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I often wonder whether bunkai was taught much in karate at all. Hohan Soken is the only karateka of note that I have seen evidence of advanced knowledge of kata. He was the grandson of Soken Mutsumura, one of the true legends. Soken Matsumura, Kanryo Higaonna and Kanbun Uechi all studied versions of Kung fu to a very high level in China before bringing their knowledge back to Okinawa and incorporating it into the local 'Te'. I would assume the had a very high understanding of the kata they brought back with them.Mr Abernethy may come from a Wado background, however his approach is very un Wado in my experience.
Wado-ryu does not have Bunkai - or at least not in the "Okinawan" karate sense.
That said, I am not saying that what he does is bad - far from it, but it's definitely not Wado.
Sojobo
Thank you for this info. I had the idea Dillman got his info from Hohan Soken as some of the material I have has come from there. Coincidently, it is the same material circulated by Erle Montaigue, so I just assumed it was of Chinese origin.In the 1970s, Peter Carbone Sensei help Taika Oyata come to the United States. Eventually, Oyata decided to make his home there. The style that Oyata taught was Ryu Kyu Kempo. George Dillman went to an Oyata Seminar early on and had his mind blown and that's how Dillman got his start. I guess, as the story goes, Oyata actually promoted Dillman to 7th degree blackbelt in Ryu Kyu Kempo in order to encourage him to keep developing his ideas, but Dillman steered into weird waters and Oyata cut ties with him. Further, I guess the main reason that Oyata changed the name of his style to Ryu Te was to distinguish himself from Dillman, who was using the name Ryu Kyu Kempo.
At any rate, Taika Oyata is probably one of the foremost experts in the United States on the topic of bunkai. I've gone to a seminar taught by him, hosted at one of his senior student's dojos in Moorhead, Minnesota. Oyata did things with traditional karate kata that I have never seen before. Oyata has precision striking, knowledge of anatomy, and combines it all with body manipulations and footwork. And he ties it all back to the kata. So, if you are looking for other sources within the US, people who are experts on the topic of bunkai and can teach you how it all relates back to kata, look no further then Oyata and Ryu Te.
http://www.ryute.com/
As a side note, my Tang Soo Do teacher learned bunkai from one of Oyata's direct students. He earned a shodan in Ryu Kyu Kempo before the name changed to Ryu Te. So, this is the source of the bunkai in my art. Essentially, my teacher began the process of dissecting the traditional TSD kata in the way that he was taught from his studies of Ryu Kyu Kempo and, since our arts kata share a similar lineage, much of the knowledge was directly transferable. Therefore, I owe a lot of my knowledge of bunkai to Oyata Sensei.
Taika was also introduced to Master Wakinaguri who was a Chinese Martial Artist and was also a Bushi warrior. Master Wakinaguri was asked to teach Taika the art of vital point striking and pressure point striking, techniques for which Master Wakinaguri was renowned. http://www.ryushu.com/oyata.html
...so I just assumed it was of Chinese origin...It seems that both his teachers, Uhugusiku and Wakinaguri, were descended from the '36 Chinese families' of Okinawa.
Kara Te = China Hand
There probably isn't much that is Okinawan that isn't also Chinese.
Actually, Kara te does NOT mean Chinese Hand
The proper earlier reference is Tang Te _ China Hand
Kara can mean Empty or Tang, which refers to China.
Nope. You are mistaken...Kara is in no reference to "China"
Kara and/or Te, is purely a Japanese reference-term
Around the late sixteenth century A.D., during the Sui dynasty of China, Karate was called Te by the Okinawan people. Te means hand. The term Te took the prefix To and thus became To-Te, but it is pronounced as Tode. This prefix (Chinese ideograph) To can also be read as Kara; therefore, this ideographic combination can be read either as Tode or Karate.
Why and when this change took place is not known since there are virtually no written references to the native art of the Okinawans; the scant information that we have is based on oral transmission of the traditions. In the following speculation, however, we can see some very tangible evidence of this change.
