What is useful that can be learnt from past karate practise?
Over the last couple of years I’ve been investigating the historical antecedents to modern Shotokan karate, especially the pre-World War 2 period. My motives for this have primarily been an interest and enjoyment of history in general; however I’ve also found the research very useful in helping me to develop on a technical level. For instance, by having a better grasp of the historical context of kata applications, I’ve discovered many very simple, yet effective ways of applying kata no longer found in current karate practise. (Please see my previous post on Heian Nidan)
Likewise, I’ve also found that many of the ‘facts’ that I’d been told about karate, at least from an historical point of view, have proven quite baseless. In turn this has led me to rethink many of the core assumptions that I have held about karate. For instance, our modern Shotokan practise is actually incomplete and no longer includes many advanced training methods such as integration of weaponry (both armed and unarmed weapon defence) with empty hand training. I believe this loss of understanding has led to some confusion regarding kihon and kata bunkai. I’ve focused primarily on a technical history. In this sense I’m more interested in the evolution of technique.
As much as possible I’ve tried to stick to original Japanese texts. Most texts have been on karate specifically, some by Funakoshi himself, others by fellow karate pioneers. I also had a look at texts on martial arts being practised in Japan at the time. I wanted to not only gain a view of karate, but also a fuller martial context. How typical was karate compared to contemporary arts?
Anyway, this has been a long time in the making, I feel it is time that I shared some of my findings. Please feel free to comment.
Project Mawashi 
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