One of the endearing aspects of the history of Okinawan fighting arts is the frequency of tall tales. From time to time I will share some from texts and websites.
One commonality is that the written history is replete with challenge matches which seem to have little purpose other than testing one’s manhood. Perhaps none are as entertaining than those recounted by Katsumi Murakami in his text Saijutsu - Tradition Okinawan Weapon Art.
His first tale regards the legendary sai master Tawada in his bout with the highwayman who challenges all karatemen to duels with his bo-staff:
…A couple of nights later, Tawada went over to the slope of the Samu River, where the highwayman was rumored to appear. He was carrying his favorite set of sai at his waist. The moon was very bright. Tawada had learned the sai from Matsumura, and then practiced very hard to perfect his own skill. Three years earlier, Tawada had an had had an encounter with Gusukuma, a master of the bo from the Tsuken school. He had never forgotten that fight, which took place on a beach. The cause of the conflict was simple: the hot-blooded students of the Tsuken school had boasted that their bojutsu was superior to everything. Upon hearing this, Tawada denied their opinion, saying that if he had his sai, he would never lose. So Gusukuma took it upon himself to challeng Tawada to prove it.
That was why they finally had a showdown. The encounter was so intense that both of them tried out their entire respective repertoire of techniques. The students of the Tsuken school and of Matsumura surrounded them.
Gusukuma stood in the Sunakake position (flipping sand as a distraction), with three meters between him and Tawada. Tawada, on the other hand, stood in a natural position, a sai in each hand. The observers just held their breath, waiting for some kind of movement from the combatants.
Breaking the silence, Gusukuma flicked sand at Tawada’s eyes with the tip of his bo. No sooner had he done this than he tried to thrust at Tawada’s chest, taking a step forward. At that moment, Towada dodged diagonally to the left. In the next moment, turning his body to the right. Gusukuma attempted to strike Tawada in the temple with a reverse strike. Stepping to the right side, Tawada caught the bo with his right sai, held in the reverse position, and pulled Gusukuma by trapping his bo in the tines of the sai. Tawada then jabbed Gusukuma lightly in the chest with his left sai. Gusukuma groaned and collapsed.
The fight was over in an instant. Trapping an opponent’s weapon in the tines of the sai was Tawada’s favorite technique.
Tawada was reminiscing about his bout with Gusukuma while he waited for the showdown with the highwayman.
About one o’clock in the morning, Tawada looked around, feeling that somebody was hiding himself somewhere. Suddenly someone jumped out from the bush on the left side of the road. Tawada tried to recognize his face in the light of the moon. The man covered his painted face with a towel, so Tawada could not easily tell who it was. He was very tall, about 180 centimeters [5'11"]. He blocked Tawada’s way with his magnificent figure. Tawada easily recognized him as the highwayman he was looking for.
“Who are you?” Tawada asked calmly.
“I understand you must be a master of an art. I have had many fights with masters of karate and other martial arts, but have never been defeated. I practice some karate and bojutsu. I always want to try out my skills, so I am always in search of someone strong to fight with. If you don’t mind, I would like to request a match with you.
….
The man attempted a downward strike at Tawada’s head as he moved one step closer, but Tawada caught it with his right sai, held in reverse grip. The fight was over in a second.
Murakami’s Second Tale concerns Bushi Matsumura, and his encounter with the crew of Admiral Perry’s fleet.
Everyone who practices karate has heard the name Bushi Matsumura. No doubt, he was one of the originators of modern karate. The masters of karate, specifically Shuri-te (Shuri is a city in Okinawa), such as Itosu, Azato, Mayuna, Chibana, Tawada, Ishimine, Chinen, Itarashiki, Aragaki, Kinjo, Sueyoshi and Kuwae, among others, were all students of Matsumura. Surprisingly, it is little known that Matsumura was a master of sai jutsu as well as karate. His karate teacher was Wei Xinkian, a Chinese Military officer. Matsumura himself tried very hard to master the sai.
Commodore Matthew C. Perry called at the port of Okinawa in 1853 when he arrived in Japan with his U.S. navy fleet for the first time. At that time, King Sho Ko **invited him to the castle. Matsumura was the instructor for the king. A little over 40, he was in the prime of his manhood. The question posed to King Sho Ko by Perry was: “I have heard that Okinawan martial arts do not employ any weapons. Would you mind introducing some masters?”
Upon hearing his request, the king answered, “There is one.”
Perry got very interested. “Who is this master, Your Highness?”
He is my instructor, Matsumura Sokon.”
“Is he good?” Perry continued.
“Oh yes, he is the best in Okinawa.” …
The king ordered his man to call on Matsumura. … “Your highness…” he said.
“Well, Mr. Perry wants to see karate. Can you demonstrate?” the king asked.
Perry noticed the strong body of Matsumura. Matsumura answered, “Yes I can demonstrate one kata.”
He stood up and took his place. He bowed toward the king and Perry and then took the ready stance. He looked dignified. Everybody in the castle compound watched him without a word. Matsumura’s body movement was quick, his limbs like lightning. The demonstration was over in about a minute. The kata he performed was Wankan. It was, of course, the first time Perry had seen karate.
[...A challenge is called for Matsumura who must one Perry's big sailors, an able boxer. Then comes a demonstration of sai, then a discussion of how sai would be used, followed by this unlikely turn of events]
[Perry said] Well your highness, we have a master of the sword… his family have [sic] been sword masters for generations in England. He himself is undefeated. He would be a good match for Matsumura. Would you mind their having a match, Your Highness?” Perry kept on. “Of course with swords, one of them might be killed or injured. But, I still suggest, Your Highness, that they have a match, making it a point of honor for both the Ryukuy martial arts and American martial arts.”
