First Kyū – Brown Belt with One Black Stripe

The Role of Kata in Karate Practice

In Japan the martial arts fall within the category of geidō, or “artistic ways.”  The Japanese believe the arts can only be learned by doing.  Total mind and body understanding is obtained through practice.[1]  The type of practice employed by schools teaching the arts, including martial arts, is called keiko. 

Keiko is learning which requires polishing through repetition of established forms, or kata.  Kata are the basic methods by which techniques are transmitted from master to student.  The method of instruction was to repeat the kata under the guidance of the master.  Learning involved a rote imitation of the teacher’s kata, with no resistance, no attempt to embellish, no questions asked and commonly with no explanation of the individual moves.  Constant polishing of the moves, inner reflection on the process, down to the tiniest detail of stance or how one held one’s hands, it was believed, would ultimately result in understanding.[2] 

The Kata of Kōburyū

There are nine kata of Kōburyū.  Three of the kata originated in China from Pangainoon.  Kanei Uechi and other sempai added five more kata to act as bridges between the original three kata of Pangai-noon.  Kōbuken was the last kata added to our style.  Sōke Kaichō Kinjō, head of the Kōburyū organization, created it.  A tenth kata, Suparempe, was one of the original Pangainoon kata but was never taught by Kanbun Uechi.  It is lost to our style but versions of it appear in Gōjū Ryū and other Okinawan karate styles that originated in China. There is no way of knowing if a version of Suparempe taught by Shushiwa would have been the same as these other versions.

Kanji	Japanese	Creator	English
三戦	Sanchin	Pangai-noon	Three battles
完子和	Kanshiwa	Uechi Kanei	Named in honor of Kanbun Uechi and Shushiwa
第二十三	Dainiseisan	Itokazu Seiki	Number two or second part seisan
孝武拳	Kōbuken	Kinjo Takashi	Kinjō Takashi’s (Kō’s) Fighting Fist
十戦	Seichin	Uehara Saburo, student of Kanbun Uechi	Ten battles
十三	Seisan	Pangainoon	13
十六	Seiryū	Uechi Kanei	16
完戦	Kanchin	Uechi Kanei	Kanbun’s battles
三十六	Sanseiryū	Pangainoon	36
壱百零八	Suparempe	Pangainoon	108

Why are some kata names based on numbers?

The original Pangai-noon kata have names that are numbers.  Why?  The definitive answer may be lost.  However, we do know that Pangai-noon originally came from the Chinese martial art of chuan fa, sometimes loosely referred to as kungfu.  Some kungfu systems traditionally have four kata with the total number of movements equaling one hundred sixty.  Since Pangai-noon originally included a Suparempe kata, Pangai-noon fits this traditional kungfu formula:

                                                Sanchin             3

                                                Seisan              13

                                                Sanseiryū        36

                                                Suparempe   108

                                                                        160

Is it still important to practice the kyū kata?

It is more important than ever to practice the kyū kata.  The early kata can be like time capsules of your karate technique at the time you first learned the kata.  Bad habits that were conquered by the time you learned Seichin remain behind in Kanshiwa, Dainiseisan and Kōbuken.  Unfortunately, kōhai look to you for an example of how to perform these kata.  Unless you make an effort to continually polish every kata, your early kata will not display the quality techniques that you would like kōhai to emulate. 

Kanbun Uechi spent three years learning Sanchin.  He probably did not carry bad habits from Sanchin to Seisan.  Gichin Funakoshi claimed that it took five years to learn a kata.  As we move quickly from one kata to the next, we have not learned all that the kata has to teach us.  We have not spent the time necessary to perfect the kata.  We will spend five years on each kata, one way or the other, if we want to perfect our skills.  If we did not spend the time before we moved on to the next kata, we must spend the time by continually revisiting and revising our early techniques.

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[1] Hurst, G. Cameron: Ryūha in the Martial & Other Japanese Arts, Journal of Asian Martial Arts, vol. 4, no.4, 1995, p.20.

[2] Hurst, G. Cameron: Ryūha in the Martial & Other Japanese Arts, Journal of Asian Martial Arts, vol. 4, o.4, 1995, p.13-25.

The Significance of Shodan

shodan	初段
sho	初	beginning
dan	段	grade or step

You have been practicing hard toward earning a black belt. No doubt about it.  The end is in sight, right? Not so. Perhaps surprisingly, shodan means beginning grade, like first grade in school. You have travelled far only to arrive back at the beginning

Dan can also mean step, as in a step of a staircase. Shodan is just the first step, but in the senior grade level. There are ten steps on the staircase. Plan now to continue training with renewed intensity after that black belt test. Put all that expertise, knowledge and seniority into continuing your karate career.

Where To Go From Shodan

It can be humbling to learn that shodan means “beginner level.” Too many karate students believe that black belt is the ultimate attainment and end their karate training, feeling satisfied with themselves. Your friends are impressed. Your family is impressed. You have arrived, right? Far from being an endpoint, once you have achieved shodan you should be preparted to demonstrated that you are ready to begin serious training in the martial arts. If you end your training at shodan you not only stop when there is much left to learn, but what you do know will begin to slip away from you.

Karate is like hot water. If you do not give it heat constantly it will again become cold water.

How Long Does It Take?

You may remember asking this question in your early training. How long does it take? At that time, all you were thinking about was that black belt. You now know, not only how long it takes, but how much dedication and training is required. Sōke Kaichō Kinjō has said that karate is endless and deep. His martial arts career is proof that there is always something to new learn, somewhere new to go, some new idea to develop.

It will take your entire life to learn karate. There is no limit.