Current Kata for Saturday Morning Kata Class: Meikyo

We are now studying the kata Meikyo (明鏡) for four weeks. The name of the kata literally means “Polished Mirror” or “Bright Mirror,” which may prompt us to think about how our training is like the work of polishing something that ultimately reflects who we are and what we are capable of. Some research points to the idea that Meikyo was created by combining three older Rohai kata. Meikyo gives us the opportunity to refine three basic stances, kibadachi, zenkutsudachi and kokutsudachi, and to connect upper and lower body with a combination of basic and more advanced hand techniques. It also requires fine control of our center for mikazukigeri and an interesting “triangular” jump.

You can see a good example of Meikyo here.

Meikyo is a black belt kata, but we encourage students of all grades to come to the Saturday kata classes. Even if you won’t practice advanced kata regularly yet, it’s great to begin to learn how techniques can be combined, and the practice in applying techniques is indispensable.

See you Saturday!

At SVSK our Saturday morning kata classes focus on one kata at a time. We typically spend four Saturdays on each kata:

Week 1: Overview/review of the kata
Week 2: Fine points of the techniques and the kata
Week 3: Hands-on practice to understand applications (bunkai)
Week 4: Variations in the kata