No boxer fights like he/she spars, does the bag or skips rope. No karateca should fight as he/she does kata. Karate, as a “traditional” martial art, has a more profound purpose than just learning to fight, regardless of all the analytical mumbo-jumbo of the experts on its historical origins that attempt to scientifically package the ineffable.
Kata is the manifestation of the art of karate. It unfolds its meaning through time. Most of a kata remains untold, undecipherable at first glance, most times at the hundredth glance.
It is a ritual of epiphanies and within them the fleeting secrets lie.
