My Kobudo Traditions

 

At this time it does seem as I’ve been practicing kobudo as long as I’ve practiced karate, almost 30 years.  In fact in my adult program, all who are long term practitioners, we may spend as much or more time in weapons study as in karate practice.

 

It gives me pause to reflect on those studies.

 

Some Historical Perspective – a Brief Pause from our Sponsor

 

On the whole the Okinawan Karate traditions were as separate from the Okinawan Kobudo traditions as they were from the Okinawan Sumo traditions.  Some crossed those paths, but until the modern era (after WWII) there does not seem to be suggestion that these arts intermingled. 

 

In the 1930’s Shinken Tara, Moden Yabiku, Funakoshi Ginchen and Mabuni Kenwa all contributed one way or another to the rising study of Kobudo in Japan (Funakoshi Sensei conspicuously kept his knowledge out of his developing JKA-Shotokan system, but not the knowledge that he had those studies himself). 

 

Perhaps Shinken Tara best represents the sharing that resulted from those collaborations. He traveled Okinawa wide to learn, and in turn widely shared his arts among the karate groups in the 50’s and 60’s. Much of Isshinryu’s traditions arose from those sharings.

 

I think Shinken’s contribution must not be underestimated, though there is a population that looks down on his kobudo abilities.  He was able to draw together many different kobudo traditions that continue to this day. He didn’t draw distinctions about the right way to do things, instead shared widely his passion. Especially after the war, the martial arts were one thing in Japan and Okinawa that could help restore pride to the practitioner  and didn’t cost anything. The ravaged economy could be set aside and older traditions retained to keep a unique identity.

 

I don’t think there was any intent to preserve these studies as actual weapons systems, except in the development of skill in practice. But they were a pride of something uniquely Okinawan, and that pride drew some karate and kobudo traditions together.

 

Later others such as Soken Hohen, Matayoshi Shinpo, Uehara Shikichi, the Kojo family arts, Yamani family arts and others came to light, but seem to remain separate traditions unique to each practice.  Of course, as in their karate brothers and sisters, the adherents to this day passionately applaud their own system and often decry the others as being less effective. Curious as I think you have to look long and hard to find any of them being actually used in say the past 100 years. But then that may be because they are so effective their practice alone is enough to insure they are never needed.

 

 

 

Isshinryu traditions

 

Out of Isshinryu’s kobudo tradition three weapons were adopted for Isshinryu proper by Shimabuku Tatsuo. They are Bo, Sai and Tonfa.

 

We know Kyan acquired Tokomeni No Kon kata from Tokomeni’s village after his death. That was the only kobodu he practiced as his art.  As in other studies, it may be that Isshinryu’s version is one of several variations on the Tokomeni theme of bo. Other Tokomeni No Kon I’ve seen both resemble and differentiate from the Isshinryu version.

 

In addition Shimabuku Sensei training under Shinken acquired versions of Urashie No Bo and Shi Shi No Kon No Dai.  Both of which represent as serious study of bo as you can find.

 

In the art of Sai at one time Shimabuku Sensei taught what appears to be his own kata, Kyan No Sai. Harrill Sensei when I first met him showed us this form and explained that many people within Isshinryu did not believe him when he told them Shimabuku Sensei taught it. (It was not part of my instructors (Mr. Lewis) training but for 3 months his unit shifted into Japan, and he wasn’t at the dojo the entire time Harrill Sensei was).  It was with joy several years later Harrill Sensei was able to share the 1958 movie with Shimabuku Sensei demonstrating that form. A personal vindication that wasn’t necessary, except for the continual strife that often exists in the Isshinryu community.

 

Apparently Shimabuku Sensei dropped Kyan No Sai when he incorporated it on the ending of Kusanku with his Kusanku Sai kata.  I’ve often seen others use other Isshinryu kata with Sai, such as Seisan or Chinto, I would guess an attempt to expand the Sai kata vocabulary. Apparently Shinken was a supporter of such exercises, believing using a well known embusen allowed the student to concentrate on the weapon. Shinken was known for creating new weapons kata as additional study material.

