Hey all in Karateland, I'm trying to get a bit of a history project started cataloging when specific kata came into being, what we know about the creators of them, etc. in order to try and create an accurate picture of karate history. Sadly, my knowledge on the subject is, at the moment, pitiful, and consists of bits and pieces I remember from karate class and Iain Abernathy's books. The five Heian Kata, as I recall, were created somewhere after the formal inclusion of Okinawa into Japan, and were meant as a teaching tool for someone who wanted to use karate as a type of physical education in the Okinawan school system. I also recall a story from one of Abernathy's books (it was either Karate's Grappling Methods or Bunkai Jutsu) about how the kata Chinto (aka Gankaku) was created by a shipwrecked Chinese sailor and taught to one of the Shuri castle guards as a catalog of said sailor's fighting knowledge. Sadly, both of those books are sitting in Kalamazoo right now, and I don't have access to them. If anyone has dates, citations, books to recommend, etc. I'd love to get some deeper karate history than just "Okinawans developed krotty cuz they didn't have sords and needed to fite samurai".
According to Dr. John Titchen in his "Heian Flow System" book, Funakoshi attributed the Pinan/Heian kata to Anko Itosu. However, he suggest, based on their appearance in other karate systems with which Itosu was not associated with, that their creator may have been Sokon Matsumura. He also suggests that, contrary to popular lore, they are not derived from Kata Kusanku (Kushanku/Kanku-Dai). This idea is further supported by Dr. Elmar Schmeisser's work, "Channan: Heart of the Heians". The Channan kata he presents seem to have more in common with the Pinan/Heian kata than Kusanku does. I believe Kata Tensho was invented by Chojun Miyagi as sort of a companion piece to Kata Sanchin. This makes it a fairly new kata. Kata Sanchin, usually seen in Naha-lineage systems such as Uechi-Ryu and Goju-Ryu, translates as "The Three Battles", and I believe this refers to uniting mind, body, and spirit. Of course the Japanese/Okinawan language tends to be a bit ambiguous sometimes, so there's likely another translation and meaning of this term. Kata Sunsu was created by Tatsuo Shimabuku, founder of Isshin-Ryu Karate. Kata Seisan, known in Shotokan as "Hangetsu", is considered by some to be the oldest kata in Okinawa. According to Brian Winkleman's "Training Manual for Isshin-Ryu Karate," it's over 400 years old. Dr. Bruce Clayton, in "Shotokan's Secret", notes that this is the only kata shared by both Shotokan and Goju-Ryu. I've seen this kata performed by exponents of about four or five systems. There seems to be more variation here than in any other kata, although I don't have any research to back that up. According to legend, both Kusanku and Wansu (Empi) were brought to Okinawa by Chinese envoys. And according to legend, as you've already noted, Chinto was supposed to have been taught to Sokon Matsumura by a shipwrecked Chinese sailor. The thing all these kata have in common is that they're supposedly named after their originator/creator. Any kata that's over 100 years old, we don't have much of a record for. I believe there's some evidence that Seisan is a dirivitave of a "Five Ancestors Fist Kung Fu" CMA system. In fact, I think most Naha-lineage systems are attributed to Southern CMA systems. Dr. Clayton has made the case that Shuri-lineage systems are not from China, but I personally don't find his evidence particularly strong.
Thanks. I remember my karate instructor talking up Hangetsu as being an ancient kata. As far the stuff about Chinto, Wansu, etc, even the folkloric stuff about shipwrecked sailors and whatnot is still interesting. Do you know anything about who Wansu and Kusanku supposedly were?
According to Winkleman's book: "In 1756, a Chinese military envoy named Kusanku was sent to Okinawa. He was a skilled Kempo Master famous for his fighting skills. Although Kusanku never taught this kata, his best techniques were combined into this kata by his followers". "...according to Shorin Ryu Master Shoshin Nagimine and Goju Master Morio Higaonna, wansu kata is named after a Chinese military envoy named Wanshu. He was sent to the Torari [possible typo for Tomari?] Village in Okinawa around 1683. Wanshu taught Chinese Kempo to the village people. His martial arts expertise inspired his followers to combine the best of his teachings into the kata that we know as wansu."
