Forms/katas Names and Origins

[swift99]

Kata in this video is chi kata. It is also a kitagawa beginner kata, Chonan has more side to side movement. Chi kata was attributed to kitagawa sensei by Shintani, but some people believe it was actually created by one of his students. I know that seisho was created by Shintani, but he always attributed it to Kitagawa.

There was a period of time (early 1980's) when some groups in Western Canada mistakenly called Chi Kata Chonan, but that was resolved when Shintani sensei gave more direct attention to those clubs.

Shintani sensei often spoke about the naming of the katas, and why he stuck with the old names. The naming is in an old okinawan dialect that is a blend of chinese, Japanese, and the (now extinct?) original okinawan language. Since karate is an Okinawan art, he stuck to the Okinawan names.

This is chonan:

[wildbourgman]

Does anyone have a resource that directly correlates katas of different systems and their different names for each style along side the equivalent kata name in different styles.

Such as Naihanchi-Naifanchi-tekki and what styes that use each particular name.

[swift99]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata is a good start.

[swift99]

My wife did some research recently that identified the lineage of Kitagawa sensei.

Kitagawa sensei was a direct student of Itosu sensei, as was Funakoshi sensei. Where Funakoshi sensei focused on popularizing karate as a sport and bringing it to the masses, the only record of Kitagawa sensei teaching anyone was six or eight teenaged boys at the New Denver internment camp in 1945 to 1948.

He called his art "Okinawa Te", or "Kumite". It appears that he may not even have been aware of the branding of the art as karate until after the war.

Where Funakoshi sensei modified the katas to be easier to teach to large numbers of students, Kitagawa is not believed to have modified the katas much at all.

Kitagawa was teaching survival, not recreation. He did not receive payment for instruction. His emphasis was on stoicism, endurance, speed, and power.

[tusharxp]

great