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Alex Morris
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Naihanchi/Tekki progression

Hello everyone,

I was thinking about the naihanchi/tekki kata at work today and thought it would be a good idea to get the groups opinions on here. I have always liked the progression approach to kata, starting with basic fundamental skills and building on that.

The pinans deal with the different stages of a fight and Iain describes this brilliantly in his pinan/heian series articles and shows it even better in his pinan dvd series. I've also read Gavin Mulholland' four shades of black (brilliant book by the way) and he shows the same approach with the gekisai, saifa and seienchin kata in goju ryu.

If I am correct, before the pinans were created, naihanchi/tekki were the initial kata taught to new students. Gichin Funakoshi stated in one of his books (karate do my way of life I think) that he spent three years on each of the naihanchi/tekki kata before moving on to any others. This surely must show how important the early masters believed these kata were.

So here is my question, do you think that there is any progression going on in the naihanchi/tekki kata? Does nidan build on shodan and sandan build on nidan? Forgive me if it's a very obvious answer but most of my study is in naihanchi shodan (wado ryu) and I've spent very little time with nidan and sandan.

I know that there are a few different stories out there about how the naihanchi/kata were created and Hironori Otsuka, the founder of wado ryu, even said that only shodan was needed as nidan and sandan are "almost useless". That being said it would still be interesting to know what you all think.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

All the best

Alex

Iain Abernethy
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Alex Morris wrote:
So here is my question, do you think that there is any progression going on in the naihanchi/tekki kata? Does nidan build on shodan and sandan build on nidan?

I think so, but in a slightly different way to the Pinans. The Pinans were created to be a set and need to be approached as such. However, Naihanchi Shodan (Tekki Shodan) was once simply referred to as “Naihanchi” and was intended as a stand-alone system.  

Motobu – who Otuska credits for the version in Wado – called the kata “Naihanchi” (not “Naihanchi Shodan”) in his works. So the first kata can standalone without the others; which may be why Otsuka said Naihanchi was “profoundly deeo and would take more than a lifetime to master” whereas the Nidan and Sandan versions are “almost useless”.

Some have theorised that all three end to end were originally one kata, but I see no convincing evidence to support that notion; and quite a few things that go against it.

Itosu is largely credited with making the Nidan and Sandan versions. So what is now called Shodan was Naihanchi Itosu was taught (presumably by Matsumura, who was also known to have practised the kata). Itosu then went on to create the Nidan and Sandan versions.

The way I see it is that those extra versions provide concreate examples of how the themes / principles encapsulated in Shodan can be further enacted.

You could stick with the original / first Naihanchi and extrapolate the principles yourself, or you could utilise the solid examples that Itosu chose to share in his Ninan and Sandan versions.

I’ve been looking at these kata a lot over the last couple of years and I have the opportunity to teach my take on how they all fit together later in the year in Germany and Denmark. A DVD / download is also being considered.

As one quick example (using the only YouTube videos I have on them) can be seen here:

In Naihanchi Shodan we have the following clinch and crank:

Naihanchi Shodan shows the clinch and crank. Naihanchi Nidan begins by showing how to escape it. So we can see how they fit together there. This video came from the first time I looked at the kata, and it was this experience that started me researching Nidan and Sandan in greater depth.

Although not shown in the above video, after the lock in Nidan there is a series of alternate neck cranks which build on the neck crank takedowns of Shodan, and so on.

So my view is that we can stick with just Shodan (the original Naihanchi). Alternatively, when exploring the free expression of principles of the kata – as we should always do – then we can look at the examples Itosu encapsulated for us in his Nidan and Sandan versions. In short, Nidan and Sandan are extremely useful in helping us explore the totality of the prime kata, but they are not vital.

Personally, I would recommend people look at the Nidan and Sandan versions because they have some great insights to offer; even if they don’t make the formal kata part of their teaching and training.

Other takes on kata bunkai are available ;-)

All the best,

Iain

Alex Morris
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Thanks for your reply Iain. That makes a lot of sense and I like the application you show for nidan.

Iain Abernethy wrote:
Some have theorised that all three end to end were originally one kata, but I see no convincing evidence to support that notion; and quite a few things that go against it.

I've also read that some people believe that shodan and nidan already existed and that Itosu then added sandan.

Iain Abernethy wrote:
A DVD / download is also being considered.

Can I pre-order the DVD please :-)

Thanks again

Alex