Form and function

[Randhir]

Half way through the new book, I came across the idea of "form and Function" while reading an article by Gary Cook on Funakoshi. For the purpose of this discussion, if a form (in this case Kata) does NOT serve the function of self preservation (at least In our time and society) then is not the form obsolete and irrelevant? If so, should we not instead focus on creating forms that DIRECTLY and biomechanically serve the underlying function of self preservation?

My intent is not to create controversy with this thread, but to sincerely challenge my own thinking

Thanks,

Randhir

[HanshiClayton]

I have a friend, a Nishiyama black belt, who once shared with me his 12-gauge shotgun kata. There were no kiai events, just a very loud BANG from time to time. It was a pretty complex kata. If you fired a round the next move included jacking a new round into the chamber, and at the end of each cluster you had to reload. There were physical blows delivered with the muzzle and the stock, and the turns involved pointing the shotgun at the floor as you pivoted, because you can't hold the gun horizontally and just turn around in a narrow hallway.

Once you've learned it, what else would you bother to study? The techniques are sufficient to destroy any human who ever lived, and any other animal from a squirrel to an elephant.

Karate is a form of kobudo--- skeleton kobudo, where we use our skeleton as a makeshift weapon. It bears the same relationship to self-defense that the nunchaku does. A nunchaku could be very effective under the right circumstances, but those circumstances are a tiny fraction of what self-defense in concerned with. So too with karate. If we decide to throw away our kata because they have no modern application to self-defense, then we are well on the way to throwing out karate itself and studying something else.

And yet, I cannot imagine how self-respecting people can spend their lives doing dances they can't explain, when they are surrounded by earnest, practical arts where people know what they are studying and why they are studying it.

The danger here is that we will throw out our traditional kata and then, in our profound ignorance of real fighting, we'll try to invent a punch-block-kick self-defense system based on karate. Instead, we need to locate self-defense systems that have practical merit, and design katas around them. Guess what? Those katas already exist. I reference George Kirby's hundred-odd jujutsu katas, each of which neutralizes an attack, throws the opponent to the ground, and applies a submission to him. Karate fits into those katas in its proper role as an occasional weapon, usually held in reserve.

I'm going to have to brush up on that shotgun kata.

[Randhir]

"Karate is a form of kobudo--- skeleton kobudo, where we use our skeleton as a makeshift weapon. It bears the same relationship to self-defense that the nunchaku does. A nunchaku could be very effective under the right circumstances, but those circumstances are a tiny fraction of what self-defense in concerned with. So too with karate. If we decide to throw away our kata because they have no modern application to self-defense, then we are well on the way to throwing out karate itself and studying something else."

Let's take your argument one step further. If kata are a tiny fraction of self defense (a point with which I whole heatedly agree) and are used to create make shift weapons, then wouldn't it be better to create kata that replicate and resemble actual/practical/real life makeshift weapons that can be used by anyone with some training? I wonder what bassai-dai would look like if reinvented to resemble actual self preservation movements?

Come to think of it, kata for using household items, knives, guns, pepper spray, belts, cell phones, etc as makeshift weapons would be a great addition to so-called traditional karate.

[HanshiClayton]

I never published expedient-weapon katas, but I explored that subject in depth in the Black Medicine books from Paladin Press.

Black Medicine Volume 2 contains a long list of household items that can be used as weapons. Black Medicine Volume 4 shows the basics of twelve families of expedient weapons. I can see a family of katas right there...