The first character of Tode, To, is the symbol of T'ang, the name of the great Chinese dynasty which flourished between 618-906 A.D. and influenced Okinawan and Japanese culture in many ways. In fact, so great was the admiration of the T'ang by Okinawans and Japanese that, in the centuries that followed the demise of this great dynasty, the character To (read as Kara) was used as an adjective meaning "China." Thus, Tode can also imply "hand that came from China." So important and long-lasting was the Chinese influence that Tode did not change into the word Karate until approximately 1894.
I have some strong sources that seem to indicate that the character for Kara can be read as "China".
If you have some information that would overturn this, I would surely like to see it. I would also like for my schools Japanese teacher, who is a skilled Wado stylist, to see it as well.
Ah, yes. I agree with you 100%. The kata can easily work with grappling. The reason I said "developing something more suited to ground work", is because a lot of the kata portrays very nasty, or lethal, techniques. Strikes with the point of the elbow, eye gouges, throat grabs, neck cranks, groin grabs, etc are all frowned upon in MMA competition. If you were to use kata for MMA (and I'm not suggesting you would) then the rules would have to be taken into account. But, on the other hand, I don't believe kata was intended for use against trained martial artists either.According to Iain though, who like myself comes from Wado Ryu, there are techniques within the katas for ground work. He is a Judoka as well so can see the movements that work on the ground. Even I can see some and I have to work at it usually. Watching Iain I get alot of 'ah so that's what that is' moments!
I agree that a lot of Okinawan martial arts are based on Chinese practice, but the Okinawans didn't import everything they learned. On top of that, a lot of what they learned was not passed on when karate was being used to promote health and fitness in schools and universities. I think we are fortunate now to be training in the time a lot of the applications are being rediscovered.Kara Te = China Hand
There probably isn't much that is Okinawan that isn't also Chinese.
You have taken this out of context.
Kara and Te, is Japanese reference
Tang/Tode/Tuti, is the Chinese Reference
Saying Karate is reference per translation to Chinese Hand is like incorrectly saying if you speak Chinese, you can speak Japanese because they are both from Asia.
Now, in actual distinction, Tode/Tang originally had translated as Chinese Hand, but via the Japanese occupation they changed it to mean "Kara-Te, Empty Hand", as this was a attempt for the Japanese to get rid of the Chinese association
Ah, yes. I agree with you 100%. The kata can easily work with grappling. The reason I said "developing something more suited to ground work", is because a lot of the kata portrays very nasty, or lethal, techniques. Strikes with the point of the elbow, eye gouges, throat grabs, neck cranks, groin grabs, etc are all frowned upon in MMA competition. If you were to use kata for MMA (and I'm not suggesting you would) then the rules would have to be taken into account. But, on the other hand, I don't believe kata was intended for use against trained martial artists either.
And, I can identify with the 'aha' moments. We all had the same experience the first time we trained with Taira. You could see the lights coming on all over the place. Iain came to Melbourne two years ago and unfortunately I was away at the time. I'm really looking forward to next time he visits. :asian:
Can it?
I'd say an easier way to learn how to grapple was to learn grappling?
As a Wado-ka and a Jujutsu-ka - I can understand where you guys are coming from but I think you are wasting your time if I am being honest.
Trying to shoe-horn jujutsu techniques into Karate Kata (particularly Wado kata) is like reverse engineering to me.
And it completely misses the point of doing solo kata in the first place imo.
We aren't learning jujutsu from Wado Ryu kata at all, we were saying that there are takedowns and grappling movements in it. Ohtsuka Sensei was a Jujutsu master so it's more than likely that there are grappling movements in the kata, you put in what you know after all.
Takedowns and grappling may be needed for defence, being on the floor isn't ideal, far from it but you don't not learn to fight on the floor just because of that. Fighting isn't ideal but we learn to do it for self defence.
http://iainabernethy.co.uk/article/karate-grappling-did-it-really-exist
What do you think the point of solo kata is?
Hmm - What sort of Jujutsu do you think Otsuka was a master of?
In most main stream wado schools - the closest you will come to "ground work" is Idori - and to understand that, you have to look at where wado comes from.
Here is a good essay on the subject by Tim Shaw:
http://www.wadoryu.org.uk/jujutsu.html
As to what the purpose of solo kata is...
Have a read of that first
Sojobo