I agree, which is all the more reason why in my opinion wanting to earn a black belt is a good goal. You've completed your "initiation" and now the real learning, and the real fun, begins.
In my current Dojo, the Shihan says:
" there are 4 levels of Kata in our Karatedo. "
1. Learning the movements of a kata.
2. Polishing the movements of a kata.
3. Learning bunkai of a kata.
4. Learning the spirit/ki energy of the kata, ie the meaningful significance and applications from a TCM kind of perspective.
A blackbelt in our traditional Okinawan Karatedo is a slow thing. Very slow.
One student here has been coming for a very long time and has a brown belt still. It is a blessing and a detriment that we have so many forms.
Kanken Toyama learned and preserved 110 kata from Okinawa. To this He added forms from Taiwan and Chun-fa forms from a Korean student. And He created 7 forms of his own, (a mini system).
His late brother (ju-dan) Hanshi Isao Ichikawa, practiced 110 different kata almost daily.
He knew far, far more.
My Shihan only knows 96 or so of them. He has been doing this 44 years.
The (Ju-Dan) Hanshi Nobuo Ichikawa the Honbu dojo in Austria, also knows all of the Toyama curriculum, and has created 4 or 5 of his own.
One of which he created from his deep understanding of TCM, and credits it for helping his body defeat a diagnosis of cancer. (Seriously) the kata was created specifically for self-healing the body.
Over here
Blackbelts of shodan might know 30-35.
As rank is gained, polished kata & bunkai requirements increase, and with it, the number of kata also grow.
Brown 2ND might only know 28.
The more you learn, the more you become aware of what you have yet to learn.
Most systems I encounter besides Bjj/Judo
Put a BB at the Batchlor picture in the link below.
Judo and BJJ put the BB at the masters degree.
And imo...
Shihan's are about the PhD area, and the have done the researcher bit.
Hanshi's are the full post docorate professor, teaching the researchers/PhD candidates.
The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.
By Matt Might
This work of his is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.