Sensai talked a little bit about Wanshu. He said that many people don’t like this kata. He used to be one of them. It still bothers him that it is unbalanced with the chudan soto-shuto-uke only on one side. There are balanced versions, but for some reason, Osensai recorded and taught it this way.

He does point out that it covers almost all the stances in Matsubayashi-ryu. It teaches something important about transitioning between them. The transition before the soto-shuto-uke – zenkustu-dachi, slide to shizentai-dachi, neko-ashi-dachi also appears in Wankan. But the next sequence –  neko-ashi-dachi, turn 180 to zenkutsu-dachi and block gedan-uke appears only here.

Maybe that’s the method to the madness.