what's a kata
(by Vincenzo
Alibrandi)
In the western
world, knowledge in its various forms is
transmitted since centuries by writing. Even for
music a method of writing has been found through
a graphic representation of the various notes,
the pauses, the tempo etcetera. The capacity of
the language to describe the various subjects
has become always more refined and complex and
therefore apt to deliver always more
sophisticated and specific information.
Nevertheless, since only few decades ago
analphabetism was a normal condition among most
of the people of the earth. Still today there
isn't a single country where you can say that it
has completely disappeared and in some
particular place it still stands as the normal
level of cultural development.
If in a condition
like the latter comes the need of transmitting
something by writing, probably the solution
would be, like it has actually been in the past,
a simple representation of images. By simply
taking a look to the prehistoric wall
inscriptions, or to the American Indian "calendars"
or to any other of the countless examples where
you can survey this kind of solution to the
problem of communicating, when an articulated
writing system is lacking.
If we want to go a
little further, we can find the same kind of
solution in all those cases where a fast
communication is needed and writing would not be
the fastest way to convey information: a yellow
triangle with a rough skull and two crossed red
lightning drawn over immediately tells you to
beware from electricity shock! And you must
admit that the immediacy of the image, in this
case, is far more practical than any other
writing. The road signals used today reflect
exactly the same principle and the written part
of the signal, where needed, is limited to a few
words put under the main image message.
Some of the
martial arts treatises of the past ( those from
the far east as well as those from any other
part of the world, including Europe) were
articulated on the basis of a written
explanation given to a drawing representing a
certain technique. For obvious difficulties of
representation, "tactic" subjects where very
seldom considered, except for those treatises
expressly dedicated to this topic, but normally
written by some very highly educated authors and
addressed to equally very highly educated
students. It comes spontaneouos to ask oneself,
therefore, which can be the ideal solution to
the problem of conveying "images" when their
graphic reprsentation is difficult to give. One
of the possible solutions, maby the most
efficient, is to "make the images" assembling
them in an organic structure, better if
systematically arranged, and deliver them in
such a way to be directly learned by the very
addressee of the message: in the case of the
martial arts, THE BODY.
Through this very
short path we have given a very simple
explanation of the technical meaning of a kata:
a record of a knowledge that can be laearned
directly through movement. This aspect of katas
could by itself justify their creation and
transmission and their practically endless
number, if considering the various disciplines
in their variuos styles etc.
We still have,
though, a problem of "reading": the Traiana
Column in Rome, tells about the Roman military
adventures of those times through a grapic
representation. But to understand it, you need
to be able to identify "who is what",
distinguishing friends from enemies, winners
from loosers, leaders from simple soldiers. In
practice you must be able to read it! Some
martial arts school (Katori Shinto Ryu, for
instance) have codified a series of kata to be
performed by two persons contemporarily. In this
way, having two actual opponents performing the
two roles of attacker and defender, their
reading is much easier. But the great majority
of the other schools have codified katas for a
single performer. This gives, of course, a great
problem with "reading", because a kata performed
by a single person is like a "tango" danced by a
single dancer: you've got to know what the other
dancer should be doing!
For a correct and
reliable interpretation of katas you therefore
need a very deep knowledge of the subject
concerning the kata considered, and this
knowledge is inevitably linked to the
interpretative key given by the "master", with
his teachings of the basics (the so called "kihon").
This also explains the "misterious"
aspect of the katas, from where comes the legend of the "secret key"
(the so called "kaisai no genri") given only to very few
particularly chosen pupils. A key that works like a sort of "instruction
manual" that helps to assemble "frame, wheels and motor" in a brand
new car!
Once upon a time, all this was a very
useful way for correctly preserving the technical basics of a school:
transmitting a kata didn't imply automatically the acquisition of
its content, and those very clever "technicians" who could "build
the car" without the related "instruction manual" were not only very
few, but also already full of that deep technical knowledge to which
a kata could not add very much! The need of giving the proper
knowledge only when and to those deemed worth, was the only aspect
to consider in transmitting and contemporarily keeping the technical
heritage acquired.
Today all this has reached a very
different shape, given that transmission goes to an always wider
audience up to the point of being "divulgative". And this is
particularly true for those arts that due to their past "secretness"
are risking today to disappear!
Giving the various "components"
together with the "instruction manual" should therefore be today
the normal approach to teaching, also considering that in the social
realities of today's every day life it makes very little sense to
think that possible "enemies" can become acquainted with our
knowkedge!
The truth about certain "vital points"
will hopefully remain a romantic tale, while the study of the
possibilities of our own body, of the strength of the mind, of the
tactics to enact in relation to angles, distances etc. will be the
actual aspect of practice.
Other two aspects
strongly affect the representative "shape" of
katas. The first consists of the inevitable "stylization".
It is in fact impossible to think that one or
more katas can cover completely the field of the
possible technical and tactical variations that
can be met in actual fighting: one or more
opponents, with or without weapons, on a certain
kind of ground or another, surrounded by
obstacles or free from them, in the daylight or
in the darkness and so on. Consequently a kata
must comply with an important function of "synthesis"
that can be achieved only by choosing, among the
several movements possibly valid, those that can
synthetize at the best a technical and tactical
"principle" as much versatile as possible. The
other aspect is that of the "training function"
that a kata should comply with, so that by a
daily practice of a certain kata the
practitioner can develop a correct body stance,
balance, speed, power etc. and the proper mental
attitude.
Analyzing the
katas of the various disciplines, we will find a
bit of all that we said above, with one or
another aspect prevailing depending on the
discipline, the style, or the simple degree of
complexity that ranges from relatively simple
and ripetitive katas with a prevailing training
function, to the more complex and multifold ones,
representing a sort of "pocket enciclopedia" of
specific and refined technics. Those schools
that follow a progressive order, normally
arrange katas in a sort of "technical pyramid",
with a wide base of the first katas containing
few techniques that can be effective in the
majority of the fighting situations, going up to
always more "thematic" katas referring to
specific groups of levers or throws or blows
etc. and sometimes also considering some
tactical aspect of fighting.
To finish, only
few words about the eternal discussion
concerning what is better: to excercize only few
katas, acquiring a smaller tehnical knowledge
but much more automatically available, or to
excercize many katas, acquiring a far wider
versatility but not as much automatic. I believe
that a definitive answer to this question will
never be found. It is worth to notice, though,
that in the past, travelling was not as easy as
today and exchanges were sometimes very
difficult also for those very basic commercial
goods. We can thus figure out what could have
been the import/export difficulties for those
things covered by esoteric secret! It looks
obvious, therefore, that many martial arts
schools had a relatively restricted number of
katas from which the fundamental character of
their tecnical and tactical choices could
easlily be drawn out.
Today's opening,
not always implemented but at least auspicable,
could find a better sense in a multifold
training, where the study of the body or of a
certain weapon could develop in a culturally
wider environment with a natural trend to look
at a certain principle from its various
technical expressions. Or as well pointing out
from a single technique the various principles
that can be identified within it.
