The following post was borrowed from the web site of Sensei Iain Abernethy.

Check out the entire post on our Words of Wisdom page.

“Anko Itosu (1832-1915) was one of karate’s true innovators; he was the creator of the Pinan kata and was responsible for introducing karate onto the Okinawan school system. To make karate suitable for children, Itosu watered down the karate he taught to them. As part of this, he started teaching kata without their applications so that the children could gain the physical benefits of kata training without irresponsibly giving them knowledge of the violent and brutal methods the kata were created to record…“