I have recently been watching videos of the shotokan karate kata Unsu, i watched many unsu videos, but i would always get drawn back to Master Mikio Yahara and his unsu videos. Why?
Well, it’s simple really, it’s REAL!
No fake poses for the judges, no fancy walk ons, no hollywood glaring, just raw karatedo!
All the years of hard training, blood sweat and tears, mean NOTHING, if you’re mind isn’t right. I know many modern champions train extremely hard and they are fantastic athletes, but many of them don’t have what Yahara sensei has, its Ichi geki hissatsu or ikken hissatsu (to finish with one blow).
In all karate moves, you must apply the philosophy of ikken hisatsu, you must hit with the intent to do harm! I know many people will disagree with me and as I get older, i do believe my thoughts on this will change, but all karateka must understand this philosophy, or their karate is simply a gymnastic display of karate moves.
Below is a video of Mikio Yahara sensei performing Unsu 3 or 4 times, there are some of you who will say, his heel is up, his shouders are up, he’s doing this move too fast, he’s doing that move too slow, his timing is wrong. To all of you who say that, you need to go train with Yahara sensei because in terms of real karate kata, this is as good as it gets.
Ossu
Linden
