The Language of Kata and Tidal Drift

 From:  "Knepp, Dale,
Date:  Mon Feb 25, 2002  4:31 pm
Subject:  Re: The Language of Kata and Tidal Drift

Interesting comments which bring to mind a few of my own.
 
Tatsuo Shimabuku is certainly a good example of how shamanic influences enter into karate training on Okinawa. You are correct to point the relative ignorance and lack of interest in the American GIs who made up a large proportion of his students. He was not the only one to do so and in my estimation was less demanding than say Seitoku Higa. Higa founded the Bugeikan dojo and with Seikichi Uehara established one of the largest ranking organizations on Okinawa. Higa had been a student of Kanken Toyama but after Toyama's death developed a strong shamanic interest that he incorporated into his martial arts training and study. Mark Bishop hints at some of this in his books. Unless I miss my guess, Higa's demanding reverence of the kami spirits eventually led to Bishop's disaffection for him.

 

 

The trend to learn "uncountable 'bunkai'" is a misdirection for Western students of karate according to Taika Oyata. It results from a basic misunderstanding of how to study kata according to him. Taika's study and practice seems to be consistent with the stories about Tatsuo Shimabuku. At least in regard to the fluidity of kata movements. I had the chance to see a video clip of Tatsuo performing kata and was truly amazed at the fluidity of it compared to the kata demonstration that I had seen of typical Isshin-ryu practitioners.

 
Are there any direct references to Kyan teaching kata differently to different students? This surely seems to have been the case. It fits in well with a view that I have been developing over a long time regarding the standardization of kata and how it was taught prior to karate's introduction to the school system and its subsequent formatting into a consistent program of study and practice.
 
It certainly appears to me that it is a lot easier to teach an extensive repertoire of techniques as explanations of karate movements rather than to teach students how to study kata properly to develop their own technique. As a product of the later type of training I can attest to its difficulty as a student and the sense of frustration my teacher has expressed over time at my lack of understanding.
 
What constitutes a change in the original kata? Taika told me from the very beginning day never to change the kata. What I didn't understand was that he didn't mean not to study the kata by varying the way that I performed the sequence of movements. What he discouraged completely was adding things to the kata with which weren't there at the beginning. This is not the same as saying never adjust the movement to fit the body's natural range of motion. What his students considered changes in the kata were to him only fine adjustments that fixed up the kata so that it was useful for execution of technique. This is my understanding of what Taika says about the intent of kata training as the teacher of old meant to teach it. This matches well with the comments expressed by Fernando.
 
Dale