Seisan Kata

[Nidan Melbourne]

Too many kata? Our head guy in Okinawa, Takeshi Miyagi, is said to know 130 different kata.

It is one thing to know 130 kata, but another to understand them well

[armanox]

Too many kata? Our head guy in Okinawa, Takeshi Miyagi, is said to know 130 different kata.

It is one thing to know 130 kata, but another to understand them well

That is true. For someone that has been doing martial arts for as long as he has, I wouldn't doubt that he understands (or at least, understood) most of the kata.

Also note that he does not teach 130 different kata to his classes - Ones that he didn't like, understand, or thought were redundant he would have dropped. Note that he only teaches roughly 30 emtpy hand kata (and I really don't have any idea how many weapons kata he teaches all together. Seems like he's always teaching my instructors new ones every time there is a visit one way or the other. Some are 2 person weapon kata too).

[Wastelander]

I know 33 empty-hand kata, and THAT is too many! Only 19 of them are part of my current style's curriculum, and THAT is too many! Seriously, if I could just do Naihanchi, Passai, Kusanku, and Seiunchin, I would be a happy man.

[Nidan Melbourne]

at my dojo we have 18 kata and that is enough for us.

[Archimoto]

Too many kata? Our head guy in Okinawa, Takeshi Miyagi, is said to know 130 different kata.

It is one thing to know 130 kata, but another to understand them well

Spot on and very well put!

It's such a good point that I couldn't help but to tweak it as follows:

It is one thing to know 130 kata and another to understand one kata well

[armanox]

Too many kata? Our head guy in Okinawa, Takeshi Miyagi, is said to know 130 different kata.

It is one thing to know 130 kata, but another to understand them well

Spot on and very well put!

It's such a good point that I couldn't help but to tweak it as follows:

It is one thing to know 130 kata and another to understand one kata well

Like I said, I don't have a hard time believing that someone who has been doing martial arts for more then 60 years could know a very large number of kata very well. Especially when you think how many kata are very simple (see Chibana's 5 kihon kata, the fukyu kata, Taikyoku, etc), and how many are very similar to each other (Seisan/Hangetsu and varients come to mind).