Garyu

Quick Facts

About the kata

Garyu does not come from traditional Okinawan karate. According to the English Wikipedia and Jaap Kooman, Masutatsu Oyama created it and gave it his own pseudonym. The official WUKF kata list from April 2024 places it among the tokui kata of the Kyokushinkai style. Jaap Kooman's description, compiled from the lessons of shihans Loek Hollander, Henny Ruberg and Jan Vleesenbeek, has thirty steps and three kiai. The kata opens with a slow transition into heiko dachi with ibuki breathing. In the first four steps, the practitioner alternates in place between the block kake jodan morote uke and the kick jodan mawashi geri to both sides. The first kiai comes at step six, after a jumping kick tobi mae geri and a double strike jodan morote tsuki; the second at step twenty, after a side jump into kake ashi dachi; and the third at the final step, where the block haito uchi uke is followed by the four-finger strike gyaku yonhon nukite. The grade to which the kata belongs differs between organizations. Kooman's description and the World Karate Guild's exam syllabus place it at 3rd dan, alongside the kata Sushi-ho and Seipai in that syllabus. Kyokushin Budokan already requires it for the step from 1st to 2nd dan, with Seienchin and Naifanchin Nidan.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

Jaap Kooman translates Garyu as the reclining dragon; the characters 臥 (to lie down) and 竜 (dragon) are broken down by onikumafightclub.com. In Japanese philosophy, per Kooman, Garyu denotes a great man who stays in the background: the dragon is all-powerful, but the reclining dragon shows its power only when needed. The international association IKAK concludes that a true karateka does not boast of his abilities and never forgets humility.

Creator and history

The kata's name is Oyama's pseudonym. According to Jaap Kooman, it is the Japanese reading of 臥龍, used to write the name of the Korean village (Il Loong) where Oyama was born. The English Wikipedia's entry on Oyama has neither this village nor the pseudonym; it gives Gimje as his birthplace. The Kyokushin entry places the kata among the so-called southern kata, otherwise derived from Naha-te and Goju-ryu, even though Garyu does not come from Okinawan karate.

Competition status

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