 

Kusanku Sai offers several interesting thoughts.  It is of course a continuation of Isshinryu’s Kusanku Kata done with Sai.  It is a superb physical training drill in that respect, its length accompanied with the sai handling make it very useful in long term power development.  An interesting aside, Soken Hohen of Matsumura Orthodox Shorin Ryu, was known for teaching a version of Kusanku with the opening movement drawing hair pins from the topknot and then using them to perform the form. You can imagine how driving those pins (or daggers?) into Kusanku technique would be effective. Quite similar to the way the larger Sai would be used too.

 

The senior Sai form in Isshinryu is Chantan Yara No Sai. Chantan Yara came from Shinken’s teachings. Chantan Yara, a renowned Okinawan martial artist, has several other kobudo kata with his name, apparently the same source.  They use Bo and Tonfa if I remember correctly. I find Chantan Yara’s use of the drop to one knee as you punch, punch especially useful in student training.  In this way Isshinryu kobudo enhance the Isshinryu kata technique.

 

Rounding out the Isshinryu kobudo practice we have Tonfa, with Hama Higa No Tonfa and of course it’s Chia Fa cousin.  This likewise came from Shinken.  In fact Shinken included it in his ‘Ryukyu Kobudo Taikan’, the first of an intended 5 volume kobudo encyclopedia, published in 1964. [This has been translated by Patrick McCarthy as ‘Ancient Okinawan Martial Arts 1 – Koryu Uchinadi’, but publisher issues didn’t allow Shinken’s photo’s to be used, and instead McCarthy provide the photographs.]  One of Shinken’s students, Inoue Motokatsu, in 1972 published a 3 volume set ‘Ryukyu Kobudo’, that did include the entire (or at least the public) Shinken curriculum.

 

Sometime it would be interesting to understand how the kobudo practice in Isshinryu tradition was transmitted across the states.  Back when my original instructor trained, many of the forms were not in the practice, or perhaps he just wasn’t exposed to them.

 

Then the ‘famous’ 1966 movie created by Armstrong showed Shimabuku Sensei going through the movements. In many cases that may be one of the sources of transmission.

 

There is no question these were intended to be a complete martial practice. The components one would expect, strong basics, combinations, and even developmental forms are lacking, in Isshinryu formally.  One would not seriously believe they were being practiced as weapons systems. The bo, sai and tonfa, all have antecedents in Chinese, Indonesian, and other practices throughout the far East, all as weapons, not farm tools.  But as firearms were the state of the military from the mid 1800’s forward, their usage would seem to indicate more a desire to retain the physical training these practices represent.

 

On the other hand there really isn’t a handicap because of what isn’t there either. While some kobudo groups have developmental forms, others didn’t do so. Shinken was known for believe 3 kata with one weapon was enough, and he didn’t drill on basics either.  Consider a similar argument, you can’t really learn Kusnaku unless you study the 5 Pinan kata, which were developed as precursors for Kusankyu. Sounds reasonable except in the Kyan and Shimabuku traditions, the Pinan kata aren’t studied, and last I looked, Isshinryu’s Kusanku was not less because of their absence.

 

It all comes down to a point of view.

 

Especially when one is conditioned to one system of training, then all others seem incorrect. Pick any one, the condition does exist.  If you have a good instructor and you’re working to follow their way all the others seem lacking.

That should then be compounded with the fact that nobody really can prove any of the training is superior to the other’s. They’re not used except for training.

 

 

 

Training memories

 

I clearly remember my own days beginning my study of kobudo. Charlie told me to get a bo and sai, and so I traveled down to Philadelphia to shop at Asian World, in their old location up on North Broad Street, in a very small location.  I picked up a bo I still have, one made of an incredibly dense wood that feels as if there’s a lead lining inside.  I also picked up a pair of steel sai, the ones I also use to this day. Not near Okinawan in shape, they’ve taken a long beating and keep on sticking.

