Defense Stance 1

The Defense Stance Katas were created by the founder of Zen Shotokai, Kiyoshi Aihara as a defense against the Pinan/Heian Katas. They were then taught to Sensei Joseph Ruiz who then passed them along. The Japanese name is Odori. Odori literally translates to the word Dance. At one point in Okinawa and Japan’s past, Martial Arts were banned. So to maintain the martial knowledge, Martial Artist began to disguise their arts into Odori as folk dances. This allowed the Martial Artist to continue their training without interference from opposing forces at the time.

Aihara developed the set of 5 katas as a defensive mirror to Anko Itosu's (1830-1915) Pinan Katas. The literal translation is Defensive Dance. To date Sensei Ruiz has taught 4 of the 5 kata at some point in his 60+ years career. He keeps the 5th Odori Kata to himself, still holding on to this knowledge like the prized possession it is. Maybe at some point in the future he will pass along the 5th Odori Kata to a special student, still yet unidentified.

 

Mike Hess Karate

At our school, the first kata is done at the white belt level, the second at the blue belt level. We do not Defense Stance 3, 4, or 5. There are slight differences in the IKKU (Ruiz) version and ours. It is most obvious in the beginning and end of the kata where we do a break overhead.