A Tonfa training exercise – Wansu NO Tonfa

 

 

 Long ago, when I was a brown belt, the Isshinryu tonfa kata was not in my instructor’s training. But when Charles Murray borrowed Sensei Lewis’ movies of Shimabuku Sensei for study of his bo kata, one night he told me he wanted me to take his movie editor (which can view a movie frame by frame) and the Shimabuku film, and teach myself the tonfa kata shown, then I was to teach it to him.

 

This was long before there was anything else available, before VHS, DVD and of course today’s You Tube.

 

So as Charles was training me (then close to 5 days of nights a week) I just did as I was told.

I just viewed that form over and over, slowly working out what I could understand. I went crazy over that form, and somehow I acquired something.

 

Then I showed Charles what I had worked out.  In his days with Mr. Lewis in the 60’s it was not taught, for Sensei did not study it on Okinawa (perhaps because Shimabuku Sensei had studied it with Taira Shinken himself), nor did Charles study it the year he was stationed in Okinawa in 1972 and was able to train under Shimabuku Sensei also).

 

Then again what I showed Charles, he was executing it better than I in a week.  But that didn’t bother me as I was a brown belt, and he was a 3^rd dan.

 

After my ShoDan examination, in a short time he returned to the USAF for as a life career choice.

 

On my own I just practiced and practiced. It became one of my regular practices.

 

On a personal level I was a bit unconvinced it was how I would choose to use the tonfa myself.

 

Several years later my wife and I took a camping vacation at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Out campground was amidst tall pines and very beautiful. Each evening I would be outside our campground working on my kata. I was then and always of the opinion vacations were always places to train. And that I did everywhere, camping at Niagra Falls, on a vacation at Disney World. Continually using any opportunity to train.

 

So I was practicing that kata, it was going well, but I continued to have thoughts that was not how I would chose to use tonfa.

 

I then went the next step, I decided to work up a form how I would choose to use the tonfa.

I was not creating it to compete with and had no thought of teaching it (for I was only teaching youth at that time . Just for me and me alone.

 

In those days there was less kobudo training in any tradition for many people. And often they would use other forms with a chosen weapon. I had seen many versions of Empi with weapons. Sai, Kama etc.

 

So I decided I would use  my Isshinryu Wansu as my base kata. And then I worked out what I wanted the techniques to be using the tonfa. Several days later I was finished.

 

I even gave the exercise a name, it was Wansu NO Tonfa.

 

Then roll forward several decades.

 

I had adult students and as they became advanced and skilled I wanted to share the tonfa I had originally studied. Not for tournaments, just to acquire skill with the tonfa.

 

One day I began with my Wansu NO Tonfa. Eventually when they had develop some skill with that exercise, I then introduced them to the Isshinryu Chia Fa tonfa that I had worked out long ago.

 

And they too got the form.

 

But after watching the Chia Fa tonfa so many times originally, I have never been able to view it again, those memories flood back every time, I never cared if what I got was the same as what Shimabuku Sensei did. Of course he was not my instructor, and I just followed instructions. Whether I was doing the same thing as he did, was not a concern, I just followed what I believe I saw.

 

I never remembered taking time to videotape their Chia Fa form, or even their Wansu No Tonfa.

 

Many decades later I decided to film myself doing Wansu NO Tonfa, for their reference. It is not a perfect performance, nor was that ever my intent. I see video as showing a step everyone should move beyond..That is how this video came about.

 

And I did film some of my students working that exercise.

 

Time rolls forward, I have located a video, long, long forgotten, where those students performed their Chia Fa for a visiting Ernie Rothrock. I had forgotten that.

 

----- Addendum

 

I had been working on my Chia Fa kata for over 20 years, and during that time  I was not associated with anyone else in Isshinryu. I had always assumed Chia Fa was the correct form, simply because Shimabuku Sensei did it.

 

Only when I joined the internet did I learn there was any controversy about the form.

 

I know a tonfa form was one of his studies with Taira Shinken.

 

 

 

It is different from the tonfa form Shimabuku Sensei did, his Chiafa,

 

 

I also did not realize others were holding the opinion he was not correct on the film, or that the name was incorrectly labeled.

 

1. Perhaps the only tonfa form Shimabuku Sensei taught was Hamahiga no Tonfa.

2. Perhaps he was older and less than correct.

3. Perhaps it was mislabeled.

 

Realistically, I had no way of ascertaining the truth of any of that.

 

But I also saw that was being used as a Isshinryu loyality test to determining who was doing true Isshinryu. I did not care for that in the least bit.

 

Then I realized

 

1. I was never trained by Shimabuku Tatsuo. Just by my instructors.

2. I taught myself whatever I did from that 1966 film,

3. What reality was did not concern me in the least, I was not trying to live up to any standards but those shown to my by my instructors.

4. What we did was sufficient for my needs and my students.

 

Whatever was reality was not what I was doing. I was just following what had been shared with me, and my lead after that.

 

But this is also interesting

 

Shimabuku   Tonfa vs Bo demonstration