Kata

Some describe kata as an imaginary battle against multiple opponents, others might say it is a battle against yourself in order to attain perfection. I think both apply quite nicely but there must always be intent otherwise it becomes plain

This is Ohtsuka Sensei performing the first two movements of the kata Pinan Shodan.

Kata for Wado Ryu practitioners is only one aspect of the multitude of items that are practiced as you can see from the list to the side of this page. Other stylists use the phrase kata-centric for their approach to karate and that kata contains the tools and methods for self-defence. This is all fine and represents their approach. In Wado Ryu we could say that our approach is kata-centric and there may be more than an element of truth if we take kihon kumite, renzoku waza, tanto dori and idori as kata for example. Neither do we dwell on bunkai, in Wado we use the term kaisetsu for when we delve into the movements of kata. This goes back to our approach on the fundamental principles and how they permeate everything as opposed to this action in kata is for blocking this, then we do this.

Wado Ryu doesn't carry forward the bunkai/applications of Okinawan karate. Does ask me why. However, kata is still a very important part of Wado Ryu karate. It is one framework that we use to interconnect kihon to kumite.

Although there are 15 kata practiced within the main streams of Wado Ryu karate organisations, Ohtsuka Sensei seem to have favoured the study of just 9 kata: the five Pinan kata, kushanku, naihanchi, seishan and then chinto. Why just those and not include passai, wanshu, jitte, jion, rohai and niseishi? I don't know. It has been said that he found the rest were just superfluous. He must have had good reasons. Just looking at the last three in the list of naihanchi, seishan and chinto gives a big clue.

I think also that kata for Wado Ryu practitioners is more about the movement of the whole body in-between rather that the actual end points of the technique. We should be more body-centric than limb-centric. Take the sequence of three shuto uke in Pinan Shodan as an example. Taking the view that the attacker is stepping back punching to the head three things and we are stepping foward three times and blocking at head height is fine as a rudimentary starting point for beginners to imagine something but beyond that we could look more towards this kind of thinking below.

Why three movements? Why not. We don't have to get hung up on it. We can take it as renshu, as even more practice, but it also means we have to be more precise with the movement as it stands out having to do three in succession. The movement foward should have a feeling of irimi, of entering or trying to sneak into the opponent's stance/space. The jodan shuto uke could equally be chudan shuto uke, jodan nukite, jodan shuto uchi or jodan teisho uchi or even to cup their chin whilst further maneouvering behind to apply a head lock like in one of the tanto dori. The movement and slipping action could equally be applied for tanto dori to slip the downward cut but still remaining close.

Could even the body turn and transition set something up like that below? I don't know, I'm still working on it. To be stuck in the step forwards three times and block head height model I don't think helps with progress.

Click for an example of Wado Ryu Pinan Shodan Kata