Naihanchi?
In spite of the many historical figures associated with this exercise and/or never-ending related suppositions, the actual truth is that no one really knows for sure where the exercise comes from, who created it and/or why!
A common belief held by many indicates it came from China, but from where, when and with who remains the topic of curiosity. There is also the Matsumura-theory, and by extension Asato and Itosu [fusion theory] and the subsequent streams that followed. It’s been called Naihanchi, Naihanchin, Naifuanchi, Naifanchin & Daipochin, etc. As it’s been handed down orally [口伝/kuden] the various Chinese scripts [内畔戦, 内歩進, 内範置] are not known to be original or reliable and its katakana [ナイファンチン, ナイハンチ] is only a sound syllabary with no affixed meaning. In Japanese it’s been written 鉄騎 [pronounced Tekki] and 騎馬立ち [pronounced Kiba-dachi] used in Shotokan…after the fact!
It’s been described as being old and predating typical kata such as Sanchin and Seisan, which were historically often the first kata learned in old-school practices. The theory of its purpose has been described as being developed to fight with one’s back up against a wall and hillside to stepping “correctly” in the trenches of a rice paddy to balancing oneself on a ledge in a high stance, low posture, knees in, knees out, toes in and/or feet out and literally everything in between. It has been described as a hard/external-style and/or a soft/internal-style, for fighting sideways, as Iron horse-posture training, and as an esoteric practice, too. And, there are no shortage of videos exampling how the routine is performed [“correctly”] by various styles to say nothing of the myriad application theories extant on [Sensei] Youtube… everybody and their brother has “an opinion,” on it. Many of my colleagues have also written in an effort to clarify some of its ambiguity.
Notwithstanding, the ambiguity remains intact, and yet, in spite of this uncertainty one thing we can be certain of [by way of cross-comparative analyses… which I have done in the past in various places in Fujian Province] is that many of its individual techniques example those extant in several southern Chinese progenitor disciplines, which are widely known for their close-range clinch and impact manoeuvres [i.e. methods/laws of using close-range or “inside” fighting skills]. Therefore, it might be more pragmatic to simply think of it as the law[s] of “inside fighting” …
If this is the case [and I believe that it is] then, perhaps it is a distortion of the original Chinese term 内法 pronounced Nèifa in Chinese meaning inside 内 and law[s] 法 i.e, the inside law[s]. If this then was subsequently attached [as a suffix] to the art of fighting, which historically had been known in Okinawa as “Te” 手 it would then become 内法手 and pronounced Nèifate [or Nèifandi]. However, in Uchinaguchi [the native Okinawan language] I learned that the honorific for Te/手 was ‘nchi [written in katakana like this ンチ] . Therefore, the term 内法手 would be pronounced Nèifanchi and make a whole lot more sense to me.
See Andi Quast’s work here
http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=1568 and
http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=7213
