I have seen tensho performed under extreme tension, and with none at all. I have seen it performed incredibly slowly, and very fast.
So, couple of questions or so (and I already asked my instructor - now looking for other opinions):

1. The pattern starts with... a tricky hand moving bit, then a slow push bit, followed by another tricky hand bit and a slow push - then we have the paint-the-fence, paint-the-house bit (up, down, side to side) - how come this bit doesn't follow the pattern appearing in the first part, but the last section (mawashi uke) does?
2. Why is it sometimes done under tension and sometimes under none at all?
3. Is it a slow or a fast kata?
4. What is the kata's fundamental purpose?
5. What are the kata's origins?

Okay, so it was more than a couple of questions ... sue me.


I have already been educated on tensho and the animal forms in it... and also learned not to go drinking with Okinawan masters until I have thoroughly learned how to play "dragon, tiger, leopard, crane, snake" ...
"Aaah... borrocks! Crane covers tiger - you win!!" Thankyou Marp.
However, if anyone ELSE has any thoughts on the animal forms in tensho, I'd be interested.

A search on "rokkishu" should give you some food for thought.

If you think thats interesting - check out how Kyokushin do it. Like everything they do its practiced extremely hard fast and snappy under what appears full tension. I guess since it contains many breakhold techniques its possibly a good way to train... You wouldn't go all flowy whilst trying to escape someone clutches woul you? oh - Nooms possibly would, but lets not go there

Haven't heard anything about animal forms - do you think thats possibly taking things a bit far?

Totally a personal but GKR-coloured perspective.

When I was first shown (a version of) tensho I was told in some styles it was a black belt assessment kata, and the testers would belt you with bamboo poles across the legs, arms, back, torso, wherever to ensure you had proper focus and tension.

Ofcourse I can also use it to practise breathing calmly and deeply, doing it softer and more uninterrupted. And I can do it with much snappier ends to techniques to use as strikes or breaks, etc.

I've never looked at origins or background to it, but I like it a lot, often do it during the 20-minute warm-ups I do before class starts, and with a bit of sticky-hands from kung fu, currently forms the basis of my kumite style (if you can call it that, and I'm currently changing / developing / morphing it into something else again).

But look it up, google the other suggestions, and see how various ma styles use and interpret it.

Good idea. Next week is stick sparring...


Possibly but maybe not. That's why I thought I'd ask. If the origins are in Quan Fa, then perhaps it isn't so farfetched?

ANALYSIS OF THE OKINAWAN BUBISHI

So the main purpose of 'modern' tensho is just competition? Looking good?


I had hoped we had enough different schools and styles represented here on the board to help with that one!

I have no idea of the version of Tensho you practise or have seen. I practise a longish Okinawan version that begins with the signature first three moves of Sanchin.

There are many different versions and many ways of performing the kata. Its not whether the moves are all the same it is really the essence of the kata, what does it teach you! (Shite.. did I write that Strewth, kata don't teach, teachers teach, so its what you can teach using the kata as a tool)

Some believe Tensho is the Ju (soft) to the Sanchin Go (hard). Some practise it under tension and some don't; I don't as isometric exercises are no good to an old fart.

The fundamental purpose that I teach it is for the chin Na applications that I developed myself after trying to develop a set of exercises to escape from grips, apply locks and bundle up neatly. A video I saw had a Japanese instructor demonstrating some Jujutsu applications and I realised its potential.

No one can say with complete certainty but a friend of mine is/was the only westerner to study and gain high dan rank in To'on Ryu and he showed me the Chinese exercise known as Rokkishu. After seeing it there is no doubt in my mind that Miyagi developed Tensho based on that exercise.

I teach how to esape from single, same side and cross wrist grips,to begin with and then add locks, throws and a comprehensive defensive system. The nice thing is that the kata is great for any age and I really could not see it as a popular competition kata.

