Teaching Bunkai...

[Victor Smith]

There are teachers who can explain dozens of applications for every kata movement. I have experienced them in Chinese, Okinawan, Japanese and Indonesian arts.

Their students do not spend any time trying to figure anything out. Instead they spend their time working to get the applications down, and the part that's up to them is to learn how to select responses and make them work.

Other instructors may show how each movement can handle 99% of attacks, and the student then learns how to just take a techinque and stop the attacker.

Part of the reason a lot of applications are not shown until a student is extremely advanced is simple, they can't do it. Without total faith in their ablity to make a technique work, they will invariably turn to a technique they believe in more strongly. For raw self defense that is fine, but the inability to acutally use their art is why long term instructors share information very slowly. It's not because they want to hold anything back, its because you can't share what the student is not ready to do.

Then again, if you can stop an attack, is it pertinate whether you have 100 different ways to do so, unless you really want the challenge to address your art in fullness.

That is a personal question, and really the one that defines where your art will go. Not where a qualified instructor can lead, but whether you have the determination to go beyond what you want.

 

[chinto]

There are teachers who can explain dozens of applications for every kata movement. I have experienced them in Chinese, Okinawan, Japanese and Indonesian arts.

Their students do not spend any time trying to figure anything out. Instead they spend their time working to get the applications down, and the part that's up to them is to learn how to select responses and make them work.

Other instructors may show how each movement can handle 99% of attacks, and the student then learns how to just take a techinque and stop the attacker.

Part of the reason a lot of applications are not shown until a student is extremely advanced is simple, they can't do it. Without total faith in their ablity to make a technique work, they will invariably turn to a technique they believe in more strongly. For raw self defense that is fine, but the inability to acutally use their art is why long term instructors share information very slowly. It's not because they want to hold anything back, its because you can't share what the student is not ready to do.

Then again, if you can stop an attack, is it pertinate whether you have 100 different ways to do so, unless you really want the challenge to address your art in fullness.

That is a personal question, and really the one that defines where your art will go. Not where a qualified instructor can lead, but whether you have the determination to go beyond what you want.

yes, but only to a point. Each person has their own way of aproching things and find some methods more comfortable then others. I agree that soem bunkai/ aplicatons and techniques are harder to aply and take more background then others.
I think that good instructors will over time interduce diferent bunkai and also teach students to look for and figure out how to aply diferent bunkai for meany reasons. One of the big ones is that that allows the student to controle to an extent where they go once they have acheaved dan rank... By this I mean that if they know how to analize bunkai and aply; them they have the ability to take their art and what they have been tought to the next level and make the art their own, both in the dojo and fi nessesary in any altercation.

 

[Victor Smith]

Bunkai presents an interesting topic.

In the Okinawan arts there is no word for bunkai, but then there was no word for punch, block or many other terms we use today. Karate developed as a non-verbal form of instruction. Generic terms such as place the arm here were used for almost everything and the instruction came from the instructor showing you what to do, or helping you feel what it was to do.

The use of the term ‘bunkai’ and all of the formal understanding of how it is taught is a Japanese invention and a modern one. It is not universal across all Japanese systems. A few year ago I had a Japanese English teacher who trained in Shorinji Kempo in college not understand what I was talking about and it took me 15 minutes to get him to understand the point. He then explained to me the usage of the term ‘bunkai’ was something that was developed within certain groups and the average Japanese not using that training would not understand what was being said.

He explained in Japan bunkai was used in the form ‘you took your car to a mechanic and he would bunkai (take it apart) to discover the problem that needed to be fixed’.

The ‘take it apart’ in order to fix it probably became the ‘take it apart’ to use it, study it in Japanese karate usage, but that was not of Okinawan origin.

In turn it was in America that bunkai began to be discussed in the magazines and then American’s returned to Okinawa and started asking questions about ‘bunkai’ and in turn some Okinawan’s choose to answer them. But that was something new too.

Personally I like to use the term application potential to explain how a technique might be used. There are no restrictions, there is just potential and if you can use that potential to drop someone, regardless of whether others use it or if it is official or not, it is then application realized.

The problem with ‘bunkai’ is it seems to show that is the answer to how kata can be used, and the truth is very far from that. When you have taken a tool out of the tool chest you then need to acquire the skills to use it.

Any one technique can have many uses.
The skill to use them can have many variations of fitting into a range of attacks.
And you have to move from beginning pre-planned attacks to unstructured attacks with no restrictions to fully understand its use and your capability.

Too far, IMO, the discussion on ‘bunaki’ that it is important for you to look for your own bunkai is a mis-focused discussion.

