As I mentioned in an earlier post I train 3 or 4 nights a week under Arakaki sensei who teaches Matsubayashiryu karate which is a school of Shorin ryu, one of the traditional Okinawan styles. Arakaki sensei was a direct student of the founder of the style and is a senior instructor among karate sensei in Okinawa. So he has years of history and learning stored up and will often offer up an interesting fact or piece of karate history in between training exercises. Some of it is karate politics which isn't something I would dwell on in this blog but suffice to say its as common in the karate community in Okinawa as it is elsewhere. People don't always get on and often choose not to cooperate but focus on their own way. That's pretty much the same everywhere.
More interesting are the little insights into karate development and history which pop up from time to time. Today , as we were practising kata and bunkai (the application of the kata), he said that 'old' karate does contain throwing and joint locking techniques in addition to strikes and kicks (that's no major revelation - the 'rediscovery' of this old karate knowledge is a major theme for many karateka around the world) but the reason strikes and kicks became much more heavily emphasised was in part to distinguish karate from judo, ju jitsu and aikido when karate was competing for recognition and prominence in Japan and other countries. I understood from what he said that there was a conscious decision by the leading Okinawan sensei to focus on presenting and teaching the striking, and particularly use of punching techniques, as they were not a speciality of Japanese martial arts.
The result of this, and I'm sure other factors too, is that today in the bunkai I am learning here in Okinawa, most of the techniques are applied as blocks to straight punches and front kicks or counter striking using the same techniques. Now I know there are many alternative bunkai for these same techniques that are being taught elsewhere in other dojos that employ a much wider panopoly of striking, trapping, locking, throwing and kicking techniques, and frankly with my experience in jujitsu and actual combat I think they are often highly practical. I had wondered how the accepted bunkai in a traditional Okinawan style had become so narrow in its vocabulary of techniques. Today was a little insight into how these things happen I guess.
I have another theory on a contributing factor in the lack of throwing and ground techniques in modern karate. Every karate dojo I've been into so far in Okinawa has a polished, slightly sprung wooden floor. There are good reasons for this. One, its easy to sweep and wipe clean, two its very durable, three its very easy to move around smoothly without the friction you get from traditional straw or modern EVA tatami mats. The problem is that its too hard to safely break fall on or grapple on, unless you are exceptionally good at break falling lightly and protecting yourself. And frankly I've never see break falling practised in a karate lesson. So if the karate training environment is not built to support it, its not surprising throwing and ground work are not done. I wonder when these wooden dojo floors came into vogue? Was it because Okinawans became richer as the island recovered after the Second World War and could afford them rather than training in gardens and dusty yards as you often see in pre-war photographs of old masters and students? Was it influenced by Japanese training halls such as kendo dojo, another legacy of the 'Japanisified' karate-do the generation that included Funakoshi Gichin brought back to Okinawa from Japan?
What's to Gain from Pain?
16 years ago