Boz

I`ve always been under the (mis)apprehension that Tensho was the counterpart to Sanchin.
I`ve heard abou these "animal" forms before. If they`re in Tensho, whats to say the`re not in the other kata that were derived from Q`uan Fa?

Thanks, Boz, that gives a neat perspective. Raises another question - would the main reasons for practicing it under tension be for appearance and as isometric exercise then? I have often thought that maybe it's performed under tension simply because the name "tensho" suggests tension.
FWIW, I've seen half a dozen or so distinct variations of the kata, and still don't know what the essence of it is.

Hi Nooms,

I don't practise it under Tension so it might be better for someone that does to answer your question. As for the name suggests comment- I'm just gonna bite my tongue

Cheers,
Boz

I stand in awe of your self control!

Having had an insight recently into the White Crane derivative of Rokkishu, it certainly seems to me that Tensho as we know it (Miyagi lineage) was heavily influenced, if not directly developed from, the Chinese form. The patterns are almost identical, as are the hand techniques. With just a slight difference in emphasis in parts, Tensho seems almost a "poor man's version" of Rokkishu.

As for the animal hands, they're there in both versions: snake (open hand palm down "outer block"), crane (open hand palm up "inner block"), tiger (fingers up "push out"), leopard (fingers down "push out") and dragon (upwards koken - "standing dragon", sidewards koken - "laying dragon"). The characteristics of the animal forms are to be found in the applications of each movement. You also have mawashi uke in there too; as Boz says, this kata really is a combat system in a very condensed form.

As to doing the form under tension, I can see no purpose whatsoever for doing so. Part of the kata is it's chi gung rooting and power sourcing, which it totally lost the second you tense up. The same is true of Sanchin kata - personally I rarely practice "isometric" sanchin, but strive for a soft, flowing sanchin kata with emphasis on connecting the upper and lower body and sourcing power from the feet. Doing either kata [but especially Tensho] "under tension" shows a complete lack of understanding for what the kata contains in my opinion. If I want conditioning, I'll go and lift weights of wave my chishi, bo or sai around.

As to the original questions...


I need to see the version of the kata you're doing before commenting fully. If it's what I think you're asking, then the answer is "because it does".


The former has got the wrong end of the stick and the latter may [or may not] have some clue as to what the kata is about.


It should be [IMO] a naturally flowing kata; somewhere inbetween the two.


It is to decide who buys the next round of sake...do you not know your Okinawan pub games?

Oh, you mean in the dojo, not in the pub? Well, what are all kata for? AFAIK, Tensho is a mnemonic for remembering the animal hands and their application (providing you have been taught them), it's a rooting exercise, a chi gung exercise for posture, breathing and "chi cultivation and activation" [if you subscribe to that theory] and it makes the tea in the morning whilst ironing your shirt. Every good home should have a Tensho. Seriously though, like any kata, it contains a fighting system; how you use it is really up to you and your teacher. What it isn't is a system for developing a six pack and clearing your throat.


The Chinese form Rokkishu (six hands?), which [may have] originated from or been inspired by the Bubishi and the [6] hand forms. It seems most likely that the White Crane form Rokkishu was inspired in name by the similar hand forms shown in the Bubishi, and that Miyagi was influenced by this form [copied it] in forming Tensho as we know it. Hey, not being 96 years old I wasn't there; Boz may have been, but I wasn't.....

Tom wrote:

Animal hands are quite prevailant in the Goju kata. Alot of people here will know Saifa. Crane and tiger and leopard are very evident there. Dragon appears in Sanseru and there's a smattering of the little critters throughout the sylabus.

I think I've exhausted my 15 minute expert knowledge on the subject. It's a kata I'm just starting to get to grips with after a couple of years. A kata that's simple to learn on the surface but has a lifetime of complexity waiting to be explored.

Mark, thanks for a very interesting and informative post.

However, I would like to know whether you think this study of 'animal hands' is useful in anything other than an historic context?

I can see study of kata origins would be most useful in enhancing ones overall knowledge, but if teaching a 'combat system' wouldn't focussing on application be more beneficial?

