I've read a lot of critisisms of Japanese karate on various discussion forums. Typically, that critisism comes down to :

a) It's different from Okinawan karate (and therefore 'wrong').
b) It's not optimised for self-defence.

I'd always known Japanese karate was very different from Okinawan karate, and karate had never been taught to me as self-defence. But it's always a little tricky to tell someone what Japanese karate is all about. If it's not true to it's roots (Okinawan karate), and it's not optimised to be a good form of self-defence, then what's it all about?

Well, I think the key is to look at what modern budo is all about. And central to that seems to be something called 'Shugyo' (roughly translated as self-improvement through hard training).

Shugyo seems to be talked about frequently in Aikido circles, but is less well known in karate circles.

So, my question is....

What is shugyo, and how has it shaped shotokan karate?