Gojushiho Dai

Quick Facts

About the kata

According to the JKA technical manual, Gojushiho Dai is Shotokan's longest kata: it has 67 movements, two more than Gojushiho Sho. The manual describes it as a sequence of complex open-hand blocks, shifts and turns in the cat stance neko ashi dachi, and nukite finger strikes reminiscent of a woodpecker at work. The same count appears in the breakdown by André Bertel, a JKA instructor living in Japan; its single kiai falls on movement 59, a fist strike after a back-fist and a bottom-fist strike. Which kata the name denotes depends on the organization. In the JKA and most of Shotokan, Gojushiho Dai is the one with the "woodpecker" strikes; in SKIF, founded by Kanazawa Hirokazu, the same form is called Gojushiho Sho. According to karatevancouver.ca, both versions share an almost identical embusen, so only the technique tells them apart. Bertel considers it the technically harder of the two versions: Sho, in his view, is closer to the Okinawan original and appears more often at gradings and competitions, while Dai is favored more by experienced karateka. In the Minakami Bushido Karate dojo curriculum it belongs among the katas for 3rd dan.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

Gojushiho means "54 steps" and the suffix dai (大) means "large, main". For this kata the label only half fits: it differs from Gojushiho Sho by two movements, and both share an almost identical embusen according to karatevancouver.ca. André Bertel explains the two versions two ways: twice 54 gives the significant Buddhist number 108, and Dai loads the left leg in neko ashi dachi while Sho loads the right in kokutsu dachi. According to themartialway.com.au, Funakoshi Gichin wanted to rename the kata Hotaku, woodpecker, because of its finger strikes; the name never caught on.

Creator and history

Who created the Shotokan version Dai could not be firmly established. The English Wikipedia and historyoffighting.com attribute Gojushiho (the Okinawan Useishi) to Matsumura Sokon, while Jaap Kooman states that his student Itosu Anko created the Dai and Sho versions. Bertel mentions two accounts: that both versions came from the Shito-ryu Gojushiho brought by Mabuni Kenwa and were adapted by Funakoshi Yoshitaka, or that Dai comes from Nakayama Masatoshi. Two versions circulate about the name swap. According to karatevancouver.ca and historyoffighting.com, in the nineteen-sixties or nineteen-seventies at a Japanese championship a senior JKA instructor announced Gojushiho Dai and performed Sho; the JKA then swapped the names, and Kanazawa Hirokazu kept them that way in SKIF. The English Wikipedia rejects this story: according to Traditional Karate Magazine from 2003, Kanazawa himself swapped the names in SKIF because he felt sho fit the smaller, harder kata better, and the JKA called this form dai because it had introduced it into the curriculum earlier.

Differences between styles

Compared with Gojushiho Sho, in JKA terminology Dai has, according to themartialway.com.au, two extra techniques, koko sukui uke with tsukidashi and washide, which Shotokan does not use elsewhere. The large ryuun set from Sho is here replaced by the smaller kitsutsuki set: kitsutsuki no kamae, keito nagashi uke and otoshi ippon nukite. Dai has the most movements in neko ashi dachi of any Shotokan kata and, along with Unsu, none in kokutsu dachi (not counting Tekki). In SKIF this form is called Gojushiho Sho. In the WUKF list, as of 7 April 2024, it is a tokui optional kata for Shotokan, Budokan and Shisui-ryu.

Bunkai – applications

The JKA technical manual includes a defense against the bo staff in the kata. In André Bertel's breakdown this is movements 28 and 31, bo tsukami uke with both palms in kiba dachi. Bertel sees neck-aimed strikes and throws as the most distinctive trait of both Gojushiho versions. The English Wikipedia reads shuto nagashi uke, Gojushiho's typical flowing knife-hand block, not just as a block but as a throw.

Competition status

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

Techniques in the kata

Related katas

• Variant of: Sushiho