Can anyone give me any information about the Arakaki/Aragaki Katas?

Unsu and unshu one is the okinawa way of spelling it the other is japanese

Arakaki seisho born in 1840 he served in the court of shuri as an interpitor he also taught. Chotoku kyan, he created the the sochin, niseishi and unsu

I know there is a seprate arakaki sochin, I haven't heard of an arakaki unsu

His full name and title arakaki tsujin peichin seisho (1840-1918) born in the village kumemurra near naha in the court he held the title chkudon peichin a high rank there is at least 8 kata he influanced as well as several kobudo kata

As for the spelling I think its just a prounciation error. Both spellings of the name have the same back ground

Arakaki ankichi is a diffrent person and the first son of arakaki seisho. He died very young (1899 - 1927)

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you think he is a pain you should try chatan yara there are at least 3 of him

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may be one of the other senors on here like pugpaws, sensei scandal, nwohioguy and soforth, know of it.

i did a little more research and it is the general thought that arakaki unsu was the original and later became unsu.

you may want to type in richard kim when you search for this kata. although the internet is a pain to do research on. i'll check my library and see what else i have on this.

richard kim was taught this kata he may have more info in one of his books. unfortunate richard kim past on a few years back, he was a great source of information for kata like this.

arakaki and aragaki sound very similar in japanese, which i think were the confusion comes in with the name. they are the same person though just dont get the son mixed up during your research.

hears one source and its a decent book too, also if you have any of richard kim's books you may want to see what he says about the kata.

http://books.google.com/books?id=BGxQeTMnPzQC&pg=P...

http://books.google.com/books?id=NK5CJKwQLsEC&pg=P...

there is a lot of kata that was lost over the years, or change so badly no one know how the original one was, a perfect example of this was the original naihanchi, it use to be one kata with a lot more devastating moves, it was preformed as a set with a partner so it was actually a 2 man kata.

The "kata is a dance" statement shows, IMHO, a lack of understanding concerning both kata and dancing. Anybody can 'move' to a piece of music, just as anybody can (try to) imitate a kata. But in both kata and dancing - especially on a more advanced/serious/professional level - each individual element of movement has a meaning (or a function), and the dance or kata in its entirety represents something more than a display of aesthetics. Add a partner or partners, and it (either dance or kata) becomes an expression of connectivity and harmony. Perhaps this is easier to see in dance, but I don't see the interaction in paired kata or bunkai drills as simply action-reaction or force versus force. So, I have to agree with Iron Mongoose here in that saying how "kata is a dance", is not necessarily pejorative. However, assuming that "kata is just like a dance, since it's just pretty movements" is an insult to both art forms.