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Shotokan Times

3rd April 2021 by TD McKinnon, 5th Dan Torakan Karate-Do

Maintaining the Neural Pathways

In most Japanese martial arts, Kata is seen as an essential teaching and training method by which successful combat techniques can be preserved and passed on. Practicing it allows the Karateka to train, in a repetitive manner, the ability to execute tried, proven techniques and movements in a natural, reflexive manner. This does not mean that a given Kata is meant to rigidly represent a complete combat situation.

When you practice it you reinforce the neural pathways (something I used to refer to as cellular memory). I am not going to delve into neuroscience here. Basically, you practice something enough (as in a technique that you fully understand) in response to a certain trigger (as in a particular attack) and eventually the required response happens, seemingly, automatically. For this to happen you need …

Heian Shodan is very similar to Taikyoku Shodan, since the latter was, in essence, created as a subset of the former.

It has practically the same embusen of the first Kata, organized in the same pattern: an A-B-A travel with baselines divided into 5 segments. Unlike Taikyoku Shodan, these segments are all distinct.

Segment 1: Gedan-barai Oi-Zuki Baseline (Tettsui variation)

This segment is very similar to the first segment of Taikyoku Shodan. Its most striking aspect is that it is not a mirrored baseline. It starts to the left like Taikyoku Shodan, but the right-side repetition includes an extra technique, a tettsui between the gedan-barai and the oi-zuki. The other baselines of Heian Shodan and most of the Heian Kata are symmetrical, so this one stands out as an exception.

The Heian Kata were incorporated by Funakoshi into his syllabus as his version of Itosu's Pinan Kata, but these have…

Since when I first learned Karate, about 30 years ago, I’ve heard of a style of Bunkai (perfectly exemplified in this video) that interprets Kata as an imaginary combat against several opponents. In this view, the Kata is seen as a series of small combinations, each against a single opponent, with several turns to face a new opponent linking the various combinations.

This interpretation has been contested many times, and it is relatively easy to find videos online making the point that Kata should be considered more like a series of techniques that can be applied (in different situations and never as the linear story of a combat) against a single opponent. Iain Abernethy, in particular, frequently refers back to the founder of Shito-ryu (Kenwa Mabuni) when explaining that turns in Kata represent a change in the defender’s angle of attack, to face the opponent from a different direction: “The meaning of…

This is the second segment of Taikyoku Shodan. In contrast to the first segment, there do not seem to be many applications for it. This segment appears only in Taikyoku Shodan and Heian Shodan, and seems to be purely offensive. Perhaps for that reason, it rarely appears in bunkai videos that demonstrate defences against a particular attack. But I find it interesting for a couple of reasons:

• it is the prototype for repeating one same technique (or group of techniques) 3 times, which appears time and time again in several Kata. Taikyoku Shodan is itself a Kata prototype, and is an appropriate place for smaller prototypes like this.

• it could be a stylized form of a flurry of punches, a chain sequence of repeated techniques, and can help to teach the karateka to think beyond making a single attack intended to finish the fight. That can easily happen in dojo…

In this post, I look at some possible Bunkai for the first segment of Kata Taikyoku Shodan. This is a Block-turn baseline based on Gedan-barai and Oi-zuki. There are a few interpretations, with more or less grades of completeness, that I was able to find online. I follow the philosophy that looks at Kata as a repository of techniques for self-defense in civilian combat situations. This avoids the rigid and traditional view of bunkai like a fight against many successive opponents, which seems more ritualised than applicable in practice.

This is in accordance with the teachings of my teacher, Sensei Furuzawa, and of the TVSK association.

I sourced various Bunkai online, and compiled them here in different categories. For each, I tried to give at least one good video example, and in all cases I avoided listing videos that did not add anything new. This means you may be able…

When we think of studying a Kata, most obviously we think about memorising the steps, maybe the rhythm, and practising it enough times that we can reproduce it... a bit like a gymnastics routine. It is only after some thought, and maybe some years and experience with other Kata, that we begin to think beyond the physical exercise and start worrying about its meaning. Why do we perform the Kata? How can we apply it to self-defence? And why is the Kata organized the way it is?

I don't know the answers to these questions. Most of the content of Shotokan Kata remains a mystery, hinting at deep knowledge hidden under the surface, but hard to obtain for certain. One tool that I use to help me in the personal search to understand more about a Kata is to divide it into segments. I don't have a hard and fast…

There are three pillars to studying traditional Karate: Kihon, Kumite and Kata. They teach different aspects of the art and so complement each other, but each one of us will have its favourites. For me, it is Kata, which is where we can most readily identify the differences between fighting styles. In a sense, the different Kata make up the soul of Karate (or of Shotokan, or any other traditional Asian martial art).

That said, if Kata is so important, is there a better way to perform it? Should we all try to emulate what sports Karateka do in competitions? Should we instead try to execute each technique with perfect form, but perhaps less strength? Or else, the whole Kata with perfect fluency, but perhaps less form definition? Or take each step and movement with strength and speed, but in isolation from the next or the previous one?

At the…

Introduction

Kata Kihon is on the surface a simple Kata. But its simplicity can be deceiving. Funakoshi said it is not only a Kata for beginners, but one that experienced masters will frequently return to, in order to refine the core principles without the distraction of more difficult techniques. This left me thinking: what are these principles that we can practice from Kata Kihon? What lessons does it teach us?

Kata Kihon, or Taikyoku Shodan, is part of a set of 3 Kata introduced by Gichin Funakoshi in his book Karate-Do Kyohan, and created by him or his son Yoshitaka. They were created after the Heian as an intentional simplification of these. The three Kata are so similar that typically only the first one is taught. When I started my Karate journey, none of these was part of the curriculum, and I started immediately with Heian Shodan. These days, many…