Bunkai - Fact or Myth

There are a number of questions we need to ask ourselves when looking for Bunkai in our Kata.

Bunkai - fact or myth? 

• First -- why did the Okinawan hide techniques in their Kata?

• Second -- are we sure that they did actually hide Pressure Point Techniques?

• Finally, if they did actually hide information, how did they withhold this knowledge?

  You have to ask yourself the question, "if England was invaded by another country, how willing would we be to teach our combat secrets to the 'enemy'?"

In this article, Bunkai - Fact or Myth, we will examine these questions.
 
 Let us look at an old Okinawan karate tradition.
 
 If we travel back in time for a moment, karate was taught secretly. Because of weapons and martial arts bans placed on the Okinawan by the Japanese (the Tokugawa Edict being only one of these) it was illegal to practice martial arts.
 
 To keep the tradition of martial arts practice alive, many Okinawan practiced karate and kobudo (Weapons) at night away from the prying eyes of the Japanese military.

 Furthermore, karate was something regarded as almost sacred. A father shared his knowledge of Tuite and Kyusho Jutsu only with his sons and family. 

It was revered and passed down from generation to generation. 

It was not taught at a local dojo were just anyone could learn the family's deadly art.

With time, the Okinawan began to become more daring with their martial arts practice. To bring karate out into the "daylight," the Okinawan developed Kata. 

The closest English translation for Kata is "dance." 

They were able to convince the Japanese government that these Kata were only an artistic expression of their heritage. At the same time, Kata was a means for them to continue their martial arts practice in public.
 
 In order for this to work, though, they had to "blunt" their techniques slightly. Movements took on a more circular and softer nature. Techniques mere made to "flow softly and gracefully."
 
 Remember, at this time, karate was not practiced outside of Okinawa; not even the Japanese had learned of its combat effectiveness.
 
 Later, when the martial arts bans were lifted by the Japanese and karate became legal again, the purpose of Kata changed. Now with many years of karate practice and the efforts of a few masters who had traveled to China and elsewhere to learn martial arts, karate became more public. 
 
 Small dojo began to open to the public and for the first time karate became the national pastime. As these masters aged and neared death, some of their students formalized their teachings and structured them in such a way as to help them remember the techniques that their Instructor had taught them.
  
 Kata were developed consisting of a combination of the techniques that an instructor had taught. By combining the techniques and putting them into a defined pattern and order, students gained a memory aid to help them practice the techniques. In this way, Kata was a way of preventing the loss of information. 
 
 As time passed and the students became the instructors, they used Kata as a means to teach their students. By this time, Kata had become the primary means of teaching karate.
 
  As karate began to be taught to school-age children, high importance was placed on the performance of the techniques and the basic techniques with less importance placed on the application of the techniques.  

Students became instructors in some cases without ever learning Bunkai or even knowing of its existence!

With the public knowledge of karate, instructors fortunate enough to know the Bunkai of the Kata were often not trusting enough to share this knowledge with just anyone. 

Fame and fortune were not as important to these men. This knowledge of Tuite and Kyusho Jitsu were only taught to their most trusted and closest students (always of a very high Dan rank). These students often had studied with their instructor for many years  and most were older in age themselves (at an age that prevented them from abusing their knowledge). Of course in some instances, instructors died without ever passing along this information to anyone. Karate continued to be taught in this manner for a number of years to follow.

<< Previous    [1]  2    Next >>