The original combat martial arts contained no complex formalized movements and were simple to learn. This is a truth that no one wants to admit because nearly all modern martial arts use a pre-determined series of kata (Long sets of complex patterns of movements with “hidden” techniques that modern day karate instructor’s can’t agree on or even seems to know the same ones, that supposedly once learned act like a dictionary to help you remember all the complex made up crap that you just learned kind of like a dance routine) as forms training. World famous Bruce Lee would not accept this and instead broke with the new Japanese "tradition" and trained in a free-form manner. He did not know that the precedence was in his favor. In reality he had stumbled upon Jiyu Kata or Mukei (No form). For Bruce it just made since. Anyone who has been instructed in Mukei feels the same.

Long complex set patterns for training did not occur until karate was transplanted from Okinawa to Japan in the Edo period during the 17^th century. In little Okinawa, Mukei was an important method of training until 1902, when Yasutsune Itosu taught school children. He wanted a way to teach school-age kids so they would remember what they had been taught and so he would not have to worry how they would use what they had learned. Only being taught the movement and not the applications, they would not be able to use it to cause mischief and violence. When Karate was transferred to mainland Japan, it was this "institutional" version that went with Gichin Funakoshi and the others.

The older version of karate training still exists here in America with the last people who have been taught the complete art of  Shorin Ryu Karate (Shaolin Way) which includes: Tode Sakugawa’s  Karate, Bushi Matsumura’s Suide, Jigen Ryu and  Gotente, the Minamoto and Motobu family's style of Bushi Te. We still teach the original Mukei kata, and we teach Yakusoku Kata. It is common for students to have been trained by another teacher in one of the modern karate “styles” before coming to our system. We welcome every one that wants to learn. We may well be the last Okinawan native system to be instructed in the truly ancient manner.

In America this is one KARATE School that has chosen to continue the ancient tradition we teach Jiyu Kata. All Yudansha (black belts) practice Mukei with all Waza (techniques). This allows the practitioner to react in a spontaneous and natural manner.