26 kata52 terms explainedPublic martial-arts knowledge

Kata

The twenty-six forms of Shotokan.

Every kata in the canon: what it is, where its name comes from, what it builds in the person who practises it, and the Japanese a student meets on the way through it — translated and explained.

What this library is

Public knowledge, stated plainly.

The Shotokan canon is not the property of any one organisation. The names, the characters they are written with, the Okinawan names Gichin Funakoshi renamed most of them from, the shape each form travels on the floor and the vocabulary it teaches are common to every Shotokan dojo in the world. That is what is written here, at length, and it is written for a reader who is learning rather than for a reader who already knows.

Movement counts and kiai points follow the convention most widely published in the Shotokan mainstream. They vary between organisations, which count preparatory and combined motions differently — treat them as a description of the form, not as a ruling.

5 kata

The Heian series

Five short forms composed by Itosu Anko in Okinawa around the turn of the twentieth century to make a demanding art teachable. Between them they contain, in miniature, most of what the longer forms later ask for.

平安初段 21 movements

Heian Shodan

Peaceful mind, first level

The simplest form in the canon and the plainest statement of what Shotokan is.

formerly Pinan Shodan Read →

平安二段 26 movements

Heian Nidan

Peaceful mind, second level

Where the series stops walking and starts working.

formerly Pinan Nidan Read →

平安三段 20 movements

Heian Sandan

Peaceful mind, third level

The shortest of the five and the one that changes character halfway through.

formerly Pinan Sandan Read →

平安四段 27 movements

Heian Yondan

Peaceful mind, fourth level

The longest and the most obviously combative of the five.

formerly Pinan Yondan Read →

平安五段 23 movements

Heian Godan

Peaceful mind, fifth level

The last of the series and the one that introduces leaving the ground.

formerly Pinan Godan Read →

3 kata

The Tekki series

Three forms performed entirely in the horse stance along a single straight line. They look nothing like the rest of the canon and they are where the hips are built.

鉄騎初段 29 movements

Tekki Shodan

Iron horse, first level

Performed entirely in the horse stance, travelling only sideways along a single straight line.

formerly Naihanchi Read →

鉄騎二段 24 movements

Tekki Nidan

Iron horse, second level

The second of the horse-stance series, and the one most people find harder than its length suggests.

formerly Naihanchi Read →

鉄騎三段 36 movements

Tekki Sandan

Iron horse, third level

The longest and densest of the three, packing more technique into the same straight line and the same single stance than either of the others.

formerly Naihanchi Read →

18 kata

The remaining canon

Eighteen forms of widely differing age, origin and character — some Okinawan imports renamed in Japan, some paired as a major and minor version of one older form, one of them the only breathing kata in the style.

抜塞大 42 movements

Bassai Dai

To storm a fortress, major

A form about reversal.

formerly Passai Read →

抜塞小 27 movements

Bassai Sho

To storm a fortress, minor

The shorter companion form, and not simply an abbreviation.

formerly Passai Read →

観空大 65 movements

Kanku Dai

To view the sky, major

The longest of the widely practised forms and, by tradition, Funakoshi favourite.

formerly Kushanku (Kosokun) Read →

観空小 48 movements

Kanku Sho

To view the sky, minor

The smaller companion, which drops the famous slow opening and starts immediately with augmented blocks against what is read as a staff attack.

formerly Kushanku Sho (Kosokun Sho) Read →

慈恩 47 movements

Jion

Compassion and kindness; also the name of a Buddhist temple

The plainest of the long forms and, for many teachers, the most revealing.

A short, heavy form whose name is usually read as the claim that a student who masters it can handle ten opponents.

Read →

慈陰 38 movements

Jiin

Temple ground; compassionate shade

The least performed member of the temple family, and unfairly so.

