Colin Wee spent five relentless years taking his students through a single kata with no breaks and no distractions. Through COVID, while the world baked sourdough, he took one pattern, stripped it bare and rebuilt it again and again until its soul revealed itself. Now reaching further back in time, Colin is giving voice to the pioneers who shaped Okinawan martial culture. Come. See what happens when you slow down, look closer, and follow the threads that connect us to the past.
Breaking Through Book
Breaking Through: The Secrets of Bassai Dai Kata is the culmination of a four-year kata obsession. One form, studied to exhaustion, until it gave up its secrets. This isn’t about choreography. It’s what happens when you strip tradition down to its bones and ask: How does this actually work?
“The best Bassai book ever written.” — Ørjan Nilsen, Martial Arts Historian
Inside, you’ll find:
- 12 combative lessons, with their applications broken down with step-by-step clarity
- 200+ annotated photographs showing traps, angles, takedowns, and transitions
- A blend of hard-style efficiency and soft-style adaptability
- Tactical insights that challenge assumptions entrenched in modern training
📖 Flip through the Book here and get the free Bassai Dai Study & Book Club Kit
If you are an instructor or student and see how the martial arts applications from Breaking Through link to how Colin and his Black Belts got there and how it addresses dynamic situations, you will be able to fill in the gaps created by modern hard-style training.
“Copying Iain Abernethy’s cool takedown, or any else’s technique or combo, does not qualify as applications training.” – Breaking Through p19
This book isn’t Karate-centric. It’s training-centric. And that irony wasn’t lost on martial arts historian Ørjan Nilsen, who calls it “the best Bassai book ever written,” going so far as to recommend it to his Taekwondo students.
From January 2026, all applications in Breaking Through: The Secrets of Bassai Dai Kata will be supplemented by a Patreon site, featuring photos and sequences that didn’t make the book, seminar videos from around the world, and deeper work on the mechanics uncovered through ongoing research. The site will have both complementary as well as Patreon premium articles.
Awards and Recognition
Winner – 2026 American Legacy Awards (Sports)
Winner – 2025 Literary Global Book Awards (Non-fiction-Sports)
Winner – 2023 Best Indie Book Awards (Non-fiction Martial Arts)
Finalist – 2023 International Book Awards (Sports Category)
Book Details
Title: Breaking Through: The Secrets of Bassai Dai Kata
Author: Colin Wee
Publisher: Moosul Publishing, LLC., 2023 Website
ISBN: 0996264051, 9780996264051
Length: 160 pages
Originally published: 23 March 2023
2026 Cover: Woof Publishing
What Others Say
“Breaking Through … is jammed-packed with essential tactical applications, biomechanical principles, and self-study probing questions …”
Chris Hanson
Karate Unity
“Wee takes the traditional practice of patterns found in the striking arts … and repurposes them … as intrinsic components in the study of combat. “
GM Mike Swope
World Chun Kuhn Taekwondo Federation
“In a world where so many rush to criticize and divide, Master Wee stands tall as a leader who seeks to celebrate and connect. “
Sensei Ando
Happy Life Martial Arts
Join the Conversation
Anko Novel
Unpublished manuscript Anko: The Lost Scrolls of Ryukyu is what happens when a four‑year kata obsession leads to a year‑long disappearance. After Breaking Through cracked open Bassai Dai, I disappeared into 19th‑century Ryukyu, living with my protagonist, walking the old roads, and pulling apart the political collapse that shaped the men behind modern karate. I ran their tactical concepts at AKATO’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2026, sharing the very ideas my characters were fighting to protect. This book isn’t a sequel. It’s the next step in the same journey: stripping history down to its bones and asking what did it feel like to survive the end of a kingdom?
As the Ryukyu Kingdom falls under Japanese rule, one man stands at the crossroads of history. Anko Itosu, civil servant, bodyguard, and reluctant visionary, must decide whether his fists serve the fading world he was born into or the future his people desperately need. Anko: The Lost Scrolls of Ryukyu uncovers the human story behind the fighting system that survived Ryukyu’s collapse and became the art the world now calls karate.
