Pinan = `safe from harm', NOT `peaceful mind'...?

[exile]

Iain Abernethy, one of the leading experts on the combat applications of traditinal Okinawan/Japanese kata, has an ingenious analysis here of the mistaken analysis of the meaning of the names pinan/heian in connection with the kata Anko Itosu left as probably his greatest contribution to the karate-based arts, Okinawan, Japanese and Korean. He provides a very cogent argument in this podcast that Itosu, the creator of the Pinan set, intended the characters that are pronounced `Pinan' in Okinawan to be associated with their Chinese, not Japanese meaning; on the former, they translate `safe from harm', a meaning Abernethy finds support for in Gichin Funakoshi's own writings about this kata set. The second part of this podcast is also well worth listening to, but it's the first part, Abernethy's rethinking of the meaning of the characters corresponding to the pronunciation Pinan, that I'm interested in getting discussion started about.

 

[JWLuiza]

As far as I know, this is true. There is no kanji for mind in the kanji used for Pinan/Heian.

 

[exile]

As far as I know, this is true. There is no kanji for mind in the kanji used for Pinan/Heian.

Right, Abernethy addresses that point in his podcast. His major target is the group of people who might want to go with the alternative `peace and tranquility' that has also been suggested as the appropriate translation.

A lot of his reasoning is based on the fact that Itosu, whose `day job' was as a scribe in the service of the King of Okinawa (but who Bruce Clayton sugggests, with a certain amount of evidence, was also part of the king's unarmed bodyguard under Bushi Matsumura), was (i) fully familiar with the Chinese interpratation of the characters which were used as part of the pictographic system of the Okinawan writing system (bearing in mind that Okinawa had been in close cultural contact with China since the 13th century) and (ii) primarily focused on China, rather than Japan, as the definition of high culture and martial arts knowledge. See (more accurately, listen to) the podcast for Abernethy's analysis of the evidence.

As IA notes, the difference in translation corresponds to an important difference in the way the Pinans should be regarded. IA, who's already e-published important bunkai for the Pinans and analyses of their combat content, and has a full-scale monograph on them soon to appear in print, has presented a detailed case that the Pinans are not a children's version of full-blown combat-based kata, but the real thing itself, based on the bunkai in his articles, e-book and DVD on the Pinan kata set. If he's right about the correct translation, then the name Itosu chose for them turns out to match up well with the depth of their combat application as IA has analyzed it, and Funakoshi's observation that the Pinans offer a complete system of self-defense dovetails nicely with his teacher's own presentation of them. So this is something that O/J/KMAists really should follow up, I think...

 

[JWLuiza]

Right, Abernethy addresses that point in his podcast. His major target is the group of people who might want to go with the alternative `peace and tranquility' that has also been suggested as the appropriate translation.

A lot of his reasoning is based on the fact that Itosu, whose `day job' was as a scribe in the service of the King of Okinawa (but who Bruce Clayton sugggests, with a certain amount of evidence, was also part of the king's unarmed bodyguard under Bushi Matsumura), was (i) fully familiar with the Chinese interpratation of the characters which were used as part of the pictographic system of the Okinawan writing system (bearing in mind that Okinawa had been in close cultural contact with China since the 13th century) and (ii) primarily focused on China, rather than Japan, as the definition of high culture and martial arts knowledge. See (more accurately, listen to) the podcast for Abernethy's analysis of the evidence.

As IA notes, the difference in translation corresponds to an important difference in the way the Pinans should be regarded. IA, who's already e-published important bunkai for the Pinans and analyses of their combat content, and has a full-scale monograph on them soon to appear in print, has presented a detailed case that the Pinans are not a children's version of full-blown combat-based kata, but the real thing itself, based on the bunkai in his articles, e-book and DVD on the Pinan kata set. If he's right about the correct translation, then the name Itosu chose for them turns out to match up well with the depth of their combat application as IA has analyzed it, and Funakoshi's observation that the Pinans offer a complete system of self-defense dovetails nicely with his teacher's own presentation of them. So this is something that O/J/KMAists really should follow up, I think...

