How did the modernization of Karate weaken its self-defense applications?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I have been doing Karate for 3 years and during that time I have researched the history of Karate. My research indicates that during the propagation of Karate to Japan and the rest of the world, some techniques (and indeed the whole concept of bunkai) were "Japanified" and given names/specific applications to ease the teaching of large groups.

This, in my opinion, has weakened the art; many clubs either do not teach bunkai/self defence or they teach "Japanified" Bunkai/self defense, which is a source of much frustration for me (who on the street is going to be standing 10 feet away from you, for you to step towards them and block an Ushiro Geri for instance?)

So my question is this, where did all these impractical ideas come from? Has anybody done much research into this subject and if so, could you provide any references for further reading about this subject?