Kanshiwa

Quick Facts

About the kata

Kanshiwa is the second of Uechi-ryu karate's eight kata. Per Uechi-Ryu Kenkyujo it derives from the tiger style, develops power and continues conditioning the body; English Wikipedia adds it is meant to teach the new student to use natural power. The main material is circular open-hand blocks, mawashi uke. Per Sandairyu, Kanshiwa is the style's first kata with kicks: it has sokuto geri and shomen geri, with Oryukai describing sokuto geri as a kick delivered at an oblique 45-degree angle. The kata ends with shoken tsuki, which Sandairyu calls typical of Uechi-ryu, aiming very precisely at pressure points. Kenkyujo stresses that here the practitioner learns to time the block and the strike. Per the official WUKF list of April 2024, Kanshiwa, recorded there as Kanshiva, is among the required shitei kata of Uechi-ryu and also appears on the free tokui list. The Uechi Ryu Essex club curriculum requires it from 6th kyu. We could not establish the number of movements, the kiai shouts or the embusen shape from the sources.

Meaning of the name

The name Kanshiwa (完子和) is composed of the names of two masters. Per English Wikipedia, the first character 完 is the first character of Kanbun Uechi's name, and the remaining two, 子和, are the last two characters of his Chinese teacher Zhou Zihe's name, written in Chinese order and read in Japanese as Shu Shiwa. Both Uechi-Ryu Kenkyujo and Oryukai read the name as a tribute to both men and give Shu Shiwa as Kanbun's teacher from Fujian. The kata was formerly called Kanshabu. Uechiryu Butokukai attributes the mix-up to a speech impediment of Kanbun's. Uechi-Ryu Karate Do Europe, in a text kept on its site only in a garbled translation, writes Kanshabu matched the Chinese reading of Shu Shiwa's name and that the kata got the name Kanshiwa in 1970, after switching to Japanese pronunciation.

Creator and history

Of the eight kata of Uechi-ryu, only Sanchin, Seisan and Sanseiryu come from the Chinese system Pangai-noon. The others, Kanshiwa among them, were per English Wikipedia devised and added to the style by Kanei Uechi and other senior students of Kanbun Uechi; Uechi-Ryu Karate Do Europe attributes Kanshiwa directly to Kanei. In its passage on Kanei, Uechiryu Butokukai lists Kanshiwa among five kata added to the style together with a number of other exercises, alongside Kanshu, Seichin, Seirui and Kanchin. We were unable to establish the year the kata was created. Wikipedia's article on Kanei states only that he developed new methods and forms from 1931 to the end of his life.

Competition status

• WUKF (World Union of Karate-Do Federations) – Uechi-ryu — Shitei (compulsory) · valid from 4/26/2024 ↗
• WUKF (World Union of Karate-Do Federations) – Uechi-ryu — Tokui (free choice) · valid from 4/26/2024 ↗