Pinan/heian kata

Because after the 5th he decided that he had included everything that he wanted? There was no need for a 6th? Although there MAY be a 6th and 7th as I raised in another thread.

I also read a theory that the five kata represented the five elements. I suspect that my theory is the correct one.

Hi Jason,

I had a similar question from one of my students a few weeks back and after a little research here are my opinions on the Pinans:

Unlike other Kata’s in Wado-Ryu the Pinans are a series of Kata’s as opposed to a single Kata such as Kushanku, Chinto etc.  The Kushanku and Chinto Kata’s were created to record the fighting methods of these particular people.  The Pinans were however designed as a sequence as we can tell from the Kata names, Shodan meaning first level, Nidan – second level etc.  Now we need to move on to the meaning of Pinan

In Gichin Funakoshi’s book ‘Karate-Do Kyohan’ he explains that he changed the names of the Kata’s as he did not want to “cling to the old, traditional and incomprehensible names of the Chinese style”.  The Pinan Kata’s name changed from Pinan to Heian, Gichin Funakoshi also wrote “These five Kata, once you’ve become proficient in them, will become very useful for ordinary self-defence.  Therefore you can have peace of mind”.  This has led many schools to interpret the meaning of Pinan / Heian to mean peaceful mind.

The Pinan Kata’s were created in the early 1900’s and during this time the Okinawan people heavily influenced by Chinese culture and this may be the reason Anko Itosu used the name of Pinan for his Kata’s.  A recent study by Iain Abernethy has indicated that the ‘Peaceful Mind’ translation may be incorrect as the word Pinan in Chinese can be read or translated as “Safe from harm”.  This would seem to fit with what Funakoshi wrote regarding the usefulness of these Kata’s for self-defence.  So with this translation in mind Pinan Shodan would translate as, Safe from harm – first level;  Pinan Nidan, Safe from harm – second level and so on.

In order to be safe from harm you must in all instances avoid a potentially dangerous confrontation.  If you cannot avoid the situation then the Kata’s deal with the stages of a physical assault.  Pinan Shodan predominantly deals with advancing limbs such as threatening hands, attempted strikes, pushes etc.  If these cannot be adequately controlled and the assault continues there is a real possibility the enemy would grab you and then the second Kata of the series (Pinan Nidan) would deal with this level of attack.  Pinan Sandan then deals with joint manipulation / destruction in the event you cannot get rid of the enemy’s grip on you.  Pinans Yodan and Godan then build upon the techniques and principles in the previous 3 Kata’s of the series. 

I think then that Anko Itosu created these Kata’s to be a summary of the techniques he thought to be most useful in a self defence situation so that his students can be “Safe From Harm”.  This could possibly be why we see techniques from other Kata’s such as Kushanku and Chinto in the Pinan’s.

I hope this helps in your studies.

Andy

In the latest issue of Classical Fighting Arts #21, there is an interivew with Sensei Pat Nakata.  He was a student of Chosen Chibana, who was a long time student of Itosu.  He passes on from his teacher what Itosu said about the Pinans.

Originally, there was just "Pinan" which was never formally written down only pronounced so the name was never said as to what it meant.  It was created to help the students bridge the gap between the Naihanchi katas (which were the kihon or basic katas taught first) and learning the later katas like Bassai, which Pinan drew from.  Later, Itosu created the other 4 katas pulling from other kata sources and created them to be their own complete system of fighting and then naming them Pinan Shodan thru Godan.

I cannot recall at the moment where I read this, but Itosu apparently emphasised only the first three Pinan kata in his teaching, only rarely did he teach yo[n]dan and godan. Perhaps this rings a bell with other posters?

Hi everyone,

I also read somewhere what Harry mentioned. Itosu mostly tought Pinan 1-3 and the remaining two only sometimes or with less enthusiasm.

When we asume that Iains theory is correct, that Pinan 1-3 are the basics and 4-5 are a kind of masterclass, then maybe the young students at okinawan schools simply where not advanced enough to receive instructions in the last two. 

I go with the Nakata story. We know of Motobu who learned a kata with the name Channan. He was Itosus student in his teenage days. Considering that Itosu was born in 1870, he learn Channan sometimes between 1883 and 1890. The Pinans are said to be developed in the early years of 1900. Fact is Itosu published the five Pinan-Gata in 1904 for the first time. So in my eyes he developed them sometimes between 1890 and 1904.

Nakatas story makes perfect sense to me. Itosu named the Pinan-Gata: Shodan, Nidan, etc. which means first level, second level, etc. So the students could develope their skills step by step and from level to level until the gap to other kata was closed.

I don't buy the theory that the number of Pinan-Gata is in any relation to the number of fingers of a hand.

Regards Holger.

Hi everyone,

Some interesting replies there so thanku for those.

Kind regards

Jason Lester

Hello

This is a very intriguing question. Why are only 5 Heian/Pinan katas? What are the lessons in them? What are the lessons in the other katas?

Bruce D Clayton in his book "Shotokan Secret" says that the 5 kata are for:

•  How to disarm and kill a Japanese official (heian nidan).

•  How to win brawls in the street (heian shodan).

•  How to beat a person senseless and kidnap him (heian sandan).