I think the animal hands do have some use in today's training, if only as a metaphor for describing movement. You can explain in other words how to "move like a snake", but how much more descriptive is the snake analogy? Reminds me of a drill a while ago - taken from Tensho as it happens - when we were doing some "soft blocking and trapping", with heavy handed flowing downward "slaps" climbing up the opponent's arm "like a monkey hanging off a tree". Now there's many other ways to describe the movement in question, but everyone instantly knew what was being described using the animal as a metaphor.

They're not essential, but they do have their uses. And it's so much more fun doing a "monkey slap" than a "relaxed downward open handed soft trapping block".

Hmm - I wonder if as karate gets modernised we'll be seeing the 'bitch slap'

Cheers, nicely put.

You know, it isn't so far-fetched either, the animal hands idea. Think neko ashi dachi... and other things that translate into animal related things... (gee, that was helpful! )

I think metaphors as a teaching aid are great. But the downfall is when people seize on the exotic-sounding nature and try to remember that part of it without understanding why it has been said.

e.g. You can call a kata a "tiger kata" and there are some who will remember that and repeat it to look like they know what they're talking about while there are others who will envisage the movements in the kata as a tiger stalking it's prey, checking out the lay of the land and then pouncing at the opportune moment. As it were.

It seems not unlike the difference between those who will spend many hours of practice to remember specific applications for each move in a kata and those who will study the kata to learn how the moves may be applied. The difference there might be said to be that one will only be able to make it work if everything happens the "right" way and the other will start by responding to the attack and adapt to the requirements of the moment.

It is the same reasoning by which we teach a range of different techniques for defence - some things will flow more naturally than others for different people and what one person can make work almost effortlessly can be a struggle for another.


Mick

What does Tensho translate as? The only thing I can find is this -

Ignore me. Means "Turning Hands"

転掌　Tensho - rotating palms


Mick

Close enough - I think. "Rotating palms" certainly explains the mawashi uke. Also brings to mind the circular forms of Tai Chi. Perhaps thats the chinese origins of the kata.

I have to say I like watching Tensho but when I seen the video in the link below, I just had to wonder...

5mb to download

LINK - gkrsa.com.au

Oh dear


Mick

The performance is only that chaps interpretation of course, but rather over the top in my opinion.

When I was first shown this kata, that was the impression I was given of it. That as an assessment, the higher grades / instructors would break sticks across your body to ensure youhad sufficient tension.

I don't ever think about breaking things on myself when I practice it these days ... trap, grapple, break limb, control, push, etc, but usually not on me!

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.....

There is so much wrong with that I'm not sure where to start. Rooting is non existent, posture poor, elbows way out of the power zone....I've seen better katas from yellow belts. Seriously. That's apart from the fact it's a bastardised version that's missed a whole (important) section out.

It was good for a laugh though.

Yes. I was taught Sanchin and Tensho (a different version) by a Shito-Ryu instructor. It seems evident from the video that if you don't learn it from someone who knows how it should look and feel then all of those things will be missing. It's quite clear that he doesn't have a grasp of the fundamentals otherwise they would show in the execution of the kata. On the other hand it probably looks just fine to anyone who doesn't know those fundamentals either. Ah the perils of having a demonstration videotaped and put on display...

Yes, it's easy to criticise someone. Could I do better? I certainly hope so otherwise I have no business commenting on it.


Mick

To me, it's not the fact that it's a "bad kata" as such, but why it's a bad kata - the fundamental karate principles that should be there irrespective of whether he "knows the kata" well or not are just, well, pants. Just look at his feet, elbows and general posture - I'd fail him for his orange belt for that, or at least expect it to be better for his green. Basic, basic stuff.

Actually I'd bet money that performance of Sanseru, Seisan (I can't remember does that start like this as well?) etc all have the same problems. I've seen a deep breath in as people step and execute the opening double yoko uke and everything rises up as they do it.


Mick