Hidden Bunkai

I have a hard time with this one. I firmly believe noting is actually hidden or secret in karate. Most of karate in the seventies and eighties had no real bunkai at all. I can speak more specifically toward Isshinryu because most of the Marines who attended the honbu dojo in the sixties, seventies and even eighties only remained on the island for a tour of duty, about 9 to 13 months in most cases. Therefore they focused on learning the moves of the kata and if they discussed bunkai it was cursory.

The requirements for earning a black belt were to learn the kata of empty hand and a few other things and then participate in contests. I am paraphrasing for brevity and know that there are and were some who spent far more time and effort to learn more but I am speaking of most.

Those who stayed and learned to dance the dance of Isshinryu to gain a black belt came back to the states and opened dojo. It was others who either created their own bunkai or learned from other systems what bunkai were that began the bunkai story here in the west. It is wonderful that this humble beginnings led others to seek out "more" where bunkai became "more."

But, it is not about any hidden bunkai. No one actually hid anything. They either passed along bunkai to practitioners or they did not. Often in that culture you had to spend a good deal of time in the dojo before you were accepted and then provided bunkai for the system. In that culture you practice things for long periods of time to gain acceptance and entrance to more personal mentoring, instruction or teachings. They didn't waste their time unless you were proven or so I am to understand from my studies of the culture of those area's, i.e. Japan, Okinawa and China.

Anyway, I guess that it sounds "coo" and gives the perceptions of "acceptance and validation" to believe that you have earned the right to learn the "hidden" or "secret" techniques of a system. Sigh ... nothing is hidden as if it were necessary to protect some secret but it is either taught or not taught, no hidden/secret.

Then again, it is my view, my perception and my theory ......