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JD
JD's picture
Old original footage of karate 'self defense'

Hi,

Hope everyone's well and good.

I've posted a link below showing Enoeda sensei, Asai sensei, kanazawa sensei and Nakayama sensei (Shotokan) demonstrating what they thought was usuable and practical self defense back in the day.

They made this film/footage to show other's the benefits of being able to defend against possible real life attackers and encourage more to take up karate.

The only reasons I'm posting this, is simply for enjoyment of watching and to highlight how karate and it's practitioners have advanced and progressed since then. 

It's obvious the content is as far from what this site promotes, however, it's for that reason I thought it would be fun to post and share.

My fav is the beach scene, talk about knife defense! :-)

All the best,

JD

Neil Babbage
Neil Babbage's picture

I enjoyed this, great fun. Of course we can see the correct principles underlying the stylised unrealistic scenario, which makes it a shame that the principles were hidden. For example, you can see the hand defence (deflecting the incoming weapon or limb), the body defence (moving off the line) and the almost simultaneous strike to a vulnerable body part. Pity it couldn’t dress it up in a more realistic scenario although maybe muggers fought like that in Japan!

JD
JD's picture

Hi Neil Babbage,

Neil Babbage wrote:
Pity it couldn’t dress it up in a more realistic scenario although maybe muggers fought like that in Japan!

I agree, shame they didn't shine a more appropriate light on it all, it's easy to see how the unintiated could get the wrong assumption from footage like this. Who know's, maybe muggers did attack like this :-)

All the best,

JD

sarflondonboydo...
sarflondonboydonewell's picture

The film  accompanied a book series called practical karate by Nakayama and Donn F Draeger. There were 6 books; I think they are still avialable in book and kindle form. On a personal note Japan is a very safe society in terms of personal violence; street robbery etc. The murder rate has been dropping since the late 1950s and has one of the lowest in the world per head of population. They know very little about self defence; they practice martial arts for the 'arts' part; in my experince 'self defence' is the last thing they train for. However since the late 80s driven by more Japanese people  travelling overseas to live, work and sightsee their has been more emphasis than in the past on self defence per say.

JD
JD's picture

Hi sarflondonboydonewell, 

sarflondonboydonewell wrote:
The film  accompanied a book series called practical karate by Nakayama and Donn F Draeger. There were 6 books; I think they are still avialable in book and kindle form.

Thanks for the tip, purely out of interest, I might look them up and see what the books have to offer in addition.

sarflondonboydonewell wrote:

On a personal note Japan is a very safe society in terms of personal violence; street robbery etc. The murder rate has been dropping since the late 1950s and has one of the lowest in the world per head of population. They know very little about self defence; they practice martial arts for the 'arts' part; in my experince 'self defence' is the last thing they train for. However since the late 80s driven by more Japanese people  travelling overseas to live, work and sightsee their has been more emphasis than in the past on self defence per say.

That's very interesting, I've never travelled to Japan myself and so can't comment on it's culture or society in regards violence, I will visit one day and look forward to the trip when I finally get around to it. I have talked to some Japanese friends that have instructed at my club and they've all confirmed what you say above to some degree, most highlighted the fact violence emanates from foreigners now resident there and not so much the indigenous population itself.

Obviously there's a difference between Okinawan martial arts and Japanese arts, maybe the above is true regards traditional Japanese karate styles and maybe doesn't apply to the Okinawan styles. 

Interesting point and one I can't comment on much considering my experience with how things run in Japan, the thought of them needing to learn due to travel makes good sense, even more so, because of foreigners coming into their territory. 

All the best,

JD