Krappy Karate Katana Kamae (photos)

[John Lindsey]

also known as 4K, are the photos you love to hate. A karate teacher thinks he is also a master of kenjutsu, just because he is a good at karate. So he poses for the whole world to see his ignorance:


Lets start with Sid:

[John Lindsey]

Another 4K honor student:

[John Lindsey]

Batter Up!

[Soulend]

of 'Bad Budo' fame

[Davinci]

This was found in the Asian World of Martial Arts (AWMA)Catalogue. Another Mc Dojo 4K expert! Notice his left hand on top as well.

[CEB]

Originally posted by Amphinon
Davinci...

Is it bad to have the left hand on top?
What if you are left-handed?

....

Left handedness was not allowed.

[CEB]

Originally posted by Budoka 34
Deep down most Karateka just want to be Samurai!

......

Reminds me of something Tatsumi Sensei said about a month. He said that gentlemen practice the the sword and the lesser elements in society practice karate.

I thought that a little harsh.

[Budoka 34]

Ed:

I have been accused of being a "lesser element" like hydrogen or potassium.

Someday I hope to achieve Gold!

[Charlie Kondek]

These pics are indeed horrid, but I hope this doesn't turn into karate-bashing.

From what I can tell, there's still this feeling among some that karate is a "peasant" art practiced by "ruffians." To which I say, hey, what's wrong with being a ruffian?!

[gendzwil]

In picture #1, where the guy is in a back stance, well nobody uses a back stance like that, unless mebbe some of the koryu guys can point it out. Traditional karate stances are designed for power not mobility. We don't need power so much, we have a tool so our stances are more mobile. Most of the other pictures also show some variant on a karate stance, with swords added. If it looks like karate, it isn't kendo/iaido/kenjutsu whatever (I'll just use JSA for short).

Most of the pictures show a baseball-bat type grip. Most JSA types hold the sword with a diagonal grip, more like you'd grip a tennis racquet. Also we use a pretty closed grip, if you pretend that you're holding a sword in chudan (hilt a little below belt level, tip at throat level, blade aligned vertically with edge down) your palms face each other and you can draw a line along the mune (back of the sword, or the string if you're using shinai) through the "V"s made by your thumb and forefinger. The bottom edge of the hilt is in the fingers. As usual with these things it's easier to show you than describe but I hope you get the drift. If you look at the pictures, mostly the grip is open, ie the palms are facing kind of up. I'm sure various koryu have lots of small variations but palms facing each other, diagonal grip is pretty basic. Also the left hand is at the bottom. Feudal Japan had little tolerance for left-handed people.

Hi folks, I had an interesting experience 12 years ago, when I had just returned from 10 years of traditional iai training in Japan. I was in grad school in Vermont, and in a "Black Belt" mag, I noticed that there was a karate tournament ("Triple A", I believe) with a "senior weapons" forms category nearby.
I had been active, and successful, in the tournaments in Japan, so I thought, "Why not?"
Anyway, to make a long story short, I didn't do any 1) flips 2) cartwheels 3) grimaces 4) sword twirls or 5) splits. Most of the guys were on some kind of "pro tour" and were using Okinawan weapons. There was one guy, a Korean stylist who had (he said) "kinda made up my own form," and used a mogitou. He managed to include all five of the above stunts. I did a series of 8 traditional waza of seiza, tachi, and tatehiza forms, all done at an acceptable level, with my shinken.
Of the 10 contestants.... I took 10th. The other sword guy took 3rd. One of the judges came up later and said he had always wanted to see iai, but that I just didn't fit there, and they didn't know what to do with me.
On a side note, the judges inspect the weapons before each performance..... I can't tell you how nervous I was with these big karate guys (with lots of patches, stripes on belts, and colored dogis) passing my sword around.
Needless to say, that was my last experience with karate tourneys.
John Ray

[Charlie Kondek]

Check this out, Phil:

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/6360/grip.html

[Cady Goldfield]

John, it's long been a fact that mainstream "kuhrotty" tournaments are a whole 'nother species of critter than actual karate/MA. They are little more than combination gymnastics-dance competitions in which twirling, whirling and fancy costumes are more important than martial efficacy.

Weapons in those settings are simply gimmicks and props, like batons are for a baton twirler.

Tourneys have taken on a life of their own since the early days of exhibition karate in North America.

[Amphinon]

I run a Karate Tournament. I stress to the judges that gynastics and cheerleading are not martial arts and are not part of any traditional kata. They score the kata without those movements.

Perhaps it is because of the Circuit that tourney was a part of?

[Charles Mahan]

Take the images displayed on the geocities web site with a grain of salt. While I'm sure that's an appropriate grip, it is not the one and only appropriate grip, and is somewhat different from what I've been taught. The primary difference being the huge space between the hands.

There is a little variance from one school to another.