Back in 1980, at his invitation, I began traveling to Hazleton ot regularly train with Tristan Sutrisno. We had become friends while competing at various tournaments and I was interested at what he revealed about his art. While known as a Shotokan stylist his training was way beyond any Shotokan I had ever seen.
One example on my 3rd visit he was showing us how to walk silently through a woodland at night. Basically how to step and not make a sound. I had no reason where this came from and only years later did it make sense.
Eventually I came to realize the technique was identical to the t'ai chi stepping I was taught, However that stepping was not used for that purpose in t'ai chi.
So one day in 82 or 93 he told me he was forming a Inter-Martial Arts group to hold a annual camp where the members could share their training. He referred it as the Bushi No Te group. He invited me and other instructors to attend and join the fun. At my recommendation he invited Ernest Rothrock too. I was training with both at the same time, along with other instructors.
Note I had previously called my own program as Bushi No Te Isshinryu, borrowing the name from Ginchen Funakoshi's book as an earlier name for karate. Tristan use of Bushi No Te had nothing to do with my program naming.
So the weekend came and many groups got together. During Friday and Saturday there were many clinics and everyone seemed to be having fun.
Then Saturday afternoon he described the war game we would be having that night. It seems it went back to his Indonesian roots, where various groups would form 2 'armies' and they would have an annual war game.
The origin of that War Game partially went back to his father's own experiences. As a physician, the Japanese drafted him around 1935 to be a doctor in the Japanese Navy. At that time Indonesia was a vassal state of Japan.
This meant he had to go to he Japanese Naval War College to qualify as an officer, for all Naval doctors were officers. While attending the War College he studied Shotokan under Funakoshi and Aikido under one of Usheiba's students. He already had previous studies in his family art of Tjimande.
Just prior to WWII Japan freed Indonesia. Later Achmed Sutrisno fought against the Japanese during the war in the underground. After the war more combat against the Dutch who tried to reclaim Indonesia.
Thus began the Indonesian schools have a annual war game. Of course quite different from what Tristan was holding, abet a link to his own traditions.
In Indonesia the game lasted a week. Essentially a game of capture the flag where any of the training one possessed could be used (of course not to kill or maim). Additionally if caught you would be thrown in a pit for the rest of the week, unless your friends rescued you or the game was completed.
They took this very serious, trying to keep older skills alive in modern students.
Now Tristan's game was nowhere as extreme. Essentially you would be sneaking around the old camp ground and the associated woodlands, attempting to tag an opponent with a weapon (not using martial power). If tagged one was 'dead' for the rest of the game and you were placed in a neutral area (heaven) for the rest of the game.
So you were trying to get them before they got you, and attempting to find and get their flag to win.
Tristan explained that he had a training practice to get everyone in the spirit of the game. He led all of us to a brook running alongside the camp. There we found two ropes strung between two trees. One rope low and one rope high.
The drill was to hold your weapon and cross the ropes. Walking on the lower rope and holding onto your weapon and holding on to the top rope during your crossing. It sounds easier than it was.
Going one at a time some made it across. Some fell off the ropes and landed in the water and there were those who spun to end on the ropes parallel to the stream.
When it was my turn I made sure I centered my weight on the bottom rope then slowly made my way across the stream. Of course for me with my larger size the bottom rope descended until I was almost in the water. But I did make it.
Thinking about that event made me realize how little out kobudo training bears an resemblance to the actuality of real weapons combat.
How likely is it you will be attacked in an open space or a clear room. The normal training never included what happens in a possible environment. Say in a crowd, or on a forest, or at night any number of possible situations.
Can you swing your weapon freely? Will someone get in the way. Have you considered what revibration will mean when you strike someone. How do you handle carrying the weapon say through the woods? And these are but a few of actual possibilities.
Does your training prepare you for those situations?
Far from a silly game at night. Something to think about.
Just one Saturday night in August many, many years ago.
Footnote:
i trained with Tristan for over 10 years and every session with him I learned a different aspect to his art. Think about that. I really only know a small portion of his art. There is no one in karate I have heard of on Okinawa or in the States who had such a vast range of arts at his command.
Even today, including my voluminous notes and extensive videos of his training, I continue to discover new things I did not notice before.
It was most akin to the range of arts I studied with Ernest Rothrock. Which was just as voluminous and I only experienced a small part of his art. It was interesting how they came from vastly different directions but possessed almost the same depth in the knowledge from their arts.
I am most fortunate to have these experiences.
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