KOBUDO HISTORY
Kobudo is the art of weapons, which include bo, sai, tonfa, kama, nunchaku, tekko, and eku as beingsome of the basic and more common weapons. In addition, there are however still many other weaponswhich are not as populare. Kobudo first gained its prominence around the year 1314 AD (the 4th year of showa), when the Japanese Government passed the first of its laws to ban the possession of all weaponson the island of Okinawan. The second banned took place in the 1600's, were karate and kobudo took more of a stronger hold in the society of the Okinawan's.The Okinawan weapons (kobudo
古武道
literately old martial way) was developed by the population of Okinawa, which suffered under the Japanese occupying forces very much. The weapons served for self-defense against the Japanese Samurai. In addition, the systems which are practiced in the kobudo todayare influenced very differently. On Okinawa exists only one old book with the name Omorososhi whichdocuments the early martial. It contains about 1500 long and short poems, written in Ryukyu-dialect of the 13. and 17. century. The poems describe the culture, the politics and aspects of the daily life onOkinawa. Several of this were translated of Kenzaburo Torikoshi. They also contain sections abouthelmet, armour, sword and bend. The concepts Sai or Bo are missing. The only Kobudo weapon whichis mentioned in the Omorososhi is the Jo.
Genesis and story
The genesis of the Okinawan Kobudo is committed himself till the time of the first weapon ban. It seemsreasonable to assume that these early forms of the Kobudo developed defense and countering formsagainst swords and lances mostly. The stick, the walking stick or other long, gripping tools were used tothis. It is practically sure that many unique methods of the self-defense against armed attackers haddeveloped before the 1600 century. This development led finally to the method of the Okinawan Te andKobudo. Today, many of these techniques are still contained in the kata and the odori. They show as amatter of priority defense -forms against the sword and other blade weapons. Pieces of equipment likesix foot long stick (Rokushaku-Bo), the short sickle (Kama), the handle of a grinding coarsely mill(Tonfa or Tuifa), the boat oar (quay), the fisherman spear (Nunte-Bo) and a variety of other makeshiftweapons basic commodities which were available are used for this. But during the earlier tribute time,there was not any actual reason for the Okinawan people to develop weapon techniques and useunsuspicious objects as weapons. Nevertheless is certain, that the Okinawan masters of martial art at thattime developed a strong fighting spirit in its martial arts.
The Satsuma
After the Satsuma Invasion on Okinawa (1609) all fight-exercises were practiced more strongly. At thattime the kobudo and tode were developed into the full blossom. Besides the exercise of the tode theinhabitants had to develop unsuspicious looking weapons which they could take against a Samurai.Later the martial art supporters organized themselves to be able to do greater resistance against theJapanese. From connections to the Chinese Quan-Fa the Okinawan studied much into cover of the armedand unarmed fight. Despite strange influences the origin of the kobudo weapons lies in Okinawa.Although the Okinawan systems was influenced particularly strongly by the Chinese systems, theydeveloped her own character and her own methods (Matsu Higa). Also the Chinese systems of kobudoare very different to the Okinawan systems. The reason lies in the practical need of the Okinawan’s, tohave insist against her enemies, the Chinese systems deeply rooted in her millennium old tradition (Dao-Jiao and Qi, gong) pursued her aims lasting in own meaning. The methods of the Okinawan's martial
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