What Kata do you Know?

[Wa-No-Michi]

Kata.

[armanox]

Well...I know all of the empty handed kata on the list pretty darn well. I'm a little rough on Maezato no nunchaku and Gyosho no kun, but, the edges just need to be polished a bit =)

[ShawnMiller]

It is not needed to know a practical bunkai for every move of every Kata, all though there is nothing wrong with trying to. Funakoshi even has stated in one of his book that you only have to understand the true meanings of one kata to understand the rest. However I feel it is important to learn various kata, so that you can pick which ones you really want to research and learn from. I have 5 main Bunkai for each of the Pinan's, although nothing is set in stone. Applications should change as you advance and learn more. The Naihanchi sho and Ni kata's I have devoted allot of time to and still will there is so much to learn from such short and what look to be simple kata's. When you read and research karate history, and see that originally master only knew one or two kata's and that was their fighting system, or that they would spend up to 10 years learning one kata. Logically they didn’t spend 10 years just practicing the move like many do for competition. They spent that time learning and practicing all the possibilities of the applications for each and every move in that kata. Not block and turn your back on that opponent, then turn to just block the attack of someone that just did a sneak attack from behind you, that you sensed coming and had perfect timing with out looking. Because you used your ninja skills, that’s not even close to reality. All of the old kata are designed to for self defense to quickly cripple, destroy and or control the attacker.

[Electra]

Just out of curiousity, what kata does everyone know?I'll start:

Kihon I-V

Naifanchi I-III

Seisan

Pinan I-III

Tensho

list of your katas really confused me, i couldn't figure it out what style you practice, do you open your Seisan kata with 3 steps and closed fist?do you have a compelete list of your school's katas?

I practice Kobayashi Shorin Ryu. All of the kata that I know of is as follows:

Empty Handed:

Kihon Shodan, Nidan, Sandan, Yondan, Godan

Naifanchi Shodan, Nidan, Sandan

Pinan Shodan, Nidan, Sandan, Yondan, Godan

Itsou no Passai

Matsumura no Passai

Kusanku Sho

Kusanku Dai

Tensho

Bo:

Gyosho

Sai:

Ichi no sai

I'll post a more complete list after I go back to class

And as seisan goes, yes, it starts as you suggested. I've posted a video clip as done by my class here. I have video of several other kata if anyone wants to see them, but they must let me know before I post them on the interenet.

first i thought your style is a mixed of Shuri and Naha-te but , obviously your Seisan kata is a Shuri-te, although there sames to be a missing part toward the end( Seisan is so old that there are many different versions),what i don't understand is Tensho among all of these Shuri-te katas.

thanks for the upload, if you got a chance let me see your Kihon #5,Matsunura Passai, Kusanku dai and Tensho.

Empty Hand

Ji'on

Kanku-dai

Kanku-sho

Bassai -dai

Hangetsu

Wankan

Goju shi ho sho

Go ju shi ho dai

jitte

sochin

enpi

chinte

unsu