Seipai Kata & Bunkai
Seipai Kata - 1hr Video
A detailed karate kata video on the history, kata form, bunkai (applications) anatomy & physiology:
Content assembled from:
- 2 research trips to Okinawa
- presented by an instructor who lived in Japan
A complete study of any kata should involve its history, philosophy, medical physiology & application.
- Kata pattern with style comparisons
- done slow & fast bunkai for all moves (and variants)
- Chinese moves and origins
- kanji, history, philosophy
This video is not concerned with minor style differences (comments are of course given with regard to different styles & approaches) as one must remember that as little as 100 years ago the modern karate styles did not exist. Therefore, the focus of this video is on a core embusen (pattern) of the kata Seipai and its applications - which are style universal & applicable to Goju, Shito-ryu, & Okinawan styles that work this classic karate kata.
Even in the days of the shito-ryu founder, Mabuni Kenwa who was a police officer in Okinawa & Japan, the bunkai for such classical kata were questioned as to whether they were practical or not from this Master himself (source: Mario McKenna brief biography of Mabuni Kenwa). Of course the police officers of that era did not have masses of police assault data and hospital emergency street fighting data, but we do today. In this video we talk to that data and compare to the classical kata interpretation.
About the Presenter in the Seipai Video:
Shihan Jason Armstrong, Ph.D. and 7th Dan, has lived in Japan with a Karate master, and has also competed at national and international kumite & kata events, in Australian & Pacific championships, US championships, and in Japan. While living in the USA and Japan he made extensive efforts to cross-train with senior Goju and Okinawan sensei.
Jason has a doctorate in studies of the medical effects of spaceflight (from Kansas State University and the NASA Center for the Commercial Development of Space) and a Master degree in Endocrinology/electrophysiology (University of Queensland).
Okinawan trips added to his competition and Japan training experiences to create the material on this Karate Seipai Kata video.
Pictured in Okinawa at the fanous Shuri Castle is the presenter of the DVD in 2009 - Shihan Jason Armstrong, 7th Dan. Below is a picture of the Shuri castle in the 1900s.
Chojun Miyagi Sensei (below left) was a key figure in the transmission of Seipai and good deal of his knowledge was passed to the Jundokan dojo in Okinawa with Taira sensei now acting as the primary instructor alongside Soke Miyazato.
Mabuni Kenwa circa 1930 performing the opening move which can be interpreted as a throat strike
