WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG No 9 JULY 2007House of the Pure Martial Arts
Matayoshi KobudoA Brief History and Overview
While there are a number of books and numerous articles aboutthe various unarmed systems of Okinawan martial arts, there islittle quality written material in English about the various armed
arts of the island. There are a small number of sources looking atthe performance of various kata, and some on application of these
kata, but there are a dearth of sources that clearly examine thecontent and history of any of the island's major weapons systems.
This article is an attempt to begin to fill some of that gap in theliterature by more carefully examining the history and content of
the Matayoshi kobudo.
- Frederick W. Lohse III -
2
The armed arts of Okinawa have alwaysbeen an integral part of the martial heritageof the island. Indeed, an earlier term forthe Okinawan martial arts, Tode, makesno distinction between armed and un-armed technique. Along with the unarmedarts, the islands bushi have always passeddown a variety of armed techniques.Many remain extant today, ranging fromthe bojutsu of Tode Sakugawa to thebo and sai of Chatan Yara, the bo andeku from Tsuken jima, and to a numberof Chinese based weapons techniquespracticed on the island. Traditionally,these weapon skills were passed downalong with unarmed technique, preservedand taught (and adapted) by variousindividual teachers. Also, much like theislands karate kata, many exist in anumber of variations, passed down bydifferent teachers but connected to thesame root. In the mid-20th century thismore organic method of instruction beganto change. As Okinawas karate beganto be codified in ryu, or formal lineages,the same thing happened to the weaponarts.While there are a number of lineages stillextant on the island, many, like theHonshin-ryu, Yamane-ryu and Ufuchikukobudo, remain very small, even afterhaving been codified. Still other weaponskills remain small parts of individualkarate systems, preserved but having little
communal impact. These techniques andsystems remain a valuable part ofOkinawas martial heritage, no matterhow limited their provenance. However,starting in the middle of the last centurytwo main lineages of weapon arts deve-loped on the island, and, along with attrac-ting their own body of students, startedto draw students from karate lineages thathad no armed component. Taira Shinken,originally a student of Funakoshi Ginchin,began collecting various kobudo kata andtechniques in the early 20th century. Hewent on to found the Society for thePreservation and Promotion of RyukyuKobudo (Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shin-
Creating chances forexperience
Several weeks ago I organised a workoutreunion for my former and present karatestudents and the focus of this special workoutwas on close combat mass attacks.During the workout I slowly worked towardsa fighting scenario where we ultimately hadhardly any space to manoeuvre, often standingshoulder to shoulder as in a huge packedcrowd of hundreds and where everybody wasfighting everybody. At its climax people werepushed back in the fighting crowd when theyescaped the centre of fighting and medicineballs were constantly being thrown in to addanother dimension. A scenario with an extre-mely chaotic and uncontrollable nature. Someof my former students were not familiar withthis type of mass attack training where allattacks can be initiated at any time, totallyunexpected and unseen. A direct and for somea new confronting way to see in which direc-tion fear leads them, being it fight, flight,freezing or flow, as described in an excellentarticle from Kevin Secours in this edition.In experiencing close combat mass attacks itbecame very clear to some of my studentsthat they used their body differently thanexpected and often differently than they weretrained to do. Some students told me that,among other things, they used more basicmotor skills than any complex motor skillsand in order to survive used more of theirnatural and instinctive way of reacting thanthey normally were used to. The mostimportant thing and my primary goal, wasthat they learned something about themselves.Why things were different, what fear did tothem in this setting and at the point of self-defence, what changed their way of reactingcompared to others scenarios. To be short,what reflection they received from thisexperience.From the point of self-defence, I think thatevery martial artist should train or at leastexperience all kinds of possible self-defencescenarios if the opportunity exists. Expe-rience is our best teacher and it gives us adirect feedback. Personally I think that everymartial art school should do more to let thestudent experience out the box practise, whichbroadens our view of things and even givesnew insights into our self and our martial artsystems. I hope the mass attack scenarioexample sparks some of our readers toexperiment.