I'm here - I've just been too busy to post! In my absence however Callsignfuzzy has done an excellent job and provided a good deal of information. Harry Cook's Shotokan Karate: A precise history has a small section going through the known origins of all the Shotokan Kata in one of the appendices at the back. http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Shotokan/Pages/Shobooks.htm This book also points out the oft repeated error that okinawans didn't have weapons - they did. I've made reference to that on another thread here on MAP: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76883 If you read Funakoshi's writings though you will notice that he makes reference to Karate not being practiced in public when he first started. If you look up Itosu's 10 precepts you'll see he expressly states that Karate can be practised for either self defence or for strength, but it is for dealing with ruffians - not for duels. If you go to Iain's forum he has some good things to say on Channan and you can also buy his e books if you really miss the paper copies. I'm afraid my book isn't available as an e book, which is a shame because the on screen images are really good. Good luck with your research.
Hey guys here's what i have picked up over my years studying Karate. The heain kata are a dirivitive of Kanku-Dai, they were one kata but then were broken down to be taught in the PE syllabus of schools, basically Itosu removed all of the dangerous techniuqes from the kata. To take this back even further Katas Kanku-Dai and Kanku-Sho are supposed to be one kata but they were broken down and altered from their original kata called channan, it is believed this was done by Sokon ‘Bushi’ Matsumora. The Kanku's are supposed to have been created by Matsumora in memory of a teacher he encountered in Okinawa, he then went and trained with the chinese kung fu master who was believed to be called something along the lines of Kwanku/Ku Shan ku etc very similar anyway. any other katas you wish to here about my friend? Vision without action is a daydream Action without vision is a nightmare
Passai is believed to be Chinese in origin, data back some 400 years. Naihaichi is another kata that is supposed to be of Chinese origin. The two Fukyugata where developed by Shoshin Nagamine and Chojun Miyagi to serve as "beginner" kata.
See, that's the thing. For the purposes of historical accuracy, we can really only be certain about the origins of a few kata: the ones invented in the 20th Century, and the ones shared by existing Chinese systems. While we can speculate about the origins of the rest, at best, all we can say is that, for example, "There was no record of Kata Passai/Bassai until after 18XX", or whatever. Unfortunately there was no written record for many of these kata. We have yet to find a manuscript saying, "On this day, June 27, 1823, I, Supreme Karate Master Bob, invented a new kata. I think I'm going to call it Naihanchi, but it's OK to change the name in a century or so when teaching it to the Japanese. And just for poops and chuckles, it's going to have a lot of sideways movement, to confuse the students as to its meaning when I don't explain it to them. I'll tell them it's for fighting on a cliff or something"
Oh, yeah. Not taking issue with your post at all, just bemoaning the general lack of info we have on this stuff that we're surrounded by. More stuff, from Nagamine's "The Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do": Wankan, Rohai, Passai, and Wansu all originated in Tomari Villiage. The story of Wansu/Wanshu is the same as above. Naihanchi 1-3 were all "known in Shuri and Tomari schools even before the kata of Pinan was invented. This is proved by the fact that begginers used to learn Naihanchi instead of Pinan." He says Naihanchi (Tekki) isn't so much about fighting skills, but developing the lower extremities. The composer for Ananku is unknown. Actually he says that about nearly all the kata, but that's the only historic info he gives on this particular one. Gojushiho "means 54 steps, whose movements are said to resemble those of a drunken man". Chinto and Kusanku were both favorites of Chotoku Kyan. From "The Way of Kata," by Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder: When the Japanese concured Okinawa in 1609, they forbid martial arts practice. The native art, "Okinawa Te", went underground. It was devided into three schools. To quote from the book, "Shuri Te: influenced by the hard techniques of northern kung fu and characterized by an offensive