TEN NO KATA of Gichin Funakoshi

Ten no Kata Omote and Ura were created by Gichin Funakoshi and are both presented in the Karate-do Nyumon, the twin to Karate-do Kyohan, also written by Funakoshi Gichin. Ten no Kata means "kata of the universe." We practice Ten No Kata in call recently and below are the movements. Thanks to sensei for emailing them.


In last Wednesday night's class (Nov. 19), we practiced Ten No Kata. I'm going to try to briefly summarize it. A complete description is contained in Gichin Funakoshi's Karate-do Nyumon.



I. Ten No Kata Omote (solo exercises, without a partner).

A. Attacks - starting from shizentai (natural stance), alternating sides of the body, returning to shizentai after each attack.

1. Oi zuki chudan (middle-level lunge punch).
2. Oi zuki jodan (upper-level lunge punch).
3. Gyaku zuki chudan (middle-level reverse punch).
4. Gyaku zuki jodan (upper-level reverse punch).

B. Defensive combinations - also starting from shizentai, alternating sides of the body, stepping back to block, returning to shizentai.

1. Against chudan oi zuki:

a) Gedan barai (down block), chudan gyaku zuki, both in front stance.
b) Uchi ude uke (inside-to-outside forearm block), chudan gyaku zuki, both in front stance.
c) Shuto uke (knife-hand block) in kokutsu dachi (back stance), chudan nukite (middle-level spear hand) in zenkutsu dachi.

2. Against jodan oi zuki:

a) Jodan shuto barai (upper-level knife-hand block) in kokutsu dachi, grabbing the punching arm and pulling it to your hip as you change to zenkutsu dachi, jodan gyaku zuki.
b) Jodan age uke (rising block), chudan gyaku zuki, both in zenkutsu dachi.
c) Jodan uchikomi (bottom-fist block against the outside of the punching arm - looks like an upper-level soto uke, outside-to-inside round block), chudan gyaku zuki.

II. Ten No Kata Ura - done with a partner in the manner of Kihon Ippon Kumite (basic one-step sparring), with the attacker executing either jodan or chudan oi zuki from front stance and the defender using the defenses described above.

Oss!

Scott Monroe Instructor,
Austin Shotokan Karate