The Complete Library
There are 26 kata in Shotokan karate. They run from Heian Shodan on your very first day to the master forms of the black-belt (dan) grades. This is the complete list — grouped the way it is actually learned — with each kata’s meaning, the belt it belongs to, and what it teaches. Start with Heian Shodan for a full illustrated, move-by-move walkthrough.
The six kyū-grade (coloured-belt) kata are learned in a fixed order. The twenty black-belt kata that follow are drawn on from brown belt through the dan grades, but their exact order varies by association — the list below is a common Shotokan/JKA sequence.
Kyū grades — fixed order
Black-belt kata — order varies by dōjō
Some schools also teach one to three Taikyoku forms before Heian Shodan as an even simpler introduction. Requirements vary by association — always follow your own dōjō.
A kata (型, “form”) is a choreographed sequence of karate techniques performed solo against imagined opponents. Each is a fixed pattern — the same moves, in the same order, on the same floor pattern (the embusen) — passed down largely unchanged for generations. If a style is a language, its kata are the sentences that preserve its grammar.
Long before video or written manuals, kata were how masters encoded and transmitted fighting knowledge. A single form can hold dozens of techniques and their applications (bunkai) in a shape a student can drill alone, anywhere. That is still their value today: kata build the stances, timing, breathing and focus (kime) that free sparring alone never teaches — and they are graded at every belt.
Below, the Shotokan syllabus is grouped the way it is actually learned: a foundation form, the five Heian kata that every beginner drills, the three Tekki horse-stance forms, and the advanced kata reserved for brown and black belts.
The starting point — a single, simple pattern of just two techniques (down block and stepping punch) that teaches turning, the floor pattern, and how to move in stance before any real complexity is added. Some schools teach three Taikyoku forms.
Five kata (“peaceful mind”) created by Ankō Itosu around 1905 to make karate teachable. Together they form the true foundation of Shotokan — one per kyū grade — introducing every core block, punch, kick and stance in a graded, symmetrical way. Master these and the advanced kata become recognisable sentences.
“Iron Horse” — three kata performed entirely in the horse stance (kiba-dachi) along a straight line. They trade footwork for raw hip and leg power, close-quarter defence, grabbing and trapping. Tekki Shodan is a classic bridge from coloured belt to black.
The senior forms, drawn on from brown belt through the dan grades. Each has its own character — the explosive turns of Bassai, the length and dignity of Kanku Dai, the balance of Gankaku, the breathing of Hangetsu, the spinning jump of Unsu. Karateka often spend a lifetime refining just a few of these.
A common Shotokan (JKA-style) mapping of the required kata for each grade. Requirements vary by association — always follow your own dōjō. See the full breakdown on karate belts in order.