Putting the Hakutsuru in its Place

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Those who read many of the US Martial Arts magazines will know what I am saying when I say that the focus within the general Shorin Ryu community is on the Hakutsuru kata (Crane forms). This would be fine if this focus was directly proportionate to the place that Hakutsuru holds within our system. Because the Hakutsuru is the last kata within our system, it is unfortunately considered the ultimate, and that by studying this kata one will become advanced much quicker.

Well in my opinion this is trying to run before you can crawl.

Our system is made up of Naihanchi (2), Passai (2), Chinto, Rohai, Gojushiho, Kusanku, and Hakutsuru. All of these kata complement each other with concepts being learned within one kata, then reflecting through in the others.

I learned the ground gripping techniques (with the toes) from Naihanchi, and now practice this throughout the whole system. I learned many of the seated and ground work techniques from Gojushiho and Kusanku, which combined with the techniques of Naihanchi, Chinto, and Passai, are a great complement to each other. Our Hakutsuru is a kata that was formed from the best of our other kata, not the other kata as a preliminary to the Hakutsuru ONLY.

By training in a more advanced kata, your earlier kata should improve with the techniques that you learned in the new.

. . . We should not concentrate on the bunkai of an individual kata, but the bunkai of the whole system, which mixes and draws from our kata to achieve a limitless system.

Keep in mind that our Hakutsuru is from our other kata, and that the movements and methods learned within Hakutsuru will reflect back through the kata that formed it, while the theories that we learned in the earlier kata assist us in understanding the Hakutsuru.

Soken Sensei didn’t learn kata first. He learned to step correctly, then kata. After training (twice daily) for 10 years he then began to learn Hakutsuru. Not after 10 years of casual practice, or even 20 years of causal practice.

How can we then expect to obtain the same degree of proficiency without the mastery of the kata that were drawn upon to create Hakutsuru?

We cannot expect to have a full understanding of Hakutsuru without a full understanding of our other kata.

Steve Watson
To contact Mr. Watson, email: watto@midcoast.com.au

Kata as the Music to the Eyes

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Every Tuesday and Thursday of this semester I would stay in my martial arts class after the last official session over for extra practice with my friends on katas and techniques. We enjoy going over and over different forms, as well as sparring during this hour. Once a friend and I did a long form continuously for a dozen times and we both got tired quickly, first because we have trained for almost 3 hours before that and second, we were trying so hard to completely imitate the movements of our Sensei.

We sat down on the floor. My friend were still examining his hands and making shapes from the kata. I, on the other side, was loosely moving my arms and body. Obviously, both of us were still going through the forms in our heads even though we were taking a rest. The friend suddenly said “Oh man I can’t get this right at all”. “Yeah, neither can I” , I quickly agreed with him. He continued “right! but you seem to pick everything up just fine” , I smiled and shook my head “Do you think you will ever do Seisan (name of the kata we were practicing) perfectly?”. My friend replied “If I practice hard enough and after more times I hope I will”, then he asked the same question in return, “How about you?”.
“No, I don’t really expect to ever do it perfectly,” . My friend looked surprised, but I continued with another question “How do you know when something is perfect?”. He thought for a moment then said “When all the movements we do in our kata are correct and the postures are right.” (more…)

The Pinan / Heian Katas as a Fighting System (Part 5)

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Final
Welcome to the final part of this series of articles on the Pinan / Heian katas as a fighting system. So far in this series we looked at the background of the Pinan katas and discussed that they are said to represent a complete fighting system that contains techniques for use at all stages and all ranges of a fight. We also discussed that whilst the modern order in which the Pinan series are taught is based upon the relative technical difficulty of the solo performance of the forms, the original order is based upon the progression of a live fight.

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The Pinan / Heian Katas as a Fighting System (Part 4)

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Part 4
Welcome to part four of this series of articles on the Pinan and Heian katas as a fighting system. In the first of this series of articles, we looked at the background of the Pinan / Heian katas and discussed how they are said to represent a complete fighting system that contains techniques for use at all stages and all ranges of a fight. We also discussed that whilst the modern order in which the forms are taught is based upon the relative technical difficulty of the solo performance of the forms, the original order is based upon the progression of a live fight.
(more…)

The Pinan / Heian Katas as a Fighting System (Part 3)

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Part 3
Welcome to part three of this series of articles. In the first part of this series we looked at the background of the Pinan / Heian katas and discussed how they are said to represent a coherent fighting system that contains techniques for use at all stages and all ranges of a fight. We also discussed that the modern order in which the forms are taught is based upon the technical difficulty of the solo performance of the forms; whereas the original order (Pinan Shodan / Heian Nidan first) is based upon stages of a live fight. If allowed to progress, a physical altercation will generally go through a series of stages: Pre-fight (verbal exchanges, aggressive body language), limbs coming into range (strikes, attempted grabs etc), grips being established, and finally grappling.

(more…)

The Pinan / Heian Katas as a Fighting System (Part 2)

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Part 2
In the first part of this series we examined how the Pinan / Heian katas represents a complete fighting system that contains techniques for use at all stages and all ranges of a fight. We also discussed that whilst the order in which the forms are taught today is based upon the relative technical difficulty of the solo performance of the katas (Pinan Nidan first), the original order is mainly based upon the progression of a live fight (Pinan Shodan first). If allowed to progress, a physical altercation will generally go through a series of stages: Pre-fight (verbal exchanges, aggressive body language), limbs coming into range (strikes, attempted grabs etc), grips being established, and finally grappling.

Pinan Shodan (Heian Nidan in Shotokan) predominately deals with the initial exchange of limbs. In part one, we saw a couple of applications from Pinan Shodan that illustrated this idea. We will now move on to discuss a couple of the applications of Pinan Nidan (Heian Shodan) kata. This kata progresses from the initial exchange of limbs and mainly deals with techniques that can be used when a grip has first become established. This can either mean you securing a grip on the opponent, or the opponent securing a grip on you. (more…)