Cambridge Karate Club

English - Fifty four steps; small

The two Gojushiho katas were known as Useshi, and then Hotaku before settling on the current name. The Sho version of the kata features the beautifully named ryu-un no uke - "the block of the flowing cloud". The two katas are very similar in structure, more so than the Bassai and Kanku pairings.

There is some confusion over which version of the kata should be known as Dai and which Sho, and many organisations reverse the names, notably those associated with Sensei Kanazawa. In the SKA, we use Dai for the neko-ashi-dachi dominant form, and Sho for the kokutsu-dachi dominant form.

Video links

Videos from YouTube.

Sensei Ohta

Strong and powerful.

Mina Yamazaki

A very elegant performance.