All Wado Karate Forum

I never studied Ura Waza, and accordingly do not have any understanding of the "hidden" techniques. However, attached are simple animations based on the images, and explanations posted by WadoAJ at his site. Not sure if the animations help or hinder learning the katas.

Not sure, but I get the impression you have a particular question about the techniques shown.

Tim

Sorry to give the wrong impression. I was not asking any questions about Ura waza techniques. I have come to believe that kata are like "koan", where bunkai is a solution derived from intuitive awareness. That, unless you practice any kata regularly, you can't understand it. Of course, I find this a difficult concept to grasp as my mind tends to look for literal meaning.

Perhaps however, those who practice the katas may have some insight to share.

The attached files are in the sequence displayed by WadoAJ from his site. There are some liberties taken with the images in order to present a more complete looking animation. The timing of the separate images varies at the beginning and end, and some of the starting images are taken from another sequence. To this extent, the background may jump around, and lateral movement is not accurate. Perhaps it can be improved with better editing.

When I look at these series of techniques what I see is Ohtsuka Sensei putting together snippets of his arsenal of possibilities. I recognise parts of what he is showing but I don’t see them as kata, as any kind of set form.

But it’s good to see them in this format, however limited. I don’t think it’s possible to extract full meaning from them and we could only recreate them from our own limited understanding of what’s going on. I mean, they can’t be read like a textbook. Some of the parts I recognise from techniques my Sensei has shown me, but there are bits within these parts that you need to have explained to you, they are not apparent in the pictures.

Tim

Hi Tim, It is common in Japanese martial arts to use the term kata for these kinds of prearranged form. For example, Kendo has a set of 12 katas, each exemplifying a principle. I agree that any view of a kata's form should not be used to extract meaning. Understanding only come from an intuitive grasp of the form, after physically practicing the kata many times.

Tim49 wrote:When I look at these series of techniques what I see is Ohtsuka Sensei putting together snippets of his arsenal of possibilities. I recognise parts of what he is showing but I don’t see them as kata, as any kind of set form.
Tim

I tend to agree with you Tim. As you no doubt know Sensei Johnson spent two years studying with Ohstuka Meijin both in a group class and private lessons. He wrote down in his diary everything he was taught including dozens and dozens of techniques such as these which we practice in class on occassions (I'm convinced there's a book there)! He refers to them simply as Ohstukas fighting techniques. AJ refers to them as ura waza and I can see the reasoning for it. I've never thought of them as kata and have never heard of them being referred to as kata. That said, they are lovely techniques though and whatever they are called it nice to see them on the forum.

shep

Ura translates to back, hidden, or invisible. How this applies to the katas remains a mystery to me, unless my understanding of the word is wrong.

Tim49 wrote:but there are bits within these parts that you need to have explained to you, they are not apparent in the pictures.

shep wrote:..........AJ refers to them as ura waza and I can see the reasoning for it.........

Fellows, can you share the "bits within", and "reasoning" that you see?