Should Empty Hand Kata be done with Weapons?

 

 

Andrew Pyszkowski

 I have a historical question for anyone who is willing to answer. Was it a common practice back in the day for the Okinawan karate practitioners to perform empty hand kata with weapons ? I believe I've heard of a kata called ananku no sai( which I'm assuming is simply ananku altered to use sai) I also had a friend of mine tell me that basic kata such as pinan shodan could be used with a Bo(this guy does more sport / tournament type karate). So is this a more modern idea or was it something the masters had done?

 

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Dave Lockhart I started karate on Okinawa in '63 and never saw that done. The dojos I attended were pretty strict about how the kata were done. I recently spent 3 years in the States and noticed a lot of alterations like the ones you mentioned.

 

Marlon Laws In the Ernest Estrada interview Soken Sensei says that sometimes they would practice Kusanku with hairpins in their hands and that it was a common way of fighting.

 

Paul Saturday Yes. The Jiffa/Techu kobudo kata that I practice through Gushi sensei is based upon Kusanku dai. Akamine sensei has said more than once that you can practice open hand kata with a weapon in your hand/hands.

 

Eric Poppa I believe I have an old 8mm movie of Ananku no sai being done on Okinawa in the late 60's early 70's.

 

Horacio Di Giulio There is a kata in Hanshi Fusei Kise’s Kenshinkan, known as Sai Jitsu.  Its embusen is very similar to Ananku.
As I know, in other styles, there is version called Kyan no Sai.

 

Matt Molineux We did Anaku Sai in the early 70s, which we were told came from Shorinji-ryu. It was unmistakably Anaku...exact same moves with sai in hand. The couple versions I now see on YouTube are a little more elaborate, but can still see Anaku in them. Just some instructor way back then getting a little inventive. No big deal imo, but have way too many forms in the curriculum to try to duplicate by revising into weapons forms.

 

Matt Molineux Paul Saturday I'm in good company. Sensei Kise always told me how much he didn't like our (his) nunchaku kata when we would do it. Fairly apparent, I guess, when every time we do it now I seem to say, "I do NOT like this kata." ;)

 

Gary Sass Using short range weapons like Jiffa Techu or Tekko the attack and defenses are just like empty hand so it’s okay to use empty hand forms. Long range weapons like bo nunti bo eku you turn differently in the katas to avoid the opponents attack while you retaliate My Sensei told me when training with weapons you always assume your going against a superior weapon so stepping in with a long range weapon like you do in empty hand wouldn’t make sense

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 Victor - 

I know far from everything however when I began competing in the Penna. Area around 1979 I observed many different kata done with different weapons. Wansu kata done with sai and kama, Seisan done with Sai and many others.

 

Of course at that time there were fewer systems having kobudo components and people rise to the occasion.

 

My Isshinryu does have a Kusanku Sai, created by our founder Shimabuku Tatsuo Along with kobudo kata that descended from Kyan and Taira.

 

Taira Shinken was known to share kobudo with other karate instructors, not the same way in which he taught kobudo in his own organization, for few of them had the time for such study. Taira was known to tell those instructors to have students first study a form they already knew the embusen for and thus if a weapon was added they could just focus on the weapon handling not the form.

 

As there are numerous kobudo traditions on Okinawa, I imagine there are many different answers.