Core Bunkai

 I don’t know if it has subsided yet, but there was a period of time – let’s say 2005 to 2015 – where bunkai exploded. Suddenly the karate world was all about kata applications.

 I think this coincided with the maturation of the internet and social media. Suddenly there were YouTube channels and Facebook groups that really spread the word about bunkai and how to practice it. They also spread the word about bunkai books and DVDs. I really enjoyed this and think it was good for the art as a whole. I certainly feel that I took advantage of it.*

The dojo I grew up in always practiced bunkai applications. It was part of the testing requirements for each kata, but that is where it ended. There were allusions to “layers” of bunkai or higher-level applications, but the kata were never revisited to extract these applications and we never did “deep dives” into a single kata. Looking back, I view many of these bunkai as superficial, block-kick-punch level bunkai.

My bunkai practice today is very different. I have been trying to practice bunkai with the same level of repetition that is normally given to basic techniques. I want to get to the point where the movements are ingrained in my mind and body so that less conscious thought is needed. I’ve found this practice to be more mentally challenging than physically and it’s a ninteresting change of pace. (Other than that, I’m mainly splitting my limited training time between kata and general fitness.)

I am comfortable doing this because I have a solid set of bunkai for each Goju-ryu kata to work through. I also think practicing the bunkai for all the kata, instead of focusing exclusively on one at a time, will provide more insight into the art and how the kata relate to each other. (I have also stopped practicing bunkai entirely for the non-Goju kata I know, for reasons I’ll detail in a different post).

The difference with my current practice is really a philosophical one. Don’t get me wrong, many of the applications themselves are different from what I first learned, but fundamentally I’ve come to believe that there is a single core bunkai for each kata move. Not an endless number of interpretations, but an actual application that the kata was built from.

To say it another way, it makes more sense to me that the defensive applications came first and were then codified as kata over time. Whoever made up the kata built them around defensive applications they wanted to preserve. Kata was a method of transmitting information, particularly useful when people can’t read or write, there’s no photography or video, and some of these techniques need to be kept secret.

Our job as karateka is to understand what these core bunkai are and preserve them. I think this is why Chojun Miyagi was clear on the need to preserve the classical kata at the 1936 meeting of karate masters in Okinawa (Isshin Concentration – Sanzinsoo translation) and why the very first Goju-ryu precept says “It should be known that the secret principles of Goju-ryu exist within the kata”.

The bunkai I practice is, I assume, reasonably close to what the core bunkai must have been. Or at least I don’t think I can get much closer without more study. And I’m not exactly in a position to get more information from an old master… so basically I’m happy with what I have and think it’s worth polishing more. (Again, I’ll have to follow up with a post on just why I think the bunkai I practice should qualify as core bunkai.)

But the other advantage of this perspective on bunkai is simple – you have a fixed set of techniques to practice. I think bunkai interpretation can be fun, creative, imaginative, etc., but it leaves the student with a catalog of techniques – possibly unrelated to each other – to apply in a range of situations. Practicing bunkai felt like an impossible task – there were so many movements, so many variations, I spent years collecting bunkai for my kata that I felt were both effective and reflective of the Goju-ryu strategy.

These days that confusion has been stripped away. I feel more unity between the moves I practice and the reasons I am practicing. My karate is also, to me, more Goju-ryu – countering, closing, controlling, the lethality of the movements, the interplay between relaxation and tension…

It feels good. To have some knowledge and a path to walk, at least for the next few years.

I have many more thoughts on bunkai, but I had to start with where I am at now before looking back or forward.

 

*Freely recommending two fantastic books on Goju-ryu bunkai here for everyone – the beautiful Four Shades of Black by Gavin Mulholland and the intricate Kata and Bunkai of Goju-Ryu Karate by Giles Hopkins were particularly meaningful in my development.