When you study kata technique application potential there are more than just the thousands of potential applications, you begin to see the underlying principles that make the applications work and when you begin doing that you can see how other techniques can be applied in the future.

No one really needs thousands of techniques. That study is useful for senior instructors to provide choices for individual students needs.

What is more important is that the students really learn to apply a range of applications that really neutralize the entire range of attacks. If they reach that small step, then variation after variation can be studied to develop more skills, to allow one to keep learning adding new answers and perhaps dropping some old ones to keep one’s study alive and not just a fixed answer.

A specific example of what I am talking about would be Faan Tzi Ying Jow Pai – Northern Eagle Claw. Following Northern Shaolin traditions there is only one application taught per movement, but the Northern forms are so long and there are so many of them the practitioner ends up with thousands of applications. The spend their time on sparring practices making them work, not looking for other answers for the first movement (or any other one).

The Shotokan I studied with Tristan Sutrisno, an Indonesian whose father trained in multiple systems such as Shotokan under Funakoshi, Aikido under one of Usheiba’s students both in the 30’s and his family Siliat Tjimande tradition, does not teach any ‘bunkai’ until after black belt, but then at each movement point in a kata, learns an completely different technique series for each of their levels of black belt. Again thousands of technique. The student never studies the forms application potential, instead working on how to make those application studies work and how to choose the correct answer against an attack more effectively.

In the manner in which I teach Isshinryu formal application studies do not begin until black belt and then you start with a 6 month study making part of the opening technique of our first Isshinryu kata Seisan work. This involves dozens of applications till you can take that one technique series and stop any attack, and the key isn’t knowing a movement can be done, but focusing on making it work. And of course that is only the opening, but that study begins work on the underlying principles that will be the core of advanced study.

There are many right answers besides these ones. I only offer them to show different ways to go.

In the end it’s not the words, the names or the choices, it’s the sweat equity that makes it work.

 

[SK101]

Exactly, AC! There comes a certain point where the student should be finding applications on their own (even if they're wrong). At least it shows they're thinking.

I will 2nd that. Students playing with application without being taught forces them to work through principles and theory rather than just knowing material. Although knowing material is important generally.

 

[Ray B]

This is my understanding of bunkai and ohyo.

Okuden = Secret or Hidden transmission
Ohyo = Application
Bunkai = Analysis
Omote = Conspicuous, Obvious
Ura = Inconspicuous, Not so obvious
Henka = Variation
Waza = Technique
Kihon = Basic

Okuden Ohyo Waza = Secret application techniques
Ohyo Omote Waza = Conspicuous application technique
Ohyo Ura Waza = Inconspicuous application technique
Ohyo Henka Waza = Alternate application technique

It is my opinion that every school has it's Ohyo Omote Waza.
It can be seen in the variation of kata. This should not be changed. It retains the shape
of the kata and teaches the basic defense of the system (Ryuha). This waza is
somtimes referred to as Kihon Bunkai or just Bunkai depending on the Ryuha.

The Ohyo Ura Waza can change per person to adapt to size, height or ability.
This is sometimes referred to as Bunkai Ohyo or just Ohyo, again, depending
on the Ryuha. I also believe in teaching people how to fish.

Any waza can be Ohyo Henka Waza.

I do not advocate knowing many Ohyo Waza, I rather prefer to learn and drill
a few good ones.

My opinion was based on my readings from Kane and Wilder's book, "The Way of Kata"
and discussions with persons who are versed in the Japanese language.

 

[Explorer]

Hi Ray,

I've seen the same sort of language breakdown. For simplicity's sake we use it this way:

Bunkai - strict interpretation of the kata ... interpretations that adhere precisely to the moves in the form.

Oyo - a more 'creative' interpretation of the form ... moves may be interchanged, rearranged or left out.

Short Hand - one move implies several

I know this doesn't hold exactly to the Japanese concepts but it is very functional for us.

 

[Ray B]

I posted the terms for reference. I agree, Ohyo Omote Waza is too
demanding to say. I like Primary and Secondary Ohyo myself but, the
concept is the same. One is taught strictly to maintain the shape of the
kata and the other varies.

The practice of one move as many is a model of efficiency. Why practice
a high block and a throat strike seperately when one movement will
cover them both? Those old guys were pretty smart back then.

 

[SageGhost83]

The practice of one move as many is a model of efficiency. Why practice a high block and a throat strike seperately when one movement will cover them both? Those old guys were pretty smart back then.

Therein lies the beauty of it, IMHO. The basic form is simple to learn, yet it is so deep that you can find many good apps within them. My old Sensei taught me that there were layers to a technique, and the deeper you dug, the deadlier the applications become.