Thursday, May 25, 2023

Hamahiga no Tuifa

 

Andy Sloane

 

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.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y7FAKcRNYo&t=10s



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