Pinan
series of five karate kata taught in many karate styles
The Pinan (Chinese: 平安, Píng'ān; Japanese: ピンアン, Pin'an) kata are a series of five empty hand forms taught in many karate styles. The Pinan kata originated in Okinawa and were adapted by Anko Itosu from older kata such as Kusanku and Channan into forms suitable for teaching karate to young students. Pinan is the Chinese Pinyin notation of 平安; when Gichin Funakoshi brought karate to Japan, he changed the kata name to Heian (平(へい)安(あん)), which is the onyomi pronunciation of the same kanji. Pinan or Heian means "peaceful and safe". Korean Tang Soo Do, one of 5 original kwan of Korea, also practice these kata; they are termed, Pyung Ahn (Korean: 평안, Pyeong-an), which is a Korean pronunciation of the term "ping-an".
History
According to Motobu Chōki, one of Ankō Itosu's early students, the Pinan kata was created by Itosu and were originally called Channan (チャンナン), possessing slightly different movements. When Motobu asked Itosu about this point in his later years, Itosu replied, "The form is somewhat different from those days, but now I have decided on the form as it was performed by the students. Everyone preferred the name Pinan, so I followed the young people's opinion."
Since Motobu (b. 1870) began studying under Itosu at the age of 12 (East Asian age reckoning), this confirms the Channan were already in existence by the 1880s. The name "Pinan" was suggested by students of the former Okinawa Prefectural First Middle School (now Shuri High School) or Okinawa Prefectural Normal School.
“Pinan” enters the record as series of five karate kata taught in many karate styles. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pinan, series and five can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pinan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.