Fukygata Ichi

Quick Facts

About the kata

Fukyugata Ichi was composed in 1941 by Nagamine Shoshin, founder of Matsubayashi-ryu, commissioned by a special Okinawan karate committee. Per the English Wikipedia, traditional kata seemed too hard for beginners; the WMKA adds the new form was meant to open the path to karate as gently as possible for beginners and schoolchildren. The second kata of the same commission, Fukyugata Ni, was created by Miyagi Chojun of Goju-ryu. The Shuriway school, which teaches Matsubayashi-ryu, describes the kata as 21 movements in eight directions that both begin and end at the same spot and are essentially symmetrical. The practitioner needs only two stances, zenkutsu dachi and shizen dachi, and five techniques: chudan zuki, gyaku zuki and jodan zuki, and the blocks gedan uke and jodan uke, all with a closed fist. It contains no kick; that comes only in Fukyugata Ni. According to d3b.jp, the kata is still widely practised in Okinawa. On October 23, 2016, 3,973 people performed it together on Kokusai-dori in Naze, and per the WMKA this set a Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous karate demonstration; the previous record, from India in 2013, was 809 practitioners.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

According to Shuriway, the word fukyu means promotional — something meant to be spread and shared; the WMKA translates the name as "promotional kata". Japanese sources write the name in two ways: the Japanese Wikipedia as 普及形I, the magazine d3b.jp as 普及型Ⅰ.

Creator and history

According to the English Wikipedia, both Fukyugata kata were commissioned in 1940 by a special committee of Okinawan karate-do, led by the then governor of Okinawa Prefecture, Gen Hayakawa. Fukyugata Ichi was finished in 1941 and was meant to become a basic, unifying kata for most Okinawan styles. The Japanese Wikipedia states, for the same year, that Nagamine became a member of the expert committee for Okinawan karate and devised the kata. According to the English Wikipedia, today only some styles practise both kata, or at least one of them.

Differences between styles

In Matsubayashi-ryu, according to Shuriway, the kata is practised only in the stances zenkutsu dachi and shizen dachi. Shorin-ryu Seibukan, according to the English Wikipedia, teaches it as the first basic kata and regards the choku dachi stance with straight legs as its main feature; it describes the creation of both Fukyugata kata there as joint work by several Okinawan schools, intended mainly for group demonstrations. The WUKF kata list from April 2024 lists it among the shitei kata in the Shorin-ryu style as Fukyu Gata Shodan and in the Shisui-ryu style as Fukyu Shodan.

Bunkai – applications

According to Shuriway, Matsubayashi-ryu has a fixed bunkai interpretation for this kata, as for most of its kata. In it, the fist techniques answer an opponent's attack in such a way that the practitioner blocks and strikes in a single movement.

Competition status

• Sport karate (WKF) — Official kata list · valid from 1/1/2026 ↗
• WUKF (World Union of Karate-Do Federations) – Shorin-ryu — Shitei (compulsory) · valid from 4/26/2024 ↗