Translation of a bird

[Grey shifu]

Hello everyone,

Can I anyone shed some light on this for me.

Empi - suppose to be flying swallow kata
Tsubame - swallow (bird)
Empi - elbow strike in karate

Any thoughts on the similarities of the elbow and bird or is it the case of when you use it?

Thank you

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

猿臂打ち Enpi (or Empi) Uchi is 'monkey elbow strike'. Oddly there is an animal involved but not a swallow.

燕 Tsubame is swallow, this character is read en/em in compounds.

燕飛 is your 'Empi - flying swallow kata'. This word isn't in the dictionary, I suspect it was coined specifically for Shotokan (and may have been inherited by other styles), but the characters are 'swallow' (the bird) and 'flying'.

Edit: Not coined for shotokan, but allegedly for Tomari-te. Interesting theory, but... I have questions. Traditional Okinawan karate styles and Shotokan and its descendents are distinct lineages. I know Shotokan was created as a fusion of styles but I wouldn't have expected an Okinawan kata to be adopted in its entirety. Plus Okinawa has a strong dialect, arguably a separate language, I don't know why they wouldn't use an Okinawan word for swallow. It's a "citation needed" claim on Wikipedia so take it for what it's worth. Enpi (kata) - Wikipedia