Hi everyone. I've been studying Goju-Ryu for 28 years, and have been doing a deep dive on bunkai for the last year. It's been incredibly rewarding, but one question has been bothering me. I can't understand how the applications were lost in the first place. The "standard" bunkai, at least for goju, is simply nonsense. It isn't good marial arts, it isn't good fighting, and it doesn't follow the kata. I would blame it on modern misunderstandings, but I recently got a copy of Mabuni's book on Seipai kata, and it is the same. He was a friend of Miyagi. Did Miyagi not understand the bunkai? How deep does this rabbit hole go? I understand that Itosu introduced watered-down explainations of the kata when he started teaching in the schools. It makes sense that that would create confusion, but I don't see how it would lead to the total loss of the bunkai even in direct lineages. And it doesn't explain why such a renowned karate master like Mabuni would publish a book that he had to know was full of misinformation.
I've got to be missing something. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Hi Jonathan,
There are a few key factors:
1) Karate was in decline, so the shift to being a “modern budo” (like Judo and Kendo) was seen as a way for it to have a future.
2) The primary goal of the modern budo was to produce strong minds and bodies. Combative function was not a primary driver. The applications of the kata were therefore of little concern.
3) Almost all of the books we have come from when karate as “modern budo” was firmly established. There was no market for books (not enough karateka) prior to this point. The books are useful to us when they reference the older version of karate; even though most of what is shown reflects the karate of the time i.e. they are writing for the audience they had.
4) One of the main ways that karate spread was through the Japanese education system. Students therefore learnt a superficial version of the art:
5) The other budo arts had a huge influence on karate i.e. the 3 step and 5 step drills of judo and kendo being badly copied which results in the long rage “oi-zuki-thons” of modern pre-arranged kumite … which in turn had a negative effect on the way kata was viewed.
6) WW2 resulted in the death of many leading karateka and a huge disruption in organised training. At the end of the war, we have the remaining karateka – most of whom learnt the superficial budo version – grouping back together to standardise.
The bunkai was not deemed important anymore. Generally speaking, no one wanted to teach it and no one wanted to learn it.
They were writing for the audience of the time. The karateka of that time were learning the budo version of Itosu’s children’s version. A book on the old version of karate would not sell in great numbers. We can look at Motobu’s and Itoman’s books to see the combative version of the art, but it needs to be remembered that both men were minority players during their own time (we know almost nothing about Itoman). It is only now that interest in combative function has resurfaced that their works have risen in popularity. Funakoshi was the main voice of that time, with other popular karateka following his lead.
All of the leading players of the time adopted a budo approach. You could not become a leading player if you did not, because that is the karate people wanted to learn and that the authorities wanted to promote.
If Funakoshi had not done his thing, karate would, in all likelihood, have died out. It certainly would not enjoy the huge popularity it has today. However, it is fair to say that not everyone was comfortable with him taking the lead or enjoying the popularity he did:
I think he knew it, but he also understood the need for a modern version. His plan was to preserve the traditional kata, but create new “kata which are suitable for students of primary schools, high schools, universities and youth schools” (my highlights):
It seems to me as if Miyagi was keen to produce a separate budo version of karate, while preserving the older version alongside it.
Pretty much all attempts all attempts at new budo kata failed to take hold, but what did become prevalent was the teaching of the old kata in a new way (as physical conditioning and divorced from combative function). That is the karate that spread.
The “Kasai no Genri” are Goju’s “bunkai rules” and according to Seikichi Toguchi – who shared them in his writing – these were taught to him by Chojun Miyagi. These rules are solid and guide us away from “3K applications”. They are also consistent with what other masters wrote about the true applications of kata. They are good evidence that Miyagi understood bunkai and taught it to some students; even though it was budo version that dominated wider practise for the aforementioned reasons.
I hope that’s of some help.
All the best,
Iain
Thanks for the reply. It helps a lot. I guess I never considered that the Miyagi/Motobu/Funakoshi generation were the ones changing karate. I always assumed it happened after them, but does explain a lot. And thanks for the quotes. I'm trying to read all I can from early karate so new sources to run down are always great.