Kanku Sho Bunkai?

[sensei8]

Anyone know what the bunkai is for Kanku Sho? The 4th move is a stepping puch and then a wrist turn over. What is this wrist turnover, an escape? Slow or fast tempo?. Any knowledge on this move would be appreciated. Thank you.

We do Kusanku Sho, rather than the Shotokan version, but it does have a sequence at the beginning where you do oi-tsuki and then that turns over to chudan-ude-uke. We typically apply it as an elbow dislocation--you control their arm with the hikite of the punch, punch them to hurt/distract them, and immediately roll your arm over so that the top of your forearm presses against the elbow. We do the chudan-ude-uke movement pulling back into neko-ashi-dachi, which helps extend the arm for the ambar and also takes our weight off the lead foot so we can kick or knee with it at the same time.

All that said, you have to remember that Kusanku/Kanku Sho was modified by Itosu (and then Funakoshi) to fit into his "school-safe" curriculum, so it's entirely possible that he always intended for it to really be a punch followed by a block. For practical applications, I would look more into Kusanku/Kanku Dai, instead. The same goes for Passai/Bassai. They were still modified, of course, but the Dai versions seem to have been changed less than the Sho versions.

Very solid post!!

[sensei8]

As far as bunkai, I've seen several things for this over the years. My advice is to ask your sensei what he/she believes it should be. If that doesn't work, come back and let us know.

Here's a video of the pacing for the kata:

Ooooo...a very solid post!!

The pacing in your link was pretty good. I love to play with the pacing to see what else I can discover.

Bunkai is up for ones interpretation and in that...

What will be discovered in any said kata tomorrow? Only time will tell.

[Samdan]

Since kanku sho is more reactionary than some kata it could be that the oi-tsuki is actually someone pulling you forward, with a cross grab, by the wrist and the ude-uke would put them into an s bend, with the second oi-tsuki to put them into an arm lock.