 

Charlie Murray began my training with Chantan Yara No Sai. He studied it on Okinawa in 1970 and part of his goal was to both train me and use the practice to get better at it himself.   Then he taught me Tokomeni No Kon, and Kusanku Sai.  I think this was done in a space of 3 or 4 months.

 

I don’t know how others felt about their training, The weapons study seemed more real, as if an older link to the arts was being shared.

 

Then I had a chance to first compete in kobudo at a tournament in Wilkes Barre, Pa.  I remember it well as there wasn’t a brown belt division and I was thrown into the black belt division with individuals like the Michak brothers and Cindy Rothrock.  Ernest Rothrock and George Dillman were among the judges. I competed with Chantan Yara No Sai, and got through the form.

 

Afterwards Dillman approached me, saying “I know Isshinryu and you didn’t make any mistakes, but it was BORING!”  Now he was likely correct, but at the same time it was the confidence builder one should share with a brown belt competing with people light years above their level.  And catty remark in return, I’ve seen enough of the bad kata his own students have done over the years. But then I guess that’s ok, for that’s exactly what he teaches these days, form doesn’t matter.

 

I remember calling Mr. Lewis that night and telling him what Mr. Dillman had said. His response “Sheet, Victor, you should have just hauled off and punched George in the mouth!”, in his best Eastern Shore accent. Alas I was to learn those were wise words towards attitudes one faced in open competition in those days. It was too much for a brown belt to know that Mr. Lewis was 100% right. Individuals who don’t take the time to encourage everyone to work for their best are better off with fat lips!  A missed opportunity after all.

 

A number of months later Charles returned home to visit and brushed up on Urashie and Shi Shi while visiting Mr. Lewis and Mr. Rigby’s schools. He returned with Mr. Lewis copy of the Shimabuku movie and that was when he gave me the movie and a movie editor and told me to learn Chia Fa, which I did. Then in turn I had to teach it to Charles, which I did.

 

That December he and I attended the IKA Shiai and we entered our kobudo divisions. He won the black belt division and I won  brown belt division with Chantan Yara No Sai. Could life get better?

 

Finally preparing for my Sho Dan examination, he taught me Urahsie No Bo.

 

Those times were challenging. I was training with him 4 to 6 days a week and he kept the pressure on me.

 

During the clinic Harold Mitchum Sensei held the day of my Sho Dan examination, Charles had me perform Chia Fa for everyone.  Mitchum Sensei told us he hadn’t studied tonfa on Okinawa.

 

After my examination I only had a few more short months with Charles, and about a week or so before he had to leave he began teaching me Shi Shi No Kon No Dai, the conclusion of which I stood outside in rolling thunderstorms learning while he was packing.

 

Then I was on my own. On rare occasions Charles and I would get together but as friends, not as instructor/student.  When I regularly visited Reese Rigby, another of my Seniors, every visit was a test. Reese would take me on the floor in the afternoon and put me through my paces, I’m sure seeing if I still knew Isshinryu. In time that passed and when we trained together it became more me sharing where my studies were leading me.

 

His Isshinryu wasn’t the same as mine, in keeping with the diversity of traditions from Mr. Lewis’ dojo. But Reese wasn’t testing the right version, instead whether I could take the floor and do it.

 

Beyond and in Isshinryu years 5 to 10

 

Combing that with my regular competition in those days, my edge was kept sharp, my instructor myself.  The truth was in that 5 or 6 years I was pushing the envelope. My students only took two nights a week, and with my wife’s evenings at the Y, I had unlimited time to train, and anyplace I could work up a sweat you’d find me.

 

From Ernest Rothrock I began the study of Yang Tai Chi sword, an extremely complex practice that I still sweat at. He explains the Chinese consider the straight sword the most complex of their weapon systems followed by the spear. I think they’re on the money on that one, and at this stage, in my declining years I am only beginning to understand the relationship of sword to Tai Chi.

