Ryukyu Kobudo By Inoue Motokatsu - 2

 

 

Ed Summer.  Honestly, I won’t spend much time on it. Sensei Chinen learned Yamami-Chinen Ryu Kobudo from his family starting in childhood. But he didn’t teach it. “I teach ‘empty hands’ - karate” he’d say. That fit my personal inclinations perfectly. My interest in karate has always been pragmatic. “Stay alive on the street.” And since I couldn’t carry Kobudo stuff around with me, not pragmatic.

 

Victor

There is a kobudo traition within Isshinryu and I taught it. Over years I worked out why, it becomes a long term force enhancer to strengthen the empty hand especially useful as one ages. I studied quite a few kobudo traditions but placed most of them aside focusing on the Isshinryu, as you said one is not likely to encounger bo,sai or tonfa in real life, On the other hand the Bando stick, bando staff and the tanto studies I received have real use.

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Having shared the Ryukyu Kobudo kata of Innoue with you it might be time to think about what such a body of knowledge represents as a study. By my count I get at least 47 kata and training drills in his books.

 

The issue really is not if there were more, or did they vary from Taira’s Okinawan teaching?  For there is no simple way to answer those questions.

 

Nor is the question is this body of knowledge better than another kobudo system of study.

 

Rather do you understand the choices that would be made to really train in this art? Leaving aside the question as if you can travel to Japan and study this art for a very long time.

 

There is unquestionably much material to cover. Having studied more than a few kata myself I know it can be done, but to fully receive all the lessons contained in such a study you really can only receive those lessons over decades of work. There are no simple answers.

 

Taira did what the knowledge of k0budo he studied to be shared, we know that because he shared some pieces of these kata with others. He also wrote a book on Okinawan kobudo and his student in Japan wrote this rather extensive study too along with other books on kobudo.

 

Without serious knowledge of your own system and obtaining direct training from an expert instructor, this isn’t really something you can study by selecting several bo kata, several sai kata and so forth.

 

But the challenge remains before us to remember the decades of study and training behind preparing such a work.

 

https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2014/05/ryukyu-kobudo-by-inoue-motokatsu.html