Analysis of Genuine Karate 2

AWARDS

FINALIST—Sports, Best Book Awards, 2023

Genuine Okinawan Karate was developed as a fighting tool.

Non-Okinawan Karate are for other purposes.

Karate practitioners, scholars, and everyone caring about Asian martial arts and its culture will enthusiastically appreciate this eye-opening work.

Dr. Bayer substantiates further how the art Karate was used to prepare a nation (Japan) for total war, how it was deliberately industrialized into a worldwide Japanized Karate-Do inflation, and how its following transformation into athletic showmanship destroyed the art’s unity and distinctiveness.

The author endorses Karate-Jutsu as a genuine Okinawan martial art even as foreign knowledge and skills from India (speculated) and from China (proven) were integrated- and he explains the imitative social mechanism used to turn this local fighting art into a symbol of national identity.

Since martial arts were initially understood as a moral code-neutral tool, like a weapon, this happens to contradict the modern understanding of Karate being a peaceful art with inherent non-violent values. In truth, moral codes or guidelines on how to use this tool were developed separately, not within the art.

A new “back to the roots” Karate-Jutsu movement gains importance and establishes a counterculture to Karate-Do’s industrialization, helping to integrate some neglected reminiscences of Karate-Jutsu back into Karate-Do. Such a development brings Japanized Karate-Do versions closer to their martial origins, whereas pure Karate-Jutsu will be preserved as a point of reference by a group of dedicated curators.

Contents include:

• Okinawa is the birthplace of Karate-Jutsu and Japan is the birthplace of Bu-Jutsu.
• How Karate and Budo were used for Japan’s war preparations.
• Senpai seniority was the social mechanism to integrate Karate into Japan’s martial arts tradition.
• Consequences of an ancient fighting art being turned into athletic showmanship.
• In Sports-Karate there is no more Kata in Kumite, and there is no more Kumite in Kata either.
• The modern misconception of avoiding a fight by all means.
• The path toward mastery in Karate.
• Sensei correct your errors and blunders, you have to correct mistakes yourself.
• Today’s Karate-Jutsu movement is the counterculture to Karate-Do’s industrialization.
• Karate’s market structure in the 21st century.