 

Then in my other studies with him I was shown a several short staff forms (based on the sword movement), a beginning Chinese staff set, and three sectional staff (a really great way to bop yourself in the head with a ton of wood and steel.

 

Under Tris Sutrisno I began the study of Chosen No Kama Sho and Chosen No Kama Dai, O’Sensei no Kon, O’Sensei no Kon Sho, O’Sensei no Kon Dai and was exposed to O’Sensei no Kon Dai Ichi. He also shared tanto drills and a tanto form. The drills are based on some Japanese sword tradition in his repertoire, and quite interesting study.

 

Reese Rigby shared instruction in the Bando Staff set, the Horseman’s Footsoldiers Form, and the Stick set, the Hidden Stick (later re-taught at a Bando Summer Camp, by one of their instructors), and a nunchaku form he got from Karl Hovey.

 

Early on one vacation where my wife and I went camping at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, I developed my own Wansu NO tonfa kata.  I had seen many competitors take the Wansu derivative kata Empi and turn it into various weapons kata too. What I discovered in my Wansu exercise, was a cleaner way to use the tonfa and I’ve never abandoned that practice. It remains in my dan curricula to this day.

 

In particular Reese shared a staff technique that came from his own Bando training, how to rotate the wrist so the wrist is behind the staff when it strikes, instead of the thumb as we were originally taught. The proof came from striking a heavy bag and you discover how much harder you can strike with that wrist rotation.  It became a paradigm shift in my technique execution.

 

Interestingly years later Reese went with Angi, who did not strike that way. I asked Reese how he was then striking and he had shifted to Angi’s instruction. It’s a good example of the shape of one’s instructors shaping your training after all.

 

From my experience of the Bando Summer Camp I received more of how they study weapons, and impact training is a big part of it.  In stick drills they had us banging away at heavy logs trying to break our sticks (the hardwood ones did shatter, the rattan didn’t).  This wasn’t done casually, instead they use impact training with the weapon (stick and Kukri), heavy impact training, to train their fist, from the inside out. The manner they cut with a stick or Kukri, is the same way they strike with their fist, and roll the punch into the strike. That is why their black belts wear rings on their index finger, rings with a raised nipple. They roll into their strike for pressure point striking in part.

 

They also work the woods, striking trees and bushes. Their training includes the study of contact vibration with their weapon. If you strike something hard can you keep from being hit when the weapons bounces back, and important thing to consider if you’re looking at a weapon as a true weapon.

 

In competition I was up against many skilled competitors. Some of whom were Nationally recognized practitioners. Dale Kirby with his sword. Cindy Rothrock with her entire plethora of weapons, Hidy Ochai and his sword, Gary Michak and his staff, and many others equally skilled in many weapons systems. Competing against them gave me focus to develop my skill as far as I could. After all I only had myself and the competition to push myself along.

 

I discovered how the competition burn created more intense drill than any practice could happen, I also discovered I was a stronger kobudo competitor than a karate kata competitor. With that competition I was also doing lots of judging, and because everyone knew I was teaching youth, I frequently got the youth divisions.

 

Recognizing the problem behind youth kobudo

 

That was where I discovered youth were not physically developed enough to handle kobudo. Even with the best of them, and using light weapons, I realized their physical structure didn’t allow them to control the weapon correctly.  To my eye, they were changing the weapon technique to fit their physical capability, and it was only being done to have another competition division.  Their needs weren’t to master sai, sword, or staff after all, and regardless of the instructor or system of training, I haven’t seen anything in the following decades to change my mind about youth training needs.  And I’ll include Japan at that, once seeing a video on Japanese arts, the youth kobudo school was having exactly the same problems in their young people.

