Page 214 The Treasure Lost and Rediscovered –
Happoren No Kata
A) On the History…
One knows now that
the kata Sanchin had been learnt by Kanruo Higaonna (1853-1916),
the father of the line Goju-ryu Karate-do, after some Chinese experts
established the colony of Kumemura, to Okinawa the same [?] (*). Nobody can affirm that this premiere form of Sanchin
was really close to the kata that one sees today under this name. One certainty
only: it was formerly practiced with open hands. And then another disconcerting
observation: one does not find, today, some traces of Sanchin in China.
(There is however this sui nim tao, the sequence of the “small
idea” practiced in the style Wing
Tsun Kuen, or Wing Chun Gung-Fu, which is an authentic exercise of
Chi-Kung more of a form of combat, and of which the movements of wrist recall
certain passages of Happoren or of Tensho. Look at this for
further …). Some claim that the Goju-ryu way of making Sanchin
would come from the style of the Crane and that the Ueichi-ryu way would
come more from the style of Preying Mantis. Or then the contribution of the
masters of Okinawa themselves has been more significant, in the genesis of this
form, that one can’t always say up to here. We will develop this assumption
further (see page 235).
Kanruo Hiagonna thus learned a kata of Chi-Kung next
to [from] the Chinese colony of Kumemura. And only the external form was
transmitted to him? Or was he unable to understand the internal sense of this
kata? Not while he reproduced a pale
copy? By incomprehension or choice? Then Higaonna left for Foukien,
in China. He found Rokkishu-No-Kata there evoked in the Bubishi (that
one known as the same ancestor of Tensho-No-Kata created later by Chojun
Miyagi, student of Hiagonna), which was perhaps Happoren-No-Kata.
One will never be able more than to lose oneself in conjecture. But it seems
that Higaonna did not teach it (the form) on his return. For not risking
to disturb his Okinawan students in that [which] they already practiced under “San
Chin”., that’s to say “the Three Steps”?
Or because he had seen, in Rokkishu-Happoren, a level above? Because Sanchin was the feeling of
power of a block, easy to perceive. But one needed greater maturity in the art
of the empty hand vice Main to perceive correctly the presence of the
suppleness behind the apparent force, and the direction of this force, much
more subtly mastered, in Happoren.
Chojun Miyagi, who perhaps saw a day his master
performing Happoren, reprised the same method that he in this sense,
that he did not take this kata into his teaching. While creating yet,
thereafter, the kata Tensho, it made however an interesting attempt to
permit the feelings of kata of Happoren, impossible to approach
through kata breathing and to pure muscular contraction of the line of Sanchin
(but who still knows today that Tensho from is origin was concluded
with a very flexible movement from the arms imitating the beating wings of a
bird with a return to a state of progressive calm, today replaced by mawashi-uke
then morote-teisho-uchi given with maximum of power? . And then, he
transmitted the kata of Hakufa, also appeared in Foukien, with
these movements of hands imitating the beats of the wings and the strikes of
White crane beak.
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Happoren-No-Kata (the “kata of the eight directions while
continuous’) is today to the heart of research returning to the sources of
actual Karatedo. Part mastered in the history of the transmission of the art
of the empty hand. from China to Okinawa,
It is undoubtedly one of these missing links from an impossible chain to
reconstitute while ignorant. Though always studied in its original province,
Fuijan, in Southern China, It remains to this current hour actually more or
less unknown elsewhere.
(*) Even the work of Koshiki Kata of R.
Habersetzer in the Amphora Editions. Sanchin (Samchien, into
Chinese) would come from Cheung Siu Shu, student of Fang Jiniang,
to cultivate Chi. (internal Force). In its original form, breathing was fluid
and flexible. It will not become hard in sound (ibuki) than with the teachings
of Miyagi.
Page
215
On
Okinawa, Tokashiki Iken Sensei taught within the framework of his school
of Tomari-ryu and Goju-ryu. In Japan, only the Gojukensha of
Tokyo practices under the direction of Ohtsuka Tadahiko Sensei, who
learnt himself along side Tokashiki
Iken (and completed thanks to much research in China) and who applies
himself to hand down in his turn a form which has indeed all the chances of
being exact (since the kata isn’t really described in the Bubishi). If
the Bubishi starts has to make itself the object of a few publications known to rare circles of
initiates, Happoren No Kata however still never was published, which is
not the same in Japan: while combining this presentation in the following pages
with that which we had already made in Koshiki No Kata, the reader will
have at one’s disposal for the premiere time in the world a complete and
detailed view of what one can consider as a forgotten treasure now
rediscovered.
The
comparison of Happoren-No Kata and Sanchin-No-Kata highlights
very quickly three significant modifications in the execution of the quan
(kata) appearing in South China when it was passed from the continent to the
Island of Okinawa.
