Seisan

[Justin Treadaway]

this is a very authentic version ,performed by shimabukuru sensei

Very nice, this looks like he knows his stuff. The reason i say this is because it flows and he is relaxed, also, something I noticed on all the other videos, is peoples head bobbing up an down. If i am not mistaken your not supposed to bob up and down when changing from one stance to another (at least we aren't in kung fu). To me this guy video is the only one that really impressed me. The other guys aren't bad just not super impressive. The last guy would have been better to me if he wasn't so stiff. But that could be the difference in Chinese and Japanese arts, we(Kung Fu) are taught to be relaxed.

[armanox]

this is a very authentic version ,performed by shimabukuru sensei

Very nice, this looks like he knows his stuff. The reason i say this is because it flows and he is relaxed, also, something I noticed on all the other videos, is peoples head bobbing up an down. If i am not mistaken your not supposed to bob up and down when changing from one stance to another (at least we aren't in kung fu). To me this guy video is the only one that really impressed me. The other guys aren't bad just not super impressive. The last guy would have been better to me if he wasn't so stiff. But that could be the difference in Chinese and Japanese arts, we(Kung Fu) are taught to be relaxed.

Karate is not meant to be tense. It should be relaxed. When I locate it, I'll post the interview with Seikichi Iha Hanshi(10th Dan, Shorin Ryu), where he talks about the tension in Shorin Ryu.

[ps1]

this is a very authentic version ,performed by shimabukuru sensei

Very nice, this looks like he knows his stuff. The reason i say this is because it flows and he is relaxed, also, something I noticed on all the other videos, is peoples head bobbing up an down. If i am not mistaken your not supposed to bob up and down when changing from one stance to another (at least we aren't in kung fu). To me this guy video is the only one that really impressed me. The other guys aren't bad just not super impressive. The last guy would have been better to me if he wasn't so stiff. But that could be the difference in Chinese and Japanese arts, we(Kung Fu) are taught to be relaxed.

Let me start by saying I do NOT know this kata. So I can't say anything about sequence or the intricacies of the form. However, I agree with what you're saying here Justin Treadaway. He does seem to give one of the better overall presentations. But he does look a bit stiff as well. Again, I don't know the form, but I suspect he's a little too stiff between movements. There are some points where it looks as though things should be connected in combination but are not due to his stiffness. I may be wrong, but that's just how it looks. I do like the form overall though. If I had to learn it by video, this is the one I would pick.

[P.A.L]

Shimabukuro Zenpo is a reference in shuri-te. this version of Seasan is very old, the hand movements are not important don't even look at them very basic, the transitional foot movements are the key to this kata, i heard from one of his father's students( Zenpo's father who only trained with Kyan) in okinawa (60's) that this was the first kata he learned from shimabukuru as a basic kata for foot work.

here is a interview and another video clip of him

http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Dtimes/Pages/article27.htm

[swdw]

Hee hee,

Just to confuse the issue further- here's the Uechi version of Seisan

[bushido_man96]

I love that old video. Very nice.