The
Iaido Journal Sept 2007
Review: Kata and the Transmission of Knowledge in
Traditional Martial Arts
Kata and the
Transmission of Knowledge in
Traditional Martial Arts
by Michael Rosenbaum. 198 pages.
Paperback, 6" x 9". Boston: YMAA Publications.
Available from:
YMAA Publications
Center
4354 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02131
www.ymaa.com
review
copyright © 2007 Deborah
Klens-Bigman, Ph.D., all rights
reserved
In considering Michael Rosenbaum's Kata
and the Transmission of Knowledge in the Traditional Martial Arts,
one thing is certain: the author has read a lot of books. The
bibliography is extensive in quantity, if not always quality: we find
standard works of Western philosophy, history, poetry and literature,
along with some better and more dubious scholarship on the martial
arts and Asian philosophy. A couple of pretty good military history
authors are also sprinkled in.
If the author had in fact delivered a
text that lived up to the promise of the title, we might have had
something worthwhile: perhaps an analysis of the history,
development, and meaning, of say, Okinawan karate kata, with which
the author seems to be familiar. Instead, we have a hazy,
romanticized and better-done-elsewhere history of armed combat,
featuring Greeks, Romans, Europeans, and sometimes Asians. What all
of these cultures, spread across the world and different time periods
have in common, the author assures us, is that they learned their
battle skills through the practice of kata. Unfortunately, Rosenbaum
provides scant evidence to support this idea. He does not even offer
a firm definition for kata (as opposed, for example, to repetitive
drilling), in order to ground his discussion. As for how kata
practice could be applied in all times and places, we are simply told
that combative activities were similar regardless of when or where
they took place, or what tactics, strategies or weapons were
employed.
We are treated to this free-roaming
historical assessment, all the while enduring grammar and syntax
errors throughout the text. There are many instances where the
reader's patience is tried by the substitute of a spell-checker for
an editor. One memorable example: "…the foundation on which
much of the ancient Greeks [sic!] spirituality rested was
[sic!]three tenants [sic!] - strength, beauty and
health…" (p. 169-70). In addition to subject-verb
disagreement, and leaving out the possessive apostrophe in the word
Greeks; strength, beauty and health are tenets, not
tenants. A real copy editor would have clarified the text for
a better read (the verity of the statement is another matter
altogether).
The author finally leads us to a
discussion of kata and its significance in the last two chapters,
meaning that one has to wade through over 140 pages of oft-repeated,
romanticized and inaccurate martial arts and armed combat history to
get there. However, the long-awaited discussion is essentially
reprised from any number of other (and mostly better-written)
sources. In the last chapter the author laments the demise of
personal combat due to the introduction of firearms in the mid-16th
century, after which martial arts kata disintegrated into the woeful
state we find today. Contemporary kata practice, the author states,
is more geared to scant knowledge of a large number of kata practiced
for competition or health and self-improvement rather than in-depth
study needed for settling life-or-death disputes. In the way many
combat video gamers and "best warrior I can be" types
argue, he suggests armed combat took place in some romantic place and
time where gentlemen lived by a warrior ethos of bravery and honor
that has been forever lost now that we can mow down opposing armies
with lethal firepower instead. Never mind that a more realistic look
at premodern military history reveals an extreme level of smaller
scale but no less horrible violence, much of it perpetrated by the
valiant men-at-arms that the author holds in such high regard.
Without explaining how to get there,
Rosenbaum states that the way to recoup the lost value of kata is to
revive a life-and-death sensibility in its practice. Rather than
being a long infomercial for Ultimate Fighting, however, Rosenbaum
ends Kata and the Transmission of Knowledge by suggesting that
recovering this combative sensibility will result in our ability to
fight "our greatest battles…waged inside us…where we will
confront the most formidable enemy of all, ourselves" (p. 187). In
other words, the current practice of martial arts kata for health
and self-improvement should be replaced by serious practice of
martial arts kata for…health and self-improvement.
And now for a lamentation of my own:
while I realize it is futile to expect accurate titling of books (we
are unlikely to find "A Romantic Portrayal of the History of
Armed Combat"), most would-be martial arts authors who are not
trained researchers should stick with the old saw about writing about
what you know. The great many martial-arts-as-personal-narrative
books are infinitely better than a vague and misleading attempt at
analysis of a fundamental element of training with no clear thesis or
structured argument. Engaging and working with a copy editor would
not hurt, either.
