Seishan
十三 · Seishan
Literally: „thirteen“
Also known as: Seisan, Jusan
Wado-ryu's form of the Okinawan kata Seisan, taken from Funakoshi. The first sixteen movements are done quietly with even force, the rest quickly.
Quick Facts
About the kata
According to the English Wikipedia, Hironori Otsuka named only nine official Wado-ryu kata in his 1977 book, and Seishan is one of them. The England Karate-Do Wado-Kai (EKW) guide, citing Shingo Ohgami, treats it as the direct heritage of Gichin Funakoshi's Seishan. According to Wikipedia, Funakoshi renamed it Hangetsu in Shotokan; karatekata.de sees almost no difference between the two forms except execution, with Wado-ryu performing more passages more slowly. Otsuka's explanation, which EKW takes from the English translation of his 1971 book, divides the kata into two parts. The first sixteen movements are basic and serve to control the body: they are performed quietly, with power spread through the whole body. From the seventeenth movement on, every technique should be fast and the main stance, tate seishan dachi, varies; shiko dachi, the side step chidori ashi, the kick yoko geri and the kick mikazuki geri into one's own palm are added. EKW counts 35 movements with a single kiai, on gyaku zuki at the 33rd movement. Otsuka and Yoshiaki Ajari included Seishan in the first volume of the Wado-ryu film record in 1965. On the WUKF list from 2024, Seishan is a tokui kata for Wado-ryu.
The kata in different styles
Meaning of the name
The characters 十三 mean thirteen. The English Wikipedia notes that interpretations such as thirteen hands, fists or steps have no historical basis; the article on Wado-ryu nevertheless translates the name as "13 hands" and links it to a Chinese fighter who lived around 1700 near Shuri. Fightingarts.com calls this theory about a master named Seishan an unsubstantiated myth. Shingo Ohgami (in the EKW guide) compares the pronunciation of the number 13 in Chinese dialects and gives the Fujianese "sei-san" as the closest; he considers the form Seishan to be its Okinawan pronunciation. According to research by Akio Kinjo, which Ohgami cites, thirteen is a strong number in Fujianese white crane boxing.
Creator and history
The earliest record of the kata is given by both the EKW guide and fightingarts.com: Seisho Aragaki performed it in 1867 to welcome the last Chinese sapposhi delegation. According to fightingarts.com, Hiroshi Kinjo found no evidence that Seisan was passed down in the Shuri lineages of Sokon Matsumura and Anko Itosu. Ohgami adds that Funakoshi studied under Azato Anko and Itosu Anko, but no document states that Itosu taught Seishan; the form Funakoshi showed may have been adapted by Itosu from Matsumura's version, or by Funakoshi himself. At the large Butokukai demonstration in Kyoto in 1940, Wado-ryu registered the kata as Seishan, Shotokan as Hangetsu, Goju-ryu as Seisan, and Shito-ryu under both names, Seishan and Seisan.
Differences between styles
Ohgami sorts the kata's forms into four types. The Naha-te type (Goju-ryu, Shito-ryu) holds the other hand in soto uke during the fist strike, starts with the right leg and ends in mawashi uke; Ryuei-ryu is close but starts left. The Uechi type is mainly open-hand. The Matsumura type ends with a downward shotei strike, and Seisan Isshin-ryu belongs here too. He places Wado Seishan in the Funakoshi type: left soto uke and a right straight strike with the left hand drawn back; in two-handed moves the front hand does gedan barai and the rear soto uke, found nowhere else, ending with two palm blocks. English Wikipedia adds that Shito-ryu has its own version close to Sanchin.
Bunkai – applications
Per the EKW guide, Otsuka reads age uraken and otoshi uraken as defense against two opponents: strike the front opponent's nose upward with the fist's back, turn into shimata dachi, and use the same fist to knock down the rear opponent's kicking leg. The final double shotei, he says, defends against a kick: pulling back the left leg and turning the hips right, the practitioner evades and stops the kicking foot with the palm heels. The double ipponken in the eighth movement targets the lower abdomen.
Competition status
Common Mistakes
Per the EKW guide, Otsuka warns not to shift weight onto the back leg before moving the front one: the foot should trace an arc, carried by the body. When blocking, do not put force into the shoulders, raise the elbow, or twist the upper body, or the elbow will touch the body.
Key Tip
Otsuka advises starting with power in the lower abdomen, then engaging the whole body: every Seishan movement uses the whole body, never just the arms or legs.
Related katas
- Variants: Matsumura no Seisan
- Variant of: Seisan (Goju-ryu)
- Variants: Hangetsu
Further sources on this topic (6)
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadō-ryū
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seisan
- ekw.spaceports.com/Training Files/The EKW Guide to Seishan and Chinto Kata …
- karatekata.de/karatekata_wadoryu-en.htm
- fightingarts.com/roots-of-shotokan-funakoshis-original-15-kata-part-3-sei…
- wukf-karate.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/OFFICIAL-WUKF-KATA-LIST-07-AP…