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I wrote a personal perspective on Wansu/Empi on my blog, so I thought I'd share it here. Obviously it is a bit me-me-me, but that's because it's off my club site:
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If we take the Kata of Shotokan, (or indeed Wado Ryu, Shorin Ryu, Budokan etc) we find the forms fit into groups.
The Taikyoku (Kihon) forms are relatively recent innovations to be taught to beginners. The five Heian (Pinan) forms can be fairly reliably traced back to Master Itosu.
Kanku Dai has its little brother Kanku Sho; as Bassai Dai has Bassai Sho.
These are the forms typical of the Shorin (Shuri) school with big stances, powerful movement and movement in all directions.
Then we have the "Aragaki" forms, owing more to Chinese White Crane and Monk Fist. These include Nijushiho (Niseishi), Unsu, Wankan and Sochin.
We have the "Temple forms" of Jutte, Jion and Jin and the Tomari forms of Chinte, Meikyo and Gankaku (Chinto) which again pay homage to Chinese Crane and Monk boxing.
We have the Naha Te form Hangetsu (Seishan) which has siblings like Sanchin and Suparimpei in styles like Goju Ryu and Uechi Ryu.
We have the three Tekki (Naihanchi) forms which have some hallmarks of white crane but also seem to owe to grappling drills.
And finally we have Gojushiho (Useishi) Dai and Sho, advanced forms which seem to tie together all the Shotokan forms in a style remeniscent of Tiger boxing, drunken boxing and - according to master Funakoshi - of the woodpecker.
But one form remains - Empi. It has no siblings and its parents are unknown.
Empi (flying swallow) was previously known as Wansu in Okinawa. Some suggest it means "dumping kata" and that the characteristic jump at the end symbolises a "fireman's carry" and body slam, dumping the opponent to the ground.
I first learnt this kata in about 1997 from Sensei Stephen Bullough in the Bushido Academy. He taught me the form very similar to the Shotokan version but with a front kick as part of the characteristic "stepping in" sequence. Interestingly in the 1970s master Kanazawa also put a kick in this sequence (a roundhouse kick) but later abandoned the idea.
Empi became one of my favourite forms and I performed it as my Tokui Kata for both my 1st Dan and 2nd Dan gradings.
I later learned two versions of this form from Sensei Bob Carruthers. The first was the Shotokan version, the second was a form called Wansu no kata, the origin of which I'm not sure except to say he was taught it by Sensei Joe Carslake and it most closely resembles the Shorin Ryu versions.
I attended an excellent Empi seminar with a Slovenian Karateka named Nejc Sever, a student of master Kase. The interesting thing was that Nejc was also a Tai Chi student (as was I) and he demonstrated relating Tai Chi relaxation to this form.
It would be a while before I learnt to do this but I came to realise that Empi had a real internal power about it.
As luck would have it my then Tai Chi teacher began teaching us another internal martial art called Hsing-I. I found this art strange at first, because although it was grouped together with Tai Chi and Bagua, its "five fists" (the basic forms) seemed to move rather like Shotokan Karate. A coincidence I thought.
In 2001, I left the Bushido Academy and attended about four lessons with another instructor. I must emphasise I only attended four classes (or perhaps three or five) but they were very thought-provoking to this day. The style was based on Malaysian Budokan Karate.
Budokan in turn (founded by Chew Choo Soot) was based on Kanken Toyama's Tomari Te Karate.
The interesting thing was, this Karate method performed its Shuto quite like Hsing-I's "splitting fist", and its Gyaku tsuki like Hsing-I's "pounding fist."
I discovered something else one of the "12 animals" of Hsing-I was the Swallow. Remember Empi means "Flying Swallow."
I looked into the history of Empi and found a reference to it being introduced to Okinawa in 1683. This would make it the first extant kata in Okinawa - and explain its lack of "siblings."
The master who introduced this form to Okinawa was aparently named Wang Ji (Wan Su in the Ryukyu dialect). Wang Ji was a contemporary of the founder of Hsing-I Quan, Ji Ji Ke. Perhaps he was even a relative.
I no longer have the opportunity to learn Hsing-I Quan, and I never made it past the first few "fists" but when I practice Empi I keep in mind the internal qualities of this kata. Although I teach it to my students the "Shotokan way" when I practice it for myself I substitute the Shuto with Splitting Fist and the punches with Pounding Fist.
Simon Keegan 4th Dan
www.bushinkai.org.uk