Matsumura Bassai

Quick Facts

About the kata

Matsumura Bassai, on Okinawa Matsumura no Passai, is a version of the kata Passai named after Sokon Matsumura. According to the inscription on his tomb, he lived from 1809 to 1899, traveled to Fuzhou and Satsuma for the royal government, and was chief martial arts instructor and bodyguard to King Sho Ko. English Wikipedia places his version at the start of a lineage continuing through Oyadomari no Passai by Tomari-te master Kokan Oyadomari to Passai by Anko Itosu. Sources distinguish it from later versions more by character than by individual techniques. Wikipedia attributes to it a markedly Chinese character, whereas Oyadomari's version is, per Wikipedia, more adapted to the Okinawan approach. A. Tanzadeh, 8th dan of the World Shito-ryu Karate-do Federation, places it in Shuri-te, considers it the oldest version of Bassai, and writes of power, firm spirit and overflowing energy, as if the practitioner were storming an enemy fortress. We have not been able to establish the number of movements, kiai shouts, or the shape of the embusen track for it. The WUKF kata list from April 7, 2024 lists it as Matsumura no Bassai among the tokui katas of Shito-ryu, while the official WKF kata list lists it as Matsumura Bassai.

The kata in different styles

Creator and history

Kenwa Mabuni, founder of Shito-ryu, according to Japanese Wikipedia studied Shuri-te under Anko Itosu and Naha-te under Kanryo Higaonna, and later also sought out other branches, among them the schools of Matsumura and Aragaki. We assume that it was through this route that Matsumura's Bassai entered his style, since Japanese Wikipedia, in its list of Shito-ryu katas, lists it as a version of the Matsumura school. The blog hsbudo.blogspot.com relates a traditional story that Matsumura sent Itosu to learn the Tomari version from Kokan Oyadomari. Itosu's students, among them Gichin Funakoshi, Choshin Chibana and Mabuni, therefore, according to it, mainly taught the Tomari version, and some masters learned Matsumura's only later.

Differences between styles

Japanese Wikipedia lists, within the Itosu lineage group of Shito-ryu, Bassai Dai and Sho alongside versions of the Ishimine and Matsumura schools, written with the characters 抜砦. Karatephilosophy.com counts four versions in Shito-ryu, but instead of Ishimine lists Tomari Bassai: Bassai Dai, Bassai Sho, Tomari Bassai and Matsumura Bassai. Another kata bears the same name. According to Naoki Motobu, Tawada no Passai, which Choshin Chibana took over from Matsumura's student Shinboku Tawada, has recently also come to be called Matsumura no Passai. Motobu disputes this attribution to Matsumura: in his view, the fact that Tawada was Matsumura's student does not by itself mean that it is Matsumura's kata.

Competition status

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

Related katas

• Variant of: Bassai Dai