An insight into Asai Sensei's Kata

 Today after my daily run I did some additional kata practice. I want to use this to highlight some key points about Asai Sensei's Kata (the so-called 'Koten-gata').

Before that, I'll clarify my practice. The kata I did today was SUISHU (Mizu no te), which has a special place for me. Asai Tetsuhiko Sensei made me do this (in addition to two other Koten-gata, and two standard Shotokan formal exercises) at my godan examination.

Suishu is not a kata for my body, it's really ideal for more lanky physiques; nevertheless, it is great for fluidity, continuity and, (like the other kata in its series), the use of natural energy: especially pertaining to muscular tension, contraction and stretching/expansion of the limbs.

I will not expand on this, except to highlight the first image in this post. Some will notice my use of fudo-dachi, which is more commonly practiced as kokutsu-dachi in the two osae-uke in the opening sequences of Suishu. I'm sure some will say that this is 'wrong'. So, I'll pre-emptively answer this incorrect assumption.

While IKS remains set on the standard 26 Shotokan Kata, the additional Kata (handed down from Asai Sensei) have some special variations directly from him, which Sensei was doing in his self-training. These were his refinements, and these are the versions I personally practice and teach.

To conclude, yes, we follow the standardized Shotokan Kata -- as standardized by the JKA -- in Nakayama Masatoshi Sensei's 'Best Karate' publications (pre-split era). However, we also train the earlier versions of kata from Funakoshi Gichin Sensei and investigate these accordingly. Likewise, we do the same with the Koten-gata. In saying that, I personally want to retain Asai Sensei's most refined versions of his karate, so that is my focus in these regards. I think that the retention of Shotokan, irrespective of master is very important. Otherwise, knowledge is simply lost forever. 

© André Bertel. Oita City, Japan (2023).