Yesterday, I already talked about karate katas by re-introducing former World Champion, Jean Frenette.
Today, I would like to share the two katas I used to really like doing while practicing Shotokan karate.
The first one is known as Enpi which translated means ‘Flying Swallow’ and the kata itself tries to depict the dynamic fighting form of a swallow in flight. Hmm.
And the second one is called Jion (translated ‘Temple of Love and Goodness’). It clearly emphasizes the importance of the perfection of the basic stances, notably zenkutsu dachi (front stance) and kiba dachi (horse stance).
Hirokazu Kanazawa, 10th Dan, the Chief instructor and President of Shotokan Karate-do International Federation, impressively demonstrates both of them for us.
By the way, Sensei Kanazawa is one of the very few remaining karateka who were able to train under the founder of Shotokan karate, Gichin Funakoshi.
Alright then, tighten your belt for Enpi and Jion:
Lately, I have been following a number of my fellow martial arts bloggers publish rather intriguing and very insightful posts on the intricacies of kata.
And I must say, while reading these posts I have been learning or better re-learning after many years of not practicing or even performing Shotokan karate katas, which I happen to have thoroughly enjoyed in a former life.
During those kata-filled years there was a Franco-Canadian Goju-Ryu karateka, by the name of Jean Frenette, who really infused the love and excitement for kata in me like no one I had ever experienced before.
He exuded incredible energy and unmatched esthetics all while somehow masterfully combining slow and fast portions of each kata that he displayed.
His superb skills helped him win a stunning five World Championship titles.
Here is a real classic demo reel of Jean Frenette performing with music and I know it’s probably more artistic than martial for some people’s taste, but technically it’s way up there.
And great performers like Jean Frenette most certainly have inspired quite a large number of people to start and even continue their martial arts/karate practice. That’s definitely a good thing.
What I also found interesting about Jean Frenette was that after a very successful karate career he moved on to the movie industry.
One of his earlier roles was in Police Academy 4, in which he played a karate instructor.
During the years he has been a stunt performer in many, many movie productions.
As of late, he was the stunt coordinator in movies such as ‘Eye of The Beholder’ starring Ashley Judd as well as ‘The Aviator’ directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leo DiCaprio, Kate Beckinsdale, Jude Law and many more well-known names in Tinseltown.
His extensive karate training continues to come in pretty handy for Jean Frenette as a stunt performer and now as a stunt coordinator.