Lex OpdamEditor in chief
While it has spread world-wide, and hashad a profound affect on the Okinawanmartial arts, most available informationabout the system is hearsay, or a smallsmattering of book chapters, short articles,and biographies on websites.
kokai), now well known world-wide.Earlier, in the late 1800s, another lineagethat today practices primarily armedtechnique began to develop, the Mata-yoshi family kobudo. This is the othermain armed system on the island.
Little exists in English, or in Japanese,about the Matayoshi kobudo system.While it has spread world-wide, and has
WWW.MEIBUKANMAGAZINE.ORG No 9 JULY 2007House of the Pure Martial Arts 3
had a profound affect on the Okinawanmartial arts, most available informationabout the system is hearsay, or a smallsmattering of book chapters, short articles,and biographies on websites. Some ofthis information is contradictory, and someis incorrect. While this article is not meantto be definitive, it is an attempt to morecompletely convey some of the historyand content of the Matayoshi kobudo.In writing it, I draw from my more than20 years of experience in the system,under Matayoshi Shinko in Okinawa,under Sakai Ryugo- a student of SenseiMatayoshi from the early 1960s- inJapan, under Gakiya Yoshiaki, and underKimo Wall, a student of Sensei Mata-
yoshi since 1962. It is informed by nume-rous casual conversations with all of thesepeople, as well as more directed questionsabout the content and history of thesystem, including a planned interviewwith Sensei Matayoshi for another projectin 1995. Finally, it draws on the smallamount of written information about thesystem in Japanese. It is my hope it will addclarity to the existing information aboutsystem, and help to bring a treasure of Oki-nawas martial heritage more fully into thelight.
BackgroundThe Matayoshi family traces its lineageback to a famous figure in Okinawanhistory, Gima Shinjo, or Mashi GimaOyakata Shinjo (1557-1644). (abcd) Gima was a descendant of Oshiro(Ufugushiku) Anshi, the head of the familyline. While not known as a martial artist,Gima had a profound effect on thedevelopment of the island. He was a noblein the Ryukyunan feudal government, anofficial of Ryukyu Agriculture (Smits,1999), and was the patron of NoguniSokan, who brought the sweet potatoback from Fujian, China in 1604 (seeKerr, 2000). Gima took the product hisvassal brought back and promoted itsdevelopment as a crop. Within a fewyears, it became one of the most impor-tant crops on the island. From Okinawa,
it was later transplanted to Japan. Gimaalso imported and propagated sugarcane, as a cash crop. These two importedplants dramatically changed the courseof Okinawan history, the potato providinga secure sustenance crop suited to theclimate and high in nutritional value, andthe sugar cane providing a valuable cashcrop, jump starting the islands economy.
Gima and Nogunis reputations haveremained important on the island. Amonument was built to them in a park inNaha in 1937, to honor their work forOkinawa, and Gimas tomb, which wasmoved from Sumiyoshi Cho in 1959 tomake room for the expansion of a USbase, was rebuilt in 1993, using statefunds. The current Matayoshi family is acollateral line of the Gima family, splittingoff some 16 generations ago. Many of
Kokusai Karate Kobudo Renmei main dojo Founding Members, December 17, 1962. Taira Shinken,seated 2nd from left. Higa Seiko, seated, center. Matayoshi Shinpo, standing 4th from left.
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the male members of the family retain theshin (c) character from Shinjo to honortheir famous ancestor; this is the shin inShinko and Shinpo. (Interview withMatayoshi Shinpo, 1995.)
At some point in their history, the Mata-yoshi family became associated with themartial arts. It is unclear just what thisassociation was- they were not famouson the island as teachers, or closely asso-ciated with the Ryukyu government ormilitary- but by the time Matayoshi Shin-ko was young there was a long traditionof martial arts within the family, a traditionstretching back an unknown number ofgenerations. Sensei Matayoshi Shinkosfirst teachers were his father, MatayoshiShinchin, and his paternal grandfather,Matayoshi Shintoku. They initiated himinto the family Kenpo and weapon tech-
