This describes elements of a successful approach to kata analysis, and provisos which we should consider as we do our research. It is a selection of relevant points from a theoretical and practical approach developed by Karl Popper and applied by Richard Gombrich – to fields other than kata bunkai, which have yielded results.
These methods and virtues are still necessary for successful investigations in fields including philology, criminal investigations, science and bunkai research.
To do fruitful investigations – investigations which yield usable results – we need:
Virtuous researchers, whose traits include:
1. Hard work, and
2. Honesty
Because FAFO, on the street or in the dojo, won’t do it. Neither will rumor, dogma, waiting, hope or guesses.
An investigative process that uses hypothesis and testing, or:
3. Conjecture, and
4. Refutation
We have an assumption to begin with: The kata were created to teach combative skill.
We have a problem to solve: How does a particular technique work to teach a combative skill?
Come up with an idea. Examine it. Test it.
If your idea works, use it.
If it does not, move and try something else.
The more experience you have – in practice, study, investigation and analysis – the better. We can be bold, depart from tradition, test our assumptions, insights, guesses and theories, and then observe how they work. Adjust, test again, and assess.
There is plenty of received wisdom that is wrong. No need to be attached to it. Test it.
We will probably never have all the information we need – neither a complete picture of the past, nor an unimpeachable authoritative source. We may never be able to determine the intention of the creator of the kata. (To learn why, read: Lost Bunkai and the Karate Revolution)
But, because unlike some other fields of investigative research, our primary objective is to discover practical solutions, we can apply a pragmatic test to our results:
Does the interpretation work?
Can people learn it and pull it off under pressure?
If the answer is yes, then we have a valid solution. It may not be a unique valid solution – there may be many bunkai interpretations for each technique.
But, even though there are many valid ones, it would be an error to default to personal relativism, reject rigorous testing, and in a pose of openness, declare that any solution can be valid. That is deceptive, and outside the relative safety of the dojo, dangerous.
A rejection of skeptical reflex:
The efficacy test will provide an adequate answer, even a conclusive one, for pragmatic investigators and practitioners, whose efforts are aimed at finding techniques that work.
Old martial arts “joke”:
Q: How many martial artists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Ten. One to screw it in, nine to tell you why it would never work on the street.
Skepticism may pose as wisdom, but it is not.
All techniques, in any style, are subject to a rock-paper-scissors relationship to other techniques which may defeat them or limit their effect.
That does not invalidate the technique. If it did, every technique would be invalid. Instead, we look at the spectrum of possible permutations under which the applications of a specific interpretation can be used, and see where they may be effective.
Efficacy is the guide we use to accept or reject an interpretation. Efficacy, in the case of kata bunkai, means: combative advantage, training improvement, and deeper understanding.
That makes the process fruitful, exciting and enjoyable.
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Post and photos copyright © 2024 Jeffrey Brooks
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“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling. Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”
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