If you have a true interest in the martial arts, I believe it is important that practitioners have some understanding of the history of our art.
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Today, many practitioners and instructors state that they are practicing and teaching the ‘original’ kata as taught by Master… (insert name).
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But what is original?….. The true fact is, we don’t really know what the original kata looked like when it was created.
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Throughout many styles, lineages and family systems there are differences to the same kata. Modification was, and still is very common, just not openly admitted. The desire to follow and respect a good lineage is of paramount importance to some practitioners, and for them, believing they are doing the original art, from a long passed away master, is highly significant.
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So what is original? Why were some kata changed and some made totally unrecognizable to others of the same name?
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Aesthetics perhaps. Adding larger and more flamboyant techniques to make a kata more entertaining for competition….. Karate being promoted in the schools and university systems in Okinawa and Japan undoubtedly changed the intent.
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Were different versions of kata taught to different students? The theory is that by teaching students slightly different concepts, it is recognized that variations in movements enabled different uses, and there may have been some desire to retain some of these capabilities, thereby preserving the variation….. a change in the kata.
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The other fairly common change in application and technique is often cited due to body type; tall, short, thin, stocky….. or changed because of a disability.
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Competition and the grading system eventually resulted in many practitioners being more concerned with the “look” of the kata in order to win trophies and pass exams.
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It has been stated by past masters, and masters that are here with us today, that kata should not be changed….. and I agree.
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But the fact is that every single generation makes subtle changes to kata. Perhaps simply through memory lapse, but changes are made just the same.
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Everything we know today was saved for us by means of oral tradition from Okinawan and Japanese karate masters who have gone before us. But over time those oral traditions will have undoubtedly been altered, where practitioners perform the same kata in different ways. Perhaps because they forgot some of the moves, or because they had the wrong perception of what the kata was created for. Or just because they were bad observers, in part due to the unreliability of typical human recollection, where information is passed from one person to the next and is changed slightly each time it is told, or shown.
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Today, we have almost as many kata explanations as schools and masters. Are your kata original? 
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“Karate changes every few years. This change happens because a teacher will continue to learn and add his personality to the teachings.” – Choshin Chibana
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