I remember the day when Charles Murray first taught
me sai. I was a brown belt and he earlier had be purchase a bo and pair of sai
when I was in Philadelphia on a business trip.
I stopped at Asian World of Martial Arts, which then
was located in an old homefront store in North Philadelphia. The bo was made from an extremely dense wood,
and was a bit bent, but it served my purpose.
The sai were a 21 ½ inch version that fit alongside
my arm, made of chromed steel with golf club wrap on the handle.
I would have them for my martial career, bequeathing
them to my students when my time came to step down.
But this memory in about sai.
He chose to begin me with the Isshinryu version of
Chantan Yara No Sai. That was one of his studies when he had been stationed on
Okinawa back in 1972. He had been a shodan before he went there, and that form
was one of his studies there.
He taught kata and kobudo rather quickly. But then
it was one to one instruction all the time. And as soon as he taught it to me
we would begin regular drilling together on those forms, over and over.
After my shodan, then on my own, I competed most
often in kobudo kata divisions with Bo. I had observed that is what most of the
other competitors did too. Not that other solid kobudo kata were not used, but
bo most often won.
Several years later I traveled to Delaware for just
another regional tournament one Saturday, I remember it was a cold and cloudy
day. I also was sick as a dog, but I was going to compete anyway.
So the time came when I was on the floor warming up.
I was sweating big time from my illness and decided I would use Sai that day.
Waiting with the other competitors my name was
finally called.
I went out and competed with my Chantan Yara No Sai.
My kata went fine, I finished.
And I was not one of the winners.
Later, still sweating hard, I was changing in the
locker room before beginning my long drive home.
Manny Agreella, one of the regular senior judges who
had never talked to me, came up to me and spoke.
“Victor, I had to tell you,
that was one of the most powerful sai kata I have ever seen.”
There I was, sick as a dog and that was the last
thing I ever expected to hear.
Still, I had a long drive home.
On a personal note today there are many who have
made the ‘right’ sai a passion.
Either getting sai from Okinawa or from the ‘right’
maker.
To me it is the work of decades with
any sai you have that makes it fit your hand,
So no other can feel that sai the way
you do.
Chantan Yara
No Sai by Joe Swift
As a former Taira-based
Kobudo dude myself, it seems to me that the IR
version of Chatan Yara no Sai is an amalgum of "Tsuken Shitahaku no
Sai" and "Chatan Yara no Sai."
The IR version is longer than the Taira version, and has characteristics of
both.
I don't know if this is how Taira Sensei taught it to Shimabuku Sensei
either, or is Shimabuku Sensei took Tsuken Shitahaku and Chatan Yara
and welded them together.
Tsuken Shitakahu no Sai (Tesshinkan version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KWRvsUHDR8
Joe
Swift
No comments:
Post a Comment