I Wish Cobra Kai had been Named Miyagi-Do
The Way of the Fist is the opposite of Karate which literally means Open Hand
Being related to Mr. Miyagi, I absolutely love the writing and lore of Cobra Kai. And I get that the Netflix series is all about the resurrection of Daniel’s nemesis and John Kreese. But how did a Vietnam veteran learn karate? Maybe he was exposed to Vietnamese martial arts but karate originated in the former Ryukyu Kingdom where my father’s parents were from. And it wasn’t taught in Vietnam in the 70s.
Perhaps that is the irony of The Way of the Fist. It is the opposite of Open Hand and martial arts as self-defense. Kreese has no idea what karate is. He had to Strike First, Strike Hard, and have No Mercy to survive. Karate practitioners use open hands, the most famous open hand technique is probably the karate chop. But open hands are used to defend and quickly grab, using momentum to throw opponents off.
There is much more substance behind The Way of Miyagi. That’s why I wish the series was called Miyagi-Do. It’s hard to root for Cobra Kai. In the second season, it is revealed that Miyagi-Do is based on a real Okinawan karate master, Chojun Miyagi. Chojun Miyagi was born in 1888 in Naha, the Capitol of the former Ryukyu Kingdom. Miyagi was the founder of Goju-Ryu Karate (Soft/Hard karate).
