Why is kumite more important in western karate than kata?

[Why_Worry]

Kata is the most important thing. YOu learn everything in kata and when you do kumite you can see your progress easierly. Where i go, we almost never do kumite. We just do blocks, releases and katas and thats basically it and maybe once every couple of months we do kumite. We sometimes do complimentary sparring where we can apply all our blocks and just keep it going maybe once a month, but most of it is kata, releases, and blocks.

[24fightingchickens]

I am trying to understand how the transition of karate to the west has involved and pushed kumite to the forefront, rather than kata.

I know there are been previous polls but this poll will help me with my research.

While I was in Japan, I thought they liked kumite better as well. The kumite competition had twice the competitors in all the tournaments I went to, and the kata champion was never the champion of the whole tournament. It was always the kumite champion who got the big cup.

So, I disagree that kumite was pushed to the forefront. It was the Japanese who did this to karate when they got it back in the 1920's, because they wanted to learn it before being conscripted and sent off to war.