Shihan Te: The Bunkai of Kata [Paperback]

Paul Anderson (Author), Darrell Craig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2002

In many schools around the world, the various kata of Karate are taught and practiced. Unfortunately, not many know or care to teach the bunkai that give the forms their true meaning. Finally, these secrets are revealed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Darrell Max Craig is a highly regarded teacher of many of Japanese martial arts, and a pioneer in their development in the West for over forty years. He holds multiple black belts and is a U.S. Kendo champion, leading the U.S. Kendo team to the world championships. In 1973 he was awarded the title of Shihan, or Master Teacher. Among his many books on the subject is the widely praised The Heart of Kendo. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Ymaa Publication Center; 1St Edition edition (May 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886969884
• ISBN-13: 978-1886969889
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,535,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a good book that could have been great!, August 21, 2002

By 

Jedi Turtle "jedi_turtle" (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shihan Te: The Bunkai of Kata (Paperback)

Positives: the authors provide a fairly clear distinction between various types of "applications" of movement sequences in kata (bunkai, oyo, henka, and kakushi), as well as strong arguments for the importance of classical (as opposed to sport and performance) kata

Negatives: this book needed a really good editor. Poor grammar, typos, unnecessary repetitive passages, descriptions and diagrams that don't match up... all detracted from the message of this book.

In summary, there are some wonderful conceptual gems in here, but they are obscured by the flaws. Still an informative book and one I found useful for its concepts, but could have been so much better!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Editor's Nightmare, August 5, 2003

By 

David M Krueger (Chardon, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shihan Te: The Bunkai of Kata (Paperback)

The book is ok, but it does have a few major errors:
1. It is a total grammatical nightmare.
2. A lot of the sections repeat the EXACT SAME information! I kept thinking I had already read a certain chapter, when it turns out they just repeat themselves!
3. Darrel Craig must have one big ego. At the beginning of each chapter, he has quotes from famous martial artists, i.e. Musashi. However, at one point, he quotes HIMSELF. How egotistical is it when someone quotes his/her self in their own book!?
4. The explanations and analogies are not well formulated.

The book does contain relatively interesting concepts, but it merely scrapes over the surface of the book. Henka, one of the four elements of kata that is talked about, gets a ONE paragraph explanation. No only is this paragraph SOLELY an analogy (NO explanation), but the analogy hardly makes any sense! I was disappointed- it seemed like I was going to learn a lot of the four main elemts of kata, and while these elements were listed, only two recieved any in depth discussion (Bunkai and Kakushi). Oyo was talked about quite a bit, and Henka was hardly even covered, except for the vague confusing analogies. If the book was meant to cover a wider variey of material, I would have understood. But the purpose of the book was to discuss these specific four elements- and the discussion is grammatically flawed, repetitive, and contains ambiguous analogies and confusing explanations. I would recommend borrowing the book from a friend so you can at least (somewhat) familiarize yourself with the terms and concepts, but save your money.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shihan-Te: The Bunkai of Karate Kata by Darrell Craig, August 31, 2008

By 

Joe Varady (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shihan Te: The Bunkai of Kata (Paperback)

I have over 175 martial arts in my library, and this one is by far the worst. First off, he spend the first 80 pages or so going on a rambling tirade about how karateka today don't even know the definitions of bunkai and oyo. By his definition, bunkai is the kata, performed either solo or with a partner, but performed exactly as it was created, roughly what we in Cuong Nhu refer to as "formatted kata" and "formatted applications." Oyo is any modification from that format. He spends many pages giving metaphors and stories from "Craig Sensei" (himself!) trying to explain his concepts and ideas. Its all "Craig Sensei says this..." and "Craig Sensei explains that..." It was not uncommon for him to call himself "Craig Sensei" over ten times on just one page. A few pages have it 15 or 16 times! It was wrong on so many levels, and started driving me nuts.

On several points he contradicts himself on terms he himself is very emphatic about. For example, at one point on page 41 he condescendingly says of instructors "They do not, however, understand any of them (kata). 'Oh, this is a block,' is heard so many times." Then, on page 71, he himself states that, in reference to the opening move of Pinan 2, "This is a block. It is a block whether you do it on the left side or you do it on the right side, it is a block and has always been a block." The book seemed to contain several such contradictions.

He repeated series of photographs under different names, first saying that a given series was kakushi, or "hidden technique", and then later presenting the exact same series as regular bunkai, which it wasn't, because it had been modified slightly, making it oyo. This may seem confusing, or that I am splitting hairs over terminology, but Darrell Craig spent the first half of his book (which is called "The Bunkai of Karate Kata") making one point, that bunkai and oyo are different, then spent the second half of the book demonstrating oyo, not bunkai.

For all of his training "...under some of the finest karate practitioners in the world...", Darrell Craig's book on "Shihan te: The bunkai of karate kata" was about everything but good applications. I should have known when I saw the pictures in the front of the book showing karateka demonstrating poor technique and Craig working on the sets of "Sidekicks" and "Batman." My copy of the book is now marked throughout in red pen, pointing out the many inconsistencies and weaknesses of Darrel Craig's presentation. The lack of attention to detail was astounding to me. The only reasons I stayed with it was for the intellectual exercise of critiquing the text and to then post a review on Amazon so no one else wastes $25 on this book. It is truly amazing to me as to what passes as expertise sometimes. In the end, it is my hope that the knowledgeable reader will be able to discern between what is good bunkai and what is just bunk.