There is a necessary flexibility (softness / gentleness) for the strength

 

The writer of this article: Hino Akira / 日野晃

Translation KM paid by Lara Chamberlain (research for book) article found Kohagura Sensei.

There is a necessary flexibility (softness / gentleness) for the strength.

 

Jujin / 柔靭 :  Being flexible (graceful) yet strong

 

Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu (Technique) / 山根知念流棒術
Master Kishaba Chougi / 喜捨場朝義

 

It is said that although there are several Bo-Jutsu Ryu in Okinawa, Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu has a different quality among them

.
It is powerful with lightning speed!

 

The sequence is performed like one movement without any turning points (changes).

Where can we really find the secret from?

The writer of this article had asked Soke Kishaba Chougi about this.

 

Guarded Arms

 

Master Kishaba Chougi gave me back a Tsuki / 突き in such a way as to cross below my arm when I gave him a Tsuki / 突き and at that time his arm was surprisingly soft. It was not because his advanced age. The softness was from being cultivated.

“Yawarakai / 柔らかい” doesn’t mean just “soft, gentle or flexible” in this case. There is necessity to be “Yawarakai”. What is the necessity?

 

The arm of Master Kishaba that crossed below my arm was trying to observe (understand) my next movement. I could feel his intention therefore I could not move my arm. In other words to be able to observe (understand) your opponent’s movement you need to gather the information about the opponent as much as possible.

 

In this case our arms were crossed therefore using the contact to gather the information about the opponent. If you strained your arm, the arm muscle would become hard so the contact surface with your opponent would become less. Therefore you will miss your opponent’s subtle change (movement) and cannot make your own next movement at the moment when you gathered the information. This necessity is the true fact of “You have to be Yawarakai (soft, gentle or flexible)”

 

More than anything the soft arm is eerie. The meaning of eerie in this case is that you cannot predict opponent’s next movement from the soft arm and the arm is soft yet contains bloodthirsty (murderous). And also when Master Kishaba moves his arm, the upper half of his body is operated independently from his pelvic and twisted beautifully. In other words his both upper half as well as lower half of the body can be used as a motive power of movement and the both parts move independently plus can create movements freely.

 

For some reason my conversation with Master Kishaba who is a Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu-Ka was started like following after the above mentioned act. It is because Master Kishaba’s starting point was also Karate. When he was 13 years old he became a deshi of Miyagi Choujun Sensei who is an originator of Gouju-Ryu Karate.

 

“Miyagi Choujun Sensei’s movement was flexible (soft / gentle) and very fast.” said Master Kishaba.

 

“So his movement wasn’t stiff and hard that we see a lot of in mainland Japan?” I asked him.

 

“Well, that depends on one’s teaching method. You cannot move fast enough if you are tense. And also it is not effective if you cannot thrust your attack from your opponent’s blind spot. Especially I was made to have Keiko called “Kata-wo-nuku / 肩を抜く” (to pull the shoulder out) for my arms.” said Master Kishaba.

 

Just listening to the words “Kata-wo-nuku / 肩を抜く” (to pull the shoulder out) you might imagine that you actually pull out your shoulder from the joint, in other words for you to dislocate your shoulder so that your arms cannot be moved. However this is nothing but to practice to use your arm from the scapula. Master Kishaba’s arms really lengthen. This is because he pulls out his scapula ahead at the maximum. This means that the trapezius muscle of his back and other muscles which pertain around the back are all pulled out.

 

Muscles are capable to be pulled out and contract afterwards. Master Kishaba exerts this characteristic of muscle sufficiently when he uses his arms.

 

Flexible Bo and Body

 

Master Kishaba had been brought up to an expert of Yamane Ryu Bo-Jutsu, Master Chinen Masami who was descended from Master Sakugawa Kanga who was called “Tudii (Karate) Sakugawa / トゥディー佐久川” and Matsumura Soukon, by Miyagi Choujun sensei and become his deshi when he was 18 years old.

 

The superb of Yamane Bou-Jutsu is in the bending Bou. In other words it’s in the flexible Bou. Because of the flexibility you can create the terrific speed. And also you can hide yourself behind the flexible Bou. Anyhow you can imagine that your body also has to be flexible with such Bou for these techniques to become reality.

 

Therefore it is thought that Miyagi Choujun sensei had waited till the day for Master Kishaba to be able to become conscious of “need of flexible body” ever since Master Kishaba was 13 yeas of age which is when he became Miyagi sensei’s deshi. It must had been an essential body operation for Miyagi sensei’s Karate.