While
passing from China to Okinawa, the form of execution of the Southern Chinese
Tao [Way] was modified on three very significant
points:
-
On the level of the technique: they have closed the hand. for better hardening
it while striking objects like the makiwara. From the blow, the diagram of the transmission
of energy was modified, the wave of energy propelled through the hand stops
itself at the end of the fist. What one wants to say is that obtaining a
certain result more quickly tangible one is cut, from Okinawa, of the ulterior
possibility of generating an incomparably higher energy. One develops the
external version. (the fist which breaks a material as a hammer would do it)
with detriment of internal reality. (the hand, which, on simple application, is
able to break a material under the effect of a sort of energy vibration) (*).
-
On the level of the feeling [sensation]: this one obviously follows from that
of the technical form. Thus, whereas in Happo-Ren, the force must
radiate with the interior towards the exterior, on all the periphery of the
body, and the same beyond (one finds the the sensation of the sphere of Tai
Chi), that which stays (for example Sanchin) isn’t more an inverted form [intravertie?] in which the executed guard, in
contraction, all its force turns in itself, returning itself towards the
center. Spectacular (= external), but the opposite of the true exercise of Chi-Kung
which is Happo-Ren.
- On the level of the spirit of Kata: what was sought of a
union of internal energy with cosmic energy is reduced to a demonstration of
ego. By badly executing (or with the first degree, apparently) Kata, the man is
put to bring back towards himself then the traditional work has to do it
emitting. for emits [expressed] in union
with lines of force which overtake it. Instead(in lieu) of growing, it shrinks
It is obvious when reversing to some extent
the movement of the energy generated in the gesture (contraction instead of extension), one ends with some perverse
effects, pre-judiciable to term for
health. Thus Sanchin, such as it is generally executed, burning on the
spot the body’s energy… what is spectacular but finishes by destruction, such
fire which attracts but burns. [translator – as the
fire attracts and then burns the moth] On the contrary, breathing remains natural
in Happo-Ren. One never forces. Inhalation is done through the nose, Expiration by the
mouth, supplely, for bringing into balance, again the energy in the body and
not to block it with a powerful muscular contraction. This expiration is hardly
audible. Last, in Happo-Ren, the position of the feet is very natural, [the stance is] not very low, and where the tension
is done on the exterior: one sees here still feet is very natural, not very
low, one sees here still the difference with the present Sachin, to the
position [stance] strongly pronounced
and where the tension comes from the interior. It will be noticed however that
the older Sanchin (recovered again by Gogen Yamaguchi for
example) did not have a position [stance]
as crushed and in the Ueichi-ryu Sahcin (or Seisan) as are still perpetuated with the open hands (again the
fore-arms were formerly opened on a more horizontal level, such as Happo-Ren,
then they were (are, became) progressively closed moving to 90 degrees….).
One
sees that, compared to its ancestor, the line of Kata Sanchin was
developed in a direction almost to the opposite. Contrary to appearances, Sanchin
became an external Kata, with the seeking of the feeling of force certain
easier to find. It makes one forget the initial viewpoint
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(*) See 'Chi Kung, la maitrise de
l’energie interne’ from the same author by Editions Amphora
Page
216
Of
Masters of the past, correctly transmitted in Happo-Ren, but so [if] badly understood the real man must learn to
radiate around oneself, to irradiate his energy on the others, to project his
force. In fact the heart of a philosophy
of Budo used and manufactured
(constructed).
Here
some useful additional directions of thought for a correct practice of Happoren,
and that one finds in the Bubishi.
°
Breathing must go with the movement. All the techniques are directed by correct
breathing. When the body stretches itself and inhales, it is like a gigantic
wave from the ocean, which swells without any resistance (principle of
periphery [circumference] the expansion
of internal energy). When it exhales, return in a stable position, the muscular
concentration which accompanies the exhalation makes an immutable mountain of
it (principle of returning to the center of the energy). When extending the arms
towards the front, exhale while preserving 50% of volume of the air (never not
to exhale completely). While inhaling
feel your body become light, while exhaling, Rooting. After having forced the exhalation, return an
instant to normal, calm breathing. Listen to your breathing, and be conscious
of each part of your body.
°
It is necessary to breathe by the diaphragm ( known as ventral breathing). To
arrive there, it is necessary that the spine remains vertical and perpendicular
to the position of the stomach.
°
It must have a constant, but flexible, muscular contraction, in particular on
the level of the trapezoids, deltoids, the pectorals.
°
The basic position is natural. It is necessary to move (to displace) as if one
walked. A step starts in flexibility and
finishes with solidarity, on a feeling being rooted. The muscles of the legs
are firm but flexible in order to permit mobility.
