Sunday, April 16, 2023

The Origin of Roof Tile Breaking (kawara-wari)

 


2017-10-07

 Translated by Andreas Quast

 

Yesterday, German Karate practitioner Andreas Quast Sensei translated my article "Tetsukumi, Tētsukun, Tījikun", which was written two years ago, into English, so I uploaded it. At that time, after reading the article for the first time in a while, I noticed something.

 

 

In that article, I introduced the travelogue "Satsuyū Kikō" (1801) written by a certain feudal retainer of Higo province (present-day Kumamoto), in which is a description about "roof tile breaking (kawara-wari)".

 

"The Kenjutsu and Yawara (Jūjutsu) of Ryūkyū are a lukewarm affair. They are only said to be skillful in thrusting with the hand. This method is to break through or kill anything with the clenched fist. It is referred to as 'Tetsukumi''."

 

"Summoned to the magistracy of the Satsuma resident commissioner stationed in Naha, a person who performed the above mentioned 'art of Tetsukumi'' struck a pile of seven roof tiles and crushed up to six of these roof tiles with his strike. If thrusting the face of a person or the like, it would smash it. A skillful person thrusts with the stretched out fingers."

 

The quotation is a story about Ryūkyū heard by the author when he went on a trip from Higo to Satsuma. At that time, there was the Satsuma Resident Commissioner's Magistracy (Satsuma Zaiban Bugyō-sho) in Naha, where about 20 officials dispatched from Satsuma worked.

 

An expert of 'Tetsukumi'' summoned to that Satsuma Resident Commissioner's Magistracy, when he struck a pile of seven roof tiles, is said to have broken the tiles until the sixth piece.

 

Who was that expert of 'Tetsukumi''? The above-mentioned travelogue was written in 1801, and since the roof tile breaking took place earlier than that it may have been an event at around the end of the 18th century.

 

It was just around that time when Tōdī Sakugawa distinguished himself. It must be remembered that Sakugawa stood in the limelight as an expert of up-and-coming "Tōde" and that he was not famous as an expert of Tetsukumi.

 

Of course, it is unknown what kind of difference there was between Tetsukumi and Tōde. Since I speculate that Tetsukumi would be the etymology of Tījikun (another name for Tī), I think that it is an older unarmed combat art than the Tōdi imported by Sakugawa...

 

In any case, it is a fact the roof tile breaking was already performed during that time, so the origins of roof tile breaking can be traced back to the time from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century.




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