Ibuki

[koryu]

I've never heard of it classified this way. Ibuki just refers to breathing, something we do every day. As far as hard and soft, this refers to your body's muscle tension. Although it may feel as though you're doing a "hard" ibuki in a kata such as Sanchin and a "soft" ibuki in a kata such as Tensho, you're really breathing the same way, you're muscles are just acting differently. One way you could classify breathing techniques is loud and quiet, but also not exactly accurate. I remember back in my tournament days, these guys sounding like they're trying to hack up a hairball when performing a kata. This is unnecessary and usually added for effect. Breathing should be natural, but it should also be correctly trained.