JAPAN KATA TRAINING: NIJUSHIHO

The two main jokyu (advanced) kata practiced in over the month in Japan have been Bassai-sho and Asai Sensei's tokui-kata from Shotokan-ryu, Nijushiho. Today I'd just like to briefly talk about Nijushiho.

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Study of this jiyu-gata besides its vast array of effective goshin-jutsu (self-defence techniques) and kihon (fundamentals) is a near-unbroken chain of actions. I find that Nijushiho really challenges me to my limits in this regard. It is easy to "power" this kata and turn it into "just another one in the bunch", which any athletic karateka can easily do. In reality, mastery is when its fluidity and seamless integration of various speeds and powers can be seen and applied. The perfect example of this is Asai Sensei's version, which is so far technically beyond everyone else, it is most probably unattainable by anyone.

Nijushiho kata really daunts me as seeing Asai Sensei do in real life was mind b
lowing. Nevertheless, training it intensively this time in Japan, and the fact that this August 15th marks the fifth year since Asai Sensei passed away has convinced me to once again return to it, to better my skills and in memory of my late teacher. Here's a quicky link to a former post on Nijushiho including an excellent article by Paul Kallender-Umezu: http://andrebertel.blogspot.com/2010/09/nijushiho.html

© André Bertel. Kyushu, Japan 2011.