How I learned what 'bunkai' would mean to me

I am but a product of what I have learned, and that often involved a very different way of thinking about terms many later were using.

 

An example is the term ‘bunkai’.

 

When I learned Isshinryu the term was not used by my instructors, nor by the great majority of instructors I knew. Nor was it a topic of discussion ever at karate tournaments.

 

To be specific in those days a different paradigm, and a most powerful paradigm, was used in my Issshinryu. It did not involve study of kata technique application.

 

About 1980 I was visiting Tristan Sutrisno and eventually the topic came up. Among the discussions were his observations he never saw any senior instructors show kata application as he had learned bunkai to be from his father. Certainly a different time and a different part of the world may have had a lot to do with that.

 

Then he began to explain what ‘bunkai’ meant in his studies. It was never a kyu study, rather it was to be decades of study for the black belt, and continually changing as a different ‘bunkai’ was taught at each black belt level. Those ‘bunkai’ were private strings of explosive movements taken  from many movements points in his family Shotokan kata. Because they were private no one could ever anticipate what they would be. It was a mnemonic to remember many application series. The first level more resembled the kata but very different at the same time. Each of the bunkai when inserted into an attack were capable of ending that attack. And there was also a variant version of the kata, just to keep pushing the black belt mind. The dan level bunkai taught covered various themes.

 

Were so many techniques necessary? Of course not any of them were more than enough to end an attack.

 

But when the goal is continual polishing ones art, having new material to learn and then to master, a great deal of material, keeps the dan pushing their  limits. And of course the mere learning those ‘bunkai’ was just the beginning of the effort that a dan was expected to make and live. Far more engaging was continually working to master all those explanations. Which was most important and also took a long time.

 

Thus very deep dan training  was needed. Literally decades of further study.

 

I am not an expert in this system. Rather someone Sutrisno Sensei chose to explain a bit to.

 

I was only shown a few of the ‘bunkai’, enough to understand what he was talking about.

I remember an early summer camp we had, his senior students showed me the bunkai for Bassai Dai they had just learnt, and  the accompanying first level Bassai Dai bunkai version. Of course I tend to remember what I see, so in one sense I learned it.

 

It was several years later before I saw any video of the JKA version of the bunkai for Bassai Dai. It was very different. Only then did I understand the way they were using the word ‘bunkai’. It had almost no relationship to the Sutrisno version.

 

 

 

Bunkai Bassai Dai Enoeda Sensei

Now I was never Shotokan.  And I had learned that what others wrote or defined a term to mean and then use it that way, would have no bearing on what I actually experienced.

 

I have no video of this, just my memory. But I strongly believe in my memory, and never looked for others explanations to validate what I know.

 

Most simply in the section of Bassai Dai, when the performer turns to the left and delivers a left outside middle block, followed by a right outside middle block, the JKA bunkai for that shown above.

 

In the Sutrisno version of that section the ‘bunkai’ is, ‘the performer turns to the left and delivers a left outside middle block immediately doubled with a right outside idle block, that followed by a right outside middle lock and  then an immediate left outside middle block.

 

Or more simply stated each block is doubled up. This presents a quite different application possibility. For example the initial block is a parry to be followed by the other block as a way to strike into the attacking limb, unto a possible break, or at least a damaging strike to their limb.

 

That of course is but one example. The other ‘bunkai’ for the kata do not follow the same theme.

 

And I came to learn a bit more for other kata. Another time he shared some 3^rd and 4^th level ‘bunkai’ for several heian kata movements. Just to explain what the themes worked towards.

 

As YouTube made it far easier to see what others chose to share, no where in the world did I ever see anyone with a similar ‘bunkai’ paradigm.

 

But this is what ‘bunkai’ would forever mean to me.

 

My own studies went in different ways. As I understand the term ‘bunkai’, it really was not possible to explain why what others were doing would never be ‘bunkai’ for me. Everyone can use whatever words defined as they wish.

 

I chose to use the term ‘Application Analysis’ for the initial effort involved. Then used the term ‘Application Realization’ for the greater most necessary part of understanding kata applications.

 

I could never, ever, replicate the Sutrisno answer. For I knew to little.

 

So I went my own way.