Seishan – Fundamentals

Supercut from our recent Seishan Kata workshop. Seishan is one of the Wado-Ryu Shitei Katas and one of the nine Katas that Grandmaster Hironori Ohtsuka deemed essential to his Wado-Ryu system. Seishan is also one of the only Katas practiced in one form or another by all traditional Okinawan and Japanese Karate styles. Seishan is said to mean 13 hands or 13 techniques amongst other variations of these definitions and can be traced back to the Chinese martial-art known as Incense Shop Boxing. Like Naihanchi, much of Seishan is hidden deep inside the body. As Ohtsuka Sensei once said, just practicing the Kata movements like an exercise is of no value. You have to go deep inside the Kata to understand its meaning and benefit from what the Kata has to offer.