Historical footage of Shotokan Karate for Self Defence

Discussion in 'Karate' started by Braka, May 10, 2017.

  1. Braka

    Braka New Member

  2. Tom bayley

    Tom bayley Valued Member

    Film shows good mechanics but does not show credible attacks. It is a film of its time. More important as a historical document than for speaking to the effectiveness or otherwise of karate. I liked the gardens.
     
    David Harrison likes this.
  3. Moosey

    Moosey invariably, a moose Supporter

    It's so annoying when you're out for a walk in your karate suit and another guy in a karate suit just attacks you out of nowhere.

    I'm starting to not trust guys who go for countryside strolls in a karate gi.
     
  4. Rataca100

    Rataca100 Banned Banned


    Kind of like that one person who walks around with a balaclava onw ehn its 25degree's C. :p
     
  5. El Medico

    El Medico Valued Member

    Wellllll,I never saw how Karate could be that effective when T'ai Chi guys (me and my stablemates)) with less experience could make Karate guys back up.And sometimes look foolish.

    Half kidding,there.We had an EXCELLENT Goju (Okinawan variety) teacher here who taught very,very good and effective self defense technique straight from the Goju.

    As to the film,what Tom said.I do enjoy seeing those,tho'.

    Moosey,when my 1st teacher was doing Karate he & his buds used to go spend a day in the woods and ambush each other & the like.Crazy fun.I could only get one of my buddies to do that.
     
  6. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    If they spar each other often, I'm sure they were just fine at fighting.
     
  7. VoidKarateka

    VoidKarateka Valued Member

    Shotokan isn't really what I'd call old Karate (that having been said, Karate, especially Japanese Karate is a fairly modern creation). An interesting look at how Karate was being portrayed for its time.
     
    Guitar Nado likes this.
  8. Rataca100

    Rataca100 Banned Banned

    isnt Jujitsui the traditional and historic art of Japan though? Or something to that effect. It has rleivence becaus eif thatw as the case thats what most used for fighting and defence. (and yes i know about budo and katana fighting etc) I would assume odl karate would be more focused ond efence than sport or at least karate in Japan, wouldnt know not studied it in japan (or at all)
     
  9. Moosey

    Moosey invariably, a moose Supporter

    That video probably isn't really what you'd call "old" karate. I'd guess it's probably 1950s or even '60s. It looks like Nakayama-era JKA. You can see that those guys know their basic karate - their techniques have great form - but what they're demonstrating isn't really "self defence" in the sense of trying to get as close as possible to a real life scenario.
     
    Rataca100 and bassai like this.
  10. Fish Of Doom

    Fish Of Doom Will : Mind : Motion Supporter

    Jujutsu is a category of arts and a subset of Koryu Bujutsu (old school martial arts), which is the collective name of historic Japanese martial practices (encompassing many different systems, both empty handed and with weapons). Karate did not develop in Japan, it developed in Okinawa, which was a kingdom that was conquered by Japan, and is now a territory of modern Japan, but which to the best of my knowledge still conserves parts of its old culture. Karate itself is in turn a more modern version of the original fighting systems of Okinawa.

    Teeeeeeeeeechnically speaking, this is what actual "old Karate" proper is likely to look like:
    Whereas properly old Shotokan is more Funakoshi era, which looked more like this: (video says 1924, one of the comments claims closer to 1934-35)
    And here is a modern video featuring someone who was alive and training during that approximate time period: (note things like the seemingly excessive forwards lean in old Shotokan used here to deliver headbutts)
     
    Tom bayley likes this.
  11. Rataca100

    Rataca100 Banned Banned

    Kind of knew some of that, but is there any Japanese martial art which is not a generalization that can be applied to everything? Its worse than when Wrestling was sued to to descrive grappling. XP
     
  12. Tom bayley

    Tom bayley Valued Member

    Hay fish! Way cool. love the head buts. got any more old footage?


    And who would have thought that an art from an island that was a tributary to china for hundreds of years would have the same stances, the same mechanics, and the same hand postures as kung fu. I mean what are the odds?
     
  13. Fish Of Doom

    Fish Of Doom Will : Mind : Motion Supporter

    Yep! Thing is there are tons of different styles (list below). You can group some of them into defined categories like kenjutsu (sword art), iaijutsu (sword-drawing art), jujutsu (soft art), etc, but you still get mixed systems and there's still tons of individual ones, so you run into the same issue :p

    List of koryƫ schools of martial arts - Wikipedia

    @Tom bayley not on hand, but I remember seeing old Shotokan regular class footage showing what would look like absolutely blasphemous movement to modern JKA peeps, but is actually entirely consistent with how Sakae Ibusuki moves. Seems to be plenty of footage on Russian Youtube channels, generally.
     
    Dead_pool likes this.

Share This Page