The second jump in Kanku-sho

Towards the end of Kanku-sho you reach out behind you, slowly, with jodan haishu-uke. You follow this with a spin into a mikazuki-geri, hitting the sole of your foot against the open hand, then continue round, thrusting the left foot out into ushiro-geri and landing into ryote-fuse, again facing the front.

This is the main reason that Kanku-sho is a popular tournament kata, giving the contestant the opportunity to show off an impressive high spinning jump, with an ushiro-geri in mid-air, and often to applause and whoops from the spectators.

In actual practice, according to Nakayama, the jump should not be a high one. It is really a fairly level spin (though the left foot does leave the floor) into a sudden drop to the ground, thrusting the left leg out into ushiro-geri before landing. A jumping spin in Shotokan represents a throw.

It is a very hard move to master. The points I am trying to incorporate include hitting the mikazuki-geri against the open hand directly behind me (ie. not moving the open hand further round once I start turning), getting the ushiro thrust out, and landing with my hands and feet in the right position. Not to mention then springing up into the low gedan shuto-uke! My worst fault is not controlling the aftermath of the mikazuki, which often carries my ushiro leg round too far on landing.

It is important to note that in Kanku-sho, in ryote-fuse, the left extended leg is positioned on the ball of the foot, different from Kanku-dai where the foot is sideways on and flat on the ground.

The old version of the kata (Kushanku-sho) didn't have this move as a jump, it is a spin with the foot planted resolutely on terra firma. Some people say that the jump was included by westerners purely to bring more glamour to competition karate, but as we know from Mitsusuke Harada, he described seeing Kanku-sho in the 1940s complete with the Shotokan jump. I think this points to it being a development by Yoshitaka Funakoshi, and here is a quite impressive photo of him doing the tobi ushiro-geri from Kanku-sho …

The application that I'm demonstrating for this technique is to step away from a close-quarter grab or punch, while parrying with the haishu-uke. With the open hand I grab the assailant's arm and twist it slightly so my mikazuki-geri strikes hard against the locked elbow joint. Keeping hold of the arm I then turn quickly into ushiro-geri, thrusting my heel into my attacker's mid-section at close-range.

Soete Kake dori

More focus on kata at last night's training where we were able to self-practise again and I worked on the main sequence, as before, but this time adding the jo-uke and the jump into shuto-uke. I'm improving on this middle section of the kata now ... it's just the beginning that needs work! Got to tackle those opening moves at some point.

The 'main sequence' starts with the technique that Kanazawa refers to as soete kake dori, literally 'added-hand suspended capture', but translating more properly as augmented hooking grasp. Nakayama gives it the name tsukami uke, or grasping block. Here are Sensei Kanazawa and Sensei Yahara demonstrating the technique from different angles...

It is similar to the move in Bassai-dai/sho sometimes called kaeshi dori (reverse grasp). In his book Kata - the Folk Dances of Shotokan, Rob Redmond says that the Kanku-sho grasp is not the same as the "scooping hand technique called the Tiger Mouth in Bassai Dai", explaining that in Bassai-dai the hand and wrist do not make contact throughout the motion (though some practitioners do teach the fingers lightly touching on the wrist, eg. Enoeda, Kanazawa). Here is Gichin Funakoshi doing Bassai-dai ...

There are a variety of feasible applications for tsukami uke, many of which do not really utilise the augmenting hand, but the one I will be demonstrating in my bunkai section is a wrist trap, known in Shaolin Chin-Na as xiao chan si (small hank of thread). Here is a picture from a 1936 Shanghai police training manual showing the first stage - compare it with the image of Kanazawa above.

The next part of the sequence sees the defender turning their right palm on top of the aggressor's wrist and pulling down. In Kanku-sho the pull also brings your opponent on to a mae geri.

To finish the sequence I use the osae uke to push the opponent's grasped wrist away and then strike to jodan shomen with uraken which my partner will block and counter with a mid-level punch. In the kata here I'd do uchi-uke, but with no time for the full technique (bringing it back and blocking out) I am bringing my fist from the uraken position down onto my attacker's forearm (a striking block, uraken-uke), then finishing up with nihon zuki.