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Photos 8 to 10: Execution of a kick. Taking the basic position or ready stance (kamae) (8). The leg is bent and then swung upwards (9). The kick is carried out in a straight line (10).

It may be surprising, but in the traditional karate kata there is no roundhouse kick (mawashi geri) and no kick in the upper level (jōdan geri). However, there are jumped kicks (tobi geri), but they are only used as final falling or sacrifice techniques (sutemi). Kicking in wide, curved lines causes instability because it opens the own weak points to the enemy. It is too slow when fighting against a swordsman or other armed opponents and does not provide deadly first strike ability. Besides this, kicking may easily become ineffective if the opponent is physically stronger.

Photo 11: Mabuni Kenwa and his son Kenei practicing the exercise “falling tree” (tōboku hō).

There is a special Japanese budō exercise called “falling tree” (tōboku hō) or “falling down” (tōchi hō). In the book cited above The Secrets of Okinawan Karate by master Arakaki there is a photo showing me doing this exercise. The photo has been taken from the book my father published in 1938, Introduction into Attack and Defense Techniques in Karate Kempō. It shows how my father is supporting or catching me, respectively. This exercise gives the experience of a tree falling down to earth using the energy of the free fall. The body does not try to resist gravity. Arakaki considers this exercise, which is peculiar to the Japanese budō, to be the top level of human body control. My understanding of this practice is not that much scientific and I like to use the name used in the Itosu style: “borrowing power from the earth”.