charleswong
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Meaning of Karate bunkai
Hi All,
This was email to me by a visitor, Carl Hooi to my website, www.karate-shotokan-kata.com
"You seem to have mis-intepret the meanings of bunkai. Bunkai refers to the content or element of the kata. How you apply these elements is referred as "oyo" in Japanese. Do you know that the kata "naihanchi" actually originated from Shaolin Chin-na Shou? Originally, it was a two-man drill. It was basically a grappling drill. Strange, how you've described Motobu to have used this kata to win his street fights. You should read more about Motobu's history to understand his family background and where he acquired his fighting skills. He could only learned Naihanchi because no karate masters wanted to teach him more. He was a naturally gifted street fighter, he had the fighting spirit but most importantly, he loved to fight just like any Greylang tiger generals."
Carl.
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12/28/2003, 2:38 am
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charleswong
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Re: Meaning of Karate bunkai
Hi All,
This was my reply to Carl Hooi's email above, for the understanding of all other visitors to my website.
"Thank you for your kind and enlightening comments. I'm aware of all that you have said, and strictly speaking, you are absolutely correct.
For me, there are many ways that applications of Karate can be called, such as kata-bunkai or kata-oyo and sometimes kata interpretation are called that too. So in a very loose term, I refer to the content of kata as Karate applications for the simple understanding everyone because my website focus on jutsu, and not terminology. For many of us here in Kissaki-Kai, kata is a dictionary of fighting techniques and we refer to it as a toolbox for fighting.
Due to our way of learning and practicing Karate and research, especially from martial scholar closed to our founder like Patrick McCarthy, we are aware of the transition and evolution of Karate from Chinese Shaolin Chin-Na Shou. And YES, it's refreshing to know you are aware too that originally it was a two-man drill, which is called tegumi drill and we practice many variations of that here as our main staple, different from the standard tripartite way of kihon-kata-kumite practiced in most "traditional" Karate dojos, although it's not necessary a grappling drill solely. Free style 2-man randori sparring would be more effective to learn grappling.
I read about Motobu from the Bubishi and some of our internal texts (we have many, but for members only). You are right about the part that nobody wants to teach Motobu but I think you missed my point. My point was learning one kata is enough if you know or understand it deep enough. After all, Funakoshi sensei took 3 years to learn and practice the Naihanchi kata. We practice certain applications within Naihanchi that we think makes it a very deadly kata, from Naihanchi Shodan to Sandan, and based on certain texts from Motobu on how he applied those deadly techniques to win fights and inflict maximum damage. I cannot comment about Motobu pre-disposition to fight, but we know most of those fights are challenged fights (willing participants), so in this aspect it's not so different from those UFC, Pride, K-1 and other NHB fights today. From my perspective, he learned to fight effectively this way too.
Finally, yes I belonged to the KDT Academy but what I present in my website are my views, and with permission from few of masters mentioned on the website, their articles too. We like to think we are not rigid and therefore, Karate is an individual thing and it means different thing to different people. So this website showcase my version of Karate and few other combative arts I've experienced or found effective. I'm sorry if my terminology is off but that is not the purpose of the site. It was called Karate Shotokan kata because we believed Shotokan kata are the foundation of a very effective fighting system called loosely as Karate..."
Best Training,
Charles.
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12/28/2003, 2:42 am
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RokuEmpi
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 Re: Meaning of Karate bunkai and Motobu
Motobu is worth commenting on for bunkai he applied very practical uses of Bunkai like in the kata you stated "naifanchin" or tekki shodan (if you parctice shotokan). Two good sources on street wise Bunkai that can be applied to self defense include articles, seminars and videos from Sensei McCarthy, 8th Dan - a world authority on Bunkai (and he wrote a biography on Motobu as well). Also naifanchin and many other kata bunkai can found in video download form at www.DownloadKarate.com.
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7/16/2005, 1:33 pm
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