Bassai Sho

Quick Facts

About the kata

Bassai Sho is the shorter counterpart to Bassai Dai; shotokankarateonline.com lists it among the katas eligible for the 2nd dan examination. Both karatevancouver.ca and the teaching text of Karate Club Plainfaing count it at 28 moves, and the club's text adds two kiai shouts. Atsk.co.uk numbers 34 techniques; the difference comes from the way of counting. The most distinctive feature of the kata is its work against a staff. The English Wikipedia states that its bunkai is interpreted as a defense against a bo, the Plainfaing club text describes a two-handed block against a staff attack, morote jo uke, and atsk.co.uk speaks of catching the staff, bo dori. According to shotokankarateonline.com, the kata is recognized by its sweep, an outer block combined with a double strike, and two closing moves that pull the opponent to the ground. From the stances, atsk.co.uk names kosa dachi, kokutsu dachi, kiba dachi, and neko ashi dachi; from the techniques, the double blocks manji uke, the strikes haito, the sweeps ashi barai, and the double sideways strikes sokumen morote zuki. On the WUKF list from April 2024, Bassai Sho is a tokui kata in Shotokan; Shorin-ryu lists it, as Passai Sho, among the sentei katas.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

The suffix sho means small or lesser, dai means great. Historyoffighting.com gives an interpretation according to which the two katas arose as a pair: Bassai Dai represents breaking into the fortress, Bassai Sho escaping from it. The written characters differ by source: the Japanese Wikipedia's list of Shotokan katas writes 抜塞小, while karatevancouver.ca and shotokankarateonline.com give 披塞小.

Creator and history

According to historyoffighting.com, Anko Itosu is usually regarded as the author of the kata, said to have composed it in the late nineteenth century from a then-widespread version of Passai; the same source admits it may simply be another version of the original kata. The English Wikipedia specifies that Itosu drew on a version practiced in the city of Shuri, and points to a resemblance to Bassai Dai, suggesting the kata may have arisen by combining elements of both forms. Shotokankarateonline.com mentions a different account: two Passai katas came from two masters, Tawada and Matsumura, and one became the smaller version, the other the larger.

Differences between styles

In Okinawan Shorin-ryu the kata is called Passai Sho. According to the English Wikipedia, together with Passai Dai and the pair Kusanku Sho and Dai, it belongs to the Shobayashi Shorin-ryu curriculum as a kata of the Itosu lineage. Under the name Bassai Sho, the 2024 WUKF list places it, besides Shotokan, also in the styles Shukokai (among the sentei katas), Budokan, and Shisui-ryu (both tokui).

Competition status

• Sport karate (WKF) — Official kata list · valid from 1/1/2026 ↗
• WUKF (World Union of Karate-Do Federations) – Shorin-ryu — Sentei (selected) · valid from 4/26/2024 ↗
• WUKF (World Union of Karate-Do Federations) – Shotokan — Tokui (free choice) · valid from 4/26/2024 ↗

Techniques in the kata