In fact there have been tournaments I’ve left because the travesty was too great.  Once I was juding an early youth weapons division. A young man from the Red Dragons was jumping around with great gymnastics with a sword. Now I didn’t study sword and the kid looked like he moved ok, which was how I gave my score. But a competition friend who did study sword gave a Zero!  I cornered him later asking what was I not seeing. He very reluctantly explained to me the manner in which the boy was chambering his sword would have removed all the fingers of his one hand if that had been a live blade, and then he showed me exactly what was being done. He was right, proving 1. I shouldn’t be judging what I didn’t understand and 2. the kids instructor was a fool. [BTW I’ve seen young people win first place at a Mass. AAU tournament, with great applause, with the same chambering motion.]

 

But lack of knowledge aside, I believe maturity is necessary for kobudo is due to the need for more muscle density to sell the weapon. Without that density youth have to change their technique, even subtly. That’s not what I saw the program as developing.

 

Sure there are a few exceptions like the 13 year old Ana Lockwood who outdid everyone at Long’s tournament one year, her father raising her to be a clone of Tom Lewis’ kata technique. And perhaps as a young woman she was physically more mature than others her age, contributing to her skill at handling. But with such few exceptions, what I saw were youth training hard to get their execution wrong.  As a result I moved my training program direction so that kobudo studies could not occur before later teen years. I saw no reason to spend time training in technique they were incapable of performing correctly.

 

I was never on a crusade to keep others from doing what they wished. I only took my observations and made it the reality of our program. Still, with the additional studies my students have to keep them busy, I haven’t heard anyone worry about lack of weapons training when they’re young. They realize if they keep training their time will come.

 

Pain teaches too.

 

One of the first lessons I learned with my weapons was they bite. Sai are dropped on toes, Bo nail your ribs to hard. Kama slice into your arm and so on.  Part of the reason I realized you had to train with real weapons was to experience that bite to learn to respect the weapon. Sure the sharp ones could be a very nasty experience, but learning with toy or fake weapons could be even deadlier if you developed advancing skill and not the respect for the weapons bite.

 

So my first 10 years quickly passed and I moved up to Derry. Within a year I was hit with extreme pain from my arthritis developing. For quite a long time I was on crutches, running class, and joint damage from the attacks took almost 2 years to return to more normal movement.

 

My programs began over, I started my expanded curriculum for the students and my own kobudo fell back as I couldn’t train much anyways. Work and other needs made me re-evaluate what I could retain. When I moved to Derry I was training hard to stay on top of maybe 150 forms. I wasn’t working on kata application except from the studies of technique with Tris Sutrisno, but I had to make some hard decisions.

 

First were my Chinese weapons studies. Without others to train with as I did down in Penna. I discontinued all except my tai chi sword. Then for the next 10 years regular training with Tris Sutrisno kept my practice of his kata live. I began to see the progression of his kobudo kata. It really is quite amazing how one in a series built on the earlier one, and kept that up to the next one. The 4 bo kata in the O’Sensei No Kon series, did develop skill sets one upon the next. In turn the 3 kama kata did the same, and I’m sure his others did so too. But long weekends and intense clinics is not the same as being his student. No matter how much he shared there were great gaps in what I knew, and not just in the number of forms I didn’t study. I learned to be grateful with what I could obtain.

 

Along the way one day in Derry, 15 minutes before he was leaving, he asked me to get a knife and took me out on the porch and started showing me some tanto drills. Over the next year he taught me some more [and incredibly we videotaped him doing some of them with me at a clinic up here, and I didn’t watch it for 15 years] and then began teaching me, also in closing spare minutes, an extremely complex knife kata. Complex due to the extreme handling, shifting hands, and blade positions within the techniques. 

 

Left alone to study without much re-inforcement, I realized the deficiencies in my training. And I found my hands slowing down, making the transitions very difficult. You can’t stop age or the effects of arthritis. As none of this was appropriate for my students, it was solitary work.

