Master
Ed Johnson performing Hamahiga no Tuifa at a seminar in the 1990s.
Tatsuo
Shimabuku taught this kata to Ed Johnson between March and July 1960. Very few
American first-generation students learned this kata directly from Shimabuku
while stationed in Okinawa let alone remembered it years after the fact.
Most
people in Isshin-ryu today perform the Shinken Taira version of this kata with
little deviation. However, Shimabuku, as with many of the kata he included in
Isshin-ryu, seems to have heavily modified it from the original he learned from
Taira between 1959-1960.
Sensei
Johnson was in the right place at the right time. Shimabuku made him learn this
kata as a prerequisite to teaching him Sunsu. At the time, Sensei felt it was
just another obstacle between him and the coveted black belt, but years later
he was glad that he was made to learn it.
Master
Shimabuku can be seen struggling trying to remember how to perform this kata on
the famous film taken at Steve Armstrong's Tacoma, WA dojo in late 1966.
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