Heian series

The Famous Five Katas

For hundreds of years now, the Heian katas have been taught by many instructors throughout the world, with slight variations of movements through different styles. The interpretations of the katas applications have vastly differed from club to club and in some cases, sadly been made up. The Heian kata series have been recognised globally as the first, official five kata out of the 26 to be taught in Shotokan karate.

Although these kata are taught to us over and over again, nobody seems to be asking the obvious questions. Why are there five kata and not three like the Tekki katas? Why do they all start to the left? and what are the real applications for each kata?  

To understand these three questions, we need put ourselves back in time and travel to Okinawan, in particular, Shuri, a district of Naha city. It was during the reign of King Sho Taikyu, when karate was brought to Shuri castle, and to the king’s bodyguards from great masters such as Sokon Bushi Matsumura and Yasutsune Itosu, (the creator of many kata including the five Heian kata.)

But why this time period? During the reign of King Sho Taikyu, many attempts on the king’s life would be inevitable, therefore the king’s bodyguards would need to be prepared to deal with all kinds of threats. Not only this, a Commodore by the name of Mathew Perry was planning to invade Shuri castle accompanied with his soldiers from the United States.

With this in mind we come to our first question.

Why are there five Heian Kata?

It was the teachings of the Heian kata that the bodyguards needed to know more than any other kata. At first this doesn’t seem to make any sense, as the Heian kata are beginner kata. Why would a well experienced bodyguard need to practice a beginner kata when they are more than trained to deal with more aggressive attacks.

Well it was during this period of time, that the king’s bodyguards would come across five types of enemies, the body guards learnt the five Heian kata as each kata was taught to them so they would know how to deal with each one of these attackers. The katas taught the guards how to deal with enemies whether they were to kill them, disarm them, throw or retrieve an opponent, armed or unarmed from them.  

·         Heian Shodan was taught by using selected techniques developed from Sokon Bushi Matsumura, these techniques were for dealing with everyday common challengers on the streets of Shuri. In other words, muggers or brawlers.

·         The second kata Heian Nidan was developed to deal with everyday armed beauracratic Samurai, therefore the use of sword techniques and sword disarming methods was vital.

·         In Heian Sandan we learn not to destroy our enemies, but we learn techniques in how to parry attacks, immobilise, restrain and then retrieve our targets. This kata is an operations kata designed for police tactics.  

·         The kata Heian Yondan teaches the bodyguards how to penetrate a samurai soldier in armour to defeat them, striking at all the weak spaces that the armour does not cover.

      and finally,

·         Heian Godan. This kata teaches you how to disarm the modern solider taking away their musket gun and bayonet and then using them against them.

Why do all the Heian Kata start to the left?

One of the reasons for the fact that all the Heian kata start with the first move directed to the left, is that Itosu was the kings left hand man, and he would deal with any attempt on his life from the left. Sokon Bushi Matsumura, was the kings right hand man and would deal with attacks from the right.

One of the biggest mistakes that students make in karate regarding kata application is that they don’t explore the opening attacks, by this I mean that, yes we move to the left in all Heian kata but in Shodan, is the attack really coming from the left, are we really blocking a punch or kick?

What are the real applications for each kata?

The real applications of the kata are brutal and most cannot be taught. This is one of the reasons why we now have many clubs and schools having various applications with a kata. The instructors are either substituting the deadly brutal applications for modern day techniques or making the up as they don’t know the correct applications. Although the name Heian means peaceful mind, the applications are not.

If we take Heian Nidan for instance and look at the first Kiai (Nukite or spear hand). You wouldn’t necessarily use this technique to the solar plexus when a punch could do more damage. The real application here is that we are driving a sword through our opponent’s chest. (Makes more sense now doesn’t it). The next move that follows, (Shuto or knife hand block) is actually chopping the opponents head off with the second sword that we are holding in our left hand, that we acquired earlier from disarming a soldier.

So next time you are practicing the Heian katas try to imagine that you are one of the king’s bodyguards and that any one of these attackers is ready to pounce.

For more knowledge on the history of kata and bunkai, read Shotokan’s Secret the hidden truth behind karate’s fighting origins. By Bruce D. Clayton, Ph.D. it is a very good read.