There is a phase in one’s karate-life when you
get extremely confused about kata and their origin. Naturally, you
want to believe your karate is very authentic and old. However,
without special skills and experience, even for world champions or national coaches
it is quite difficult to research the lineage of many kata. Therefore,
most Karate people get frustrated with such unrewarding practices such as the
research of Kata history.
That’s alright.
Recently I presented a clue to the false
representation of Chatanyara Kusanku: While it was acquired in the late
1950s from Nagamine Shoshin and kept intact for some time, it was then
recreated, modified, and changed in the 1990s by one specific yet
influential Karate faction. This influential Karate faction smuggled their new
form into the JKF, and from there it reached the WKF. Today it has become a pet
kata of many in the competition circus.
Another false “antique” tradition is Paipuren. See both kata here in an epic battle for
KARATE gold
Here’s yet another, more recent battle. Great to watch.
清水希容vsサンチェス WKF PL Okinawa
2015 FEMALE KATA FINAL
SHIMIZU KIYOU vs SANCHEZ_JAIME
SANDRA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZV0Gp9a-1k
Paipuren is unanimously
though ostentatiously described as a kata handed down by a
certain Go Kenki, a Chinese man who lived on Okinawa from around 1912 until his
death in 1940. Since he was an acquaintance of Mabuni Kenwa, and while
there was never any evidence for it, in retrospective this would make the claim
sound plausible that Mabuni has had personally learned it from him. If true, this
would make Paipuren an early 20th century Okinawan karate
tradition.
But even though Mabuni left for Mainland in 1929, you
don’t see Paipuren in Okinawa anywhere else, do you?
What happened? Was Mabuni the sole person who learned Paipuren
from Go Kenki?
The matter is very simple and moreover symptomatic (and
also a bit disturbing): Paipuren is NOT a kata handed
down by Go Kenki, nor anyhow related to Mabuni Kenwa.
So why is it presented in such a way? Why is it
presented as if it was a personal tradition of Go Kenki and an original Shitō-ryū
kata?
Answer: I really don’t know and I certainly don’t
care.
Truth is, Paipuren was acquired by a
student of Mabuni Kenwa around 1960. At that time, the person was not
able to learn the complete form. The kata was taught
in Taizhong in central Taiwan by a man called Chan Teiyū,
who in turn was a disciple of famous White-Crane-Boxer Sai Chōkō.
Sai Chōkō was an influential Taiwanese businessman active
in karate since the early 1950s. When in 1959 the original (old)
Zen Nihon Karate-dō Renmei (JKF) was established as a unified organization
of karate going beyond schools, Sai Chōkō became its president.
At that time, Tōyama Kanken’s Shūdōkan served as the GHQ (sō-honbu),
Konishi Yasuhiro (Shindō Jinen-ryū) and Kinjō Hiroshi (Kanbukan)
as vice presidents, and among the advisers were Ōtsuka Hironori (Wadō-ryū),
Yamada Tatsuo (Nihon Kenpō Karate-dō), Gima Shinkin (Shōtōkan-ryū)
and others. On the board of directors was Tamotsu Isamu (Renshinkan).
Sai Chōkō was their boss.
Sai Choko. Courtesy of Hardy Holm.
Sai was a Taiwanese businessman who naturalized in Japan.
He worked as a real estate business manager, cabaret manager, chairman of the Naigai
Taimusu newpaper company, journalist of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper,
editor of the Kōdōkan Jūdō Magazine and others. For his generous financial
support he was awarded the Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon (Konju hōshō) and
he achieved a 9th Dan in Karate-dō as well as an 8th Dan
in Jūdō. As a side note, Taiwan was extremely important during the 1950s
in the political world, too, and the West and Japan had long supported openly
and opaquely its independence.
Back to Paipuren: After the kata had
been initially – yet only partly – been acquired in Taiwan, Sai
Chōkō gave a seminar of what was referred to as Pāpūren at
the time in Nagoya City in Japan. Only at this time the person in question was
able to completely learn Paipuren.
As was done with other kata, at some point Paipuren
was added to the official kata list of the JKF. Since only Gōjū,
Shōtō, Wadō, and Shitō were allowed in this kata
list, Paipuren was placed under Shitō-ryū. How did
this work you may ask. Well, simply by the majority the interested parties had
in the voting process within the JKF. And from the JKF Paipuren reached
the WKF. That easy.
And that’s all you need to know about Paipuren.
So when next time someone generously offers to teach you Paipuren as
a personal tradition from Go Kenki to Mabuni Kenwa, and as an original kata
of early 20th century Okinawan karate, then you know: There is no such
thing.
In addition, next time you are overly critical with
Westerners making up their own kata, remember Paipuren,
smile, and give them a like.
Russ Smith Such a strange form to be called
"Paipuren"...it's not like the Shouting Crane form, at all...
Andreas Quast You know that better than I Russ 
:)
Russ Smith There's a version of the shouting
crane Papuren floating around karate circles...I just didn't realize there was
another, unrelated, with the same name.
Andreas Quast They (Shito) really just put
together Kata from photos and stuff. Seriously, they just made mistakes, but
now too big and sexy to fail. Nothing to care about, just pretty funny.
Fer Nan This newly invented Paipuren is a
fake kata. However, there existed in the old Shito-ryu a section called
"Chogoku (China) Kempo", which included 5 katas: Haufa, Paipuren,
Hakucho, Niipaipo and Shinsei. Niipaipo comes from Go Kenki and was modified
for competition, but the original version was preserved by Master Tani, along
with the supposedly original version of Hakucho and Paipuren (Mabuni.revised
these katas according to the Itosu method). The forms Paipuren, Hakucho and
Haufa were 3 basic katas taught by Go Kenki to the novices. These three katas
are nothing more than a same kata in different versions of crane styles (3
styles). Paipuren has the same embusen and number of movements as Hakucho or
Haufa (I learned these katas in the 60's; they are very simple kata and too
easy to learn). There is a well-known picture of three students of Gokenki
making the openings of these katas. The middle student makes Paipuren, the one
on the right (Aniya Seisho, Go Kenki's successor) do Hakucho, and the one on
the left opens Haufa. Niipaipo does not appear because it was an advanced kata,
rarely taught. Finally, it should be noted that Go Kenki emigrated to Japan
where he became naturalized and adopted the name Yoshikawa Kenki in the late
1920s or early 1930s. It was in Japan that Kyoda and Mabuni trained with him,
not in Okinawa. These kata have been practiced at Shoreijikan for more than 40
years (http://shoreijikan.blogspot.com.br/).
Shoreijikan - The Temple of the Inner Light
Okinawa Shoreiji-ryu
Karate Kempo Kobu-do - Sensei Fernando P Câmara, Shoreijikan Soke, 8o. dan,
Hanshi
shoreijikan.blogspot.pe
http://shoreijikan.blogspot.com.br/
Dojo
TokyoMushinkan
none of it matters, it is just a version of sanchin... why bother with kung fu
when we already have karate? 
:D
:D
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