Even at the end of the Edo erap, King Sho Ko, his karate teacher Matsumura Sokon, as well as other warriors, had the mindset of the Bushido in their blood, cultivated from the era of civil strife. And their minds were so pure that they happily devoted their lives to their masters’ orders. Likewise, Perry’s men had the same spirit of chivalry, cultivated through Western martial traditions. They also had loyalty to their commander, Perry, even to the point of dying for him.
The king ordered Matsumura to face Richard, while Perry forced Richard to face Matsumura. Neither man disobeyed his orders. They decided to face each other like true warriors, in order to inquire into the core of true martial arts. …
The encounter took place at the king’s palace. … Before the fight, Matsumura was really determined, and ready to die. …
There then proceeds a discussion of this fight to the finish.
These stories are so riddled with improbabilities, that an analysis almost seems unfair. However, I think it useful to illuminate at least a few odd “facts.” First, Okinawa in that time, had a fairly drastic penal code. We know that all combative arts were practiced in secret, as the Japanese had prohibited them. But that was just one of many prohibitions. The Satsuma clan also prohibited fighting. The probable fate of the highwayman was that he would have been rounded up by armed Satsuma clansmen and sent off to some horrible labor camp in Okinawa or Japan, where for years, he would likely be underfed, and not well clothed, even in winter.
These kinds of unlikely challenge matches fly in the face of a basic ethos of Okinawan karate training, to not fight. In the case of the highwayman, Towada’s alleged “fight” with seems just foolish. We are told that a top student of Matsumura responded affirmatively to a challenge for a fight with deadly weapons. I do understand the necessity of responding to deadly threats with deadly force. And for great masters, I understand responding to deadly threats with non-deadly force. I do not believe that the old masters fought with weapons in challenge matches. It simply does not mesh with the fundamental principle of karate being an art of self-enlightenment.
Regarding the Perry tale, it lacks even the most simple understanding of international relations. American military personnel do not throw away the lives of sailors on challenge matches in foreign countries. Perry was on an official U.S. mission and was in that capacity, attempting to establish trading relations with the Ryukyu kingdom. And while he carried the might of the U.S. fleet behind him, he had every reason to follow protocol in his dealings with the Okinawan King. The idea that he would have proposed to the king, that his top swordsman participate in an armed, perhaps deadly, fight with the King’s own teacher, and senior leader of the Okinawan Royal guard is quite simply, not in the realm of the possible. This just could have never happened, and the fact that it is described as such is a testament to the tall tales that have emerged from the annals of Okinawan history of the fighting arts.
Which brings me to another tall tale.
I was perusing the web recently and came upon another tall tale. It regarded my as odd that someone might post it.
Around 1895, Master Choki Motobu popularized the kata by daily performing the three forms as one kata at least five hundred times.
I thought a brief analysis of kata practice today and historically would be helpful here.
Lets start with examples of the three Naihanchi on Youtube. The kata is typically done at roughly the same tempo. Students of Nagamine and Kuniba, who learned Naihanchi from Motobu take between 25 and 30 seconds for each of the three kata. Now lets assume that with occasional resting, a set of the three would take typically 90 seconds, on average, to complete. 500 repetitions, therefore, would represent over 12.5 hours of training.
There is no doubt taht Naihanchi trained frequently in Naihanchi. I would speculate that on many days, he would have typically limited his Naihanchi training to an hour, maybe two. I would also speculate, that while he might on occasion practice the kata to three or four hours, this kind of training would be far less frequent. Why?
First, we should recognize that Motobu’s karate training most certainly was not limited to kata practice. He struck the makiwara and performed hojo undo weight training. He also practiced practical kata applications with partners. And for many years of his adult life, he had students, including his son, who trained regularly with him. This is a critical fact when calculating the typical hours/day that Motobu would have spent devoted to repetitions of Naihanchi.
We should not forget, from the comfort of our twenty-first century lifestyles, that living in Okinawa, and in Japan as well, was no simple matter when Motobu taught his karate. Many had to till a garden, and fished for food. Families prepared virtually all their own meals. Indoor plumbing was not the norm and Okinawans needed to carry water from a well or stream to their homes. They washed their own clothes, etc., And they had to earn wages to pay for goods and services.
Itosu wrote that one should practice 3 to 4 hours, every day. I think that is an accurate higher range for what an adult, especially a teacher, could expect to train in on a regular basis. Let’s not overlook that Okinawa has a tropical climate and training for 4 hours on the heat can be grueling in the heat.
Once we recognize that these Okinawans had much less spare time than we do today, it is unlikely that virtually any of them had the opportunity to train more than four hours per day, on average.
With that in mind, how many repetitions of Naihanchi was Motobu likely to have practiced. Let’s first consider an hour of training to be unit of 40 kata. Then I would argue that there were few days when Motobu practiced much more than 100 sets, which would take close to 3 hours allowing for rests.
We should all recognize that Motobu was a tireless student of the art. It would not surprise me if when he was young, he might have actually tried, and maybe completed a day of 500 sets of kata, training for 15 hours until he could barely stand up. (The 15 hours allots time for eating, (really necessary), and significant periods of rest.
However, the Okinawans were not foolish. They knew what it took to survive into a healthy old age. And one to two hours of kata training, along with other kinds of training, was likely an optimal amount on most days.
**According to Wikipedia, King Sho Ko’s rule ended in 1828, Sho Iku ruled until 1847, and Sho Tai was on the throne in 1853 when Perry arrived in Okinawa.