Named for the flight of a swallow, and the name is a description rather than a decoration.

formerly Wanshu Read →

formerly Chinto Read →

半月 41 movements

Hangetsu

Half moon

The breathing form, and the only one in the Shotokan canon built around its own stance.

formerly Seishan (Seisan) Read →

珍手 32 movements

Chinte

Unusual hand

The odd one out, and the name says so.

Read →

壮鎮 41 movements

Sochin

Strength and calm; tranquil force

Built on the rooted stance that shares its name — the length of a front stance with the width and even weighting of a horse stance — and performed with a settled, immovable quality throughout.

A form about rhythm rather than about any one technique.

formerly Niseishi Read →

明鏡 33 movements

Meikyo

Bright mirror; polished mirror

A quiet, symmetrical form whose name means a mirror polished clear — the image is of a mind reflecting things exactly as they are.

formerly Rohai Read →

雲手 48 movements

Unsu

Cloud hands

Generally regarded as the most difficult form in the Shotokan canon.

The shortest form in the Shotokan canon, and the only one with a single kiai.

Read →

五十四歩大 67 movements

Gojushiho Dai

Fifty-four steps, major

One of the two longest forms in the canon and one of the most technically fine.

formerly Useishi Read →

五十四歩小 65 movements

Gojushiho Sho

Fifty-four steps, minor

The companion form, nearly as long and closely related — the two share most of their floor pattern and diverge in the detail of the hand techniques and the sharpness of the finishes.

formerly Useishi Read →

Footage

The federation’s own kata video.

MMAKF has not recorded a performance of each kata, and this library will not present another organisation's video as the federation's. Where the federation's own kata footage exists it is published below, described as what it is: training, not a performance of any single form.

Training footage — not a named kata

Kata #training : Kisan High School,Pithoriya #trending #kata #video #martialarts #sports

Modern Martialarts Karate Training Centre, Patratu · 1 min · published 2023-09-06

Checked 2026-08-12. Requested the YouTube oEmbed endpoint for the id and then loaded the watch page. Recorded: oEmbed HTTP 200 with the exact title and channel shown here, playabilityStatus OK, and no blockedRegions declared in the player response. A negative control id of eleven A characters returned oEmbed HTTP 404 and playabilityStatus ERROR while the watch page still returned HTTP 200, which is why the status code alone was not treated as proof.

Watch on YouTube →

Training footage — not a named kata

Shotokan kata practice// kata practice Shifu sensei Ganesh

Pramod Pathak Martial Arts Academy · 3 min · published 2026-02-06

Watch on YouTube →

Training footage — not a named kata

KATA PRACTICE TEACHING BY GANESH

Pramod Pathak Martial Arts Academy · 2 min · published 2026-02-09

Watch on YouTube →

Training footage — not a named kata

Kata practice //Best kata learning

Pramod Pathak Martial Arts Academy · 1 min · published 2026-02-06

Watch on YouTube →

Terminology

52 Japanese terms, explained.

Defined once and referenced by every kata that uses them, so the same stance is never explained two different ways. A translation is not an explanation: each entry says what the technique actually is and what it is for. Every kata page prints the terms that form uses.

