Gesaku Sho?

[dsomers]

Does anyone know anything about the Kata Geisaku Sho ? It is also known as The Golden Crane , or Golden Swan Kata . It is practiced in many of The Americanized Goju systems , as well as Shorei Shobukan .

David

[Gene Williams]

Hi, I learned the kata years ago from a Goju practitioner, but quit doing it because no one else in orthodox Shito-ryu, Shorin-ryu, or other Okinawan styles ever heard of it. I asked Morio Higaonna at a clinic once and he had never heard of it, and he is, to me, the premier Goju practitioner. I think it is probably a latter day kata, developed by someone either in the dojo or from sections of Chinese kata put together. I think a couple of my students still do it when I am not looking. I just don't want to give time to a kata that is not one of the commonly practiced kata of the Shuri/Naha traditions. The kata is not mentioned in any of the major works on Okinawan karate, minor ones, either. Kuniba once played around during a break when someone asked him if he knew any Chinese kata. He promptly showed us a kata with a lot of "flashy" moves. Several people learned it and ran it all weekend. He called it Gisaki Sho. A few days later when we asked him what it meant, he smiled, grabbed his gi lapel and said,"Gi", then made a drinking move with his hand and said, "Saki", then held up his index finger like # 1 and said with a grin, "ichiban." Everyone quit doing it then. Gene