Hikite, in Okinawa and Mainland Japan

 

https://medium.com/@motobu715/ippon-kumite-of-motobu-kenp%C5%8D-8e40d6e7cca9

Written by Motobu Naoki, translated by Andreas Quast

This is a story from around 1965. For the first time, the All Japan Student Karate League (Zen Nihon Gakusei Karate-dō Rennmei) sent a team to visit Okinawa. It is a story from the time prior to the reversion of Okinawa to Japan (1972).

The mainland team wanted to take up exchange matches (kumite) in Okinawa itself. It was the Karate Club of the University of the Ryukyus of that time which took up the gauntlet.

That time in Okinawa was an era when the practice of kumite itself still was rare, and in the majority of dōjō the practice was still centered on the traditional practice of kata. Only a small portion of the schools enthusiastically engaged in kumite, such as Okinawa Kenpō, Isshin-ryū, and Motobu-ryū.

Well, the main driving force on the Okinawan side at that time was Onaga Taketoshi, who was a disciple of Uehara [Seikichi] Sensei at that time Sensei, the son of Higa Seitoku Sensei, was called up to support the matter. , and — although he was not affiliated with the Karate Club — Higa Kiyohiko

The result of the matches was that Onaga and Kiyohiko Sensei put up good fights, but in the end the mainland group won against the Karate Club of the University of Ryukyus.

At a later time I asked Kiyohiko Sensei about the circumstances at that time. This match seems to have been carried out according to the mainland rules of those days, and even though the Okinawan team members clearly placed valid strikes, they seem to not have received an ippon (point) because they did not pull back their hand in hikite after placing the strikes.

Since in Okinawa at that time no such [technical] concept existed, and although they were superior from beginning to end of those matches, it seems that they lost against the rules of the mainland-side.

Why was there such a difference in the interpretation of hikite between the mainland and Okinawa? Now that mainland competition karate has also penetrated Okinawa it may be different than back in those days, but back in 1965 there actually was such a difference in perception.

To begin with, what was the original concept of hikite in the original ancient kumite of Okinawa?

I quoted the following before [in an article on mītudī]. It is the conversational exchange when Nakata Mizuhiko, the author of “Sayings of Motobu Chōki Sensei”, asked Motobu Chōki about hikite.

“Sensei, in karate, when you strike the enemy, do you first pull back the fist to the side of the body every time you strike?”

“Consider, if one (you) spend so much time and effort, you would be defeated by your enemy in the interval. In all attacks, no matter where your hand is at the moment, you just attack from there.”

“Sensei, in karate, when receiving [a technique; ukeru] with one hand, and pulling back the other hand to the side of the body, it seems as if half of the space in front of oneself remains empty [=unprotected]. Is that any good? In the present talk it is as if assuming a position by pulling back the fist, which I realize is funny, so what does it mean in this case?”

“As regards what you just said, all things in kata are different from the actual case [pratical appliation]. In karate it is called mītudī (meotode; literally “husband and wife hands”; to be undertood as “coupled hands”) when both hands move together in unison with each other as a pair (literally “husband and wife”) during attack and defense. This is the way to do it…”

said Motobu Sensei and while remaining seated he moved both his front hand (maede) and supporting hand (hikaede) closely together, from the left and from the right in a way somewhat similar to what is referred to as “sword hand block” (shutō-uke) in general Karate, and while he also slightly threw his head to the left and to the right, he continuously received [=defended, blocked] in front of his face several times in a row.

And then he taught that

“Various different meanings are hidden in kata. Without understanding these meanings, if you think that what appears on the outer surface of kata is karate as it is, this is a big mistake and like you said, it becomes a ridiculous thing.”

(From “Motobu Kenpō Naifanchi Kata no Kaimei” by Nakata Mizuhiko.)

As mentioned in the above quote, since mītudī is the basic posture in Motobu Kenpō, when pulling back the hand, taking into account the opponent’s counterattack, if the strike is done as a front-hand thrust (maede-zuki) it would be pulled back to its initial front-hand position, and if the strike is done as a rear-hand thrust (gyaku-zuki) it is not taken to the side of the body, but rather back to its initial position supporting the front-hand, and guarding the front of the body.

 

Alternatively, so as not to let the opponent counterattack in the first place, you may also use the seizing hand (tsukami-te) to prevent the opponent’s pursuit in advance. In any case, the concept of what is called “return to the side of the body unused” is not one of Motobu Chōki.

 

Because Motobu Choki since he was young has been practicing kumite with Matsumura Sōkon Sensei and has been practicing Kakede with Matsumora Kōsaku Sensei, it can be said that this is an authentic interpretation of the hikite in Okinawa’s ancient kumite.

In Motobu Udundī the gyaku-zuki (reverse hand thrust) itself is uncommon in the first place, and the maede-zuki (front hand thrust) is just like the one in Motobu Kenpō, that is, when it returns, it only returns to the position of the initial mītudī. So there is no such concept as that of pulling back a hikite.

Traditional kumite of Okinawa was not transmitted sufficiently, and with the focus being on university karate, and above all because the mainland developed independently due to the formulation of match rules during the postwar era, in this process a “idiosyncratic/peculiar interpretation of hikite” might have been born in the kumite of the mainland.

That is, by just applying the actions and conceptions of kata to kumite without change, in borrowing the words of Motobu Choki, “… if you think that what appears on the outer surface of kata is karate as it is, this is a big mistake and like you said, it becomes a ridiculous thing.”

By the way, the vice-leader of the Okinawa away team at that time, as a man with a shady history, after the matches of that time challenged Uehara Sensei but lost against him, and afterwards enrolled as a student [of Uehara Sensei], but later caused various problems and was eventually excommunicated. If there will be an opportunity, perhaps I will also tell the story of that person.

The original Japanese article was written on January 23, 2017 on Ameblo. The English translation was written on January 25.