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Kata: Happiken

Techniques - Kata: Happiken

Level of Difficulty: Advanced - Brown Belt

This Kata literally means "to use the fist like a monkey in eight directions". The creation of Shihan Masayuki Hisataka, Happiken Kata is geared to close fighting situations as it uses a great many elbow strikes and emphasizes strong postures and stances.

Source: Scientific Karatedo - Hisataka (1976)

As mentioned above, this Kata was developed and taught to us by Hanshi Masayuki Hisataka of Shorinjiryu Kenkokan Karatedo. As you know from reading other pages of this web site Hanshi Hisataka's family comes from Kudaka island in Okinawa and their family form of Karate was known as Kudaka-ryu. Using Kudaka-ryu and the lessons of other martial arts, Kaiso Hisataka, Hanshi Hisataka's father taught karatedo to him. After becoming a master in his own right Hanshi Hisataka developed the Happiken Kata, and so we have it today.

This helps to explain why Happiken Kata is so important within The International Budo Institute. Often, and as is mostly the case, the development of a particular Kata is obscure or hotly debated amongst the martial arts community, in the case of Happiken this is not so since it is known to have been created by Hanshi Masayuki Hisataka. Thus, we know when we are practicing Happiken that we are practicing a gift given to us directly from Hanshi Hisataka and that should help us to practice it with more energy and focus. It becomes a more personal endeavour. Further, when you practice this Kata you may be assured of recounting its origin, which will make you more confident in your knowledge of your studies.

On a practical side of the technique associated with Happiken, I believe this Kata to be very useful. On a few occasions I have taught it to students that were having difficulty with progression and it has helped them to connect the dots of their other kata or lessons. I consider this Kata to be of intermediate to advanced (colour belt) level difficulty and believe that Hanshi Hisataka developed it that way. It is a fairly linear Kata easy to learn and practice yet it has some new techniques and bridges some gaps in the pursuit of some of the higher Kata. In this respect it is very much worth the time to learn.

Below I demonstrate the Kata both from the front view and the side view so that the student can have a good understanding of the geometry. It is demonstrated at approxiamtely 75% the actual speed so that the techniques may be studied and understood. I hope that you enjoy this Kata as much as I enjoy passing it on to you.

Happiken Front View

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