Soke Sakagami and members of Kanto District Black Belt Committee

On December 15th 2019, the black belt members of Itosu-kai Japan, Kanto district committee had an annual seminar in the end of a year at Itosu-kai International Headquarters.

This seminar was supervised by Soke Sakagami, but he appointed some instructors and each person taught their favorite kata.

The first class was held by Sensei Fukumoto. He taught the kata Suparinpei. He used to be JKF kata champion and his instruction was detailed. Nowadays, many people tend to mix Itosu-ryu’s Suparinpei with other style’s kata. So, he addressed the differences between our style and other group.

At second, Sensei Kato (ex IKIF World Kata Champion) taught Gojushiho. It is supposed to be the highest ranking kata in Itosu-ha linage. However, even children practice it today and we cannot deny many people arrange it. Going back to original way, Sensei Kato taught orthodox Itosu-ryu style version.

In the end, Sensei Hino taught Unshu. It is one of the popular kata in a tournament, but it is also true that many people arrange it. So, he taught an orthodox way. According to Soke Sakagami, Unshu was probably passed down to only his father Master Ryusho Sakagami from Master Kenwa Mabuni among his students. Some of Shito-ryu groups do this kata now, but it was after Master Ryusho Sakagami published karate’s bible “Karatedo Kata Taikan” and other groups probably copied our version. So as a member of Itosu-kai, we have to cherish the original way.

We had practiced for 3 hours and half, but time had passed so quickly. After the seminar, we moved to Chinese restaurant near the dojo and we had “Bonenkai” (the end of the year party). We drunk a lot but still talked about karate and everybody had a good time