°
The techniques are developed to leave from the points where the [tips of the] elbows are and contact with the waist.
The force rises from the belly (hara), the hands are not the instruments
[where the force comes from]. The force
goes until the end of the fingers. The energy must radiate towards the
exterior, such as the rays of the sun.
° If is necessary to keep mental concentration but always
[remain] receptive. The eyes, clear like
the moon [a metaphor like moonlight?],
must remain ready to see what could not be easily seen. The vision is
peripheral (not focused. Not, in effect, “tunnel vision”).
°
In the principle of the alterating of the supplenss. and hardness. (ju/go,
or Mandarin rou/gan), one should not only see one physical principle. To
balance both, it is to find the interior unity, therefore to defeat his “ego”,
which is for each one his worst adversary. If one thus thinks of the principle go
like the force of the body and having the ferocity of the mental one, it is
necessary to evoke in ju not only the flexibility of the body but also
that of mental (kindness of the spirit, faculty of breaking off [away] and adapting oneself.).
It is obvious that, like numbers of Koshiki Kata, Happoren
proposes a physical groundwork like supporting a philosophical method. To the
practitioner to make an intelligent distinction between the apparent and the
real…..
B)
Of the Technique…
The
photographs 168 to 227 show the unfolding of Happoren-No-Kata.
Here
is a summary description, being of course of an correct apprenticeship (training) of this form, so valuable in the message
to the time physical and mental which she vehicle (? This may be, ‘so
valuable in the message of the physical and mental time that this is the means’
?), cannot imagine oneself to direct contact of a master. So much it is
difficult to abandon ideas received and of acquired reflexes. So much it is
easy to be mistaken (like it has undoubtedly already been formerly made on
Okinawa.) on the support respiratory. And so much it is dangerous to be let go,
once more, to a banal exterior imitation.
N.B.
The numbers between the brackets referent with the photographs. Those have been
intentionally taken with the course of an unfolding on an oblique axis of kata
compared to the object. They match up with
Page
217 –
Thus
the drawings published in Koshiki kata (pages 284 to 287), where the
development is presented from the front.
After
the salute ( opening ), (from the )position heiko-dachi, hands crossed in
front of the abdomen (left hand in front), while finishing the exhalation)
(168), raise up the hands, fingers towards the front (the left hand turned to
position itself underneath), while inhaling (169) slowly. Form
morote-chudan-uchi-uke opened hands, palms towards the top, with a short
exhalation (170).
Inhale
(slowly) while drawing the hands level at the sides, palms always to the top
(171). Turn the palms to the bottom, and slowly, vertically, lower the hands,
along the body, fingers towards the front. On exhalation (172).
1st
group:
make a short step sliding towards the front, the right foot (which remains in
front) then the left foot, by curtly raising the hands, palms to the top,
forearms to horizontal, on a short inhalation (173). The knees are slightly
flexed, the center of gravity in the middle of the position, which is a little
more pronounced than migi-shizentai without going as far as zen-kutsu.
This isnot either sanchin-dachi: the knees are naturally plaices towards
the front and the toes oriented in this same direction. This is the usual
position for the whole (rest) of Happoren
save (except) the opening sequence and
pictures 200 to 204 also like 215 to 218.
The
series of the movements is made on place (on one
place or spot).Exhale gently while turning the wrists bent (flexed) of a kind to push in before you from the
base of the palms, fingers towards the exterior and the top (175 to 176). Then,
a fast movement, simultaneous and symmetrical , returning the hands towards
you, palms towards the front, fingers towards the exterior and a little upwards. At the time of a new sharp inhalation. During
this phase, one lowers a little the position (of the
stance). Pinch with the two hands angled at 30 degrees from the line
of the shoulders towards the sides, the front and the top, slowly, while
relaxing (loosening) all the position
towards the top as if you want to take-off. The movement stops when the arms
are outstretched and the palms turned
towards the ground (177 to 180). This release (trigger)
is done on the slow sound of exhalation , from the bottom of the throat. Always
on the spot: sink a little in the position, the chest always vertical, while
curtly bringing back for the wrists strongly flexed, thumbs upwards. The elbows
are to the body, the forearms to the horizontal. On the first time if
inhalation (181). On the second time of supplementary inhalation, turn over the
wrists towards the exterior without
moving the position of the arms (182). Caution: movements 181 and 182
are made only one time with inhalation in reality tied (together). Open the hands, make a short rotation
which brings the tips of the fingers upwards and from the interior towards the
exterior, on respiratory blocking (on breathing and
blocking?) , then slowly push the palms towards the front, wrists
strongly flexed. The fingers are direct towards the exterior and the top. The
forearms remain to the horizontal from time 181 to time 184, but the elbows
part (depart) a little in front of the
body at the time of 184. Make this movement on exhalation surrounding strong
and sonorous then finish the expiration quiet and natural without force. Return
to a state of calm.
