Can You Keep A Secret?

I think most of us understand when the Okinawan arts we think of as karate developed they were kept private. They didn’t formally document their creations, history or motives. They even didn’t develop a technical vocabulary for their techniques in the Okinawan language. Their only method for transmission, as far as we know, was through physical demonstration from instructor to student and the oral transmission of motives, history, etc.

Intentional or not that kept the focus on the actual practice. Your instructor trusted you to train you (to some point) and you in turn would trust your instructor’s word as truth. Obviously there was more involved, if there were other students they were part of the chain of transmission. If your instructor shared you with another instructor the oral transmission both grew and re-enforced itself.

But we also have evidence the transmission wasn’t necessarily even. Instructors kept information to themselves, such as the existence of the Chinese work the Bubishi and it’s use in their own study, until a student became sufficiently advanced and accomplished themselves. Some instructors, such as Hiagonna Kanryo, only taught most students a part of the system leaving only several to receive full transmission.

So the only truth was what your instructor(s) shared with you and it’s veracity depended in turn on the trust of your instructor. And that sharing remained within the order of those training.

Of course since those initial times we have witnessed a new sharing. In the 1920’s and 1930’s Okinawan instructors teaching in Japan began writing books explaining some part of their art, even revealing the existence of the Bubishi. That practice continued and after WWII, year by year publishing (in Japan and literally everywhere) increased as the Okinawan arts spread across the world.

From traditions with almost nothing written about them we have had a modern information explosion.

In the 1960’s and 1970’2 we had the beginning of the karate magazines. Eventually they became the internet of their day used by some to promote themselves or specific points of view, and the letters sections allowed discussion between martial arts.

In the 1970’s we had the commencement of serious martial book publishing.

In the 1980’s we had the commencement of the martial video business.

In the 1990’s we had the commencement of internet martial discussion groups and individual web sites created to communicate information about the author.

In the 2000’s we had the commencement on the internet of blogs and youtube and other video sharing sites. This contributed to a literal explosion of martial videos showing any art imaginable and often in great degree. As a result the martial magazines declined almost to extinction.

Yet with all this information becoming available there are other issues that have been overlooked. Most of this data transmission is transitory. Magazines rarely last being designed for short shelf life. Personally I had saved thousands of them until the day I realized it was time to destroy them. I reviewed them and saved article of current interest for future use but that was hardly a fraction of what they contained.

Books, on the whole, are better designed for long term storage, but few realize most of the martial arts publications are one time printings. Once they’re sold most of them are never reprinted. I have about 500 books remaining in my collection today. And I have passed several hundred on to others as they were no longer relevant to my studies. Sadly much that was written serves little long term value, but those books that prove of great value may no longer be available for others.

Today the value of many books, I bought, have increased by an incredible amount. But they will never be sold off, I’ve made plans for their disposal and/or destruction after my death.

Video records do faithfully show some event on a given day, often only one filming direction doesn’t show all details, or even the best presentation shows nothing of the levels of training to get to that point and doesn’t hint where the training can go from there either. They’re useful to see what exists but nothing filmed replaces actual training from a skilled instructor. At time some will take those films and base their own training and studies from the videos. It’s possible if they have enough training in those arts, but there is a price.

Martial magazines in the 1970’s showing clear kata presentations from acknowledge experts also have on occasion intentional changes or omissions so no one could use the for accurate resources. Okinawa public performances in the past also often contained the same. The presentations show the shell but not the core of the system, why should they give their art away.

Other presentations only show one aspect of the art, as in walk through detail. The same presentation doesn’t give a hint at where the training should lead. It is just a video after all not an instructor.

A dynamic kata performance might be the result of very specific small detail training that isn’t shown in the performance and trying to duplicate the kata without that training misses the mark by a wide percentage.

The transmission of martial history is likewise too often missing and even what is published may be deceptive for just writing it doesn’t make it so, and a mistake in an early publication may be repeated in other publications for decades. Likewise what has been published may not last beyond the current era. The medium is transitory magazines don’t last, books once sold out may not be available again, the PC content, or internet data can be deleted in an instant from many different events. Just because you see it doesn’t make it constant.

I recall how a Japanese translator mistranslated an Okinawan document to read the Okinawan king ordered the weapons to be taken from the people, where the actual document reads the weapons were to be stored centrally for militia usage. The weapons being stored to make the militia more efficient, not to ban weapons. And that mistranslation has been repeated even since changing the actual history.

The actual storage of historical event is often beyond the necessity of living training. By way of example when I reached 25 years training I decided to make notes of what I had experienced to that point and ended up writing a 100 page recitation of events, at a very high level. But students taking long karate trips with me are often regaled with hours of stories behind those 100 pages, the oral transmission of my karate, perhaps as important as every hour spent in the dojo.

Now there have been many attempts to set historical records. On a large scale John Sells’ works Unante I and Unante II come to mind, filled with great detail, but sadly much non-sourced for true historical use.

From Okinawa we have Hokama Tetsuhiro’s “Time Line of Karate History”, or Nagamine Shoshin’s “Tales of the Great Masters”. Especially the recent publication of the Okinawan Karate Encyclopedia (sadly not available in English) fill that gap.

In various systems there is Hiagonna Morios “The History of Okinawan Karate” actually the history of Goju Ryu, or Harry Cook’s “Shotokan Karate, a Precise History” to try and fill in many of the lost historical gaps.

There have been many attempts for different systems but often they only touch the surface.

So as far as we travel, as long as time passes, the true secrets of karate remain locked in oral history.

Personally I always accept each specific individual Oral History as accurate, unless subsequent detail proves it isn’t. That being the case I must discount all of that history because I no longer have the means to determine truth. That doesn’t make the rest wrong, it’s just unverifiable and because of the ‘error’ I can no longer assume there are not many more.

The histories serve only one purpose. It is unlikely they can deliver vast truth. Rather they can serve but to point the way the future may go.

As an instructor if you don’t take the time to share the details of your own studies they will be lost.

For the further we go, Oral History remains the only true constant.