Elmar Schmeisser's BUNKAI: Secrets of Karate Kata , Vol. 1: The Tekki Series.

In the 1970's karate-ka like myself longed for any little tidbit of information regarding kata application that was not blatantly overt. In fact, I took it upon myself to propose to a major martial arts publisher a volume called Hidden Throws and Locks of Karate-do. It was rejected because "many other books had been written on the subject." I guess the editors were not martial artists and did not understand that overt applications were not the more subtle or hidden meanings that many of my fellow martial artists and I were after.

Now I am overjoyed to see a similar, even more concentrated, volume (with 9 more in the works) brought to life by Dr. Elmar Schmeisser in his Bunkai: Secrets of Karate Kata.  In this compact book, Dr. Schmeisser opens the doors to tegumi (Okinawan grappling) as it is manifested in the popular Shotokan versions of the Iron Horseman forms. With no wasted space on preliminaries or filler, Dr. Schmeisser dives into the subject offering unique, imaginative but nonetheless applicable interpretations of karate forms which most practitioners have heretofore justified with fanciful and non-functional explanations. There is no excuse for that now.

Dr. Schmeisser a one of a few senior karate-ka who are investigating not just the kata itself but the self-defense that comes from it--the reason
the kata were created in the first place.

I look forward to the succeeding volumes.

--Tony Annesi, Takeshin Sogo Budo
author of Cracking the Kata Code, The Road to Mastery, and The Principles of Advanced Budo.