Japanese terms used across the kata library, with English and an explanation
Term	Kanji	English	What it is
zenkutsu-dachi	前屈立ち	front stance	The long forward stance: front knee bent over the toes, back leg straight, roughly seventy per cent of the weight on the front foot. It is the stance that lets a technique carry the whole body behind it, and the reason the first kata a student learns is mostly walking.
kokutsu-dachi	後屈立ち	back stance	Weight sits back — around seventy per cent on the rear leg — with the feet at right angles and the hips half-facing. It is a receiving stance: the body is already withdrawn, so a block can meet an attack without the defender having to retreat first, and the front foot is light enough to kick with.
kiba-dachi	騎馬立ち	horse-riding stance	Feet parallel and roughly twice shoulder width, knees pushed outward, weight even, back vertical. It is punishing to hold and that is the training effect: it builds the hip and thigh strength that everything else borrows from, and it teaches the student to generate power sideways rather than only forward.
neko-ashi-dachi	猫足立ち	cat-foot stance	Almost all the weight on the rear leg, the front foot resting on the ball with the heel lifted, like a cat about to move. It carries no weight on the front foot at all, which is what makes it the fastest stance to kick or step from and the hardest one to balance in.
fudo-dachi	不動立ち	immovable, rooted stance	A hybrid of the front and horse stances: the length of one, the width and even weighting of the other, hips squared and knees driven out. It is meant to be unshiftable, and the kata built around it are the ones that ask for settled power rather than speed.
hangetsu-dachi	半月立ち	half-moon stance	A shorter, narrower front stance with the knees squeezed inward and the feet turned in. Stepping in it traces a crescent on the floor, which is where the name comes from, and it protects the inside of the legs while the tension itself becomes part of the exercise.
kosa-dachi	交差立ち	crossed-feet stance	One leg crossed behind or in front of the other, feet close, knees bent and the body compressed. It is a transitional shape rather than a place to live: kata use it to land a jump, to cover ground quickly, or to wind the hips up for the technique that follows.
heisoku-dachi	閉足立ち	closed-foot stance	Feet together and parallel, legs straight, weight even. It appears at the start and end of several kata and between sequences, and its job is stillness — it gives the performer nowhere to hide a wobble, so it is where composure is visibly either present or not.
tsuru-ashi-dachi	鶴足立ち	crane-leg stance	The whole body balanced on one leg, the other folded up with the foot tucked behind the supporting knee. It is a loaded spring rather than a pose: the folded leg is already in position to kick, and the balance it demands is the reason it is the signature image of the kata that uses it.
gedan-barai	下段払い	downward sweep	The forearm sweeps down and across to clear an attack to the lower body, finishing just above the front thigh. It is the first block most students learn and it is a sweep rather than a stop — the arm brushes the attack off its line instead of meeting it head on.
age-uke	上げ受け	rising block	The forearm rises in front of the face and rotates so the outer edge takes the impact, deflecting a strike upward and over the head. The rotation is the whole technique: an arm raised without it stops the attack with bone rather than deflecting it away.
soto-uke	外受け	outside block	The forearm travels from outside the body inward across the chest, meeting an attack on its outer side and turning it across the opponent. The elbow stays low and bent, so the block ends in a position from which the same arm can immediately strike.
uchi-uke	内受け	inside block	The mirror of the outside block: the forearm sweeps from inside the body outward, taking the attack on the inner side and opening the opponent up. Beginners regularly swap the two names, and the way to keep them straight is to name the direction the arm travels, not where it ends.
shuto-uke	手刀受け	knife-hand block	An open hand, fingers together and thumb folded in, striking or receiving with the muscled edge below the little finger. Almost always performed in the back stance, it is a block that is already a strike, which is why so many kata use it to turn a corner.
morote-uke	諸手受け	augmented block	An inside block backed up by the other fist pressed against the blocking forearm, so two arms carry one technique. It buys strength at the cost of reach, and kata use it against attacks too heavy to turn with one arm alone.
juji-uke	十字受け	cross block	Both arms crossed at the wrists in the shape of the character for ten, catching a kick or a strike in the X they make. Because both hands finish in one place, the technique that usually follows is a grab, and several kata make that continuation explicit.
manji-uke	卍受け	double block, one arm high and one low	One arm blocks upward behind the head while the other sweeps low in front, the body turned side-on between them. It covers two levels at once and, held at the end of a sequence, it is as much a statement of readiness as a defence.
kakiwake-uke	掻き分け受け	wedge block	Both wrists cross in front of the chest and then drive apart, forcing a two-handed grab or a lapel grip open from the inside. It is one of the few techniques whose application is unmistakable the moment somebody grabs you and you do it.
keito-uke	鶏頭受け	chicken-head wrist block	The hand bent sharply at the wrist so the bony ridge on the thumb side leads, shaped like a bird head. It is used to hook and lift an attacking arm rather than to stop it, and it demands a wrist that has been conditioned for the angle.
haishu-uke	背手受け	back-hand block	An open hand receiving with the back of the palm, light and fast rather than strong. It suits deflecting a jab or a grasping hand, and because it does not commit the arm it leaves the same hand free to trap immediately afterwards.
osae-uke	押さえ受け	pressing block	The palm presses an attacking arm downward and pins it rather than knocking it aside. Nothing is struck; the point is to take away the opponent line of attack and keep it taken while the other hand does the work.
oi-zuki	追い突き	lunge punch	Stepping forward and punching with the hand on the same side as the advancing foot, so the whole body mass travels into the target. Getting the arm and the leg to arrive together, rather than the punch chasing the step, is most of the first year of training.
gyaku-zuki	逆突き	reverse punch	Punching with the hand opposite the forward leg, driven by rotating the hips. It is the most-used scoring technique in karate because the hips can turn faster than the feet can step, and the power comes from that rotation rather than from the arm.
kagi-zuki	鉤突き	hook punch	A short punch across the front of the body with the elbow bent, thrown to the side rather than the front. It exists for an opponent who is already too close to straighten an arm at, which is why it belongs to the kata performed entirely in the horse stance.
uraken-uchi	裏拳打ち	back-fist strike	A whipping strike with the back of the first two knuckles, the elbow acting as the hinge. It travels the shortest distance of any hand technique and returns as fast as it goes, which is why kata use it against the face and then continue as though nothing happened.
tettsui-uchi	鉄槌打ち	hammer-fist strike	The fleshy bottom edge of the closed fist swung like a hammer. It is the safest heavy strike in the art for the hand that throws it, because nothing lands on the knuckles, and it is often the technique kata choose to break a grip with.
empi-uchi	肘打ち	elbow strike	A strike with the point of the elbow, forward, upward, sideways or backward. It is the hardest weapon on the body and it only works in close, so a kata that uses one is telling you the distance the sequence is imagining.
nukite	貫手	spear hand	A thrust with the straightened fingertips, the middle finger bent slightly so all three land level. It is aimed at soft targets only, and it is the technique that most punishes a hand that has not been conditioned, which is why kata drill it slowly.
nihon-nukite	二本貫手	two-finger spear hand	A thrust with the index and middle fingers, aimed at the eyes. It is one of the few unmistakably lethal-intent techniques left visible in the canon, and it is the reason the kata carrying it has a reputation for being older and less sanitised than its neighbours.
haito-uchi	背刀打ち	ridge-hand strike	An open-hand strike with the inner edge, the thumb tucked underneath, swung in a wide arc from outside to inside. The wide path is the point: it comes around a guard rather than through it, and it needs the whole shoulder to be worth throwing.
teisho-uchi	底掌打ち	palm-heel strike	A thrust with the heel of the palm, fingers pulled back out of the way. It delivers most of the force of a punch with none of the risk to the small bones of the hand, and it doubles as a press or a push, which is why kata use it to unbalance as well as to strike.
ippon-ken	一本拳	one-knuckle fist	The fist closed with one knuckle — usually the index — pushed forward and braced by the thumb, concentrating the whole strike into a single point. It needs a supported wrist and a specific target, and it is a technique the advanced kata assume you have earned.
mae-geri	前蹴り	front kick	The knee lifts first, then the lower leg snaps out and returns along the same path, striking with the ball of the foot. Lifting the knee before extending is what makes it a kick rather than a swing, and it is the first kick every student is taught for that reason.
yoko-geri-keage	横蹴り蹴上げ	side snap kick	A sideways kick that snaps up and out with the edge of the foot and is pulled straight back. It is quick and light rather than heavy, aimed at whatever is exposed on the way past, and it is usually paired in kata with a back-fist to the same side.
