Like Fighting at Night
July 15, 2010 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Bunkai,Historical,Kata,Martial Arts,Techniques,karate,mindset
I’d like to share a story given by Bill Hayes Sensei. Pardon any paraphrasing.
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One time Hayes Sensei was training with his instructor Eizo Shimabukuro on the kata Passai. This kata is known for its power generation and its sweeping motions that feel for the opponent and almost reach out to him/her.
After training, Shimabukuro mentioned that this kata was like fighting at night.
The statement caught Hayes Sensei’s attention who thought he had gained some valuable insight into the original impetus for the form. Brave Okinawans, he decided, must have crept along during the night and dispatched their opponents using the passai kata! Certainly that explains the ‘feeling’ and ‘scanning’ hand and foot work.
Some time later the topic of Passai came up again, and Hayes Sensei engaged in discussion about how the kata came from night time fighting.
At that point Shimabukuro peered into Hayes Sensei’s eyes as if to see if there were any lights on.
“No, no”, he said. “Not at night. Like at night.”
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Many times things can be lost in translation, especially when it comes to the mysteries of kata. In this case Shimabukuro Sensei was never suggesting that Passai kata was specifically for night time fighting, or that it was born from it. Instead he was trying to express that the same sensations and abilities you would rely upon at night are summoned and utilized via training in the Passai system.
Consider this: at night, you would not be able to see well. Therefore, when you make contact with an opponent, you must maintain Muchimi, or stickiness. Once that contact is made you can instinctively know where each part of your opponent’s body is. Essentially, should it be necessary, you could fight blindly.
This is an important concept to remember when considering the adrenaline dump that occurs during combat. Humans acquire tunnel vision when under extreme stress, which means you will have much less visibility (even during broad daylight) than you are used to. Therefore you have to rely on proprioception and touch response to first acquire your target and then properly eliminate him/her.
It’s important to remember that kata were not created for one specific environment or circumstance. That would be far too limiting a form of practice. Instead the concepts that are contained within each kata are omni-useful and work in harmony with the concepts of other kata.
The translation for the term Passai, which is frequently stated to be “penetrating the fortress” or “extracting from the fortress”, is not to be taken literally. The name may have a poetic connection to breaking down the barriers of an opponent, but it was never necessary to have an actual castle involved.
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View Comments
By the time tunnel vision sets in, haven't you already lost most of your tactile sensitivity too?
I haven't seen the kata in question, but it may be analogous to the CMA concept of “crossing the bridge” (which is not a poetic reference).
You may not be able to thread a needle but certainly you can still feel when you are grabbing onto something or when you have made contact with the elbow, wrist, etc. Therefore you will be able to kick low or strike ribs that are outside your field of vision at the moment.
The kata in question is linked to.
If crossing the bridge is not a poetic reference, are you suggesting that CMA practitioners wanted you to literally cross a bridge?
“tunnel vision” is only an issue for sports combatants who never train outside 1 on 1 in controlled environemnts. With good muchimi training and practice, it takes milliseconds of contact with an opponent to know what you're touching, where the rest of the opponents target areas are and where their centre of balance is. the adrenal “rush” form initiation of combat will decrease pain reception, but actually increases tactile sensetivity.
The bridge is jargon, not poetry–its meaning is not really a subject of creative interpretation. It is the offensive or defensive arms you must “cross over” to reach the target.
There is so much information in Kata. I once trained in the “Passai” Kata. I do not so now, in that I have limited the number of Kata that I train in regularly. Yet, having read the words here, and recalling the kata, I could could not give a better description than “like fighting at night”.
I very much appreciate the wording “Passai System” used by the our host in his comment. When we view a Kata as a “system” we begin to realize it’s true potential! From this vantage point we may go on to understand, and develop, the “system” given to us in the Kata ‘text book’.
Many volumes have been written on Kata, yet there remains still, a somewhat illusive element to the subject. I would say, that realizing Kata as a system, goes a long way in filling the gaps in our understanding.
Because each individual Kata is a complete fighting system, we read of bygone masters studying to perfect two or three Kata.
This does not indicate that they would merely perfect the movements in sequential execution to perfection. But that they would study the Kata as a system, the elements of which are inherent in the whole. This extends to strategy; and, executing the principles and techniques in a more random fashion than the Kata itself displays. Yet, this “shuffling and tweaking” of the Kata into a full and complete system is the end goal.
I have found that two exercises will help one to realize this intended end. The first is to execute the Kata without it’s pattern, or ‘embusin lines’ . Perform the sequential execution of techniques in a straight line. You may possibly need to make one turn, to allow for space constraints.
The second exercise, is to perform the Kata statically. That is to say, standing in place as if facing an opponent. Allow one or two steps forward and back, and into the obliques, as if in real contact with an opponent.
These exercises will give you some insight, into unlocking the potential within your Kata, “system”.
If you are among those who feel an affinity toward the prospect that all of Karate is in Kata, I suggest most highly that you read the book by Kris Wilder, “The Way of Kata”. You will not be disappointed. The subject of the work is “deciphering and interpreting” Kata; and, he has done an excellent job in introducing us to this fascinating and needed topic of investigation.
In closing, on a humorous note, I would tell the following story. After studying one particular Kata as a “system” for a very long time, a Karate adept finally concluded that the most effective execution of a sequence of techniques, should, to be most effective, move straight forward in motion. However, in the Kata, the ‘embusin line’ indicated a turn, just at this critical juncture. He also saw that the turn here, in the Kata, actually ‘hid’ the potential of the sequence. He later discovered that the ‘turn’ at this point in the Kata actually had a name. it was called, “Dojo Wall”! All The Very Best!
Awesome comment Masi, many thanks for that!