cutting to the chase. i believed karate kata applications were mostly lost, until only until recently when i started reading Iain Abernethy's 'practical application of karate kata' which i am loving. =) it also lead me to want to start learning kata quite seriously. in our school bunkai are not important untill quite late. only two teachers teach them in regular classes, one's the head master, who takes classes once or twice a month, and one takes class on thursday evening. when i'm in university. now i can practice them with my seniors, and seek out the teachers when i could, but i wanted some good reading material to go along with it. this lead me to find a book called 'hidden karate' by Gennousuke Higaki. he discusses a lot of points on kata in general before moving onto a detailed explination of the pinan kata *which is what i needed* and a lot of points he discusses are quite similar to mr Abernathy. and i am quite satisfied with my two finds. =) But I am a noob in karate, so i wondered what are peoples thoughts in general to these books, and if any have recomendations on books i should read, especially regarding the pinan series, since i will be practicing those for quite a while. =) thanks in advance.
I believe JWT here on MAP has written a book or two. From what i know, he has gone in depth with the Heian kata, which as you may be aware is basicaly the same as the Pinan kata. If i remember correctly it may be called the "Heian flow system" and i would recommend that without hesitation. Perhaps PM JWT to clarrify info.
Indeed JWT did write the above book. [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heian-Flow-System-Effective-Karate/dp/0954446623"]Heian Flow System: Effective Karate Kata Bunkai: Amazon.co.uk: John Titchen: Books[/ame]
Heian Flow System is available from Amazon I believe. You could also look at The Way of Kata by Wilder and Kane. Mitch
Osu 6FeetGeek, Most of the top instructors that teach bunkai in kyokushin obtained their knowledge from other systems. Kyokushin katas from Okinawa (mostly GoJuRyu, NahaTe) have been stylized and changed beyond recognition and mean very little; the ones from Shotokan were already mostly empty; and the kyokushin originals are warrior dances or gymnastics flows at best (to the best of my research). This is the little dirty secret of kyokushin. Osu!
have another vote for the heian flow system. top notch material, and i'm not just saying that because jwt gave me tasty brownies when i stayed at his place
If you looking for bunkai from kyokushin find this book (not easy task ) "Kyokushinkai Kata and Self Defence Applications" by Aleksander Taniuszkin & Viktor Fomin http://www.piotrszeligowski.pl/inde...kushinkai-kata-and-self-defence-applications/