Karate Jutsu Association

Recently, I was fortunate enough to read a first edition of Gichin Funakoshi's 'Karate Jutsu' whilst on a trip to New York. The experience alone blew my mind, but it was what was contained in the text that was really firing me up.

One of the first things that struck me was the sheer amount of grappling and throwing techniques contained within the text and clear statements relating to where the techniques can be found in the various kata. This alone was an eye-opener. Now, I am by no means new to the idea that kata contains various grappling and throwing applications as I have read all of Iain Abernethy's work, most of Vince Morris', Patrick McCarthy's et al and am fortunate enough to train with an extremely open minded group of individuals under our Instructor, Jon Ryley.

However, to see it written in black ink, under actual images of Funakoshi performing the techniques, was quite remarkable. How was it then, that Karate became the laughing stock of the martial arts world?!