I gave a brief synopsis of Okinawan weapons last week in my Writer’s Guide to fight scenes. I thought I’d take a while and talk about them.
To me, it’s really funny, but the most readily available place to learn Okinawan weaponry is to go to a Tae Kwan Do school – which is Korean.
There’s reasons for this, and Tae Kwan Do players get offended when you mention it. General Cho (who was questioned by his contemporaries of “What are you a General of?”) wanted to recover the ancient Korean martial art of Tae Guk. He did extensive travelling, and was able to find books and drawings, but the art had died out. So he went to Japan and learned Shotokan Karate, and then adapted it. He claims to have earned a black belt in Shotokan. Alas, there’s no record of it at the JKA Honbun. It’s possible he got up to 1st Kyu which is brown belt, and then left to create Tae Kwan Do – but there’s no documentation to support his claim he made black belt in Shotokan. Indeed, there’s no record he even officially got any rank. (once you get any Kyu rank above 9th kyu, you get an official number on your certificate – and they keep track of your belt ranks in Japan).
I don’t know if the Okinawan weaponry was introduced prior to Bruce Lee or not. But once Bruce Lee hit big, everyone wanted to learn Okinawan weapons. So Tae Kwan Do schools now often incorporate them. I do know I had three months of Tae Kwan Do in the 80’s, after I got my second degree black belt in Japanese Karate. I never saw any Okinawan weapons there.
Okinawan weapons are making a resurgence in Karate, along with Hojo Undo body training aids and traditional body toughening methods. So, let’s take a look.
Katana. The Katana is actually Japanese. The Koreans claim to have invented it, and the Japanese got the idea from them, but that’s historical revisionism. You can visit the very place in Japan where the Katana was first forged – you can’t find that in Korea. The Katana has a curved, hardened blade that tapers into a keen cutting edge. Some of them are so terrifyingly sharp they have cut through the elaborate helmets Samurai wore in battle, and straight down to mid-chest of the hapless Samurai receiving the blow.
There’s a science to using the Katana. Modern Kendo and Kenjutsu teaches a wide grip, hands separated. One Kendo Master has done a lot of research, and actually disputes this. He claims that all of the artwork of famous Samurai show them with their hands together, which is actually how I learned to use the Katana. The modern grip may actually have been invented to distribute the shock of hitting Kendo armor with a bamboo sword. Try both grips, and you’ll find both hands together (rather than widely separated) works much better for speed and control – as now you can use wrist motion. There are five common Kamae (stances), and eight cuts – plus the basic stabbing motion discouraged in modern Kendo but often used on the battlefield. For an outstanding Kendo duel in a movie, see “The Empire Strikes Back.” No, I’m not kidding.
Check online reviews by Katana collectors. There’s an infamous video segment of the Home Shopping Network where someone lightly hits a table three times with a cheap Katana, and part of the blade breaks off and hits the salesman in the face. Nobody ever says what happened, but I’ll wager he got stitches, and hopefully didn’t lost his eyesight. Using a cheap Katana can be life threatening to the practitioner. The Katana blade on some is known to simply fly off with a practice cut in the air, turning the blade into a whirling 40 mph missile of death. I have no opinions on safe manufacturers – one review I’ve read says the Bushido Musashi blade is the best of the inexpensive Katanas. If you’re going to practice with a live Katana, spend money and be safe. Even a cheap Katana can sever limbs. Get quality instruction before you seriously injure yourself. If you cut yourself with a real Katana, call 911 immediately, and apply direct pressure to the wound until they get there. Any severed fingers or toes should be placed in a plastic bag and kept on ice until you reach the emergency room. I am not responsible for injury or death because you read this and decided to try hacking at the bushes with a $40 Katana.
Nunchaku. I’ve heard them called Nunchucks, Moon chucks and numbchucks. If you’re mispronouncing the name like that, you are indeed a numbchuck yourself. Noon-shak’ is how it’s pronounced. Really popular thanks to Bruce Lee – until Joe Lewis (the Okinawan Karate champ) opened his big mouth. Lewis actually began challenging karate practitioners in the early 80’s to hit a heavy bag with nunchaku the way Bruce Lee did. Invariably, you ended up smacking yourself in the head with them.
Since then, karate practitioners practice control of them by hitting the heavy bag as part of training. But when nobody else is watching… “Whaaaaaa!” The baton twirling commences. Essentially two pieces of wood connected by a short chain. Okinawan style, they are octagonal in shape, and connected with rope. I have callouses on my left palm just under my pinky from them.
Sai. The trident. Some people say it was a potato digging tool. Oddly enough, that theory was developed by a friend of my dad’s. A Marine named Don Draeger wrote a lot of books in Japan on the martial arts, and one of the best books on Karate ((Moving Zen by C. W. Nichol) features conversations with Don Draeger.
Okinawa seems to be missing any ancient potato digging tools, and some Karate masters like Higaona say the Sai was exactly what it is – a sword trapping knife, not a farming implement. If Higaona says that, I believe him. You have to buy two sets, because for some reason they’re sold in pairs. And in Okinawa, they carried three of them. One for throwing, and two for fighting. the most common move with the Sai is a snapping motion. Why? You hit a Katana in that upper third spot, and it shatters. Don’t practice the actual break – a cheap Chinese made Katanas will shatter like broken glass. This move is life threatening. A piece of broken steel may fly into your face or throat.
Bo. Everyone loves the staff. I’ll say this – the quality of them has risen since the eighties. I had one that must have weighed 20 pounds, and was as thick in the middle as two pool cues bundled together. My favorite staff was a simple broom handle. not long enough to be a Bo. Now they make them in various colors. The Bo is scary if you know how to use it. You can whip it fast enough to hit someone with the force of a baseball bat. If that impacts someone’s head… it can be fatal. Be careful.
Kama. I loved the Kama blades. I was really the only guy in my dojo who loved them. I even transformed mine into furigama, which is a kama blade with a short string attached to the handle. The idea behind the kama is that anyone cutting rice or bamboo had two weapons to use against a Samurai. The idea of some Okinawan walking along with these stuck openly into his sash is utterly foolish, as the Kusarigama (a kama with a weighted chain) was actually a favored Samurai weapon. Miyamoto Musashi fought a master of the Kusarigama, and was the first man to beat him.
The kama is a simple sickle blade – but man, you can get very fast. Blinding fast. The key to the butterfly circles that kama fighters do is this – keep your arms completely opposite of one another at all times. The rotation is done mostly at the wrist. I had a really good pair with my name written on them in Japanese – but the blades rusted out and I had to throw them away. forget buying the flashy red ones – get a pair of serious carbon steel kama blades. Be aware – like any bladed weapon, a mistake with kama blades can be life threatening.
tonfa – one of the hardest Okinawan weapons to master. A simple t-shaped piece of wood, used either to turn a grinding wheel or the sliding part of a door lock. I was terrible at them. Supposedly, you can whip them around quickly. I never could get the hang of them. But if you used a Kama blade, this was the one weapon you’d have trouble beating. Keeping the tonfa along your forearm would make any attack ineffective. You had to bypass the defenses.
Remember, with any weapon you are practicing with, care must be used. Injury or death can result from misuse. Train with a professional before you try using any of these weapons. Buy safety versions of the weapons for practice.
