The Okinawan Word for the Japanese Term Kiai

Dante Victor,


I really enjoy reading your blogs, I do understand that they are for your students but since I am reading them I look to see how it relates to what I have learned from my teacher and doing that type of comparison requires some of the more intricate details. The details are what is important. Take the "gedan barai", this word is usually descriptive enough for some however, there are details on how one executes that particular technique depending on the lineage. Without the small details of how this is performed in the kata then it just becomes another gedan barai. 

Below are the responses to your questions. These are not easy questions you ask and I wish I could just give a short answer. I tried to make this as short as possible.

 

1. What is the Okinawan term for Kiai, or do the Okinawan's have a term for it?


Kiai is a Japanese concept imported into Karate. 

A while back some people stated that the Okinawan term is "yagi" which is said to mean voice arrow however that would be iyakwii (iya = arrow and kwii = voice).

 I believe when I looked this up it came from Morio Higaonna and when something is said by him, I always take it with not just a grain of salt but the whole bottle. 

Anyhow, it is important to understand the concept of "stealing ones breath" and kiai. According to my teacher, Kiai allows someone to steal ones breath if the person is skilled. It is very hard to strip out what is Okinawan and what is Japanese since 99.99% of the terms used in karate are Japanese. I try not to reverse engineer the Japanese terms because many times the origin of the terms came from Japanese budo like Kendo or Iaido or Judo. 

2. If they have a term, what sound(s) do they use?


The is a great question since my students ask me the same thing. However this something not easily answered. The sound is a byproduct of your alignments and tensions and not a result of what someone does with their vocal cords.

 

For example, if one was aligned in sanchin (well the way I was taught), the chin gets pulled in as a by product of the alignment of the head. This in turn causes the tongue to move into a different area which when relaxed moves to the bottom of the mouth. The amount of air that can be pushed out depends on the alignment of the stance and torso muscle tensions. 

My students sometimes try to imitate the sounds that come out when I do this but this is just an imitation sound and not a real sound. Anyhow, if one were to kiai with the sanchin alignments there is little one can say to keep the tongue aligned which is like a "Ha", however, if one was in shiko dachi and perform a kiai, this will be a different sound as well because of the alignment of the body. 

I once asked my teacher where to kiai in kata and he told me to kiai where ever I wanted and felt like it. He said that traditionally there were really no set kiai in kata. He said that in reality, all techniques should be done with a "kiai" as there are no techniques that do not call for 100% power.

.....
Respectfully,

Robert Orozco
 

 

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-kiai.html