Look What has Happened to Karate

A good guy wrote a post today about the current state of affairs in martial arts with a final statement, as a comparison or example, stated "look what has happened to karate!" He wanted to express his views on a subject of kata bunkai and then talked about books, etc. of value. He then strayed off topic a bit talking about the path of things like MMA, etc. where litigious events and health care troubles as a result of current practices might be shifted toward more rule, regs and requirements, etc. All very good points and who knows this person's assessment may be right on, history tends to support it a bit.

Then I took the last line, topic of this post, and expressed my theories on the current state of affairs regarding karate. Here is what I wrote:

What happened to karate is a good statement and the response I would present is the present state of karate in the West, and even in Okinawa, is due directly to its practitioners. There is no health organization or any other including government that can be blamed for the current state of affairs. 

The gradual decline as things got passed from teacher to student due to many many reasons, i.e. wanting to have a higher retention rate, a higher sign up rate or simply to make more money, etc. tends to degrade any discipline including karate. 

Then there is the lack of full understanding due to many pioneers starting dojo with only one or two years of training on Okinawa, i.e. the first gen's of Isshinryu as example, thinking the black belt meant the know this stuff when actually they were just beginning to get it. This then as time passed caused many to start to fill in gaps, etc. and that was a mistake.

It is only due to today's Internet boom along with efforts by many hard core traditionalist that has opened a slight crack in the door to understanding karate from Okinawa that in some smaller circles it is being resurrected and taught but that is few and far between. 

So, the state of karate or look what happened to karate is our fault so we need to own it and make the effort to correct it if it is going to survive as a martial art rather than merely some other sport or health spa exercise program, etc.