Although Anko: The Lost Scrolls of Ryukyu is written first and foremost as historical fiction, readers who come from the martial arts world will find an added layer of depth. Alongside the narrative, the book includes a technical appendix that brings Itosu’s world into your training hall:
- 10 combative lessons, distilled from the tactics woven through the story
- 130 annotated photographs demonstrating angles, traps, takedowns, and transitional mechanics
- Tactical insights that challenge assumptions entrenched in modern training
This section isn’t just an add on. It’s a bridge between the world of the novel and the practice of hard style martial arts today.
Anko: The Lost Scrolls of Ryukyu is ultimately a story about what people do when the world they know is taken from them. It follows ordinary men caught in extraordinary pressure, forced to navigate loss, fear, and the slow erasure of everything familiar. In the collapse of a kingdom, it reveals the quiet courage, the impossible decisions, and the stubborn hope that allow a culture, and the people within it, to endure.
Title: Anko: The Lost Scrolls of Ryukyu
Author: Colin Wee
Publisher: To be confirmed
ISBN: To be assigned
Length: 370~390 pages
Publication Date: 旧盆 Kyubon, the Lunar Obon Festival, 13th to 15th Day of the 7th Lunar Month, the Year of the Fire Goat; with hard launch at Australasian Martial Arts Hall of Fame’s Gala 2027 in Hobart, Tasmania
What Others Say
“What makes this book a standout is its narrative vehicle. Instead of a dry, academic timeline of
how Ryukyuan Tode evolved into modern Karate, the story is told through the eyes of a fellow master and the closest friend of Itosu Anko.”
Jeff Palm
2nd Dan, JDK USA Affiliate
“Master Wee presents an entertaining and thought provoking work of historical fiction which will be of interest to all karate practitioners today.”
Dr Allan Wang
Orthopaedic Surgeon
Goju Ryu Practitioner
About the Author
Colin Wee is a martial artist, cultural historian, and author whose work explores how traditions evolve under pressure. His research into Ryukyuan history, political collapse, and the lives of figures like Anko Itosu and Anko Asato informs both his fiction and his technical writing. Colin’s first book, Breaking Through: The Secrets of Bassai Dai Kata, examined the mechanics and hidden logic of traditional forms. With Anko: The Lost Scrolls of Ryukyu, he turns to historical fiction to illuminate the human stories behind a culture fighting to survive. He is the founder of Joong Do Kwan in Western Australia, where he teaches and continues his research into traditional martial arts.
Join the Conversation
- Discover what led the author to his protagonist Anko Itosu
- Read about the research trip to Okinawa
- Behind-the-scenes: author and editor on the project
- The reviews are in!
- Subscribe for upcoming events and publication announcements
Acknowledgements
The Chus
Kelly Cox
Chris Hanson
Peter James
Will Just
Joshua Lay
Lindon McKenna
Leonard Montagnana
David Moore
Roy Moore
Andrew Netes
Sean Osborne
Mike Proctor
Bryan Robbins (RIP)
Doug Spear
Stephen Starnes
Betty Wee
EL, WCW, and BVW
Bill Wee (RIP)
Keith Yates
About the Author
Colin Wee is a martial artist, coach, and writer. See Author Bio
For more than four decades, Colin has explored the depth of martial arts, from the sweaty archery fields and training halls of Southeast Asia in the 1970s to the Midwest USA in the 1990s, and eventually to founding Joong Do Kwan in Perth, Western Australia in 2000.
A black belt under GM Keith Yates, Colin is ranked as a 7th Dan in Traditional Taekwondo (2021), received the Instructor of the Year Award (2016) from American Karate and Taekwondo Organization, and is an inducted member of the Australasian Martial Arts Hall of Fame (Inc) since 2020.
Colin’s journey has always been about more than technique. His work examines how martial arts shape decision‑making, resilience, and the way we carry ourselves in life. He shares these insights without ego, drawing on the history, characters, and lessons gathered across a lifetime of practice.
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