attitude. Naha Te: influenced by the softer techniques of southern kung fu and characterised with grappling, throws, and locking techniques and a more defensive attitude. Tomari Te: influenced by both the hard and soft techniques of kung fu. By the end of the 19th Century, Shuri Te and Tomari Te had been subsumed under the name Shoren Ryu [sic]" It also says that Kanryo Higashionna, teacher of Chojun Miyagi, learned Kata Sanchin, among other martial skills, from Ryu Ryu Ko (Japanised Chinese name?), who had in turn studied at the southern Shaolin temple at Fujian. It goes on to say that when he started teachin Sanchin and Naha-Te to the general public in 1905, he altered Sanchin so that the kata was performed with fists instead of open hands. The open-hand Sanchin can still be found in Uechi-Ryu George Mattson's "The Way of Karate", on Uechi-Ryu, passes along the legend of Bodhidharma as the inventor of Chinese martial arts. He says that the original movements formed the foundation of Pangai-Noon, "a Chinese style of kempo". In 1900, Uechi moved to China and began to study martial arts for a period of ten years. According to the book, he settled in southern China and studied the "three formost styles" of kempo, although the book doesn't name them. "At the end of ten years Mr. Uechi took the best kata (formal excersises) from the three styles. From the pangai-noon style itself, he retained the exercise that Bodhidharma developed: the exercise called Sanchin. From the pangai-noon and the other two styles, he adapted the kata of seisan and san-ju-roku (san-shih-liu in Chinese)." Personally, I think the whole Bodhidharma thing is largely a fairytale. Interesting information from Iain Abernethy's "Bunkai-Jutsu"- he says that Sokon Matsumura synthesised Chinese and indigenous Okinawan methods with Jigen-Ryu Bujitsu, the fighting system of the occupying Satsuma clan, to form Shuri-Te. He also says that Anko Itsuo modified the kata by taking out the more dangerous strikes (taisho, nukite, etc) and replacing them with clinched fists. He did this because he was trying to get karate introduced into the Elementary School curriculum as a form of excercise. This is the second reference of a karate teacher altering kata in order for it to be "safer" to the masses. Interestingly, the two teachers were from separate lineages. He also references Choki Motobu as saying, in 1926, that "Naihanchi, Passai, Chinto and Rohai styles are not left in China today and only remain in Okinawa as active martial arts". While Abernethy's focus was more on the idea of kata as "style", I do have to wonder how Motobu came across this information. Dr. Bruce Clayton, in "Shotokan's Secret", spends a good portion of his book making a strong case that Matsumura created the Shuri system independently, and implicitly that would mean that he created these kata. He certainly makes that case for Passai (Bassai) and Naihanchi (Tekki), which he views as training for the bodyguards of Shuri Castle. So that begs the question: did these four kata and their variations ever exist in China? My guess is that the Chinese martial arts have some influence in their creation, especially if the "Chinto was a shipwrecked Chinese sailor" story is to be belived, they were never full, native systems. "Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals: A Historical Survey", by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo, makes note that during the late 19th/early 20th century, between the Boxer Rebellion, the printing press, and institutions such as the Central Goushou Academy, TCMA's were quite availible to the public in general. I would suggest that during this period, even lesser-known systems would have had some sort of exposure. Could a Chinese system that contained the kata of Naihanchi, Passai, etc have disappeared in the span of 60 years or so? Maybe, I just think if Matsumura learned them from an outside source, it probably meant that they were being taught to the public as a whole. I think it unlikely they would have disappeared, so I think it's unlikely they were ever completely native Chinese systems at all.
simply put,It is a series of movements that record the techniques,but most importantly the Principles of that kata's founders knowledge. The kata Chinto was made by Soken Bushi Matsumura,after chinto one of his instructors, returned to china. He then recorded the way In which chinto fought. Read some of Iain Abernethy's website,he's very realistic with kata and very knowledgeable about this sort of question.
