Bassai Dai (lit. 'Breaching the Fortress - Big') is an advanced Shotokan kata that incorporates a variety of powerful techniques and strong stances. At Kumade Karate, it is the first major Shotokan kata that we teach.
Bassai Dai uses a variety of common yet powerful Shotokan moves that you will have seen during basic techniques practice many times.
A basic understanding of Bassai Dai is required for 4th kyu purple belt and an advanced understanding is required for 3rd kyu brown belt.
A basic understanding is required for 4th kyu
An advanced understanding is required for 3rd kyu
Tutorial Video Coming Soon!
Techniques:
Kiai Count: 2
Stances:
- Kosa dachi (scissor stance)
- Zenkutsu dachi (long forward stance)
- Heisoku dachi (feet together stance)
- Heiko dachi (natural stance)
- Kokutsu dachi (back-leaning stance)
- Musubi dachi (heels together stance)
- Kiba dachi (horse-riding stance)
Kicks:
- Yoko geri (side kick)
- Fumikomi (stomping kick)
- Mikazuki geri (hooking kick)
Strikes:
- Chudan zuki (stomach-level punch)
- Morote tetsui uchi (double hammer strike)
- Yama zuki (mountain punch)
Blocks:
- Bassai uke (reinforced inside block)
- Uchi uke (inside block)
- Soto uke (outside block)
- Gedan barai (downwards block)
- Tate shuto uke (vertical knife-hand block)
- Shuto uke (knife-hand block)
- Morote age uke (double rising block)
- Manji uke (swirling block)
Kata Information:
Bassai Dai is the 'big' form of the Bassai kata, the other being Bassai Sho (the 'small' version). It was widely practiced in the Okinawan Islands during the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom, however the origins of the kata are unknown.
The lettering used in the name (拔塞) stem from Chinese, where they translate to 'to breach the fortress' and are pronounced 'Bá sāi'. When originally written in Japanese, the meaning of the Chinese characters was preserved (in Japanese, the characters 拔塞 can translate to 'to extract and obstruct' or 'to blockade'), thus carrying through the meaning of the kata 'Bassai Dai/Sho' to be 'to breach the fortress'.