Traditional Karate > Kata > Kusanku

Kusanku Kata was named after a great Chinese Master. In 1784, the great Okinawan master named Shionga of Shuri returned from China accompanied by a friend, the legendary Master Ku-San-Ku. Another source has Master Ku-San- Ku in Okinawa as early as 1781. Karate Sakagawa met Ku-San-Ku about 1786.

The story of how Karate Sakagawa met Ku-San-Ku is very interesting. Karate Sakagawa was out one Sunday evening looking for some mischief. Ku-San-Ku was standing on a riverbank looking out over the water. He was very elegantly dressed and Karate Sakagawa decided that he would slip up behind him and push him into the water. He reached out to push and Ku-San-Ku turned around, grabbed his wrist in an iron grip and stared him in the eye. Ku-San-Ku verbally gave him a lashing about the possibility of injuring someone by pulling such a prank on him. About this time, another youngster showed up. He had been in the city on an errend for Ku-San-Ku. His name was Kitani Yara. This was another acquaintance of Karate Sakagawa. Yara asked Sakagawa what he was doing there. Ku-San-Ku asked, "Do you know this fellow?" Kitani Yara acknowledged that he did know Karate Sakagawa, and that he was an outstanding martial arts student. Ku-San-Ku told Karate Sakagawa that if he would come and study with him, he would not only teach him how, but also the why of the techniques. Sakagawa, with his instructor's permission, went and studied with Ku-San-Ku until Ku-San-Ku went back to China approximately six years later.

Karate Sakagawa and Kitani Yara either directly or indirectly taught all the great Okinanwan masters. It is not known if Ku-San-Ku put the Kata together or if his followers put the Kata together after he had gone back to China. Ku-San-Ku is thought of as probably one of the great masters of all times and this same Kusanku Kata is practiced by almost every system in the world with some variations.

The Kata teaches a person to fight, not only by sight, but also by touch and sound, as the Kata supposedly in being done in the dark.