Shuri Crucible

[Permalost]

Have any karate types read Bruce Clayton's work on the Shuri crucible theory? I just finished reading his book Shotokan's Secret and it explained a lot of karate's glossed over history, but I haven't heard opinions from actual karateka.

[burningmonk]

I'd be interested to hear it. Shotokan, as I understand it, is a somewhat watered down japanese version of Okinawan martial arts, what would the connection to Shuri be?

[FickleFingerOfFate]

It was an excellent book, although I felt at times he tried to make the information fit the theory. It does give some hope that the Katas actually had a purpose in the past other than a set of conditioning drills and a syllibus of the basics of the art.

[X_plosion]

I haven't read the book itself, but you might want to check the discussion on it at e-budo.

[new2bjj]

It had a very interesting section on how much Karate has been a let down as a method of self defense and the irony of "character building", as it relates to non Japanese.