Chinto - A Fight on a Narrow Bridge or a Narrow Path

Young Lee 1989

 

On first take it makes sense, there were stories of Karate-ka having fights on a bridge. In fact one variation I have heard has kata Chinto being used to conclude a ninja jumping at you out of a tree at the bridge’s end. The story should not be interpreted as Chinto is for bridge fighting, but it’s movements could be used in such restricted conditions.

 

When I was a beginner in Salisbury I often watched the brown belts lay two bo in the floor at parallel angles to then perform Chinto between those two bo. But Chinto was not my study then and I did not understand why, just observed them doing so.

Chinto is interesting because the three basic variants are using similar technique. The embusen between those lineages is more the difference than the techniques.

 

The Itosu lineage does Chinto on a 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock line.

The Kyan lineage does Chinto on a 45 degree angle from 10 o’clock to 4 o’clock.

The Tomari lineage does Chinto on a 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock line.

 

Yet the bridge does not use those angles, instead it is how you would orient yourself on the bridge to begin the techniques that sets the line.

 

A Okinawan bridge

  

My study finds Chinto among the most advanced Okinawan kata. The more so because one of its primary weapons, the use of turning, is so often obscured when people work the applications of the kata.

 

A bridge on the other hand does not seem to indicate turning is an important consideration, because the bridge is to cross the body of water or the deep canyon. And if you make a mistake in ‘reality’ that mistake could mean you fall of the bridge.

 

Of course we don’t fight on bridges or fall off them, just a potential reason to be more exact.

 

As I use the story for my students I go beyond the use of the kata for fighting on a bridge or narrow path. I then urge them to consider what that would mean. Safety would be to remain on the center-line of the bridge, for being forced to the outside might mean you could be pushed off the bridge.

 

To do this you must perform Chinto using very tight turns. In Isshinryu’s Chito you move off the center-line for one section but then return for the rest of the kata. That concept of working the center-line also helps you focus on the turns at a more precise level, crafting a stronger tool for the eventual study of turning as a weapon.

 

Actually in my Scranton days I used to take my students to McDade Park outside Scranton, where there was a small bridge over a culvert and have them perform Chinto keeping to the center-line of the bridge. I recall my instructors in Salisbury, Md. Placing two bo’s on the floor to represent a bridge as you would practice the kata. On occasion I’ve also done the same.

 

In my Derry years, with many summer outdoor training sessions on my property I’ve had students perform Chinto on a very narrow path between several bushes, and in the rows between the blueberry bushes in my back row. Then when they did not conclude in the beginning position I would show them how that worked for me and did it that way.

 

It’s fun if they have problems staying in the center to watch them see me do it that way exactly.

Precision in movement is the key to learning how to use the act of turning as a weapon.

 

The secret is of course while most of the kata can remain on the center-line, for one row of techniques you are a bit off the center-line but then the next turn puts you back on it.

 

You have to be very precise and learning to do so gives you more control of the act of turning to eventually become a weapon in its own right.

 

Another practice is when two people perform Chinto-Chinto at the same time but in opposite directions. This requrires them to understand the kata without using visual landmarks to establish their place as they perform.

 

Mike Cassidy and Young Lee 1989 Chinto-Chinto

Note in the aspect of turning Chinto to become a weapon, Chinto can be also paired with Goju Seipai to make a complementary study of turning technique. Of course this is a subsidary study beyond standard Isshinryu.

 

I would like to end this for those who discount kata stories. I have no idea if the concept of Chinto meaning a fight on a bridge is reality, nor do I care, I see this story as a useful tool to instruct the student towards a higher level of performance. That was always sufficient for me.