Bunkai

The word bunkai (Kanji: 分解) is a Japanese term meaning “to analyze, to break up”. To the Karate, it refers to the interpretation of a Kata .

If one compares a budo with a language, then the Kihon are the basic vocabulary, the Kata are done everything sentences and the “applications” ( bunkai and drives with two type Kumite ) are settings in practices in the current language.

Certain movements of the kata , one can deduce or suggest sequences which can be applied in concrete situations. The bunkai run sometimes source or are sometimes rather far away from the techniques themselves produced in the kata . This implies that the karate expert will have to learn without slackening the technique from the kata in itself but to also feel the movements, the sequences, the transitions in order to develop, with the assistance of sound Sensei at the beginning, then by itself, of the increasingly complex bunkai simple then.

It should not be forgotten that the techniques carried out in the kata evolved/moved in time and sometimes were adapted or deformed. On these changes the influences of the senseis are superimposed having taught (and thus learned) those as well as the historical fact that karate was a long time prohibited and that the techniques of drive as the kata were to suggest certain attacks and not to show openly them. Finally certain changes want to be to bring a significance symbolic system or harmonious to the kata : full number of movements, repetition of movements (often 3 times); or to bring a certain symmetry to develop the left and right members. Consequently, the bunkai are the single manner of trying to seize the direction of origin of the kata. This “direction” is besides often the origin of rough discussions.

The bunkai make it possible to the practitioner to learn how to adjust his distance, its rate/rhythm or to be accustomed to fight people of different size.

The terms toridai and himitsu are used to define the techniques which pass unperceived to an occasional observer and are hidden in the kata . In Goju-ryu, one practices even the kata to two to reinforce the bunkai and the drive of the correct techniques on the basis of the principle that if the techniques are not carried out correctly in the kata , they will not be effective in combat.

External bonds

Bunkai Shotokan

Random links: