Friday, March 19, 2021

Choshin Ishimine's Suparinpei

 Choshin Ishimine was a senior student of Seiko Higa sensei. While not quite as well known as some of Higa's other students it seems he was very well regarded. In Akio Kinjo's karate denshin roku there was an interesting entry on Ishimine: "Sensei Choshin Ishimine was the best among disciples of Sensei Seiko Higa. When he was young, he was devoting all his time and energy to karate training with Sensei Higa. His performance of Suparinpe is so excellent that no one could do better than him. I think that in 1953 there were only five or six karateka who could perform Suparinpe well." 

Below we can see Suparinpei performed by one of his senior students: 


There are a few interesting things going on here. In particular, the crane stepping in the middle of the kata instead of the usual sanchin step. Even within Seiko Higa's lineage there is a fair bit of variety in terms of how the kata are done. 

Significance of Kata

We've often heard about the importance of kata for Karate and how without kata there is no Karate. Various teachers over the years have ...