 

Master Kishaba had continued learning the Karate from Miyagi Choujun sensei until he passed away and after that he dedicated the Karate under the deceased Miyazato Eiichi sensei. Maybe the Karate that Master Kishaba dedicated is the one to make his Bo technique progress.

 

After all there are things in common between Miyagi Choujun sensei’s idea and Chinen Masami sensei’s idea towards martial arts and Master Kishaba was established as an actual (real) fusion of these ideas. I wonder if I am the only one who see such romance in this

.

But not only Master Kishaba’s movement his body itself is flexible. His range of motion is extremely wide. This is also a result of Master Kishaba practice and what Miyagi Choujun sensei desired.

 

Nevertheless his extent of flexibility is clear at a glance. This is the body that has been embodied the speed and power which are outstanding of Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu.

 

“I also handle “Sai / サイ” with an extreme speed. It is against the swordsmanship of “Jigen-Ryu / 示現流” said Master Kishaba.

I get it! The tool, “Sai / サイ” was to against the swordsmanship of mainland Japan. If so you would require the speed with it. No, it was not required only the speed, the action of your body has to be really fast.

 

“I will show you my “Sai / サイ” technique next time when I am better condition.” Master Kishaba made such delightful promise with me.

 

The reason why I named “delightful promise” for this is because Master Kishaba’s top deshi, Ikehara Noriaki (or Tokumei) who was attending at this meeting said that even he has never seen Master Kishaba’s “Sai / サイ” technique before.

 

“Floating” End of Bo

 

At the very beginning of Master Kishaba’s speech he said, “The end of Bo is round, isn’t it? Well, I was taught the end of Bo had to be seen like floating.”

 

I could hardly believe my ears in a moment with words Master Kishaba said. It was because like a question for Zen meditation. His words was like the profundity words of Japanese swordsmanship which is “Moon which is projected in the water” and I saw the profundity of Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu. Perhaps in a sense that the centre of Bo has to be seen bigger.

And also Master Kishaba mentioned “Hiding yourself behind the Bo”. I wonder what this really means. I asked him to do a stance with Bo (Kamae with Bo).

 

The basic Kamae of Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu is to point the end of Bo at opponent’s eye level to make sure that the actual length of Bo cannot be detected. Indeed I cannot tell the actual length of Bo when I see the Bo Kamae with my own eyes. It looks like he was just holding some kind of hand weapon, not a Bo. And his stance which is doing Bo Kamae with half the body I could not feel a straining and a sign of attacking (aggression) anywhere from him (his stance). It was far too quiet form.

The Secret of Non Stop “Full Swing”

 

“To cut a leaf off from a living tree by the end of Bo.” is traditional Keiko that has been done in Yamane Chinen Ryu for a long time. It is said that it is impossible to achieve to do it unless you take a full swing with the Bo gets bent. Having said that it is not the case that you just take a full swing strongly. The crosswise direction asides the full swing of longitudinal direction can be ……… The motion will be stop if you apply literally “get tighten and stop”, but ”will not stop” is the principle of Yamane Chinen Ryu. How do they do it?

 

(note: I have left the section as “……….” due to the scan quality of the part on this page (page 33) is very faded and I cannot read properly. Therefore I cannot translate it. Sorry.)

 

After all the secret was in the flexibility. The moment of full swing is taken by the flexible body which is maintained all the time. ……………… So they can thrust technique one after another without turning point (break) by this principle and it becomes like a flowing motion. “If you change the gear all the time the motion will get slower, won’t it?” Master Kishaba described. That’s well put! I thought.

 

(note: Again I have left the section as “……….” due to the scan quality of the part on this page (page 33) is very faded that I cannot read properly. Therefore I cannot translate it. Sorry.)

 

True Meaning of “Flexibility”

 

I acknowledge Master Kishaba’s acceptance of this interview and his Kamae stance that he showed me was really impressive although his physical condition wasn’t perfect at that time. There was no straining in his form and it was far too quiet appearance. If people see his posture they might feel it is a “withered technique”. However there was no such word “withered” in the posture, only “human” himself has appeared with this posture. In other words there is no hot blooded feeling that is covered oneself fully and there was an awesomeness of oneself which is narrowed down towards only one aim without any useless things in the body with the posture. I could see the history of Master Kishaba’s martial arts that the hot blooded feeling is regarded useless, behind his Kamae stance. And there is a clue for the word in his Kamae stance.

 

Something obvious to exert the power of Bo is in Bo technique itself, not one’s body. In other words if your body was stiff as a substance Bo will die. The body stiffness stays at Bo. Concretely it makes Bo light. Therefore obviously the power of Bo cannot be exerted with stiffness in the body.

