Gankaku Shotokan Karate do Kata - Details Explanation by Naka Shihan

Chintō (鎮東) (In Shotokan, Gankaku (岩鶴)) is an advanced kata practiced in many styles of karate. According to legend, it is named after a stranded Chinese sailor (or pirate), sometimes referred to as Annan, whose ship crashed on the Okinawan coast. To survive, Chintō kept stealing from the crops of the local people. Matsumura Sōkon, a Karate master and chief bodyguard to the Ryūkyūan king, was sent to defeat Chintō. In the ensuing fight, however, Matsumura found himself equally matched by the stranger, and consequently sought to learn his techniques. It is known that the kata Chintō was well known to the early Tomari-te and Shuri-te schools of karate. Matsumura Sōkon was an early practitioner of the Shuri-te style. When Gichin Funakoshi brought karate to Japan, he renamed Chintō (meaning approximately “fighter to the east“) to Gankaku (meaning “crane on a rock“), possibly to avoid anti-Chinese sentiment of the t