Animals – Be more ‘Cat’.

Can humans really move like animals in the martial arts?

Trigger alert: Links supplied for film of killing and mayhem in the animal world.

Think of Monkey Style Boxing; like this example of Monkey Kung Fu:

Then there’s White Crane Kung Fu, Tiger Style. Less of a thing in Japanese martial arts, but some say Okinawan karate is influenced by White Crane.

Even techniques can be named after animals (or birds), or the perceived mimicking of parts of an animal’s movement. This also includes mythical animals, to give it more mystique. ‘Dragon whips his tail’ as Bruce Lee said. As nobody has ever seen a dragon, we are supposed to just use our imagination. Bruce supplies all the clues:

Karate, hands, feet and stepping; a whole menagerie of animals and birds.

In karate there is, Bear hand ‘Kuma-te’; Cat foot stance ‘Neko Ashi Dachi’. We have ‘Chidori Ashi’ Plover step. But these are just useful handles to describe particular shapes or strategies.

In Wado karate solo kata we are supposed to invoke ‘Neko Damashi’ the Spirit of the Cat in the entirety of the form Kushanku; it’s logical really because it embodies cat-like gymnastics and agile deceptive moves throughout. ‘Be more Cat’ is a useful mantra with Kushanku.

Tai Chi.

In Tai Chi and Chi Gung exercises there are whole zoos full of animals. Forget about Kung Fu Panda, they have; ‘Snake creeps down’, ‘White Crane spreads wings’, ‘Step back to repulses the monkey’ and even ‘Rhinoceros gazes at the moon’. The list goes on.

Cats.

A great source of inspiration.

Mas Oyama, founder of Kyokushikai karate, ponders a cat. Source: Book, ‘The Kyokushin Way’ by Mas Oyama, 1979.

Any cat owner will tell you that you will always lose if you try to pit your reactions against the reactions of a cat. With my own cat, I have lost that game so many times and it always ends up with blood… mine.

Moving up in scale from the domestic cat, anyone who has seen slo-mo wildlife film of lions, cheetah or leopards hunting can’t help but marvel at the wonderful grace and athleticism these animals can produce – pure poetry in motion (see link).

If you find it difficult to stomach, don’t click on this link:

But… cats move like cats, not like humans.

As a species we are not born natural and efficient movers. Our bipedal preference cuts us off from so many possibilities. Any grace we are able to produce is not innate, it has to be trained into us, think of American footballers shrugging off tackles, or the power, grace and artistic interpretation of Olympic gymnastic floor exercises – example:

You could argue that we have the ‘potential’ to do all these things, but because of our lifestyle choices, or the demands of modern living, the opportunities are just not there (think how many sacrifices Katelyn Ohashi had to make to hone her skills to that level).

If you read either of paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman’s books, ‘The Story of the Human Body’ or ‘Exercised’, you will see the case made that we as humans are pretty puny.

On a one-on-one with any of the main predators we are dead meat; no real turns of speed available, no muscular power to match and no natural weapons, (beyond what we can fashion and put in our hands). Our only super powers are our abilities to work through cooperation and communication, together with an advanced capacity to read ‘cause and effect’. We hunt in packs.

Animals and birds as ‘inspiration’.

I think that we have been doing this since right back into the dawn of time. The tribal shaman will invoke the spirit of the lion, and take on its personality by hiding behind a lion mask. Tribal dancers will do their best to imitate the qualities of the various animals or birds. The ferocity of the predator will become inspirational to the warrior.

As this documentary about the Senegalese ‘Fake Lion Dance’ illustrates (you only have to watch the first few minutes to get the idea).

It’s interesting that the Chinese Lion Dance is a cooperative affair that shows off human acrobatics, in very human ways of moving.

All of this continues in modern culture, from ballet dancers pretending to be swans, to American football teams with their names and mascots. In UK football, all hail the Lionesses! (But it doesn’t quite work for the women’s rugby, the ‘Red Roses’. To my mind, flowers don’t have the right connotations for a game like rugby).¹

But for the martial artists it becomes really extended when whole complete styles become dedicated to one creature, be that monkey, tiger or white crane. The human form is seemingly squeezed to fit, reverse engineered to adopt a human interpretation of the qualities of movement observed in the animal, or bird or the imagined fictional creature.

I am not criticising it because it is the product of human imagination; like the highest forms of art, it is the result of observation and inspiration; pure creativity in action. Like an actor supressing his own personality to inhabit a role (perhaps the shaman and his lion mask is the ultimate model for the method acting of someone like Daniel Day-Lewis or Heath Ledger?)

To round this off, I will end with a quote from Hippolyte Taine, “I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior”.

1. I could extend this in to fictional superheroes, Cat Woman, Batman, Wolverine, The Penguin (always thought that was weird) and even Howard the Duck…but, he’s a duck.