Shotokan Kata · Advanced (1st Kyū / Dan)
Step through all 24 movements. The kata stays on a straight line in horse stance, travelling by cross-steps; the direction shown is which way you work or turn your head. Use the arrows or press play, and pair the figures with the written sequence below.
If Tekki Shodan is about striking from the horse stance, Tekki Nidan is about controlling from it. Its signature is counter-grappling: drawing the opponent in, seizing a wrist or sleeve, and trapping them at close range before you strike. It is where a student is taught to feel the difference between the grasping block (tsukami-uke) — which grabs and holds — and the hooking block, and to use the supporting hand to reinforce and control.
Like the whole series it comes from the old Okinawan Naihanchi, renamed Tekki by Gichin Funakoshi. The kata is highly symmetric: moves 1–16 work one side, 17–24 mirror them, each half ending in a kiai on the sweep-block-into-back-fist.
A text reference for the whole kata. Moves 1–16 work to the right of the line; 17–24 mirror them to the left, each half closing with the back-fist and kiai.
| # | Technique | Direction / note |
|---|
JKA counts 24 with kiai on 16 & 24 (consistent across sources). Terminology varies by lineage (uchi-nagashi-uke/haiwan; the low front “kensei” feint). Unlike Shodan, Nidan has no nami-gaeshi returning-wave kick.
Tekki Nidan’s vocabulary is trapping and control. Each links to a full breakdown in the techniques glossary.
Read Tekki Nidan as seizing and controlling a grabbing opponent at close range.
The forward forearm feint (kensei) draws the attacker’s guard or covers your entry; the supported low block then clears a grab or a knee to your flank.
The grasping block takes the attacker’s arm and pulls them onto a short, hard hook punch to the ribs — trap, drag, strike, all on the same line.
The back-arm sweep clears a high attack while the low block covers beneath; the back-fist snaps immediately into the exposed head — the two-level defence that ends each half.
The grasping blocks must actually close the hand and take the limb, not just brush it aside. If your tsukami-uke looks like an ordinary block, you’ve missed the kata’s point.
The supported blocks and thrusts want the other hand actively reinforcing at the wrist or elbow — connected and working, not floating.
Travel sideways low and level in horse stance; don’t pop up over the cross-steps or the stamping entries.
The kensei forearm feints are real threats, not gestures — commit to them so they’d actually make an opponent react.
As a senior kata (around 1st kyū and into the dan grades), Tekki Nidan is judged on genuine grasping blocks that take and control the limb, an active supporting hand, a low, unwavering horse stance for all 24 moves, power from hip vibration, committed feints, the two kiai, and a straight, controlled embusen. Requirements vary by association — confirm with your dōjō.
The illustrations on this page are study schematics — they show the shape of each move, not a real body in motion. To see Tekki Nidan performed at full speed by senior instructors, watch reference footage:
▶ Watch “Tekki Nidan” performances on YouTubeOpens a YouTube search in a new tab. Look for JKA / Japan Karate Association or established Shotokan instructor demonstrations for the most standard version of the form.
Or revisit Tekki Shodan, or return to the kata library.