For our final kick at the can on this article, I would like to pick up on something that Burkart says in his conclusion, that he noticed the anonymous codex Nurnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, ms. 3227a (I love the great titles these western manuals have) finished rather abruptly, after an extensive series of notes to start with. He states that this reminded him of his own karate notes, where he was quite detailed and extensive up to the point where he started to embody the concepts his teacher was explaining. He no longer intellectualized and so the notes dropped by the wayside.
I said many years ago that the best person to write a manual is the keen 3rd dan. They know the school and they know it precisely, in only one way. Ask an 8dan to write the same manual and he won’t know what to leave out.
However, to my students, I still recommend making notes. I make notes of arts that I’m still working on, those where I am still learning the kata names and trying to remember what foot goes where. The notes are my shortcut to understanding the fundamentals, until I make them the art remains uncertain. By writing it down I somehow “create” the forms, I fossilize them so that I can come back and recreate them. In this case, the notes have to be complete enough, detailed enough to get me to the place where I was when I learned the information. I can take it from there.
That’s a new art. When you are at 20-30 years of practice of that art and it is not your primary practice, you will appreciate the notes, even a reminder of the kata names and order will be appreciated as you start back in after a break.
But what about your primary art, the one you do under your teacher? Make the notes. I don’t care how well you know the art, from dance steps to advanced concepts, if you’re still with a sensei he will be telling you new stuff. If he isn’t, why are you there, and if he is, why aren’t you making notes!
Notes, not just for the first five years of practice.
Seito Bugei Juku 