscles. And the next day, at work, that strengthened **tohkon** will help you persevere through the obstacles facing your project; as surely as you finished your twentieth pushup, you’ll know you can finish your project.

### Through, Around, Under, and Over Obstacles

We are guaranteed – absolutely – of facing challenges and obstacles in our daily life. What our fighting spirit is for, however, is finding ways around those obstacles.

Even if that means unorthodox movement, retreating, recasting or redirecting our objectives – we must find a way to move towards our goals. **Tohkon** is as much about preverance as it is anything else. The energy to keep going, sometimes seemingly away from our objective so that we might maneuver around an obstacle, is what **tohkon** gives us.

Fighting spirit is also something that gives us that "extra edge" or that last little push that we need. **Tohkon** isn't an "always-on" superpower that we have. We can call on it, and there is a cost involved in terms of our focus and energy.

But when we need it, our tohkon is there to push us forward when we most need it.

### The Magic of Fighting Spirit

People often speak of “strength of will” – this is **tohkon**. Many times, those with **tohkon** seem almost magically to overcome obstacles and to make things happen almost out of thin air. 

There is no magic involved, however. 

Rather, their strong fighting spirit gives them the calm, focused assurance that no matter what the obstacles, no matter what the difficulties, they will persevere. 

**Tohkon** is not magic, but its effect for those that possess it, perhaps, has that quality of magic. 

Cultivate and exercise tohkon in class, so that you might have it in all parts of your life.

| Kanji/Katakana | Meaning                           |
| -------------- | --------------------------------- |
| 闘魂             | fighting spirit \[soul\] (tohkon) |

**Editor's Note:** *This lecture was first delivered by Sensei at the Goju Karate dojo in Mill Valley, California on 9 April 2012; this concept was presented again at the Goju Karate NYC Dojo on 6 September 2023.*