Something my instructor said yesterday got me thinking about embusen again. They were mentioned in passing in an article I read a while ago, and I was curious so did a search on the net - but found very little to actually get my teeth into and kinda lost interest. How do you actually go about drawing the embusen from your kata? The simplest method I've come across is by somehow tracing your footprints (by doing your kata on a sandy beach, for example, or getting someone to mark your foot position with tape as you go through your kata) - but then another source said that the 'footprint' traced out is NOT an embusen, and that it is actually drawn using lines of force... but didn't elaborate further. Some sources have said that the embusen spell things things in kanji, and yet others say that this is just a coincidence, or people are looking too hard for meanings (familiar argument in kata in general ). Does anyone know *anything* about embusen, or where I can find out more?
What brings you to that conclusion, b19vny? I'm interested in learning something about embusen - even if it brings me to the same conclusion as you
There is a bit on enbusen on Bob Redmond's Shotokan karate site - http://kata.24fightingchickens.com/15_enbusen.html - you might find it of interest. He talks about embusen possibly spelling out Japanese characters.
Well, I believe we are looking too deep. There are katas with the same name that have completely different footwork - if that's the case they will both be creating different kanji on the ground. I believe there are some 60,000 Kanji [some say more like 200,000] so the odds of our kata footwork describing at least one or two are going to be reasonable . . . but still a coincidence.
OK, I can go with that. I can't imagine that anyone (accomplished enough in the art of karate to create a kata worth passing on through the generations) would detract from the techniques contained in the kata by bending them to trace out kanji. But, since kata come from so many different sources, I suppose there's a possiblility that some of them were created by someone who wanted the embusen to 'mean' something. But then why wouldn't that be taught with the kata? And, by the same argument, since the kata came from so many different sources, it seems a bit far-stretched that all of them should spell out something. And what would be the point of the embusen 'meaning' anything anyway? I'm not convinced that stomping out Japanese kanji would be a particularly effective move against any would-be marauders So, the only point I could see in embusen spelling out kanji would be if the kata in question was not entirely intended as a method of teaching effective fighting/self defence techniques - perhaps instead as a more 'spiritual' kata, with additional meaning attached to even it's footprint? Anyway, this is all just speculation on my part - I have yet to find anything much to base my theories on (thanks for the web address, Scaramouch - great start!) Maybe I should just stop wasting time thinking and concentrate on getting the moves right instead Can anyone point me in the direction of the more mundane side of embusen - simple stuff like what they actually are (footprints/force diagrams) and what they actually look like, for example?
Not sure what's on that website - but the firewall at work kicks in when I try to open it! I'll take a trip to the library and try the computers there. Thanks for the tip.
