Over the past 8 months I’ve been working exclusively on two kata. For the the first 6 months, my kata was Sochin, and for the past two months, I’ve switched to Gojushiho Sho. Let me just take the opportunity here to say how happy I am not have to worry about entertaining students. In the past, doing one kata, and one kata only for 6 months, would have guaranteed an exodus of bored students. Today, it’s a combination of having the right students, and me not giving a f**k. The training reminds me of what I went through with sensei, and in the same order. When I met sensei, I met him, actually, because I wanted him to review and critique my Sochin. Well, he sure did! For the next three years, after almost every class, he taught and drilled me on Sochin! After developing a precise, yet thorough hatred for Sochin, Sensei picked yet another kata… Gojushiho sho. At the time, I thought this choice of kata was random, but nothing with sensei was ever random.
I have a student who has trained longer than I have, training in the same circle of instructors that I knew, but by his own admission he says kata was always just a respite for him, to catch his breath for kumite…and he has excellent kumite, even in his mid sixties! In his youth, he would always stand in the back of class, and half heartedly mimic the moves of kata without much thought, or interest. He did; however, recognize the beauty and aesthetic of Sochin, and it was his life long dream to learn the kata. So as the saying goes, serendipity led him to me, and we took on the same journey that sensei led me on, all those years ago…
Let me preface a little about this student. We’ll call him Columbo for the sake of this story. Columbo, is very intelligent, educated, and has had a successful professional career. He’s married to a lady from a different culture, so by default he has the innate intelligence to understand nuance, and the art of managing differences and expectations. Nonetheless, he comes across as a basic, no thrills, hunker down, black and white kind of guy…and yet he isn’t. To give you a better picture of who Columbo is, I’ll give you this example. His karate training from the beginning, had one purpose only…to fight, and to fight with spirit and efficiency. Though he lacks a tangible awareness of detail, it is all there within him. You can see this by his almost accidental, yet profound insights into his understanding of kata. One day, Columbo came to me after class and said, ” Sensei, Heian Shodan and Sochin feel like a father and son kata, except I can’t tell which one is the father and which one is the son.” I remain pleasantly astounded by this near perfect description of the relationship between these two kata!
After working on Sochin for months and months and then transitioning to Gojushiho sho, I asked Columbo what he felt, and liked about his two newly acquired kata. Columbo responded in his typical fashion. He said, “Sensei, you know me. I’m a simple guy, and I love Sochin. Sochin to me feels like…well…have you heard of city mouse and country mouse? Sochin is country kata and Gojushiho sho is city kata.” You can see that Columbo is not verbalizing or intellectualizing the intricacies of the two kata, but he has captured the feeling, the essence, of these two kata. Sochin is big movement. It is all there to be seen, where nothing can be hidden. It is direct. In your face. Gojushiho sho is more nuanced and movement must be revealed, testified to, and felt in its minutiae. The “movement” between the movements is where the dialogue is taking place.
A high ranking instructor I’d invite to teach from time to time, from a formerly reputable federation, once commented to my students that Gojushiho sho was a useless kata that had nothing in it. I thought to myself, that I have an infinite world of wonder just sitting in seiza, let alone when I journey through kata, how can it be that this “high” ranking guy cannot find anything in Gojushiho sho? I realized at that point that this fellow, despite his years of experience, missed the point of karate-do, and lacked insight and intelligence where it counted most. I promised myself never invite him again. Gojushiho sho is an intelligent, reflective man’s kata. It requires a man to set aside his pride and ego, to rediscover himself through humility, authenticity, and truth. Gojushiho sho is the dialogue between the soul and the self. It is the physical practice of the soul’s purification, encapsulated in moving zen.
Shoshin Karate-Do International 