Analysis of Genuine Karate 2: Socio-Cultural Development, Commercialization, and Loss of Essential Knowledge

Hermann Bayer

Genuine Okinawan Karate was developed as a fighting tool. Non-Okinawan Karate styles serve other purposes.
Dr. Bayer examines how prewar Japan changed the fighting art Karate-Jutsu into the Budo art Karate-Do and then used Budo to prepare the nation spiritually for total war; how the art was later deliberately industrialized and commercialized, which created a worldwide Karate-Do inflation; and how Karate-Do’s eventual transformation into athletic showmanship destroyed its classic knowledge base.