About Okinawan Kobudo

     Okinawa has a unique culture, one with traditions and arts seen nowhere else in the world Among these are the their origins in combative techniques. Techniques developed, forged, and refined in the space between life and death. The Okinawan people can be proud of these arts. They have deep value, and the essence of these methods of training the body and mind is reflected throughout Okinawa's traditional culture.
     Perhaps one of the most important aspects of these arts is that their history shows them to be developed for the protection of and livelihood by a people who did not usually carry weapons. Practitioners of Okinawa's empty hand methods developed their bodies as weapons. They also used things from their environment as weapons‑farming and fishing implements, tools, stones, trees, and plants. The use of these improvised weapons is connected to martial techniques transmitted from as far back as the Stone Age. As well as, techniques for special weapons invented by women and used and developed by warriors, merchants, townspeople, farmers, fishermen, and so on developed. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, weapons and techniques were also imported to Okinawa from China. Many of these weapons and techniques are still in existence in today's kobudo and kobujutsu. It is no exaggeration to say that from their varied beginnings they were, in large, part brought to their current form with influence from Chinese martial arts.
     As for the kata, in times past people went into and returned from the place of life and death with a particular profound intensity. The techniques and spirit they accumulated are bequeathed to us in the kata. Those that aspire to the craft are able to access the true source in their pursuit of knowledge by earnestly working to feel the techniques and spirit of the kata. The kata includes practical techniques of offense and defense. Techniques skillfully combined and ones assuming opponents in all directions. There are people who waste time with tricks, competitions, and other popular things and come to ignore kata. However, by either diligently doing other things or due to a bit of carelessness it can honestly be said that through their own negligence they are unable to gain even one secret.
     Through the characters that make it up, the character "bu" (military arts/ chivalry) implies "stopping the spear," and therefore carries a sense of peace. In a place where chivalry's true meaning, its virtue, and the spirit of peace become one, lies the true intention of "bu." Those who are studying budo today should take from this, and from the spirit of others practicing budo, a reminder that they should demonstrate in their daily lives this "budo intention." They should live with a sense that "everything is to be done with sincerity."