It's not original, of course.
But my theory is that the martial arts guys in Okinawa talked to each other. And they slugged it out with each other, and the loser went away after taking lotsa notes.
And when they had a chance, they'd take a quick vacation over to China, find a local master, learn whatever they could, and come back as the new local expert with the magical new secret techniques (which rapidly spread among the local martial arts cognoscenti, because two guys can keep a secret, as long as one of them is dead, you know?).
I have another theory, which I picked up by listening to guys who are smarter than me, like Rob Redmond and Iain Abernethy. That theory is that the kata in all the major styles of karate are actually databases of frequently used techniques for self defense in civilian settings, mostly without weapons.
Now, you may not like the word databases, and you may prefer the word memory aids. I'm pretty easy on this stuff.
Now, here we get to my most scary and controversial theory: I have a theory that all of the major kata taught in all of the major styles of karate encode exactly the same body of techniques.
And it's a substantial body of technique, at that.
If you watch Iain Abernethy's dvds (and I think you'll be missing out if you don't), you'll see that the kata contain, encoded within them, armlocks that look a lot like Aikido techniques, striking techniques (duhhh) and throwing techniques that look like those in bare-knuckle boxing and in judo and in wrestling. And chokes and locks and gouges.
There are, after all, only so many ways to fight seriously with empty hands, and throws, strikes and punches and kicks, and chokes and locks are sort of the only ways to do that. Well, there are bites, but do you really need a kata and a Sensei to teach you to bite? Really?
Of course, there's also that mind control stuff, but that only works above sixth dan, you know?
Back to my theory: I think the various teachers in Okinawa were teaching self defense, not dances or theoretical, philosophical and religious exercises. And not sporting techniques, because the entire body of what they were teaching was ILLEGAL. So they didn't have All-Okinawa Karate Tournaments, you know? So they didn't much need the kata to address sportive applications of karate, since there WEREN'T ANY in Okinawa!
And the reason that the kata look different from one another is that different guys will make different choices as to which techniques work best for them.
The best ordinary-language discussion of this process is probably found in a tiny, short book entitled "Strictly Street Stuff", by a really cool geriatric named Bill Bryant.
If you're not a stuck-up martial arts horse's patootie who believes that his art is the only true way, you'll love that little book. If you ARE a stuck-up martial arts horse's patootie, you'll HATE the book, because there's nothing mysterious or exotic about it. It just talks about defending yourself, and how Bill came to believe what he believes, and how he trains. Period.
That book is entertaining, but my personal hallucination is that the author of that book, Bill Bryant, did EXACTLY what the kata originators in Okinawa and China did: he strung together movements from his favorite self-defense techniques against roundhouse punches, headlocks, tackles, grabs leading to headbutts or knees, attacks with knives and clubs, and that gave him a nifty little exercise he could do on his own, without a partner, to reinforce his muscle memory and make him better able to defend himself after he was smacked without warning and was watching those funny little stars on the nice black background.
My own extra credit project: I have watched most of Iain Abernethy's excellent dvds about bunkai, and if you don't, well, what a doofus you are!
And I am about to receive, from the Dragon-Tsunami website, several application dvds in the "Encyclopedia of Goju Ryu" series.
I'll get them today, I expect, based on the AMAZINGLY good customer service at Dragon-Tsunami (no, I'm not an owner, nor do I get a kickback; but most customer service is so bad, I want to reward the good stuff!).
My expectation is that the bunkai in the various advanced kata in Goju will be AMAZINGLY similar to the bunkai in Wado demonstrated by Iain Abernethy.
Because there are only so many useful ways to defend yourself from a headlock, or a tackle, or a roundhouse punch, or a kick to the enchiladas, or a head-butt attempt, or a grab to the shirt which will be immediately followed by a head-butt, knee to the groin, or throw (note to self: don't let other people grab your shirt very much. Really.).
I will keep you posted on the results of my intellectual exploration, and the status of my theory after I have more data.
But if the bunkai of Wado and the bunkai of Goju are remarkably different (that is, if they don't simply show ordinary, common sense defenses against ordinary, frequently encountered street-type attacks), I might be surprised!
Really. It could happen.
