Dai and Shou
By Dan Blackmore
03 April 2014
Let’s talk about the concepts of “dai” and “shou” in the context of martial arts and self-defence.
Dai (大 ) means “large” or “big.” Dai Kanji Translation
Shou (小) means “little” or “small.” Shou Kanji Translation
As a side note, it is only through actually looking-up this character that I learned that the correct English spelling is “shou.” Before this discovery I’ve known it to be written as “sho” or “shō” in English. “Sho” has a variety of meanings and does not mean anything by itself; it needs to be paired with something or used in an expression to give it meaning. Shō (升) is from an old Japanese system of measurement for volume. It is still used today, in the production of sake, for example. Originally one shō of sake was about 1804mL, but it is now 1800mL. Shō Kanji Translation
The translation of the kanji is pretty straightforward: dai means big, and shou means small, but what are the implications? We see dai and shou used as suffixes in the names of kata that are paired together. These suffixes could simply assign dai to the “bigger” kata – the one with the most moves – and shou to the “smaller” kata of a pair. However it seems more common that we interpret these suffixes as something to indicate the way the moves of each kata should be carried out. Let’s discuss what it means for something to be considered as being big or small.
When we’re talking about being big, we’re talking full arm and body motion. This calls for maximum reach of the arm and hip wind-up while you set for a strike/block. You fully commit to the technique and extended forward just a little bit further to penetrate the target. The idea is to allow the fist or foot lots of travel distance to fully accelerate and deliver maximum power. When demonstrating dai while moving forward, you reach a “point of no return” where you cannot retract your body weight halfway through the technique and step back, you can only move forward.
When talking about being small, we’re talking about the use of body shifting and advanced tactics. In this context “small” refers to the little changes to our approach that can mean all the difference in a confrontation. There is no set of shou techniques per se; it’s more of an approach to self-defence. Often, one must generate power with a reduced range of motion. Proper muscle contraction, hip rotation, timing, and body shifting become even more important without big arm motion. Generally, small karate happens in the study of application and the practice of kumite.
Shou is about making your blocks and strikes count. The opportunity to successfully execute a big, powerful technique in a fight is not always there. Perhaps your opponent can pick up on your timing and you end up striking air, or walking into a fist. Maybe you don’t have enough time to bring your fist up by your ear and execute a full-motion, classical downward sweeping block to dispatch an incoming kick. How about if you blocked that jab with maximum effort, but your opponent got a strike in before your counter punch? What good is utilizing maximum power and energy in a technique if it is not going to be effective? You’ve got to create openings in your opponent’s defence while maintaining yours, and that’s what being small is all about. One might learn to rely on body shifting and footwork to avoid attack, rather than taking time to formally block everything that comes in. This frees up some time to attack your opponent directly, disrupting his timing, and giving the opportunity to follow-up with a maximum power technique. You draw from experience to develop your own style as you learn to apply the techniques learned on the training floor.
“Dai” is exemplified in the classical forms of each technique while “shou” is developed through experience. The words I would use to summarize dai and shou are “fundamentals” and “application,” respectively. Practice of the fundamentals as we train basic and advanced techniques gives us more resources to draw from when we have to apply them.
