In a recent article or posting it was theorized that true traditional combative karate or martial arts is in danger of disappearing completely. They make the assumption that today's karate being of a more sportive model will cause the world to lose karate due to the loss of its study through kata. The use the concept that traditional karate is about passing down its secrets through kata, i.e. kata being composed of techniques used by Okinawan samurai in actual combat .... etc.
The feel that due to the popularity of sport karate or sport martial arts that the essence of karate as a martial art might disappear completely. In their defense the article does say, "On the other hand, it is also possible that true karate will endure and help bring about a peaceful society."
I was going to say that this article has some merit but then I continued to read it and when I came across statements such as, "The last operation of the saifa kata is a technique for pulling out the spine of the enemy's brain," I lost it completely. So, I will address the first part above about kata and the loss of true karate and then this last spine thing.
First, kata is the means by which karate is passed down from teacher to student. Second, there is no set bunkai for the kata we know today. It is felt by me that you can extrapolate bunkai on a very basic level in training but in the end it takes a good deal of practice, a good deal of training and a good deal of real life experiences to fully develop individualized bunkai from kata practice. Third, as long as an individual can learn a kata and then through this long strenuous process of self-development one finds their own bunkai in kata so as to the true or classical/traditional kata of old this one aspect if practiced and trained will actually ensure that true/classical/traditional karate survives.
Kata has value. It is important to realize and accept kata along with its original format or blueprint. It is also important that you bring all of that up to current times, standards and concepts. Yes, most things don't change a lot when it comes to hand-to-hand combat but it is still up to the individual to find it within themselves and from their interpretations of kata, not someone else's but their own efforts. It is great to have examples from others especially those who come before with more time and experience, etc. and in the end to achieve true karate you really do have to find your own way based on what is stated above.
Now, on to the spine thing. Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous! Yet, how many actually believe that stuff? A lot apparently. We want to believe it, we need to believe it and we do tend to believe it for its comfort and for its stroking of the ego. We as humans apparently feel something missing so we tend to go toward these types of things that often fall off the edge of the Earth into the deep dark rabbit hole of wonderland.
Reaching or piercing the skin to tear out one's throat or to pull the spine out of one's body is impossible. The human hands just can not achieve such feats. It is like projecting ki, it is physically impossible. If I were a multimillionaire, I am not so this is just talk, I would set a challenge to all martial artists that if they could pull a person's spine from their brain I would pay them a million dollars cash provided it was done under specified conditions. There was this guy name of Randy who did this to see if anyone could prove they had psychic abilities. To this day no one has even come close to collecting. In simple terms, bullshit.
The old adage that you can fool some of the people all the time seems true. We want to believe such things so we can feel special. Buyer beware unless it makes you feel good and safe. Just don't be surprised if you try to use this kind of stuff and you get your ass handed to you by a true fighter.
In closing, as long as just one person or group of persons tries to learn from kata and tries to achieve true ability against violence or violent actions be it avoidance to actual and legally accepted self-defense then true karate will never disappear. True karate to be factual about it is also sport karate or just about any other type of karate. That is the interesting thing about our world. If something is accepted on a large scale such as sport karate then true karate exists. It may not be what you want, what you think or what you expect but in essence it is true karate. Budo, Jutsu, Supotsu or any other form is still deep down in essence true karate.
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