Is the English-speaking online karate world going through a bunkai craze/awakening?

[sopraisso]

I was recently discussing with a friend about how popular bunkai exploration has become in the English-speaking online karate world, and it made me wonder about this situation.

I cannot really tell about what's happening the internet in other languages, but in English it seems everyone who's looking online for karate is going to find out a lot of "new" stuff on kata bunkai ("new" when compared to the kind of thing that was shown, for example, in those JKA videos of the 80's). Most of those stuff aren't really of the greatest quality (in my opinion), but there are a few very good exceptions if one looks carefully. No matter what kind of bunkai the person finds, it seems most people tend to end up having a new view on karate after that "awakening" -- the fact that kata has inside of itself more than what was usually shown in most western (and Japanese, actually) schools a few years (or decades ago).

So my question is: do you people think there is really some kind of "bunkai craze/awakening" happening (sometimes for good bunkai, sometimes for bad, but always for something different from what was previously shown in most places) in the English-speaking online karate world? Is this revival of bunkai exploration something already evident to anyone looking for karate online?

Also note that while I mention the online world, I believe the books would be showing this new situation. But is all of this only my impression (because I tend to look at places where bunkai is indeed very present) or is this a reality that most karate practitioners (say, the adult ones, at least) are facing currently?

 

[punisher73]

I don't think it's really something new, I just think that the internet is able to connect people from all over to express and share their ideas to a much broader audience.

I think that people have been trying to figure out "bunkai" since first learning katas both in the asian cultures and the western cultures.

 

[sopraisso]

I don't think it's really something new, I just think that the internet is able to connect people from all over to express and share their ideas to a much broader audience.

I think that people have been trying to figure out "bunkai" since first learning katas both in the asian cultures and the western cultures.

That's right, punisher73. Note that I said:

"new" when compared to the kind of thing that was shown, for example, in those JKA videos of the 80's

and

what was usually shown in most western (and Japanese, actually) schools a few years (or decades ago)

I surely don't mean people haven't been trying to figure out bunkai, I'm sure they have, and surely from old times, but that wasn't the majority of karate schools in the last decades. So what I'm talking about now is the idea of having bunkai exploration becoming widespread or not today - that's the question.

So do you think bunkai exploration has become a widespread fact?

 

[FullPotentialMA]

More karate bunkai? I don't think it's "new". It is just that today's communications flow at a faster speed, with YouTube, blogs, and forums allowing people to publish much more easily than in past years.
It seems that almost every martial arts school or karate school feels a need to post some bunkai / application videos online.
We certainly see it here with martial arts schools in San Diego.
A sign of the times?

 

[K-man]

I think it is relatively new. When I was first training Goju Kai back in the early '80s there was no bunkai. My then chief instructor went to Japan in about '84 or '85 and helped in the forming of the Goju Kai bunkai. When he came back to Australia, we started practising it. Compared with what we understand today it was primitive. Sadly, it is still being taught in some places. All our sparring in those days was tournament style sparring so all our drills and bunkai was practised from sparring distance. Now, apart from the entering, all our sparring is at grappling distance. The difference between bunkai hands on and bunkai at close range is chalk and cheese. The first Westerner I am aware of that promoted that type of kata application was George Dillman and I have some of his early material. IMO probably the next person to jump in was Iain Abernethy.

What really lit my fire was when I met and trained with Masaji Taira Sensei from Okinawa and the rest, as they say, is history.

I think it is really only the last 30 years or less that this search has been on in earnest. I know, in Okinawa it goes back much further but they weren't showing many Westerners. Even now the bunkai they are showing is just the tip of the iceberg. What they are saying is, "go explore for yourselves, we've given you the key to the shop".

Most of the bunkai you see posted is pretty ordinary. The good stuff is out there but the guys that have spent the time working through it are certainly not giving it away cheaply, and I don't blame them for that. We had a clown on this forum some time back who was insisting such material should be posted free so someone lazy like him could see what we were talking about.

So yes, there is a new exiting awakening occurring, a little bit like when biologists find a new species that they weren't aware existed. For many of us it has certainly extended our karate lives as you now have more than several lifetimes of research available to you. I remember not long after I started karate I was told that by about 45 I would be too old to do much more. I was about 35 at the time. Thirty years on and I reckon I've still got another 25 years in me, thanks to the interest sparked by the bunkai.
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