The use of one man forms to practice technique, movement, and effective drill has been synonymous with Karate since it's first appearance. Indeed the use of solo training can be readily seen in the Chines styles. In contrast, the established Japanese combat systems Jyu Jutsu and Ken Jutsu used only two man kata. However the object was different and the situation of the practitioner was different. The object of two man kata is primarily to develop timing and distance whereas in one man kata a variety of technique was repeated allowing training of the muscle memory etc. The situation varied in that the Karate training of the time was secretive and perhaps only stretched to the same family or very trusted friends. In the old Japanese ways the systems were clan based and you had a ready supply of training partners.
The is a great deal of opinion on the numbers of kata within a system. Some of the styles include a huge number within their syllabus others only a dozen or so. There is an old adage from Funakoshi sensei "five years, one kata" If you do the sums, a main training for 40 years would only be able to cover 8 kata! In my opinion there are too many kata, which dilutes the importance and function of this training exercise. However, with the western appetite for Karate it was soon found that more where required and so they were invented!
The following pages deal with the kata's on a style by style basis giving historical development, variations and general comment.
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