Imagining embodiment in karate kata

FitzGerald, Emily 2024. Imagining embodiment in karate kata. Martial Arts Studies (15) , pp. 42-50. 10.18573/mas.178

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Abstract

This paper is an exploration of how a particular moment in time - the 2020 pandemic - created a paradigm shift that both has and has not affected the way martial artists train. I argue rethinking the concept of virtuality beyond the bounds of technology provides a lens through which to better understand certain aspects of embodied existence that both reinforce and go beyond the physical. I discuss the virtual effects on training in terms of a phrase I call embodied imagination via a phenomenological analysis using Gilles Deleuze, Edward Casey, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. I focus on karate kata and their bunkai, which serve to exemplify how embodied imagination is always already both virtualized and actualized in senses individual and communal. I end with a description of a combination of techniques that relies on narrow line work, utilizing creative interpretations of limited and liminal spaces.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Cardiff University Press
ISSN:	2057-5696
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 July 2024
Date of Acceptance:	1 June 2024
Last Modified:	26 Jul 2024 12:37
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/170873

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