Kobu-what??

When most people sign up for classes in a martial art studio, few understand exactly what all that entails. Some do it for health, others for self-defense, and still others for sport.

Not many walk into the dojo and say, “I want to learn to wield old weapons.”

Not only do very few dojos offer classes in kobudo, (lit. old martial way) but even fewer teach them the same way they were taught hundreds of years ago.

We at the Okinawan Budokan do not train in Okinawan kobudo because we think we might actually use a pair of sai against a samurai sword on the street today, but rather we train for the tradition and history of our style. We train because it is excellent exercise, using the same muscles as we do when we do karate.

So, in an effort to broaden the knowledge of our stylists and the general public, I’ve decided to devote a couple of entries to the weapons we teach.

But first, about Okinawan kobudo in general:

(Taken from Wikipedia.org)

Okinawan kobudō (古武道; also known as Ryūkyū Kobujutsu, Koryū, or just as Kobudō) is a Japanese term that can be translated as "old martial way of Okinawa". It generally refers to the classical weapon traditions of Okinawan martial arts, most notably the rokushakubo (six foot staff, known as the "bō"), sai (short unsharpened dagger), tonfa (handled club), kama (sickle), and nunchaku (nunchucks), but also the tekko (knuckledusters), tinbe-rochin (shield and spear), and surujin (weighted chain). Less common Okinawan weapons include the tambo (short staff) and the eku (boat oar of traditional Okinawan design). It is a popular story and common belief that Okinawan farming tools evolved into weapons due to restrictions placed upon the peasants that meant they could not carry arms. As a result, it is said, they were defenseless and developed a fighting system around their traditional farming implements. However, modern martial arts scholars have been unable to find historical backing for this story, and the evidence uncovered by various martial historians points to the Pechin Warrior caste in Okinawa as being those who practiced and studied martial arts, rather than the Heimin, or commoner. It is true that Okinawans, under the rule of foreign powers, were prohibited from carrying weapons or practicing with them in public. But the weapons-based fighting that they secretly practiced (and the types of weapons they practiced with) had strong Chinese roots, and examples of similar weapons have been found in China, pre-dating the Okinawa adaptations.

Next time: The bo