 

One day I had chance to attend a clinic Greg Lazarus was having on the coast with his instructor Kise Sensei. The clinic was to learn a bo, sai and kama form. Mike Cassidy and I went there and it was an interesting experience. I had seen Kise Sensei several times in earlier years. His Kusanku performance made me think of Isshinryu’s. Kise Sensei was primarily a student of Soken Hohen. But on the way home Mike and I looked at each other and realized, did we really need more beginning kata? Outside of my normal extensive notes on the clinic, we never practiced them again.  But the kama they were selling there Kise brought with him from Okinawa. They were the common garden variety he would buy at the hardwear store, not combat steel, dense hardwood ones. In fact they were the same style I used for my Sutrisno Kama kata.  As in everything there is great variety in what a weapon represents. When I attended that Bando Camp in 83, Bohan Sensei was selling kama, huge handled ones with ¼” blades. Kama that could punch holes in car steel, and not compatible with the Sutrisno technique.  I didn’t study kama there, but realized there were very different styles often dependent on the type of weapon being used.

 

But was one ‘better’ than the other? I think not, just vastly different. The lightweight garden variety would pass through a windpipe or finger quite effectively, even if they couldn’t stop a bo, or punch through car steel.  They were faster to wield, but both sets have use, just different ones, not better or worse.

 

I came to see the same argument about which system of kobudo or training in the same light. They after all were just systems of training, each with their own validity.  I began to note many began to run down the source of Isshinryu’s kobudo. Yet my studies led me to realize their own, regardless of how ‘secret’ their style, wasn’t better, just different. Sure I couldn’t do theirs, but then again they couldn’t’ do mine either.

 

Leaving Tris Sutrisno meeting Sherman Harrill

 

Towards the end of my training with Tris, he began to show some very interesting material.  His two person weapons drills were as unified as his two person karate and tjimande drills. But my students were not ready for that training, and when we parted ways, it was another part left by the wayside.

 

Also one day I saw Tris begin running a double weapons kata, a sai in one hand and a kama in the other. Try that some time. Ernest tells me in the Chinese traditions that is  a very difficult course of study, such as a three sectional staff and a saber, or a steel whip and a sword. Very few practice it.

 

The day came when I met Harrill Sensei. One aspect of his teaching I didn’t have much chance to experience was his kobudo studies.  From a piece of one clinic I know he worked the weapons applications, as well as the empty hand application potential within those weapons traditions.  Likewise the last clinic he held in Derry he taught a 2 person Bo set he studied in Okinawa (not the one most commonly associated with Isshinryu). But there wasn’t time to get into his studies.

 

What Harrill Sensei did do was sensitize us to the principles within our system to a greater degree. What I saw combined with the work I had been doing on the use of the lower body over the years and together they began to cause me to drive our kata technique more in the light of the signature movement we were using in our approach to the Isshinryu system.  The incessant use of the crescent step, the issues of body alignment and all the rest became more important in our kobudo work.

 

Reflections on the use of Kobudo

 

My adult group came quite some time ago to the point over ½ the class was dedicated to kobodo study. The core curriculum and the instructors curriculum.

 

At core we have Bando Staff and Stick, Tokomeni no Kon, Wansu NO Tonfa, Chia Fa and Urashie No Bo. I retain my Wansu NO Tonfa exercise because I consider it better tonfa technique for the real world. And the Bando Stick is the true art to rely on.

 

The instructors are working Shi Shi No Kon No Dai, Chantan Yara No Sai, Chosen No Kama Sho and Dai. 

 

Kusanku Sai has been relegated for long term study on the value for keeping it a focus of our training. I long ago came to the realization that Chantan Yara held enough for our focus.

 

The past several months I’ve resurrected the tanto drills I studied long ago. Everyone’s been having a blast with them. Dr. Harper continually teaches what the movements are doing and why. They’re not deep in number but there are plenty of alternative answers that are studied with them. We’re not seriously contemplating knife homicide in our training, and teaching knife you have to be responsible with who you are sharing.  But in my case I’ve been training them over 15 years and know who they are.

 

My studies and lots of shared information from friends have shown me too much about what is out there in traditional weapons traditions. The differences are often less important than the claims behind them, IMVHO.

