One of my passions in Karate is for finding realistic bunkai (applications) to our kata (patterns/forms). 

But first I believe that it is important for people to understand that a lot of what we are taught today in traditional Oriental martial arts has been very deliberately dumbed down.

Going back to the 1800's, the bodyguards to the King of Okinawa practiced a very ruthless and effective form of Karate called Shuri-Te.  It had to be ruthlessly efficient as these bodyguards were unarmed (by Japanese rule) yet may have to face not only armed men, but a superior number of them.

However, when the King of Okinawa was deposed and removed by the Emperor of Japan and eventually died in exile from Okinawa; the bodyguards were no longer bound by their oath of loyalty and secrecy.  One of the most prominent of these bodyguards, Master Itosu, was instrumental in having Karate introduced into the Okinawan school system. 

However, you can’t have school children braking each other’s arms and legs in playground brawls, so it was “dumbed down”.  Moves that could break an arm would be explained as “blocking a straight punch”.  The bodyguards would have trained to protect their king.  They did not see other martial artists or Karate masters as being the main threat, so they would not have had to worry too much about blocking straight punches.  Yet today, Karate training is largely obsessed with just that (blocking straight punches).  The techniques that have been handed down to us from Master Itosu and his comrades would have been useless to them if practiced that way.  And actually, they are often useless to us today when only practiced that way.  Even when we do practice blocking straight punches, when we are sparring our basic blocking techniques are almost impossible to use (and this is against people who do use straight punches which the creators of these techniques would not have faced).

Later when Master Gichen Funikoshi introduced Karate from Okinawa to Japan, the Japanese were beginning to view traditional martial arts as obsolete except for physical and character development.  Add to this that because of the hangover from Japan’s feudal past, fighting empty handed was seen as low class brawling.  Gentlemen fought honourably with swords, so the dice was loaded to continue the dumbing down.

After the Second World War two more factors kept Karate’s true nature hidden.  When the Americans occupied Japan, they banned martial arts for obvious reasons.  In order to gain permission to train, the Japanese had to make a case that Karate was not a real martial art, but a form of self development and a sport.  With the stylised attacks and blocks, it would not have too hard to make that case. 

Then of course after the death of Funikoshi, the Japanese got more and more into competition fighting, which had no place for the original vicious and ruthless bone crunching techniques of the past.

Even today, the Japanese have a very law abiding society and woman can walk the streets of Tokyo late at night, alone and without fear of attack.  So they see no need for self defence.  Most Japanese Karate instructors gear their training for competition, because success in the tournament circuit is how the success of their Dojo is measured.

Shihan Yokota, 8th Dan Shotokan Karate who I recently had the privilege to have a good chat to, says that the Japanese people have almost completely lost the will to fight both on an individual level and as a nation. 

So where does that leave us in the West (who live in more violent societies) who are interested in learning Karate as a martial art and effective form of self defence rather than just a sport or means of self development.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the self development side is very important.  However, I don’t see that you need to do one or the other.  You can have effective self defence as well as self development (which Karate is very good for).

Basically we have to take responsibility ourselves for making our art effective as a form of self defence.  Most Japanese masters (but not all) will not teach us realistic self defence.  Many Karateka have also studied other martial arts like JuJutsu or Aikido (and others) and have been able to read across from those styles to recognise applications from some our katas.  Others have gone to Okinawa to study with some of the hidden gems who managed to escape the dumbing down of mainstream Karate.  But more and more, realistic applications are being introduced back into Karate to make it a realistic form of self defence as it was always intended to be.  More and more, people are learning to apply movements from their katas to fend of common street attacks (which you are most likely to face) like haymakers, grabs, strangles etc., rather than only learning to block straight punches with unlikely blocking techniques (which you are not likely to be attacked with and only really work in the dojo).

Karate is coming back home.  One of my goals as a martial artist and Karateka is to empower other Karateka to be able to recognise and work out effective bunkai for themselves, which is why I give away a free 5 part video course from my blog.  If you are interested in making your Karate more realistic and being able to empower yourself to work out practical street self defence techniques from your katas, then go to my blog at www.BunkaiJutsu.com and get the course for free.