Yeah, IA is one of the authors on my wishlist. I'd like to see him come to USA to do some seminars...

 

[exile]

Yeah, IA is one of the authors on my wishlist. I'd like to see him come to USA to do some seminars...

You said it, bro'....!!!

He's done seminars in Canada, but as far as I can tell, never in the US.
Maybe if we wish hard enough, it'll happen. I have to say, I find IA one of the most... reasonable people around in the MA world these days: no rhetoric, no ego, just cool, clean analysis.—the living personification of what `open minded' is supposed to mean.

He has a full-scale volume on the Pinan/Heians in print; it should be out sometime in 2008. That will be the third such volume on the Pinans and their bunkai (Higaki's, Tomiyama's, and IA's) to appear since 2006. It's really good to see such an intense revival of interest in the technical roots of traditional karate and the practical combat applications of its core kata. Gives one hope that the current McDojo/McDojang era may be on the way out...

 

[Carol]

Wow...this was the first time I explored anything by Mr. Abernethy and......me likey!

Thanks so much for posting it. I feel like my mind has just been expanded a bit...

 

[exile]

Wow...this was the first time I explored anything by Mr. Abernethy and......me likey!

Thanks so much for posting it. I feel like my mind has just been expanded a bit...

I'm very glad you liked it, Carol!

IA has this effect on people, mostly because he doesn't argue from authority or privileged knowledge, but appeals instead to facts and rational argument, without banging you over the head with it. He's just... sensible... something that I find very refreshing in the MA world.

I have to admit, I love Scots accents... we spent a couple of weeks in Scotland, on the Isle of Skye mostly, a few years ago, and it was the greatest thing in the world sitting around in pubs just listening to people talking. When I play IA's podcasts, all that comes back in a rush...

 

[Kosho Gakkusei]

Exile,
Thank you so much for sharing this one. I tried to rep you but I guess I must have rep'd you too many times because it tells me I have to spread it around some. I just might have to look around for some other rep-able posts so I can rep the OP for this thread.

Coming from what I know about the Bunkai from the Pinan/Heian Kata - 'Safe From Harm' makes a heck of alot more sense then the accepted 'Peaceful Way'. Previously, I've interpreted 'Peaceful Way' to infer that being that the Kata has so much application, in depth knowledge of it produces confidence that gives you a peaceful attitude to deal with all situations. It's much more direct to say that studying this kata and its bunkai will help keep you safe from harm in dangerous situations.

As far as the McDojo/McDojang era is concerned. I think as long as people are willing to pay for rank and/or Martial Arts is considered to be primarily a children's activity there will be McDojos. Unfortunately, most people are lazy and don't want to work hard. Developing martial art skill to the level where you can transcend natural speed and strength takes hard work. The best we can do is become better students and teachers and affect our own circle.

Bunkai-jutsu, as I like to call it, teaches you about positioning, posture, and alignments. These things combined with proper knowledge of timing and distance and creativity can help you to develop the skills to apply combinations of techniques from the kata where size, strength, & speed are nullified. Like I said this takes hard work. We've all heard how the Okinawan's would spend 5 years with one Kata before moving on. In my opinion this is simply not enough time. Each Kata has enough for a lifetime of study. The curricullum for the art I study has alot of Kata as do many modern forms of TMA. How do we now get the depth from our Katas? My approach has been to cycle thru my Kata in my study. I'm continually revisiting my Kata as I learn more and I find my Bunkai keeps evolving. Junni Ippon (12 steps) is a white belt Kata in Kosho Ryu and it's very basic -step back/chamber - knife hand - step/punch - step/punch -step/punch - knife hand/turn - step/punch - step/punch - turn around/block - step/punch - step/punch - step/knife hand - turn/punch - step/punch - step/punch - step/chamber - turn around/block. I'm constantly surprised at how I keep getting more out of it everytime I revisit it.

