Bushi No Te Isshinryu and Kobudo

 

My own instruction covered a rather brief training time with Charles Murray. From 1977  to 1979. I had most of by the time I reached black belt and the remainder very quickly thereafter. His versions of the Isshinryu kobudo forms and the Bando Staff form, the Horseman’s Footsoldiers form. Then I was on my own.

 

I had no material showing me the kata I had studied back then. That meant I spent a lot of time on constant training not to forget anything. Then about a year later I remember the time I began Shi Shi Bo and ended up with Urashie. My brain was twisted at some point and I remember it took me a week of work before I got them straightened out.

 

What I did was use tournaments forcing myself to do them as a way to force my memory. I began with Tokomeni No Kon, then used Chantan Yara No Sai to switch efforts.  ( Charles had used Chantan as my first kobudo kata. He had studied it on Okinawa and I always felt that was also his own effort to remember it by teaching me then having me to run the form with). That was not an option with me, having no advanced students at that time.

 

Very quickly I realized what incredible people I was competing against in black belt kobudo. So I made a decision and made Shi Shi No Kon No Dai my primary completion form for the next 5 years.

 

Then on those occasions I would visit Reese Rigby, and where he would have me run all my forms, his own efforts with the Bando Staff form (which he often used for Open competition) really helped me refining it.

 

I had success at an IKC shiai in the weapons division.

 

So after years of seeing judges see me doing Shi Shi or Chantan Yara, I made the decision to switch to the Bando staff form. And after several tries I won a tournament with it.

 

There after not feeling much need to compete further. Whatever reason I had to chase the circle in the sky, that reason dissipated. Perhaps it was all of the judges had students of their own in the division. But the need to compete was gone.

On a personal level I had acquired perhaps 30 other kobudo kata. Many of them were very nice, but I came to realize does one really require 20 bo kata, etc. And I cut back to the Isshinryu/Bando weapons kata I had, and several of the Sutrisno kata (kama and tanto) for my own studies.

 

 

Then at the end of 1984 I moved to New Hampshire and starting January of the next year began my youth program again at the Derry Boys and Girls Club. Shortly thereafter I also began a small adult program.

 

I made a few changes, added subsidiary non-Isshinryu kata to the kyu curricula, imo to strengthen the beginning training for youth (and slow down the progress to Isshinryu). Then other subsidiary kata in order for my students to have some tactile knowledge of what other systems used. And of course requiring more time to continue skill development.

 

I had great respect for the Isshinryu kobudo kata, and believed the stronger, more advanced the students were when they learned them, the better their kobudo kata would be. However, recognizing that handling skill with a weapon also had value I chose to either teach the Bando Staff form The Horseman’s Form or a shortened version of the Bando short stick form. Even on occasion both forms were taught to the student.

 

Both were forms I had great faith in.

 

The Bando staff form as having many of the other Okinawan kata movements, that I had seen. That form with the remaining Isshinryu bo kata, would IMO give my students most of the skills with the study of Okinawan bo.

 

The shorted Bando Stick form was the most practical weapon form for current self defense with any weapon I know.

 

Then gradually at ShoDan the student would be introduced to the Isshinryu weapons form.

I also retained and offered a few of my other weapon studies.

 

The order I used, is unique to my school.

Shodan –

the complete Bando short stick study

Isshinryu Tokomeni No Kon

 

Nidan -

            Isshinryu Chantan Yara No Sai

            Isshinryu Urashie No Bo

    wansu No tonfa

 

Sandan –

            Isshinryu Kusanku Sai *

            Isshinryu Shi Shi No Kon No Dai

            Chia fa (I always stuck to the name that I learned the kata from)

 

Instructor -  These forms use a unique Sutrisno small weapon handling practice.

                   Requiring great skill to work the continual hand weapon shifts

            Chosen No Kama Sho and Dai

            Tanto jutsu

 

Then about 1995 I developed an personal why the weapons of the Isshinryu system did not need more kata. In fact it did not even need that much except to keep pushing the mind.

I knew that there was no practical reason to ever use bo, sai, or tonfa.  The modern world did really not allow their being carried around.

 

The value of their study lie in the value they added as technique force enhancers for empty hand use. But their use over the students decades, allowed the aging student to retain power and skill in their technique.

 

I observed my friend Ernest Rothrocks skill development over the decades in his Eagle Claw study. Until his grip alone lived up to the title Eagle Claw with the pain that grip allowed. That system studied over 50 different weapons, each requiring very different handling skills all of which contributed to his force enhancement.

 

Karate not using the same skills still could develop the same potential.

 

So Bo developed the focus and power behind its strikes.

Sai developed different power, such as blocking using the same power of that block with a sai in the hand.

Tonfa would develop different powers. Mainly in the way only the grip  controls the tonfa. That skill increasing grip strength.

 

The key was not how many forms one knew, but that keeping up their practice for decades continued to add strength and power in your kata technique, at the same time age begins to lessen your potential.

 

Together they continued to forge ability as age continued.

 

Students individually chose how far they wanted to develop their karate.

 

All dan levels were lifetime studies, where one studies was very much their choice.

But with the study of Kobudo, all of the studies could assist the student potential to keep increasing. The NiDan was not superior to the SanDan. Nor was the instructor superior to the others, they were just very different paths.

 

Full utilization of whatever path you followed was still the goal. One path was not more important than the other.

 

Then other things happened, and I had developed disabilities to work with.

 

If anything my kobudo became more important.

 

I began to focus my personal effort on the short weapons, including studies in the short hand held stick.

 

Other instructors have taken different paths.

 

Some happy with Isshinryu alone.

Some studying other kobudo studies.

Choices depending on availability, how much you choose to spend, What time you can afford your students on studies not Isshinru,

 

There is no clear answer.

 

Following our own path we move on.

 

 

I never used my taping to film myself with much kobudo. Most of my time was spent on my students studies. But here are some stills from my personal wansu NO tonfa exercise.