 

To make the most of Bo is you need to get rid of unnecessary consciousness from yourself which is holding Bo. The realisation for this is proportional to age. Age doesn’t mean actual age of the person, it is one’s maturity of martial arts and the age of self consciousness that you investigate martial arts throughly. Bo can be exerted its own power as a Bo when these signs disappear from oneself.

 

Master Kishaba’s Karate and Bo-Jutsu that can be tied in the word “Flexibility”. “Flexibility” might be the key word to urge the growth of one’s self consciousness actually.

 

The followings are translations of writings for individual photos on each page. (I would suggest you to read them with looking at those photos on each section so that you can understand better. Thank you.)

 

(page 31)

 

Top photo:
Master Kishaba’s 突き / Tsuki which is crossing with Mr Hino (writer of this article). Mr Hino felt the tense atmosphere like Master Kishaba keeps checking on him warily from the soft contact.

Photo below:

What is Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu?

 

Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu is a Bo technique that had been handed down among descendant of samurai in Shuri. Sakugawa Kanga is the originator of the Bo-Jutsu then it had been handing down to Chinen-Chikudun (Pe̅chin-Kana) then to Chinen Sanra̅ (Yamane’s Usume̅) then next to Chinen Masami then finally to Kishaba Chougi. Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu is characterised by its instantaneous from ‪Shizen-Joudou-Tai / 自然常動体 (the body which is naturally moving at all times) and changing (reforming) the body flowingly, and the phantasmagoric which carries out several movements of offence and defence within one movement, and also handling these techniques with lightning speed. Bo can creates a destructive power (force) if you do full swing, but usually your movement is stopped for the moment. However Yamane Chinen Ryu doesn’t stop. Where is the secret for that?

 

(page 32)

 

Top two photos:

Master Kishaba’s hands can be bent flabbily that you think you have an illusion of his hands were turned inside out. The flexibility of his wrist is also incredible. The flexibility is ingrained in his body through his long term Keiko. His body application itself has become way it is therefore his flexibility won’t be rusted as he gets older.

 

Foot photo:

Look at his flexibility of his toes!

 

Last photo:

This was taken in 1997 when he performed. Please look at toes of his front foot closely. His flexible feet can control freely and advance the degree of freedom for the movement dramatically.

 

(page 33)

 

Top two photos:

Threat of “Invisible Bo”

You cannot detect the true length of Bo at all from the basic Kamae of Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu. Then all of sudden the Tsuki / 突き is come out.

 

Secret of Lightning Speed! “Non Stop Full Swing”

 

Right side sequence photos 1 ~ 3: “Be Flexible” at the moment of taking full swing.

 

One of characterised Keiko in Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu is called “cutting off (away) a leaf from the tree”. This is to hit the tip of twig accurately and cut off a leaf from the tree by end of Bo that you take full swing. To do this you need to take full swing till Bo is bent. If you take full swing lengthwise you might hit the ground with Bo, yet if you exert your strength instantly then your movement would be stopped. After all the key point for this technique is “flexibility”. You take Bo back with flexibleness like slightly being bounced at the moment you take full swing. It is possible for you to create a powerful flowing movement as long as you maintain such flexible and strong way of using body all the time.

 

Left side sequence photos 1 ~ 4: “Uninterrupted Continuance Technique”

 

The speed of continuance swing from downward to upward that is faster than the eye could follow. If you put the above mentioned flexibility into practice you would be able to do uninterrupted continuance full swing.

 

The translation of the big writing in the very left side of this page: Nation of Ti (Te / 手) that was nurtured by sea.

 

(page 34)

 

Top sequence photos 1 ~ 3: Usage of actual fighting called “Tsurushi-age / 吊るし上げ” (to lift up)

Usage of Bo is not only “Utsu / 打つ” (to hit) and “Tsuku / 突く”. These sequence photos are showing a way to hook opponent’s chest (with clothing) and lift up by shaking Bo out from the side. It’s hard to imagine this technique in head, but this fighting technique when you are attacked makes you feel really helpless.

 

Other sequence photos 1 ~6: Continuance Flowing Attack without “Turning Point” (Break)

Bo that moves in a lively way like from “Mae / 前“ (front) to “Ue / 上“ (up) and “Ushiro / 後“ (back) then “Mae / 前“ (front). Such motions are executed like flowing without turning point (break). Each attacking motion is so powerful, yet due to the flexibility they are formed smoothly. This is a true value (worth) of Yamane Chinen Ryu Bo-Jutsu that executes several movements as one motion.