Kata Videos of OKINAWA KARATE INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT

The Youtube channel fo the OKINAWA KARATE INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT 2018 just added a large amount of kata. To be exact, there are

  • 86 kata of the “Shuri-te & Tomari-te Lineage”,
  • 40 kata of the “Naha-te Lineage”,
  • 28 kata of bōjutsu, and
  • 17 kata of saijutsu.

I don’t know whether these kata were filmed as a reference material for the judges to be able to know the kata, or for the participants of the tournament. Probably both. In any case, they can serve as a reference in on line discussions and for comparison and study.

I noted that some kata from the same lineage are listed twice. For example, in case of the saijutsu kata, there are two versions of each Tsuken Shitahaku no Sai, Chatan Yara no Sai, and Hama Higa no Sai. However, both respective versions are from Taira Shinken lineage. So why the differenciation? The habits of techniques diverged in two or more schools over the past decades, even if they came from the same source. For example, while two schools (so-and-so-kan) may trace the above mentioned kata just along the same lineage, slight differences developed in height, angles, stances, tempi etc. These differences then became trademarks of one specific school (so-and-so-kan). Of course, since judges coming from different so-and-so-kan, they will judge according to their own perspective of “correct technique”. Therefore each of the influential so-and-so-kan had to make sure their specifics are being recognized. In terms of the tournament, this is simply a prerequisite to get points and win in the competition. This is true for karate and kobudō. In a sense, Okinawan karate and kobudō circles here developed their own Shitei-gata (standardized kata).

BTW, not all acknowledged kata are presented in the below video links. For example, the kata of Uechi-ryū are not shown so far. The kata to be performed in each section shall be acknowledged by the Executive Committee. You can view the complete list here. Maybe they will be uploading more videos soon. I will then update this list here.

It should be noted that kata of the Ryūei-ryū seem not to be included.

I linked the kata with names in Rōmaji and in Kana below for reference.

Karate | Shuri-te & Tomari-te Lineage

Karate | Naha-te Lineage

Kobudō | Bō

Kobudō | Sai

 沖縄空手国際大会 OKINAWA KARATE INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT


沖縄空手国際大会 OKINAWA KARATE INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT

© 2018, Andreas Quast. All rights reserved.

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