Mystery kata help

[Spartacus Maximus]

Help would be very much appreciated from anyone who has information on a mystery kata formerly included in a few shorin-ryu dojos.

The kata is SHI OH HAI(that is the pronunciation and may be slightly different) Besides the name not much was ever explained about this kata, where it comes from or any other details. It didn’t feel like shorin-ryu or Okinawan and mostly came from a different system.

Curiously it was not part of any shorin ryu dojo’s curriculum encountered in Okinawa or elsewhere in Japan. For unclear reasons’s it was referred to as a “Kung fu-like” kata or the “Chinese” kata. Again no clue if this is accurate or what it exactly makes it so.

Can anyone shed some light on this kata? Does any one practise it?

[Wado Heretic]

As a kata it is found only in Chitō-ryū, and it's descendent schools. So far as I know Chitose claimed to have been taught the kata by Hanashiro, a student of Itosu, but it appears in no other descendent school of Itosu. As such, I consider such a claim a hint suspect. However, Itosu did teach according to the traditional Okinawan ethos of instructing a student in accordance with the character and needs of the student. Also, it should be remembered that Chitose altered many of the kata he had studied and all Chitō-ryū kata are distinguishable from their heterodox analogues.

The above comes from me presuming Shi-oh-hai to be a a mutation of Shihōhai. If they are not one in the same then I must join the club of the mystified.

[Spartacus Maximus]

It certainly looks like shito-ryu is the most likely source. As for the name, it is probably a transliteration mistake as what often occurrs when attempting to write Japanese into alphabet. This is further clouded by the fact that most instructors do not speak, read or write Japanese.

The next mystery, is how a shito-ryu kata ended up in shorin-ryu. As far as background goes none of the instructors teaching it previously trained in shito-ryu. Other styles or systems, but not shito-ryu. Even after trying to reconstruct it from memory and watching it on video (following the shito-ryu lead), nothing about it seems to clearly justify the supposed Chinese origin.

[Wado Heretic]

Chitō-ryū, the style established by Chitose Tsuyoshi. Not Shito-Ryu as established by Mabuni Kenwa.

Chitose's primary teacher was one Aragaki Seisho, but he continued his studies under Higaonna Kanryō, Kyan Chōtoku, and Motobu Choyo, as well as Hanashiro Chōmo whom I already mentioned.

The book I own by Chitose, Kempō Karate Dō, is where I found his statement that he learnt Shihōhai from Hanashiro. Hanashiro's only known teacher was Itosu Ankō, and Shihōhai does not appear in the teachings of other Itosu students. Also, Shihōhai does not appear in the teachings of Ryūkyū Hon Kempō (Okinawa Kempō Karate), or Shōrin-ryū Seibukan, or any branch of Kobayashi Shōrin-ryū I am aware of. All systems that Hanashiro had a direct influence on at some point.

Now, there are three conclusions I can reach:

1. Shihōhai was created, and later abandoned, by Hanashiro and passed on only to Chitose Tsuyoshi.

2. Itosu Ankō taught Hanashiro the kata, and it potentially has older Chinese origins. After all, if one traces back from Itosu back to his instructors; the origins of his kata all feature an expert in Chinese Chu'an Fa. The reason it is only practised in Chitō-ryū being that the kata was only passed to one student each generation.

3. Chitose was wrong in his recollection, and Shihōhai comes from one of the Heterodox schools he studied, and hence it's absence from Orthodox Shuri Te.

I suspect it being called the Chinese kata is due to an erroneous understanding of the name. It literally means four-direction salute. However, it is often translated as "worship in four directions" which as a ceremony has allusions towards the concepts of In-Yo, or Yin and Yang to use Chinese terminology. Also, Chitose significantly changed all the kata he taught from what he original studied, and that can be seen in all the kata of Chitō-ryū. Here is a link to a compilation of the system's kata as performed by Chitose Yasuhiro:

Aside from Shihōhai, the only other possibility that comes to mind is the kata series from Shukokai Shito-Ryu often called Shihō-zuki or Shihō-uke.

Hope some of this has been of help, but I fear the truth may have long been lost to the ether.