Chibana-ha Shorin-ryu uses a high back stance instead of nekoashi.
It's so narrow, that it can be mistaken for cat stance by those who use
a really deep stance.
Today's JKA karate is way different than the stuff Funakoshi taught
early on. Even within the Shoto circles, I find variation. I have two
Shoto BB training with me and they both do things different. One is
Nishiyama and the other is Kanazawa.
JKA stuff had to be consistant accross the board because you had
people at different Universities. In order to compete, they had to have a
level playing field. In Okinawa, they didn't have that issue.
I can not tell you who and why the kata was changed, but in the
Okinawan tradition, at a certian point, kata was tailored to the practitioner.
When I teach ohyo waza, I cannot expect a small person to do the same
moves a large person can do so I teach them different ohyo. The kata
stays the same, but the ohyo has to fit the individual.
The idea of preserving the kata is a relatively new thing. Today
we are trying to keep things from changing for historic reasons.
Again, in old Okinawa, the purpose (in my case of Shorin) was to protect
the King. Traditon was not a concern. Today people do karate
for many reasons. One of which is to preserve an art form.
Also, kata can change by accident. I train in Chibana-ha Shorin but, I
also have trained with Matsubayashi Sensei. On a recent visit by my
Chibana-ha sensei, he noticed a few changes I picked up from the other
teacher. I never ment to incorporate it, it just happened.
Just my 2 cents.
Peace
Ray Baldonade
Chibana-ha Shorin-ryu
"Love many, trust few and do wrong to none". Chan Yau-man