ryoute freestyle karate, ryoute, double hand grappling, kata bunkai, kata applications, kusanku, naihanchi, naifuanchi, tekki, sanchin, rokushu, tensho, passai, bassai, cross hand grappling

Disclaimer: Many of these articles express views that have been superseded and we no longer hold to be true. They are left on the website as a historical record of the development of Ryoute. Please read the FAQ for a more up-to-date version of our opinions. If there is anything not covered there please feel free to email us at info@ryoute.com

I think that most people who do Karate would agree with me when I say that Karate is a Budou (warrior teachings). This statement implies that Karate is primarily about fighting. However there is probably a small minority of people who would argue that Karate is primarily about personal development and rather than describe Karate as a Budou they would describe it as a Dou. Whatever your opinion, it is difficult to deny that there is currently a spectrum between Budou and Dou within Karate. It depends on what style or what club as to where the emphasis is placed. I believe that over time Karate has become (and will continue to become) more and more a Budou and less and less a Dou. The reason I say this is because it seems to me that the demand for Karate to be about fighting has changed the art (and will continue to change the art) more than the demand for Karate to be about personal development. In my opinion the one thing that stops Karate from becoming entirely a Budou is traditional kata. Without kata, Karate ka could change techniques to work best in fighting. The demand that a fighting technique should be like a kata movement is preventing karate from becoming a Budou. Karate Ka often waste much time and energy trying to reconcile karate kata with fighting (the same goes for Kung Fu, Tai Chi and various other arts). To my knowledge (which of course if vast) all attempts to reconcile kata and fighting involve far too much adaptation of kata OR they involve unrealistic fighting techniques. To me the obvious conclusion from this is that the kata were not supposed to be used for fighting, however this would fundementally undermine the views of the majority of karate ka. This is the reason we have positioned Ryoute as separate from Karate, our art would never be accepted into main stream karate.

It is impossible to prove that Karate kata where originally developed for double hand grappling. So I am not going to try, it is entirely a matter of what you believe. What I can do is demonstrate how similar Ryoute (double hand grappling) techniques are too Karate kata. Whether this means anything or not is up to you. But be careful, don't be fooled into thinking you could use these techniques in fighting. I seriously doubt that any warrior would wish to arm him/her self with Ryoute techniques. Hence Ryoute is not a Budou.

As to whether Ryoute is a Dou is an intellectual question and depends on your interpretation of the term Dou. Dou literally means journey / course / moral / teachings examples include:

• Godou - the path of spiritual enlightenment (Go = enlightenment / perceive / discern / realize / understand)
• Idou - the art of medicine (I = doctor / medicine)
• Kadou - flower arrangement (Ka = flower)
• Kendou - swordmanship (Ken = sabre / sword / blade)
• Kobudou - old warrior way (Ko = old, bu = warrior / military / chivalry / arms)
• Onmyoudou - occult divination system based on the Taoist theory of the five elements (onm = shade / yin / negative, you = sunshine / yang / positive)
• Shidou - samurai code (Shi = samurai / gentleman)

In a sense Karate kata are Ryoutedou, however Karate kata are not taught in Ryoute. I personally would be inclined to distance Ryoute from the term Dou because it seems to run contrary to freedom of expression, which is an important part of Ryoute. The term Dou has shades of unquestioned tradition and dogma associated with it (correctly or not). Ultimately it doesn't really matter what you call it, it is what it is, but we don't really want to have a misleading name.

SOME BASICS

The people in the following animated photographs are performing basic karate techniques and demonstrating their use in Ryoute. If you know Karate then you'll understand. If you don't know Karate then it doesn't make any difference to you, Karate is Karate and Ryoute is Ryoute. Also please remember that double hand grappling is not a fighting art and these techniques are not designed to work in fight.

Karate people, keep your ears to the ground there is a book coming out soon.

So long... for now!