Shotokan Kata · Beginner (6th Kyū)
Step through all 27 movements. Each shows the technique, the stance, the direction you turn, and which side performs it. Use the arrows or press play. The figures are simplified schematics — pair them with the written sequence below and your instructor.
Heian Yondan is where the series learns dynamics. It opens with two slow, wide open-hand blocks that train breathing and control, then snaps into fast combinations — a back-fist and side kick delivered together, an elbow, a knee strike that grabs and pulls. The contrast between slow and explosive is the whole lesson: karate is not one speed.
Created by Ankō Itosu around 1905 and renamed from Pinan to Heian by Gichin Funakoshi, the fourth kata keeps its number in both systems — Shotokan’s Heian Yondan is Shitō-ryū and Wadō-ryū’s Pinan Yondan.
A text reference for the whole kata — the slow open-hand opening, the paired hand-and-foot combinations, and the augmented-block closing sequence.
| # | Technique | Stance / turn |
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JKA’s official count is 27; some charts compress paired prep-and-strike counts to ~25 (kiai then falls on the same two physical moves, 11 & 23). Elbow strikes in moves 7/10 are variously mae-empi or mawashi-empi by lineage.
Heian Yondan adds the open-hand and combination vocabulary. Each links to a full breakdown in the techniques glossary.
Heian Yondan’s slow openings and paired strikes read as controlling an attacker, then overwhelming them.
The wide back-arm blocks part an attacker’s arms or a two-handed grab/lapel grab; the lower X-block catches a kick or a following punch, controlling before you strike.
Chamber, then strike an attacker to your side with the back-fist while the side kick drives off a second — landing forward into an elbow to finish the first. Two threats answered in one motion.
The knee strike (move 25) is a grab-and-pull into the rising knee — seizing the head or arm and driving the knee up — before turning out into the covering knife-hand blocks.
The opening blocks (1–2) are deliberately slow — controlled breathing, constant tension. Snapping through them throws away half the kata’s point.
On moves 6 and 9 the back-fist and side kick must land together, not one then the other. If they separate, drill the chamber until both fire as one.
The one-legged preparations and the kicks demand a strong, tall support leg. Sinking or wobbling on it collapses the whole technique.
Move 25 is a grab-and-pull into the knee — the hands and the rising knee work together. A knee with no pull behind it has no target and no power.
At a blue-belt (6th kyū) test, examiners look for genuine contrast in dynamics — truly slow openings against explosive combinations — the back-fist and side kick arriving together, a stable support leg through every kick and one-legged prep, the grab-and-pull knee strike with real intent, the two kiai in place, and an accurate embusen. Requirements vary by association — confirm the exact standard 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 Heian Yondan performed at full speed by senior instructors, watch reference footage:
▶ Watch “Heian Yondan” 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 Heian Sandan, see the full Heian series, or return to the kata library.