There is a story in how I came to understand what Bunkai meant and then I went beyond the accepted definition.

 

 

Bunkai

“Bunkai (分解), literally meaning "analysis"[1] or "disassembly",[2] is a term used in Japanese martial arts referring to process of analysing kata and extracting fighting techniques from the movements of a "form" (kata). The extracted fighting techniques are called Oyo.
Bunkai is usually performed with a partner or a group of partners which execute predefined attacks, and the student performing the kata responds with defenses, counterattacks, or other actions, based on a part of the kata. This allows the student in the middle to understand what the movements in kata are meant to accomplish. It also illustrates how to improve the technique by adjusting distances (Maai), timing, rhythm (Ritsudo) and fluidity (Nagare) in combat properly, in order to adapt and adjust any technique depending on the size of an opponent.
Some kata have another layer of application that is taught using an Oyo Bunkai, an "application of the kata in ways other than the standard bunkai."[3] Different practitioners will learn or discover alternative applications, but the bunkai, like the kata, varies based on the style and the teacher.”

 

Back in the mid 1970's when I was a student bunkai was never mentioned.  Except for occasional basic explanations of kata moves, the application of kata was not part of my studies.  Then when I made black belt and was on my own, even training many places in many systems mention of bunkai was not mentioned, nor at the many tournaments I attended. Likely the first reference to form movement explanations was from Ernest Rothrock in than the many forms I studied had but one application for the movements.  Of course those systems had many times many forms, so they had a great deal of applications to learn. My studies were not in applications.

 

When I met Tristan Sutrisno as a competitor and became friends over a year competing together, only when I started visiting and training with him did I hear him about bunkai. Most often remarking he did not believe the masters he met did not know what bunkai was as he studied it.

 

To be completely honest, it could be that those I visited just never showed those studies when I was there, as I was a  guest. I have no idea, just that I never heard the term uttered. But I had noticed all the magazine articles on Okinawan instructors always had them demonstrating uses of kata technique. That did get me wondering. There was no definition of bunkai in those articles.

 

After a while training with Tristan I learned how bunkai was defined for his system. I have gone on about that before on this blog, suffice it to say it was a unique paradigm, explosive and effective, and was dan study. Kyu did not study bunkai having many more important stills to acquire.  The simplest explanation of that paradigm was no one observing a kata performance could ever intuit what the bunkai was. And at each of his family’s system there was an entirely different bunkai for each movement point in their kata.

 

I was shown some, but nothing like the full thing. Just enough to make me aware of what was there.

 

Time reference, it was about that time Seryu Oyata became known with is arts, and shortly George Dillman began his own path. Just about that time all the magazines had articles defining bunkai (similar to the above description) and showing examples from Japan.

 

Bunkai was becoming the buzz word for Katate. I remember articles about Americans hearing of Bunkai from the Japanese systems, began to return to Okinawa and ask their original instructors about why they were not shown bunkai.  The article said at first the instructors didn’t recognize the use of the word, but quickly began to show bunkai. A I have read more out of politeness, they began to use that term.

 

Historical note – When Mabuni Kenwa  began to write in Japan about karate, he first explained uses of the movements from Seiunchin kata as bunkai.  I have translated that book from the French edition.  It is plausible that his descriptions later influenced other Japanese systems to use that term.

 

Now back to me. So I was being instructed in ‘bunkai Sutrisno, which had little relationship to what others were calling bunkai.  As Tris defined the word first to me, his definition was the only ‘bunkai’ definition for me.

 

But I also realized while he shared much with me, I was really not a student of his way. Especially after I moved to NH I began to have a different thought. I realized how incredible what he had was, but I also had great faith in my own Isshinryu. So slowly I began to take all the skills in many systems I had acquired and work on what the applications for Isshinryu could be. I started easy, then deeper and deeper study on just one movement, the opening of Seisan kata, and before long I had over 100 ways to use it to disrupt any attack.

 

So  step by step I took my understanding that was growing of what kata technique application could be and worked and worked. About 5 or so years later one who would become a friend that I had met at a local tournament came to visit my school. He participated in our adult training and observed that what I was doing was much like his current instructor Sherman Harrill was doing. He then demonstrated several examples and later invited me to attend a clinic that he was having with Sherman on Isshinryu kata applications that he was having.

 

The first thing I discovered was my instructor Tom Lewis had been friends with Sherman back in Agena when they trained with Shimabuku Tatsuo.  Then I was blown away by the clinic Sherman held, countless kata application studies. Really amazing, it did resemble what I was doing but 40 years advanced from where I was. After that Garry and I co hosted a series of annual seminars with Sherman for many years, and I attended whatever clinics with him across New England that I could travel to.

 

My students and I became friends with Sherman. For the next few years I probably spent 50 or 60 hours at his clinics learning whatever I could from him. I was permitted to film the clinics at mu school I hosted, and made copious notes from the others. He definitely influenced what I saw kata applications could become.

 

Over the next 9 years I attended and helped hold as many clinics with him as possible. Always realizing as he told me they were not the same as being trained by him. I learned so much, and it definitely influenced my own studies, which had never ceased. But even great clinics come with a price. There was so much shared but I very strongly believed in my adult program and much that I saw never had the time to enter my program.

 

Then the unfortunate reality struck and Sherman died. I was filled with grief and as a result spent 3 months collecting and typing up my notes and viewing every scrap of video I had of Sherman and transcribing those tapes by kata. I ended up with a literal encyclopedia of Sherman clinics. Discussions, over 800 different kata applications, principles Sherman used to find those techniques, and much more. While I had never met his senior student, John Kerker, I sent him a copy of what I had written. His reply was thank you and that was most likely correct, but not containing maybe 500 additional techniques from his classes.

 

It was so much yet only a small part of what Sherman meant to me.

 

So I continued on my own. I participated in various internet discussions which often got around to bunkai. I came to feel what I had seen to date was nothing like the use of the term bunkai that people were discussing.

 

5 years later I finally met John Kerker at a clinic in Chicopee, Mass. What I saw was so different from Sherman at his clinics. The uke John was using was struck repeatedly harder than anyone I had ever seen anyone strike another and each time his uke rose to attack and be struck again. I really saw what it was to be a true student of Sherman.

 

As the years passed I attended annual clinics John held in Chicopee. And learn so much Sherman hinted at about the training of his students. John filled in so many gaps. And I continued to learn so much more. That first clinic I attended later that night I wrote up my notes and sent them to John.

 

In many ways my understanding changed. I began not to use the term Bunkai as I was not doing the Sutrisno version I had first been shown. And I was not really doing what others were doing. So I derived my own description of what I was doing.

 

I considered the first step to understanding kata application potential to look at every possible use a techniques could be used for. But this was just the first step.

 

The next step was working  towards kata application realization. The more difficult study to actually apply that to any attack and conclude that attack.

In a very real sense that kata application became almost an infinite study..

 

Starting at Sho Dan the student would focus on say 50 applications for the first movement of Seisan kata and of course developing skill to use all of them. After that there was no set order, it just moved forward, focusing on the underlying principles behind the applications.

 

Movement after movement, kata after kata. A very long range study.

 

Not to know a thousand applications, but to gain experience so that the first movement could be used to stop any attack, then more and more an open ended study.

 

The goal was to be eventually able to take any movement at all to conclude any attack. Which was of course also maximum unpredictibality.

 

Did I succeed?

 

The goal was never to finish rather to keep moving forward and learning, never stopping.