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A great question came up on a Facebook Page Post about the kata practiced under the lineage, if you will allow some latitude herein, of Don Nagle Sensei, Isshinryu Karate. Nagle Sensei is one of those labeled “First Generation Students” of the systems founder, “Shimabuku Tatsuo Sensei.” It is a set of questions about kicks in the Naihanchi kata.
Caveat: such trivial curiosities have their place, especially those interested in discovery of and practice of the kata from a “original way” that Tatsuo-san taught and practiced. It is about carrying on a specific tradition under the heading of Tatsuo Shimabuku Sensei’s origins, cultural and beleif where remaining exact and true to his system is critically paramount to ancestral foundational origins (a real mouthful I know and it still won’t be adequate to describe why one must remain true to such things). This level of exactness is not exactly conducive to training toward fighting ability (not sport), combative ability and/or self-defense ability with karate let alone Isshinryu specifically (let the anger and flame wars begin).
Lets get to the quick of this article, the differences in kata as practiced even though they are all from this one, fairly new, system or style of karate from Okinawa, Isshinryu. To achieve this we have to recognize and understand that the system or style was taught to a variety of American servicemen of which many were, “Marines.”
Second, we should understand as well that during the time, i.e., circa late 1950’s and early 1960’s, changes abounded and even Tatsuo-san was known to make changes in how kata were performed, practiced and applied in the karate system. After all, he spent a lot of years in the creative process before naming the system officially. Even after the naming he made changes as appropriate, he was the creator after all.
Third, Tatsuo-san as I perceive his efforts from the limited research I have done made changes and created his system or style from his studies and practices of other systems and styles. His efforts, to me, were filled with change and that change seemed to continue on until his retirement and following death.
So, back to the questions regarding the differences of kata practice where the questioner mentioned the Nagle Sensei lineage. I am of that same lineage and found over the years that even those who fall under Nagle Sensei influences tended to practice kata with variances to those depicted even in the video’s of Nagle Sensei. I want to express my views that variances in kata are not about right or wrong, correct or incorrect and traditional over modern but rather differences in individuals.
Take a look at human memory, memory is very, very subjective and influenced by many factors. Most of what I understand about memories can be presented in a few quotes as follows.
“The trouble with relying on memory is not just that we fail to encode certain things or that we forget over time, but also that our memories record what we encounter through the lens of our motivations, expectations, and experiences. As a result, two people will not have exactly the same memory of the same event. Our memories are subject to revision, alteration, and reconfiguration. Memory is a constructive process best likened to creating a collage: we piece together various fragments and then fill in the inevitable white patches with our background knowledge, desires, and beliefs until we have something that is complete and usable.” - Adam Benforado, Unfair
“When we go to retrieve a memory, we are not simply rummaging through an old filing cabinet for a snapshot; as we search, we may in fact be arranging the image.” - Adam Benforado, Unfair
“Presented with new information about an event, we may readily incorporate it into what we remember. We can even remember things that we never experienced or saw.” - Adam Benforado, Unfair
“False memories are often highly specific, which makes them all the more believable both to the people who carry them and to third parties (including police officers, jurors, and judges). In most cases, our false memories are not made out of whole cloth but are instead logical extensions of what we would expect or want to have happened. Conjuring memories provides us with a narrative that makes sense and affirms what we want to believe. People’s recollections of events are abut 80% accurate. Roughly every fifth detail is false. A quarter of inaccurate memories were given with total confidence. Research shows that a witness’s eyesight and age, the viewing duration and distance, and the lighting all play a role in whether a memory is encoded accurately. Simply by altering the conditions in which a person viewed another person, researchers were able to boost identification accuracy to 86% or drop it to 14%.” - Adam Benforado, Unfair
“At any given moment, our race, gender, age, profession, politics, religion, and countless other identifying-defining characteristics and affiliations color what we see, hear, feel and perceive at any given moment.” - Adam Benforado, Unfair
“At any given moment, our race, gender, age, profession, politics, religion, the time in which a person lives, the culture and social culture in which a person is raised and lives, the power relations or power dynamics of social connections, i.e., family, friends, associates (tribal connections, etc.), the person’s sensory input modes such as sight dominance or tactile dominance, etc. their internal environment, the social external environments and then their perceptions as to movement (theirs and others), how they therefore read body language especially facial along with tone of voice and word intonations, etc. effects perceptions and perspectives in a unique way.” - Compilation of Mr. Benforado’s quote and mine.
“Humans tend to use a process of maintaining their own viewpoints by discrediting others who disagree is pretty much automatic. Disagreements don’t arise from the character flaws of those who see things differently, they reflect the realities of cultural cognition: shared backgrounds and experiences shape how we perceive what we perceive as objective facts.” - Adam Benforado, Unfair
“Humans tend to look to dismiss others views by finding a character flaw that explains their contrary position.” - Adam Benforado, Unfair
When you add all the above together then you may find that any one interpretation will be different dependent on said factors and more. I also added in the length of time on the island with the same length of time under the direct instruction and influence of Tatsuo-san.
Example: the kata I was taught included those taught today without the dynamic tension process because my Sensei either didn’t know that or decided to practice and teach it differently in his dojo vs. the Nagle way. One of the parts involved in the practice of Seisan kata were the first three moves that I didn’t discover as different until I actually viewed the video’s of Advincula Sensei’s. I then began to see slight to great variances in how the kata were done.
In the end I then discovered that unless you believe in the way that is exacting to the way of Tatsuo-san those difference made no differences because the true underlying essence of all kata and all martial arts were the proper knowledge, understanding and application of fundamental principles that transcend the individual particular perspective and perception of practice that led to the creation and separation we now call, “Styles.”
These new systems or styles then became “Belief Systems” and such systems are inherent in all human survival tribal social ways. They connects us to what provides us safety and security and meaning to our lives and to living.
It has led to my belief that the exactness often required toward kata practice stems from such belief systems along with demonstration and competitive models similar to testing and quantifying competitive performances similar to those used in say, “gymnastic floor exercise competitions” that demonstrate a certain control of the body and mind while the original true essence was to teach fighting, i.e., combatives and self-defense.
Initial adherence to the form is actually a lead in toward teaching principles such as structure and alignment, etc. Not performance and appearance that is often the teaching goals of modern competitive martial arts. It has its purpose but distinctions become important, critical in self-defense, toward learning how to apply that in reality.
In the question of kicks in Naihanchi, truly it is about two things dependent on the distinctions - One is performance or historical importance while, Two is about stopping grave bodily harm or death in self-defence. If the distinctions are set and adhered to in training and practice you CAN achieve both but more often than not those distinctions don’t exist, become lost or are ignored for say, economic reasons, etc.
In the end to answer the question the question needs those distinctions presented or the answers might not be appropriate when applied in practice and in applications.
One professional I am aware of always prefaces his answers in self-defense with, “It depends …” Because in martial art regardless of distinctions and applications - it depends!
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