_Don Flatt

 

[crushing]

I listend to Mr. Abernethy's podcast on this and it had me wondering if there is all that much of a difference between 'being safe from harm' and 'having a peaceful mind', especially in that time-frame/environment. I don't know Chinese or Japanese, let alone think in those languages, but it seems to me that phrases may not just contain the same or similar charaters, but could have also meant the same thing.

Then again, given my ignorance, I may be totally wrong about this. I found it a very interesting pod cast, and did have me thinking about how we communicate and how people may need to think in a language to really understand where someone is coming from, not to mention the addition of idioms and other manners of speech and language that may not translate well.

 

[kidswarrior]

Have saved this podcast but not listened to it yet, cos this month is crazy busy at work. But knowing Abernethy's work, it is both rational and practical, with plenty of humor sprinkled in, which all adds up to tremendous Aha! moments in the area of forms and bunkai.

Thanks for the reminder, Ex. Can't wait to get to it.

 

[exile]

I listend to Mr. Abernethy's podcast on this and it had me wondering if there is all that much of a difference between 'being safe from harm' and 'having a peaceful mind', especially in that time-frame/environment. I don't know Chinese or Japanese, let alone think in those languages, but it seems to me that phrases may not just contain the same or similar charaters, but could have also meant the same thing.

Then again, given my ignorance, I may be totally wrong about this. I found it a very interesting pod cast, and did have me thinking about how we communicate and how people may need to think in a language to really understand where someone is coming from, not to mention the addition of idioms and other manners of speech and language that may not translate well.

The thing I find particularly interesting from IA's discussion is his urging us to consider the cultural context of late 19th c. Okinawa. The Okinawan connection with China is quite old—it was an official tribute-state of the Han empire from the late 14th century on—and there was a strong bond between the Chinese and the Okinawans that may well have been part of the reasons the Tokugawa shogunate sent the Satsuma samurai over to Okinawa: a prospective Tokugawa plan to attack China had relied on supplies from Okinawa which the inhabitants never provided, and the Satsumas, IA suggests, were likely part of the punishment meted out to the islanders for their non-cooperation. Chinese had the status of a kind of court language, similar to that of French in the court of Peter the Great and later Czars, and a member of the scholar class, such as Itosu, was expected to be both fluent and literate in Mandarin. Japanese, on the other hand, was regarded as the language of heavy-handed occupiers, whom the Okinawans had no power to resist but, if Bruce Clayton is correct, viewed with a good deal of distaste, as one might expect. So if you think about the
symbolic role of Chinese as vs. Japanese, as IA asks us to, his analysis seems particularly plausible.

The distinction between `safe from harm' and `quiet/peaceful/tranquil mind' seems to me to parallel a distinction between the art itself on the one hand and the practitioner on the other. On IA's scenario, Itosu was in effect advertising the method implicit in the Pinan set. He was describing the utility of the system. The Japanese sense fit in better with the kind of meditative Zen aura that Funakoshi and other karateka sought to clothe karate in after the war, although before the war they had promoted training in karate—successfully!—with the Japanese education and war ministries as being an excellent mass training method for young men who were to enter the military (of which Funakoshi was an enthusiastic proponent); as Rob Redmond points out here, the leaders of Japanese karate were quite happy to tell one story to the Japanese military in the years before the war and a different one to the Allied military in the years following the war, and during the latter, were able to save karate from being axed under the US demilitarization program for karate, as Redmond points out, by emphasizing its ethical and meditative content.

So there is again a fairly heavy symbolic burden borne by the shift from the Chinese description of the Pinans as something like a `bombproof' method to the Japanese description of the practitioner as being in a tranquil mental state, or (on the stricter construal of the Japanese interpretation of the characters) a kind of impersonal sense of tranquility somehow associated with the Pinan kata set. The bottom line, IA is implicitly noting, is that if he's right, Itosu's name for the kata set was intended to underscore the fact that the principles and methods retrievable from the katas were all about effective fighting.

Have saved this podcast but not listened to it yet, cos this month is crazy busy at work. But knowing Abernethy's work, it is both rational and practical, with plenty of humor sprinkled in, which all adds up to tremendous Aha! moments in the area of forms and bunkai.

