Kata in kyokushin?

[Mr Punch]

I just found out kyokushin had kata, which surprised me because I've met and sparred and trained with a fair few kyokushin guys and I'd never heard of it.

I'd always thought that Oyama was against kata since he was into making his karate more practical and realistic.

Anyone with any experience care to elaborate? How many kata? Are they useful? What do they show you? Could you learn it without them?

There's a shidokan school down the end of the street I've just moved into, so it may be worth checking out.

[TenTigers]

they do pinan kata, naihanchi, (don't know about the others like jion,empi,kanku-dai,bassai-dai,etc but I've seen vid of Oyama doing naihanchi) and of course-sanchin!

[Ben Gash]

They don't look a million miles away from Shotokan or Wado Kata.