Enpi (kata)
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'For the elbow strike see Enpi (elbow strike)
Enpi or Empi(燕飛, lit. "Flying swallow") is a kata found in Shotokan and other karate styles.
Enpi comes to us from the Okinawan Tomari-te school where it apparently first appeared in 1683. It is believed to have been influenced by Chinese boxing. It was originally called Wansu (wanshu). Funakoshi Gichin changed the name when he moved to the Japanese mainland in the 1920's. Funakoshi changed the names of many of the kata, in an effort to make the Okinawan art more palatable to the then nationalistic Japanese. The main theory about its creation and development is that a Sappushi Wang Ji, an official from Xiuning, transmitted the kata while serving on Okinawa. Legend has that Wang Ji had the habit of throwing and jumping on his adversaries. Because of this dynamic form of combat, this kata resembles a Swallow in flight. Others purport that it was a product of the interaction between Okinawans and the so-called "36 Chinese Families" that immigrated to the islands in the late 1300s. Still other teachers believe that it was based off of Sasaki Kojiro's sword techniques, because they were also said to resemble a swallow. Though it is generally known as a black belt level kata, Empi is often first taught at 2nd and 1st kyu.
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[edit] Pronounciation
It is pronounced 'empi' because in Japanese, the 'n' becomes an 'm' sound when it precedes a 'p' sound.
[edit] Execution
Refer to List of shotokan techniques for translations of Japanese terms.
Kata Yoi: bring left foot into right foot with feet pointing forward and right clenched fist into left open palm on the left hip, almost like left koshi gamae.
- Execute left tachi hiza and right gb simultaneously while looking north
- Stand back up and rotate back to face north in hcd with left ksG
- Execute right gb while stepping to the right into right zkd
- Execute left kgz while rotating left into kbd, on the right foot, to face north
- Execute left gb while stepping forward into left zkd
- Execute right gaz
- Execute right ktk
- Intermediately execute right hg while stepping forward into right ksd and executing right clench-fisted nu and left otz simultaneously while landing
- Execute right ugb while rotating 180 counterclockwise into left zkd
- Execute left gb
- Execute right gaz
- Execute right ktk
- Intermediately execute right hg while stepping forward into right ksd and executing right clench-fisted nu and left otz simultaneously while landing
- Execute right ugb while rotating 180 counterclockwise into left zkd
- Execute left gb
- Execute left hsu-j while rotating into kbd with left leg lifted up and turning and continually looking at left palm
- Execute a right eu into left palm while shifting into ktd (kiai) and then land back into kbd, facing north, while executing left tshk
- Execute right chudan zuki and then left chudan zuki
- Look left, execute left gb while rotating left into left zkd
- Execute right gaz
- Execute right ktk
- Execute right shk while stepping forward into right kbd
- Execute left shk while stepping front foot back and then left foot forward into left kbd
- Execute right gz
- Execute right shk while stepping forward into right kbd
- Execute left gb while rotating 180 counteclockwise into left zkd
- Execute right gaz
- Execute right ktk
- Intermediately execute right hg while stepping forward into right ksd and executing right clench-fisted nu and left otz simultaneously while landing
- Execute right ugb while rotating 180 counterclockwise into left zkd
- Execute left gb
- Slowly execute right tsuk to the northwest
- Slowly execute tksu while rotating slowly to the right into right zkd
- Slowly execute tksu while stepping forward slowly into left zkd
- Slowly execute tksu while stepping forward slowly into right zkd
- Execute right gb while shifting into right kkd
- Execute right mkkG while shifting into kbd
- Rotate-jump-shift 360 counterclockwise by executing joho kaiten tobi (kiai)into right kbd with shk
- Execute left shk while stepping backwards into left kkd
