Hi! I have a question regarding a number system that I’m unfamiliar with and am having trouble finding information on. The only place I can find these numbers is in the names of karate kata, so I’m assuming that they are related to Japanese in some way but have had no luck.
It’s possible that the interpretations I’m finding are wrong, but the terms I have appear to be sei (十), pai (八) , and ru (六).
Examples of kata using these terms include Nipaipo (二八歩), Sanseiru (三十六), Seipai (十八), and Paipuren (八步連).
If anyone can push me in the right direction I’d really appreciate it!
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I just tried googling for 三十六 with the kana reading さんせいる (_sanseiru_), and I found a bunch of hits related to the game サクラ大戦 (_Sakura Taisen_) that came out in the late 90s on the Sega Saturn system. Apparently the reading should be _sanseirū_ with a long “u” sound. In all the instances I found, the reading was given explicitly in kana, indicating that Japanese readers would not ordinarily expect the 三十六 spelling to be pronounced as _sanseirū_ — and, indeed, the expected reading is _sanjūroku_ instead.
Looking in dictionary references, there is no record anywhere I can find of a Japanese reading of _sei_ for the kanji 十. The closest I can find is in modern Jin Chinese pronunciation _seh^5_, as we can see [here in the Wiktionary entry](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/十#Chinese). The Jin pronunciation for 六 is [apparently](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/六#Chinese) _liou^3_ or _lueh^4_, which might just equate to a pronunciation of _rū_ after borrowing into Japanese.
If memory serves, at least some karate traditions might originate in Okinawa, and it’s possible that these odd number readings might also trace to Okinawan rather than Japanese.