Hi,
I read this translation article from Andreas Quast. It was written by senior Uechi-ryū practitioner Tōbaru Keichō. It gives a quite good overview about the topic of enbusen. http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=7408
The topic is Enbusen but I zeroed in on these lines: As the basic forms of enbusen, there is the ‘I-shaped enbusen‘ (ijikei) which assumes the enemy in the front and back, the ‘horizontal enbusen‘ (yokoichijikei) which assumes the enemy on the left and right, the ‘cross-shaped enbusen‘ (jūjikei) which assumes the enemy from four directions, the ‘all directions enbusen‘ (shihōhappō) which assumes the enemy in all directions, and the ‘enbusen in which the directions and footwork radiates to all directions’ (happō hōshakei). Additionally, depending on the type of kata, various other enbusen exist, such as the ‘T-shaped’ (teijikei), the ‘reversed-T-shaped’, and the ‘tree-kanji-shape’ (kijikei) enbusen.
Multiple directions. Surely one enemy & movement to acheive angles to either setup to gain dominance or bridging to support a technique or escape.
Interesting article never the less.
Kindest Regards,
Ally
That would be my chief concern with the article.
If we contrast that with Mabun (Karatedo Nyumon):
He continues:
I’m firmly with Mabuni on this one. The angles show us the angle we take relative to the enemy, they do not show us the angle the enemy is attacking us from; as Tobaru Keicho suggests in the article. Mabuni tells us such a way of viewing the angles is both “nonsense”, “meagre” and “highly unreasonable”.
There is some interesting stuff in the article, but I disagree with the way enbusen is viewed throughout the piece. Viewed that way the kata has nothing so say with regards to tactical positioning. I also have to say that the angle is one of the most powerful tools for “reading” the kata in my view. It’s not telling you that the motion is for an enemy attacking from that specific angle (something outside your control), but instead it is giving you the required orientation between you and the enemy (something within your control).
All the best,
Iain