Thanks for the reminder, Ex. Can't wait to get to it.

I think your really gonna like it, KW—it is just as you say, rational and practical. What I like about IA's work especially is that it takes a very pragmatic, sensible view of karate, and the MAs in general, and invites us to see them in proportion, as just another useful, constructive part of normal life, something we should try to understand in practical fashion so that it can be a tool for us to resort if we need it, and pursue for the sheer pleasure of the activity even if we don't actually have to apply it for self-defense.

 

[FieldDiscipline]

If you are interested Exile, as a follow on from you saying you enjoyed 'Combat' magazine, 'Martial Arts Illustrated' has a column where you can write in and ask IA questions.

 

[exile]

If you are interested Exile, as a follow on from you saying you enjoyed 'Combat' magazine, 'Martial Arts Illustrated' has a column where you can write in and ask IA questions.

Yes, thanks for mentioning it—I knew about that, but in typical put-it-off-if-possible fashion, haven't gotten round to subscribing to MAI—it's not readily available here; I gather it's a UK publication—you folks over there are lucky, you have much better MA magazines, from what I've seen, than we have on this side. But I've had it in my mind that I'm going to subscribe to MAI just to get my hands on that column of IA's, and probably one or two other magazines as well—you have a very good one on TKD, I've heard.

 

[CuongNhuka]

Either way, the idea ends up the same. 'Peaceful Mind' (as I was told) is in refernce to the fact that you are, safe from harm; since Pinan/what ever you call it is meant be adapted to any possible situation.

 

[FieldDiscipline]

you have a very good one on TKD, I've heard.

I imagine you refer to Taekwondo Times. I know people who read it but it the once or twice I've looked it didnt grip me too much.

 

[exile]

I imagine you refer to Taekwondo Times. I know people who read it but it the once or twice I've looked it didnt grip me too much.

No, not Taekwondo Times—emphatically, not! We have that rag here (alas), and I subscribed to it for a while, but the content has been continuously diluted into more and more columns about vaguely spiritual drivel without any martial content (the endless rubbish from Tae Yun Kim is only the worst of it), and articles of less and less practical technical interest—I can only think of one within the past two years that was a must-read. No, I think I was thinking of Taekwondo & Korean Martial Arts Magazine, a strictly UK product.

 

[exile]

Just an update on the Pinan meaning question... there is an interesting series of exchanges on Abernethy's website message board here which explores in some depth the etymological issues that arise and presents a bit more background discussion than the podcast I've referred to covers. It's very clear that here, as in his bunkai research, Abernethy uses a method of inquiry combining empirical and deductive approaches in tandem which is exactly that followed by investigators in the hard sciences. I myself find the open-minded and comprehensive view he brings to the question—and the evident fact that his primary motivation is sheer, unadulterated curiosity, the desire to ferret out the truth that underlies confusing appearances—to be very unusual and refreshing qualities in the current MA scene.

 

[CuongNhuka]

You know, the more I read about this gentleman, the more he sounds like a Cuong Nhu guy. What style did you say he trains in?

By the way Exile, do you have enough rep yet? LOL

 

[exile]

You know, the more I read about this gentleman, the more he sounds like a Cuong Nhu guy. What style did you say he trains in?

You mean Iain Abernethy, CN? He started out in Wado-Ryu, I believe, but switched at one point to Shotokan. I'm unsure of anything more detailed, but I'm hoping to be able to ask him sometime next year—am planning on being in the UK for several months in 2009 and am going to try to make one of his seminars.

 

[CuongNhuka]

You mean Iain Abernethy, CN? He started out in Wado-Ryu, I believe, but switched at one point to Shotokan. I'm unsure of anything more detailed, but I'm hoping to be able to ask him sometime next year—am planning on being in the UK for several months in 2009 and am going to try to make one of his seminars.

Hu, this guy really sounds like a Cuong Nhu guy. By that I mean the openness, and 'kata is your martial God' thing.

If you do meet him, suggest he looks into Cuong Nhu. There are no schools in England, but there is one in Germany and anouther in Paris. He might find us intresting.