Shintoism gives us the yin-n-yang or in-n-yo and that is often symbolized by both an open mouth and a closed mouth on the Korean Lion-dogs on each side of the gate, Torii gate, upon entering a Shinto shrine. The mouth is in a closed position when spitting but in an open position when drinking. Spitting is a hard technique, yang, and the act of drinking is a soft technique, yin.
When you connect the significance of In-Yo to karate then to the driving culture of Shintoism it helps understand and explain the natural order of things being body-mind, heart-spirit, etc. that is referenced in the goku-i koan or terse tome of karate-jutsu-do.
It is said by Shintoism concepts that infinity, which, after splitting into yin and yang, give rise to the spiral of materialization. The spiral helix is everywhere in nature and the cosmos. The circulation of the Sun, moon, and Earth in the heavens is a path, a way, that is spiral in nature forming a spiral helix path through the heavens, space. Space, of course, is the void, the Tao as it infers by wu-wei.
The spiral motion forming a helix can be seen in practicing martial systems that utilize the centripetal and centrifugal fundamental principle of marital systems. As a demonstration displays it appears the participants are following a spiral path that is both centripetal and centrifugal or yin-and-yang in nature or natural flow producing and using energy through body-mind participation.
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