Nijushiho (an impromptu bunkai exploration)

Chen Sensei teaching the next generation of Chinese karateka

This was actually a much requested topic from my countless followers, so I finally gave in and started the project.

As my elders told me, Nijushiho is a Naha(te) kata that somehow made it into the Shotokan system, but probably it was when Funakoshi Sensei sent his best students to train under Mabuni Sensei to expand the scope of his Karate.

In Shito Ryu it is called Niseishi and if you compare both versions you will see that Nijushiho has been "shotokanized", as many others.

Well, exploring a Naha kata that is present in the Shotokan system but not in the Goju Ryu system presents some challenges and we expected some wonderful outcomes.

So, here it is:
My bunkai (updated link)

Now, my own criticism:

My opponent is a girl who is half my size, half my age and half my rank, so all the techniques work flawlessly on her because I was overpowering her, she was not resisting and because of a language barrier she did not know what was coming next.

Your bunkai techniques should work regardless of who your attacker is: if they only work on smaller opponents it is time to re-evaluate your knowledge and technique.

After saying this, I think all what I showed in the video are legit skills that can be used in a real fight and that I use myself, even in MMA.

Kata bunkai are (usually) meant to be grappling information for close fighting.

As you can see in the video, most of what I produced is meant to be used against long range attacks (people rushing to punch you, or with a knive, or a bottle...) and I am not sure how this happened.

Maybe I watched someone doing this before, maybe I don't really understand the kata, maybe it has been too "shotokanized"...

The outcome is really different of what I had hoped, but valid anyway, I guess.

I was hopping to create something that resembled the bunkai I do for Goju Ryu Seipai, but it did not happen.

Now, the excuses:

This is not a kata that I use to use. I just recently started to practice it again because my old Sensei liked it for Sandan tests, so I decided to re-learn it and practice it at home from time to time.

I didn't really plan a bunkai for it as I did not gave it much thought.

We didn't practice it beforehand and we didn't rehearse. That means that everything was just from the top of my head.

This is not to say that I am frustrated or in disagreement with the video (I uploaded it and made it public, right?) but just trying to speak what it is in my mind about the video.

I was planning to make a longer video and possibly a book about it and this video was to be the foundation from where to build on but now I am forced to give it a deeper thought and expand my research.

You never stop learning.

Exciting times ahead!

Big thanks to both Chen Sensei in Karate Box Dojo in Shanghai.

Always a pleasure to visit your place.

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