•  How to kill a Japanese warrior in armor (heian yondan).

•  How to kill one of Japan's new conscript soldiers with his own gun (heian godan).

Patrick MacCrathy says that the kata are a collection of advanced tehnics who adresses the HAPV - habitual acts of phisical violence.

The bunkai for competitional or "traditional" karate says that gedan barai is just a block, gyaku zuki is just a reverse punch ...

So we can pick whatever answer we want - the original designer of the kata is dead and we don't have any instruction manual to work with, so we can reverse engineer and apply our own ideas and conclusions. What works for you and fits your general idea - use it.

Best regards

Hi all,

Claytons assumptions are kind of weird.

Why would Itosu wanted to teach someone how to kill a japanese official? Okinawa has become a japanese prefecture. His intention was to spread Karate and use it to strengthen the japanese youth for the future. Japan was a militaristic and expanding imperial nation and had seen several wars (1895, 1905) with probably more to come.

To win brawls was not a purpose either. Itosu stated a clear warning in his 1908 letter not to hurt someone.

Why would Itosu wanted to teach someone how to kidnap other persons?

Japanese warriors with armor in 1904??? I guess it was hard to find one back then.

Why teaching someone to kill a japanese soldier? There was simply no need for taking such actions.

Itosu used methods from the modernized japanese army to develop a Karate that is suitable for teaching large groups. Hanashiro and Yabu who served with the japanese army in the before mentioned wars helped him with that. They brought the insights.

Hope that helps.

Regards Holger

Clayton's book "Shotokan's Secret" is a fun and interesting read, but is HIGHLY all speculation.  His whole premise was that Itosu changed all of the kata (as done by Shotokan) to be used to protect the king only.  He claims that bunkai was never taught because those in the early training were only taught the moves (ie: Funakoshi) and then if they would have been needed later could have been taught the application.  He uses the incident with Perry and his visit to Okinawa as a basis for this.  He also uses the death of the last okinawan king to justify why suddenly karate was taught in public.

Problems with this theory are many, not the least of which is other Itosu student's learned bunkai from him and practiced it.  They even talked about the different ways Itosu taught.  It also does not address the other forms/styles of karate on Okinawa and makes it sound as if none of them had any crosstraining etc. with each other which we know there was.

Maybe he admired Miyamoto Musashi who wrote the iconic book called 'The Book Of 5 Rings' towards the end of his life. In this book Musashi stated there are 5 ways in which man pass through life. ( Gentlemen, Warriors, Farmers, artisans and merchants). Maybe Itosu related to this and created 5 Pinans towards the end of his life for common fighting circumstances relivant at the time. ( Along the line of threads above derived from Shotokan Secret) 

Brian Crighton wrote:

Maybe he admired Miyamoto Musashi who wrote the iconic book called 'The Book Of 5 Rings' towards the end of his life. In this book Musashi stated there are 5 ways in which man pass through life. ( Gentlemen, Warriors, Farmers, artisans and merchants). Maybe Itosu related to this and created 5 Pinans towards the end of his life for common fighting circumstances relivant at the time. ( Along the line of threads above derived from Shotokan Secret) 

I like this concept

But looking at the history and reasoning behind the Pinans i would say we need to re-visit why Pinan Shodan (Heian Nidan) and Nidan (Heian Shodan) have been swapped around. was this a western thing or was it done in Japan?

There are so many theories on the how why and what of the Pinan/ Heian Kata, but its a shame no one can say for certain the real reason for the kata.

Most Kata were created as Fighting systems look at Bassai and Kushanku (Kanku Dai) etc, but the Pinan/Heians are almagamations of others like Naihanchi, Chinto and Kushanku.

Do we need them if Kushanku has most of the techniques already?

I used to practice them, but decided that due to the amount of kata already in my syllabus to stop practicing them. I concentrate of Naihanchi, Bassai, Niseishi and 2 Korean forms - Chil Sung Ee Ro Hyung and Koryo Poomsae as well as my Jissen kata.

Hi everyone,

Black Tiger wrote:

But looking at the history and reasoning behind the Pinans i would say we need to re-visit why Pinan Shodan (Heian Nidan) and Nidan (Heian Shodan) have been swapped around. was this a western thing or was it done in Japan?

It was Funakoshi who changed Pinan Nidan into Heian Shodan and Pinan Shodan into Heian Nidan. That must have happend sometimes between 1925 and 1935. In Rentan Goshin Karate Jutsu you can see the original order and in Karate Do Kyohan you can see the newer, modern order.

My guess to why he changed the order is, that the Pinan Nidan was simply easier to learn for beginners in term of lesser movements. And to make the introduction into karate training one step easier than that, he later developed the Taikyoku-Gata 1-3.

Regards Holger.

I can't remember if he makes reference to the change in the second book? If not, there's always this to conside - publishing error. Perhaps they were mislabeled by accident and the Japanese, not wanting to lose face, just started calling them the new name.

I'm only really suggesting this as I seem to remember the main reason that gojushiho-sho became gojushiho-dai in Shotokan was that a very very senior Japanese sensei was in a competiiton and called out one name then did the other kata. To avoid him losing face, the organisation just changed the names.