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Kyan No Sai


The BB of C

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I got my first degree in Isshinryu back last September and set my goal on the remaining katas of the style. I thought I had all of them down until a member of this forum unwittingly let me know of a third sai kata - Kyan No Sai. Both the forum member and my instructor, and my cousin (holds a third degree) told me that it wasn't important but I found a few other schools that do the kata as well as a very old video of Shimabuku. So I felt compelled to learn it anyway.

I just finished learning it today through the magic of YouTube. It's a rather short kata. Only seven combinations. I thought that maybe there were moves missing from the kata because it's a rare kata in Isshinryu. According to Wikipedia and my instructor - the kata was dropped from the original curriculum in favor of Kusanku Sai. But I looked up the Shimabuku video again and the group that I was watching was doing the whole kata.

But now I want to know what everyone else thinks of the importance of this kata. Do you practice it at your school? Are there other styles with a similar version of the kata?

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A lot of other styles have similar versions of the kata. It all depends on who is teaching and who taught them. A lot of Isshinryu schools have it, a lot don't. I learned it, and this is kind of ironic, I ended up teaching it to my instructor who barely knew it existed.

It's a great learning sai kata. That said, the reason most deem it unimportant is because it's tacked on almost technique for technique to the end of Kusanku sai.

He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

- Tao Te Ching


"Move as swift as a wind, stay as silent as forest, attack as fierce as fire, undefeatable defense like a mountain."

- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

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If it's important to you...then it's important.

My view of kata is that they are all just a dance if all you do is the moves. I never taught kata as just a sequence of moves. I would teach self defense moves for a month and then say, "here's a way to remember them." Then I teach the kata. Now, it has purpose.

"It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenius."

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You both have good points.

Where I'll admit that the ending sequence to Kusanku Sai has similar techniques to Kyan No Sai, I don't think they're entirely similar. There's a lot of difference in footwork.

For Ps1, that's how the school I go to practices katas. We can't get our next belt until we understand the application to the katas we learned previously.

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That's why I said almost. They also throw an entire portion of the kata out in Kusanku sai. Like I said, it's a great sai kata to start with. It's quick and easy. In that way, I would say it's important.

He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

- Tao Te Ching


"Move as swift as a wind, stay as silent as forest, attack as fierce as fire, undefeatable defense like a mountain."

- Sun Tzu, the Art of War

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If it's important to you...then it's important.

My view of kata is that they are all just a dance if all you do is the moves. I never taught kata as just a sequence of moves. I would teach self defense moves for a month and then say, "here's a way to remember them." Then I teach the kata. Now, it has purpose.

This is a great view of kata practice. I would love to be able to do that in class time.

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  • 11 months later...

New to the forum, so I am searching out all isshinryu based threads. At our school, this is the only Sai kata we learn before Shodan.

"I do not teach karate, bucause that alone is the art of empty hand fighting. I teach Karate-Do, which is a way of life. The longer you are in this Dojo the more you will understand the great difference between the two."


- Sensei Sherman Harrill

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