Kobudo II

When we think about Kobudo today perhaps we imagine a day when that weapon in our hand had an actual purpose, either in sudden attack or sincere defense. Perhaps….

Yet today, in many cases that time has gone. The instrument still retains that older potential, but except for special circumstances, they no longer fit the landscape of attack or defense.

Never in decades of Bo, Kama, Sai or Tonfa practice have I expected to ever really need those skills.

The weapons are now mass produced to standards that likely had little bearing on the original versions. When Charles Murray trained in Okinawa in 1971 he saw Bo that were close to 2” thick, and if we followed the older standards of Bo they would be at least a ½ foot to a foot over our head.

Rather than be concerned if one system of study is more original than another, whether this kata is an older version or a new one, whether the weapon is perfectly balanced or just one hand crafted with all the imperfection that may have meant, let’s look at a few issues beyond those discussions.

Each weapon is a complete study in it’s own right, it’s own complexity and with it’s own underlying principles of usage. Kata, with all the depth that it offers, two person drills with the added skills of learning to control a point in space hardly would have touched what would be involved in actual usage.

The study of weaponry first begins with the understanding that you’re using the weapon for a force multiplier. It hits or strikes harder than your hand or foot. It may be shattered, but it does not feel pain, yet it can translate force delivered to it to become a source of pain for the wielder too. In fact it is a fulcrum between the wielder and the target.

Other aspects of force multiplication are present too. The use of the body to move the weapon more effectively is another force multiplier. The swinging, the torque and twist of the body, the knee release and even the movement forward, reward and/or around the target all become other force multiplier concepts, that in turn combine with each other.

There is so much more than just wielding the weapon. There is the strategy and the use of tactics involved.

One example is the study of the angle of entry into an attack

The link to the YouTube Seikichi Uehara demonstration, looking strange to many of our eyes, may well be a study of angles of entry into attacks

It's interesting how much isn't being discussed isn't it.