Talk:Kobudo
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I believe the farm implement story is widely regarded as a myth. This from the Okinawan weapon page:
There is a popular tale that the weapons were developed due to restrictions placed upon the peasants that meant they could not carry arms. As a result, it is said, they were defenceless 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. 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.
Legends within the kobudo tradition itself agree with the Chinese origin theory. For example, the art of tonfa (or tong fa, meaning "handle" -- in Chinese, referred to as "iron ruler") is said to have been brought to Okinawa by a Chinese master who met his match in Matsu Higa and his bo. Matsu Higa so impressed the master of these handle-like weapons that they agreed to teach each other, and kobudo practitioners preserved their use thereafter.
The somewhat prevalent, romantic notion of fishermen and peasants taking arms against samurai and pirates is highly doubtful, of course. All kobudo masters that we know of came from samurai or privileged backgrounds.
However, just because the weapons arts of traditional kobudo probably had their origins in China doesn't preclude the possibility that farming and fishing implements were retrofitted for use as weapons. Okinawa played host to a near constant succession of occupations by cultures more or less uncaring for the concerns of the natives, in which metal weaponry was confiscated on at least three separate occasions (as much to suppress insurrection as to shore up the rulers' reserves in the face of chronic metal shortage). While there may be little truth the notion that the use of kobudo weaponry successfully protected the islands from samurai and pirates, there is evidence enough of internal violence being committed and defended against using these implements.
Venix 22:20, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
