Tom Heenan • March 13, 2019

News: Latest Kata Course 2019 (The Kung Fu Connection)

Attendees learnt about the Chinese influences in Karate. And tried some jumping Kung Fu kicks.

Our latest Kata Course took place on 2nd March, with a great turnout of students across two sessions (Yellow to Blue belts, and then Brown and Black belts). The Kata Course included a Kung Fu warmup and techniques, a brief overview of the history of Karate, some bunkai (analysis of kata) tools, and a section of the kata "Chatan Yara Kushanku" with some possible applications.

The Shito Ryu kata known as "Chatan Yara Kushanku" is credited to Chatan Yara, an Okinawan martial artist in the 1700s who is believed to have spent many years studying in China to broaden his martial art knowledge. This kata is one of a few different Kushanku kata in Karate, which arose after a Chinese martial artist referred to as Kushanku visited Okinawa in 1756. These kata are widely practised in Karate today, and it is believed that one version was even used as source material in creating the 5 Pinan kata that all of our students learn before progressing to more advanced kata. Chatan Yara Kushanku seems to show more Chinese flavour than the other Kushanku kata that we practise from the Anko Itosu lineage. It is likely that Chatan Yara learnt from Kushanku, given the kata's name, but also likely that he would have drawn on the knowledge from his studies in China when passing on his kata. It is this influence that can still be seen in the kata today.

It was an interesting exercise to practise techniques and applications directly from a Kung Fu style, and then examine Chatan Yara Kushanku to look for those Kung Fu connections. This gave us a different angle when thinking about possible applications! We also examined possible links within the Pinan kata. All of that, plus some jumping Kung Fu kicks!