The Characteristics of Tomari-te

Written by Motobu Naoki, translated by Andreas Quast

 

Recently I wrote a number of articles about Tomari-te and when I uploaded the articles the number of website accesses increased noticeably. The number of accesses increased both in Japan and abroad.

 

Apparently, when compared to Shuri-te and Naha-te, the image of Tomari-te is still not well known, and seems to stimulate the interest of people who are interested in the history of karate.

 

Personally I think that the influence of “modernization” which Shuri-te and Naha-te have followed was small in Tomari-te, and correspondingly it still maintains traces of old-style karate.

 

Well, in the book „Short Biography of Matsumora Kōsaku, the Ancestor who Rejuvenated Karate (Tomari-te)“ by Matsumora Kōsaku Sensei’s grandson Matsumura Kōshō, which I introduced in a previous article, there is a passage entitled „The Differences Between the Postures of the Fists in Tomari-te and Shuri-te“. Because it is a short passage I allow myself the privilege of quoting it fully below (from page 45).

 

•The Position of the Fist
In Tomari-te the [hiki-te-] fist is raised to the bottom of the breast. In Shuri-te the fist is positioned at the height of the belt.

 

 

•Tsuki and Uke
When compared to Shuri-te and Naha-te, in Tomari-te the Tsuki and Uke are raised somewhat higher.

 

•The Posture of the Shoulders
While the definition of ‘like water running down from the shoulder to the tip of the hand’ is the same, in Tomari-te it is raised somewhat higher than in Shuri-te and

Naha-te.

 

The other day I was asked about this passage by German Karate researcher Andreas Quast Sensei, who kindly translated some articles for this blog.

 

Although I generally agree with the characteristics of Tomari-te as listed above, they are not limited to Tomari-te. I think they rather have been general features of old-style Karate.

 

Since Mr. Matsumura Kōshō wrote the text in 1970, the term “Shuri-te” in the above given comparison seems to refer to the modern Shuri-te of Itosu Ankō Sensei and later times.

 

In short, there was a significant difference between the Shuri-te of Matsumura Sōkon Sensei and the Shuri-te of Itosu Ankō Sensei, as I wrote about in the previous article “The Transition of Naihanchi