Tag: miyagi

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Continued from Part 1 and Part 2 of this article.

Shisochin begins with 3 opening sanchin stances making it superficially similar to cluster H. However it departs from cluster H in almost every other sense: the kata is “symmetrical” and has a high proportion of “soft” techniques. Moreover the opening thrusts are performed as nukite — knife hand thrusts. While it is said that cluster H were originally practiced open hand, it is more likely that, like the uechi-ryu kata, the nuki... Read More

Continued from Part 1 of this article.

Factors that might explain the “traditional” or “standard” history of goju-ryu

There is a tendency for martial artists to venerate the past and play down innovation. It is tradition that gives legitimacy.

In goju-ryu we are told that Chojun miyagi passed down an art form established by his teacher Kanryo Higaonna. Yet everything indicates that miyagi was an innovator and set the benchmark - not Higaonna, however skilled and kno... Read More

Recently a colleague posed the following question:

Do you "purists" for lack of a better term believe that the small minute changes make that much difference? If miyagi stepped here rather than there, had his foot pointed this way rather than that or whatever will actually change the bulk of what the kata was designed to teach?

An interesting question. A lot of people adopt quite a "fundamentalist" view of traditional martial arts, where I think technical deconstruction reveals a... Read More

Introduction

In recent years various prominent martial arts researchers have postulated that goju-ryu kata fall into 2 groups that come from different sources:

The first is “cluster H”, being kata that were taught to Chojun miyagi by Kanryo Higaonna and consisting of:

sanseru
sesan
suparinpei
sanchin (Higaonna style)

The second is “cluster M”, being kata that Chojun miyagi acquired, or developed from material acquired, from a different source and cons... Read More