 

Consider one sacred cow, Hama Higa no Tonra Kata versus Chia Fa the exericse.  No doubt Chia Fa the exercise is a stripped down version of Hama Higa.  But what does that mean? Does doing one of Hama Higa’s versions make for better Tonfa technique? Personally I think not. I have no idea which versions of Hama Higa are being done, I’ve see too many subtle different ones. But outside of being what your instructor shows you, how is one Hama Higa better than one Chia Fa?  I have yet to see a critical analysis why one answer is so?

 

Then forget Tonfa, the same continues everywhere. Why is the Matoyshi tradition better than the Yamani versions, or visa versa.  Or why is the Shinken versions better or worse?

 

As nobody anywhere actually uses them as weapons systems, there is very little in the way of empirical truth as to the right answer. Just opinion, and logic should tell us the way the actual technique is sold when necessary is the full answer, not necessarily the system of training behind it, which is contributory.

 

When I look at my studies, and so many people I’ve trained with and competed against, who were and are exceptional, its clear to me the first issue of value is the drive to work the weapon is most important. To do anything for a very long time you have to find something to enjoy in the training. Everyone I’ve taught finds that in kobudo practice.

Second, the kobudo practice makes it easier to see problems in performance. Any mistake is magnified by the extension of the weapon. So it is a powerful tool to help shape the students technique, that applies to all their training. The better their kobudo the better their overall technique.

 

Third, kobudo is an incredible form of weight training that fits our art. Use of full weight weapons increases the power behind our punches and blocking techniques. Especially as the weight training fits our other movement requirements, not just lifting static weights.

 

Fourth, kobudo increases hand skill and power.  I honestly believe the grip is strengthened and hand skill increased through the kobudo study. Any one of the weapons adds this dimension, but all of them together, create a vaster landscape for skill acquisition. And this development of manipulation skill adds to our ability to manipulate an opponent in similar fashion.

 

If it comes down to real world viability stick is the key.  Especially as metal detectors will continue to increase. It is flexible in what it can do, it is a quick force multiplier, you can instantly hit harder with a stick than you can ever punch, and almost anything can do in its place. Sticks can be books, keys, chains, pencils, etc.  At some time knife also has a place, but in a far more brutal place than I reside. You don’t grab a knife to stop an attack, you grab a knife to finish an attacker. At some point that may be necessary, but it is not the only answer.

 

Finally as brief as this is, I haven’t touched on the full weight of kobudo studies. Any one of the weapons is a vast an art as karate is. The more you practice, the more you are forced to make choices on what aspects you study and what aspects you don’t. 

 

I think there is an important use in using the kobudo kata for power and skill development. If you want to go deeper, you need drills and full time work, in fact you would eventually need to choose, for full skill you might as well discontinue karate to just do kobudo. From what I’ve seen of the Inoue tradition, it looks like their kobudo is their full art, and believe me, its good stuff.

 

Believe in your art and work it hard.

 

Victor

 

This presentation has been brought to you by the sharing of:

 

Tom Lewis, Sensei of the IKA in Salisbury Maryland, friend, student of Shimabuku Tatuso.

 

Charles Murray, my instructor, my friend, Minister, Col. USAF, student of Lewis Tom and Shimabuku Tatuso.

 

Reese Rigby, my friend from the IKA, student of Lewis Tom and Uzeu Angi.

An unknown Bando instructor who shared once upon a time.  May his spirit guide be true.

 

Ernest Rothrock, my friend, my guide, my sifu in diverse arts Chinese.

Tris Sutrisno, friend and former guide in Shotokan, Aikido, Tjimande and Kobudo

 

Carl Long, friend in Shorin Ryu Honda Katau

Sherman Harrill, friend and true guide on the way of Isshinryu

 

And a cast of many who sharpened the edge, Charles Douherty, Cynthia Rothrock, Gary Michak, George Michak, Dale Kirby, Tris Sutrisno, Jon Bonner, Vince Ward and many others who walked the walk.

 

For my students. They know who they are and where they’re going. May their path continue to greatness.