Chinkicki-n or Chinkichikiti by Robert Orozco

 

Hello Everyone,

 

Going through my files I found an old post made my Robert Orozco.

It is worth reading. Among other accomplishments he does read and speak the Okinawan language.

I hope that everyone is doing well.

 

 In the Okinawan language the verb to Pinch is Chinchiki-n and the gerund form is Chinchikiti.

 

Also, the Okinawan verb to grip is niji-in and the gerund form of this is nijiti.  I learned from my teacher that there are parts in kata that contain pinches or grabs/grips of various parts of the body. Included in these were neck pinches as well as side and specific muscle pinches and grips.

 

 Please note that these were not just random pinching/gripping areas as many of them if done correctly will cause serious damage especially around the neck.

 

The first kata that I became aware of these particular things from my teacher was in the kata Shiso-chin which was sometime in the early 90's. Of course, as time progressed I would learn that there was even more of this contained in other kata.

 

Some of the gripping was done with the pinkie and others were done with other fingers. The same was with the pinching. There were various ways to pinch as well and this had to do with various hand formations. 

 

One of the techniques I learned in shiso-chin was a gripping near the clavicle. I later seen other people do this as part of their bunkai but there was a big difference.

 

When I seen other people perform something similar the "uke" would generally lean backward however when my teacher performed this technique the "uke" moved down and forward. I once asked if these meanings were all the same for all four movements since they all contained what looked like a palm strike.

 

However, I was soon to find out that because the movement was performed seeming the same way there was difference based on the side of the "uke" being attacked and this also changes according to the movement of the stance.

 

(Note: There are at least two different types of zenkutsu dachi in Shisochin, the angle of the front foot has a great influence on how much one can or can't turn their gamaku)

 

I will be concentrating on some translations this weekend so I may not post anything until next week. I hope everyone has a safe and peaceful weekend.

 

Respectfully,

Robert Orozco