Kusanku no Kun

At the Broken Bokken we have begun to play with the kata Kusanku, one of Karate's longest katas, as a Bo Kata. This kata has been an enigma for me for many years despite having a great number of bunkai.

As a lot of kata do, it made me question its effectiveness as an open hand kata. I am aware of the wide variety of bunkai, but when I began playing with it as a Bo Kata it began 'speaking to me'. Those damn voices again.

Anyone else out there practice Kusanku (Kushanku, Kwanku, Kanku) also as a Bo Kata? I am looking for some validation that others see this too, plus to create a dialog and share our findings of bunkai, etc. If you don't, but do know a variation of Kusanku (of which there are plenty), play along with us and share your findings. We love to play in our sandbox called Karate.

I know Isshin-ryu practices Kusanku with Sai. Some Isshin-ryu use the kicks and other don't when they practice Kusanku no Sai. We are going to experiment as well and again, play with Kusanku, but will keep intact the integrity of the Kata as we know it.

Kusanku is supposed to be the name of the artist the kata was named after. Anyone know of an English translation of Kusanku? It's probably Bill, but names are important. For instance, Oyama can be translated as Grand Mountain. Just curious.

Thanks...
Shinzen