Rob sed:
As for the idea of bunkai, it's been my experience that there's not a "right bunkai" per se. Rather, there's a baseline application that's shown that sort of acts as the starting point for one's personal investigation. This baseline is the one expected on gradings, but others are often accepted, especially at the higher grades. What I've experienced is that an instructor, even Kenzo Mabuni, would show "the official bunkai (tm)" and then proceed to show a bunch of alternative interpretations for a particular move. They might indicate a personal preference for a particular application, but they'd always encourage us to investigate and find an application that "works for you and fits your own sensibilities and abilities".
You remember, of course, that this is heresy in certain camps???
"Fear, not compassion, restrains the wicked."