That of course does not mean it is truth, just what it is a tool to perhaps understand the past.
Let us look back to the time when the practice was named Ti or Toudi. Now a distant past.
The bushi of Okinawa were in service to the county and the families had what appears to be 5 different roles.
One of those glimpses of those traditions came from the book “The Secret Martial Arts of Ryukyu”.
This is what I found.
“ The martial artists (bushi) of the Ryukyu can be divided into five distinct groups.
First of all, the Shuri bushi, who were in charge of protecting Shuri Castle.
Next, the Tomari bushi, who were in charge of domestic law enforcement.
Third ,the Naha bushi, who were in chages of protecting the Chinese envoys (Suppushi) as well as the tribute ships sent from Ryukyu to China.
Next were the Udun bushi, who were involved in the politics of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Finally, the bushi of Naha’s Kume Village, who were in the service of Chinese immigrants.”
Their study was to enter service of their family. A tool necessary for them to fulfill their role. It was not for physical development nor was it for self defense, though the practices did offer that.
It was what they could fall back on in their service for their family.
The instructors were most likely long term members of those bushi families. Who earned the trust of the families because of their service, because of their proven abilities and because of their proven ability to share what was essential for the members to rely on.
Undoubtedly most of them were acquaintances with each other. And their programs were was required to enter service trained with basic skills.
Further training likely came from other members with the same bushi roles.
They were not systems as we think of them today.
Those instructors likely had only a part of the responsibility in the choosing of who would fill their role for the following generation.
Instead it was likely they understood the same process to select the next instructor would be used by the same senior members of the Bushi as was done for them.
The importance of the role was not held by one individual for it affected the future of the entire clan.
Now contrast that with what developed for karate over the past 100 years. Slowly that changed, systems formed, instructors were developed by the senior instructor.
A very different process from what the original idea probably was.
1 comment:
What Pre 1900 Ti/Toudi looked like after one was trained.
Let u continue our small exercise in logic. That of course does not mean it is truth, just what it is a tool to perhaps understand the past.
Let us look back to the time when the practice was named Ti or Toudi. Now a distant past.
The Bushi of Okinawa were in service to the county and the families had what appears to be 5 different roles.
One of those glimpses of those traditions came from the book “The Secret Martial Arts of Ryukyu”. This is what I found.
“ The martial artists (bushi) of the Ryukyu can be divided into five distinct groups.
First of all, the Shuri bushi, who were in charge of protecting Shuri Castle.
Next, the Tomari bushi, who were in charge of domestic law enforcement.
Third ,the Naha bushi, who were in charges of protecting the Chinese envoys (Suppushi) as well as the tribute ships sent from Ryukyu to China.
Next were the Udun bushi, who were involved in the politics of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Finally, the bushi of Naha’s Kume Village, who were in the service of Chinese immigrants.”
We do not know the members of those families, nor the varied roles they held in their lives of service. At best we can but surmise they had at least one thing in common their training in their group Ti/Toudi. And when they finished their training they were not being trained to be instructors or masters but they were but an adapt of their group as far as Ti/Toudi went.
They likely also had additional family training to prepare them for the full time occupation. At least to enter at a beginning level. The key was they all had the core Ti/Toudi training available.
Each group likely was trained to use weapons appropriate to that group. Likewise they likely received lore appropriate to their roles based on past experiences of their group. It is just as likely they trained together to constantly improve their skills to better call on those skills if needed.
The different services also would have used different weapons appropriate for their charges. Then there would be training and more practice involved, surely based on the conditioning their Ti/Toudi training offered. It is likely those skills were not specifically from their initial training. The instructor and their families not wanting to detract from that initial training. Time enough when entering service as an adapt of their art to add the weapon(s) at that time..
Then when service offered a new perspective or a new technique the others felt valuable, they would train that in addition to their studies, it might even be shared with the instructor if it proved useful for later addition to the art.
Surely the systems of Ti/Toudi were live systems open to further growth.
It is likely that none of this was in writing, it was the family business after all, no reason to share it with others.
Then in 1872 this all came to a crashing halt. Japan took over, excited the Okinawan King to Japan proper. The Bushi found themselves unemployed, the Japanese government did not need their services. Further the Japanese Government ended the Bushi stipends (or payment for their services) meaning many of them no longer had income, forcing some of them into poverty scrambling for any work. Essentially most of the Bushi became non-people.
Bluntly there was no longer a reason for their Te/Toudi to exist.
Several other things were happening. Overpopulation meant the Okinawan exporia was beginning. For work people began to move to many places to live.
Okinawan communities became found in Japan, Singapore, Hawaii and South America, among other places. Some of it was because inheritance went to the first son, and the other sons basically got nothing, Another reason to leave Okinawa.
I would imagine the reason Ti/Toudi training continued to exist during that period was more to give the young members of those families a reason to keep the families together, binding them with a common tradition.
From such roots a great new idea sprang forth, to become the coming of Karate.
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