yoko-geri-kekomi	横蹴り蹴込み	side thrust kick	The same sideways line as the snap kick, but driven through the target with the hip behind it and the heel leading. Snap and thrust look similar and do completely different jobs, and telling them apart in a kata is one of the first things an examiner watches for.
mawashi-geri	回し蹴り	roundhouse kick	The knee is raised to the side and the lower leg whips horizontally into the target as the supporting foot pivots. The pivot is what turns it from a leg swing into a technique, and without it the hip cannot follow the foot.
mikazuki-geri	三日月蹴り	crescent kick	The foot travels in an arc across the body, striking with the sole. In kata it usually lands in the opposite palm, which is not decoration: the palm is the target being represented, and the sound it makes is the audible proof the kick arrived where it was aimed.
fumikomi	踏み込み	stamping kick	A downward stamp with the edge or heel of the foot onto a knee, shin or instep, usually while stepping into the horse stance. It is short, low and unglamorous, and it is the technique that explains why several kata drop suddenly into a wide low stance.
hiza-geri	膝蹴り	knee strike	A strike with the point of the knee, driven upward. In kata it is nearly always accompanied by both hands pulling downward, which tells you the application: the head or the arm is being brought onto the knee rather than the knee travelling to find it.
nami-gaeshi	波返し	returning wave	The foot snaps up and inward across the front of the standing leg and returns, like a wave breaking back. It is read as blocking a kick to the shin or the groin without moving the stance, and it is the movement that makes the horse-stance kata unmistakable.
embusen	演武線	performance line	The floor pattern a kata travels — the map of every step, turn and direction change. A performer who finishes away from where they began has lost ground somewhere, and because the pattern is fixed, the kata itself reports the error without anyone having to point it out.
kiai	気合	spirit shout	A sharp shout from the abdomen at the moment of a decisive technique. It tightens the middle, empties the lungs so a counter cannot wind you, and marks the point the kata considers its own climax — which is why the kiai points are worth knowing before you learn the moves.
kime	決め	focus	The instantaneous tightening of the whole body at the end of a technique, followed immediately by release. It is what makes a karate technique stop dead rather than push, and a kata performed without it looks like a dance no matter how correct the shapes are.
zanshin	残心	remaining mind	The alertness that continues after a technique finishes and after the kata ends — the attention that has not yet been put away. It is the difference between finishing a kata and stopping one, and it is the quality most visible from the back of a hall.
hikite	引き手	drawing hand	The hand pulled sharply back to the hip as the other one strikes. It is not a resting position: the pull is half the power of the punch, and in application it is usually holding an arm, a wrist or a garment that is being dragged onto the strike.
kamae	構え	ready posture	A deliberate posture taken up before or between techniques, hands and stance already arranged for what is coming. Kata open with one, and the pause it creates is not empty time — it is the moment the performer states the distance and the intention.
bunkai	分解	analysis of application	Taking a kata apart to work out what each movement is actually doing against a real opponent, then practising it with a partner. Without it a kata is choreography; with it, a sequence that looked ornamental usually turns out to be a grip break and a throw.
kokyu	呼吸	breathing	The deliberate coordination of breath with movement — out on the technique, in on the withdrawal, and audibly under tension in some kata. It is taught as an explicit subject rather than left to instinct, because breath held under effort is what makes a performer fall apart at the end.
chudan	中段	middle level	The middle of the three target heights, roughly the chest and stomach. Karate names the level rather than the anatomy, so one word tells you the height of both the attack and the defence, and most kata terminology is built from that pairing.
jodan	上段	upper level	The upper of the three target heights — the head and neck. Naming it separately matters because the same technique performed at a different level is treated as a different technique, with its own name and its own defence.
gedan	下段	lower level	The lowest of the three target heights, below the belt. It is the level most kata begin at, since the opening block of the canon clears an attack to exactly this height before anything else happens.
bo-dori	棒取り	staff-taking	A sequence read as disarming an opponent holding a long staff — trapping it, levering it and taking it away. Two kata in the canon carry sequences that are widely interpreted this way, which is a reminder that these forms predate the idea that karate is unarmed by definition.