The Meaning of "Kata"

Recently we work on “Kata” a lot. Some people may say “Why do you practice “Kata”? It’s useless!” Let me tell you why we work on “Kata” that our “Kata” trainings are totally different!

According to So-Shihan Watanabe,

“If you think “Kata” is not so important and useless. You don’t do “Kata” right way. You must realize what “Kata” teaches you and how it works. Do not just imitate movements what you see. Each movement has meaning and gives you how to move your body precisely. You have to keep in your mind and move your body exactly what “Kata” requires.”

Densho Karate’s “Kata” are very similar to Kyokushin’s. They look like same, but not actually. Densho and Kyokushin have same root why it happened, made differences.

At very beginning of Kyokushin, the time of Oyama dojo, Mas Oyama teached his Karate and techniques to his students very well. But when he got busy, his students, also my ko-hai, started to teach what they learn without understanding its meaning, which means just “appearance”. That is why they were similar but not same.

We don’t have much dynamics and complex move like Sho-to-kan. But our “Kata” is a simple and sophisticate.