This post is English version of "船越義珍の巻き藁突き".
One picture from "空手道教範 Karate-do kyohan"(meaning technical manual of Karate-do) published in 1935.
The caption said, "巻藁の突き方", which means "how to strike makiwara pad".
In this photo Gichin Funakoshi(1868-1957)
shows his striking to makiwara pad.
How do you think of this great master(the founder of Shotokan-ryu, the today's world biggest Karate schedule)'s way of striking.
To be honest, I thought, "Sensei, are you indeed striking seriously?" when I saw this picture for the first time.
Funakoshi stands bolt upright keeping both his knees straight, which is called "棒立ち Bo-dachi" in Japanese and supposed to be very ineffective stance.
Because knees' extension movement are already finished, no more driving forces can not be expected from this movement.
That is why we Karate practioners are taught by sensei to bend ourknees in basic Karate stances.
Then how should we understand Gichin Funakoshi's makiwara striking on un-recommended stance?
Was Funakoshi indeed an amateur?
Did he intend to stand in a way that was different from actual for some reasons?
For example, did he get tired to keep knee-bended stances because once taking photos took a lot of time?
Or...
Was this Funakoshi's stance tactually effective in spite of the huge difference from today's senseis' lessons?
I'm not sure which is correct or whether other answers exist or not.
Though I'm not sure of right answer, I prefer
third hypothesis to other two.
Yes, Funakoshi's strange stance seems so effective that it gave him powerful strikes.
One experience makes me think so.
Shihan(master) Kiyoshi Arakaki showed the very similar striking technique at his seminar in Tokyo in May 2017.
He stood upright keeping his knees straight and demonstrated short-range strike.
That looked compact and powerless but its quickness and impact was overwhelming.
Why do know the impact?
It's because I played a role of shihan Arakaki's opponent in his demonstration.
Shihan Arakaki didn't tell us the relationship btw his striking technique and Functions'.So I have to say it's just what I feel.
My feeling is claiming Funakoshi' makiwara striking in Karate-do kyohan(1935) was seminar to shihan Arakaki's, thus very effective technique in its quickness and impact.
Note: Who am I?
・Name on blog is "Hamikara",
・A beginner student of Musokai Karate in Japan, started in November 2016, ranked as 7th degree kyu (Yes, indeed just a beginner!),
・Have experienced other style Karate (have 1st degree dan of full-contact style),
・Started to post daily Musokai Karate solo training in English from December 2017. Other posts are listed in theme "Musokai Karate".