So you have a logo. Great! But what does it all mean?
Excellent question. I put a great deal of thought into this logo. It makes more sense if you know what I was thinking when I designed the logo.
It is a compilation of many years thought going into various logos. Let’s start with the oldest piece — the circle. On my first trip to Japan and Okinawa I came across a wall hanging with what to me looks like a stylized version of Te in kanji. I liked it so much I bought it. That door hanging was in the doorway of my home office for years. It too had a circle like the one in the logo.
Next came the three mountains. Long before I moved to Colorado with my daily view of Pikes Peak I came up with the three mountains. Three mountains? Isn’t that a little over kill? Well, no. In this case the three has multiple meanings…three?
- Single, double, face as Taika used to call the blocks
- The beginning of your karate journey, the middle, and the end
- Your karate journey is like climbing a mountain. When you start you look up and think “Wow look at that guy up there. He must know so much!” Then you look around and what you see is trees. As you start to climb you gain elevation (knowledge). When you get Shodan you pause to look around. You see how high you’ve climbed. You look up and still see that guy up top that knows way more than you do. You glance back and see that with this new elevation you can see more of the trees. As you climb higher you gain more rank. You still see that guy at the top and think “Wow he still knows so much more than I do.” You look around and reflect when you gain elevation. Soon you clear tree line. When you look back you see how much bigger the world is than you thought when you started surrounded by trees. Now you see the trees, the plain, and the skyline. You realize with all you’ve gained you have shrunk because the world (of knowledge) is much greater than you knew when you started. As you gain you can no longer just climb straight up but you encounter switchbacks. You have to cover a much greater distance to make a smaller gain in elevation. Much like you gain higher rank at a slower pace because each level requires a greater amount of skill and knowledge than the last rank. In summary, your karate journey will take a lifetime and at the end you will have gained a vast amount of knowledge and yet realize what you know is small compared to what there is to know.
Next came the mon. It’s kind of like a moon over the mountains. In my mind that is Taika (his family crest is the bi-foil) watching over my school, students, and myself. Because Taika inducted me into his family art of Shin Shu Ho Ryu I was told I could use the bi-foil in my logo.
Finally the kanji for my school name. Kyoshi Gary Shull, my first instructor in Taika Seiyu Oyata’s Life Protection Art was generous enough to not only give me a school name but the time and effort he put into Place of Profound Research humbles me. I will always strive to live up to the faith placed in me by Gary, Jim, Greg, and Taika.