(N.B.
same evolution after each expiration: strong then calm!)
Photographs
181 to 184 illustrate a group of movements which returns systematically to the end of each phase of the kata (and
which recalls one of the real energetic
“secrets” of Happoren…)
Remember
that in all the techniques of Happoren, the energy does have to be (well
chosen) on the circumference (in external limit of the bodies contour) and
never brought back to the center, like one does it in modern Sanchin No Kata.
2nd
group:
not illustrated (begin again photographs 177 to 184).
It is the integral reproduction of the 1st group, after a
new sliding step. Note that the right foot remains in front that that the hands
finish in the position of time 184.
3rd
group:
not illustrated (begin again photographs 177 has 184).
Again
one time, the integral reproduction of the 1st group (with the same remarks) on
a new sliding step. One goes then to advance to three repetitions (in …?)
but without making an alternate step like in Sanchin.
Page 218 –
4th
group:
make a sliding step with the left foot, to 45 degrees from the central axis of
Kata without modifying the attitude top of the body (185). On the spot: turn
the right hand, palm to the top, and
bring it back towards you in a circular motion finishing in chudan-uchi-uke.
Simultaneously do the same with the left hand, but without turning it, to
finish in chudan-kake-dachi (186 to 187). These movements are very
rapid, on a brief inhalation. Ease the arms towards the exterior and the top,
as in 178 to 180, except the orientation of the hands is different: right palm
to the top, left to the bottom (188). On a long exhalation, first sonorous then
calm. Photo’s 189 to 181, reproduce the
section shown in photo’s 181 to 183.
5th
group:
pivot towards the left by closing the left foot then making a sliding step with
the right foot on an symmetric axis from the axis of the work preceding (192,
193). Photo’s 194 to 199 are the
symmetrical reproduction of photo’s 186 to 191. Move back
the left foot then the right, heels on the same line and subside (sink) yourself while letting your hands hang
before you (200). Launch (throw) the hands towards your front while you
stand up and with the arms very loose (slack)
(the movement starts by raising the shoulders then by launching the arms in
(the strike of the whip). Strike to the
height of the chest with the knife hands, wrists very flexed, and push out the kiai (210 to 202). Photo’s 203 and
204 are the reproduction of photo’s 182 and 183, to a new side, on inhalation
then exhalation.
6th
group:
take a sliding step while starting from the left foot, in front (205). On the
spot, launch the left wrist towards the left (but without modifying the
position of the elbow), palm towards you (206). Short inhalation. Lower the
forearm in front of you, parallel to the chest, while exhaling (207). Left Chudan-uchi-uke,
palm returning to the top, on inhalation (208). Exhale (strong then calm) while
turning over and then slowly pushing the left palm towards the front (209).
N.B. of photo’s
205 to 209, the left elbow acts as a fixed point, and the right hand does not
move. Photo 209 is a return to position 205.
Photographs
220 to 223: the movements of this 6th group (like those which follow, executed
symmetrically) know an alternative in which the left arm is lowered (221),
going obliquely from top to bottom, with light rotation of the hips in the
direction of the hand which ‘pierces’ before this last doesn’t raise itself
quickly to the position from which it departed (222). Then return has the
starting position 223 = 205).
7th
group:
take a step with the right foot (the only alternate step in the kata), follow a
little left (210). The photographs 211 to 214 are the symmetrical reproduction
of the photos 206 to 209. The photographs 224 to 227 illustrate the possible
alternative for this group (see the remark for the 6th group).
8th
group:
move back the left foot then the right, heels on the same line, and subside (stop) to the front as at photo 200 but by forming
the fists in front of the chest (215). The next time is composed of two
techniques linked together quickly on only one exhalation and only one kiai:
yoko-morote-chudan-tetsui while you recover (do not tighten the arm
backwards, to preserve their roundness) then shomen-morote-chudan-tetsui,
well to the front. Lower at once the hands in front of you, left above, palms
to the bottom, with a quick exhalation, (216 to 218).
Join the left foot to the right and raise
yourself to Rei.
The
study de Happoren No Kata (of which certain details of the sequences
could evolve with the degree of advancement of the practice) is accompanied with an extremely rich bunkai,
based on the work of the wrists and the forearms. This Bunkai undoubtedly
evokes possible the Chinese technique of Tui-Shou (“sticky hands” such
as it is studied for example in Tai Chi Chaun). An obvious recollection
of the origin of the of authentic Koshiki Kata, “keystone” of a system of
combat (badly) transmitted from China to Ryukyu… Its study can be done only by
direct teaching and completely overwhelmed by the framework of this work.
T
