Meikyo

Quick Facts

About the kata

Meikyo (明鏡) is a Shotokan kata that Funakoshi Gichin renamed from the Okinawan Rohai. According to themartialway.com.au and JKA Brighton it has 33 movements, while karatevancouver.ca counts 34. Like Wankan, it has only one kiai instead of the usual two, on the 32nd movement at the peak of the jump; themartialway.com.au adds that some practitioners also shout on the 24th movement. The hallmark of the kata is sankaku tobi, a triangular jump that, according to André Bertel, is the only jump in the whole Meikyo lineage. It also features the pair of techniques bo uke and bo dori, whose name refers to defense against a staff, the double strike ura zuki, the downward palm-heel strike gedan shotei ate, and the one-legged stance ippon ashi dachi. Themartialway.com.au classifies Meikyo among advanced katas, even though it largely consists of beginner and intermediate-level techniques. André Bertel states that it was a favorite kata of Nakayama Masatoshi and that Asai Tetsuhiko performs it in the final volume of the Best Karate series. According to the WUKF list from April 2024, Meikyo belongs among the optional tokui katas in Shotokan.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

Meikyo (明鏡) translates as clear or polished mirror; karatevancouver.ca also gives the looser rendering "mirror of the soul." Sources explain the name in different ways. Themartialway.com.au and karatevancouver.ca link it to the opening of the kata, when the practitioner raises the palms in front of the face as if looking into a mirror. JKA Brighton sees the opening movements as smoothing the surface of water into the stillness of a mirror. André Bertel derives the name from the mirror-symmetric embusen. English Wikipedia translates the original name Rohai (鷺牌) as "image of a heron," while historyoffighting.com renders it as "vision of a crane."

Creator and history

According to English Wikipedia, Rohai comes from the Okinawan school of Tomari-te; the oldest version was called Matsumora Rohai, after Matsumora Kosaku, its probable author. Itosu Anko derived three katas from it: Rohai Shodan, Nidan and Sandan. Karatevancouver.ca and André Bertel regard Meikyo as Funakoshi's combination of these three katas, while historyoffighting.com states that who compiled it remains a mystery. Wikipedia notes that the Shotokan version differs clearly from both Matsumora's and Itosu's, and mentions the assumption that Funakoshi learned a different Itosu version, called Gusukuma Rohai.

Differences between styles

In the early nineteen-nineties, according to English Wikipedia, Asai Tetsuhiko added two katas of his own creation, Meikyo Nidan and Meikyo Sandan. His student André Bertel sees it differently: he holds that Meikyo Nidan is Matsumura Rohai with 44 movements, and he also describes Meikyo Sandan, with 46 movements, as an older form than Funakoshi's Meikyo. There are also differences within Shotokan itself: karatevancouver.ca describes a different approach to the combination of blocks and steps between Nakayama and Kanazawa, and the Shinri Karate blog states that the set of three blocks ending in the strike oi zuki differs from school to school.

Bunkai – applications

André Bertel notes that practicing bo uke and bo oshikomi with a staff is only a basic explanation for learning the positions; the real application, he says, is a joint lock and arm dislocation. The Shinri Karate blog reads much of the kata as defenses against a two-handed lapel grip or a choke: the opening circular arm movement in kiba dachi releases the grip, the double nukite counterattacks, and bo dori is read as an arm lock with a throw. Bertel describes sankaku tobi as a three-point aerial position change that turns disadvantage into advantage; his teacher Asai saw it as the basis of all jumping attacks in traditional karate.

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 ↗

Related katas

• Derived from: Rohai