What Do You See?

Seisho Itokazu sensei demonstrating the finer points of slitting a throat

I took this photo many years ago during a visit to the honbu dojo of Matayoshi-ryu kobudo, in Sobe, Okinawa. Shinpo Matayoshi sensei had not long since passed away, and to my regret, I never did get the chance to meet him. I met instead Matayoshi sensei's son Yasushi, the current Soke, as well as a number of the seniors in the dojo, and they were kind enough to demonstrate the use of the weapons used in Matayoshi-ryu.

Itokazu sensei in particular struck me as fearsome budoka. Not that he was anything but a real gentleman in his dealings with me, but in the way he would turn on his fighting spirit the instant he picked up a weapon. The look that came over his face was...well, scary! I was left in no doubt at all that he could apply the techniques he was demonstrating that evening.

At one point he was using the Bo (Kon) to defend himself from attack, when he suddenly stopped and began talking at length. My Japanese is useless, no, actually it's really useless......but fortunately for me I had an interpreter friend along with me, and he was able to translate what was being said. Of course I knew Itokazu sensei was talking about the use of the Bo, he had one in his hand and he was moving it around; but what I failed to understand (until my friend explained it to me), was that he was talking of cutting with it. The idea that you could slice and dice with a six foot piece of wood had never occurred to me, bludgeon someone to death, yes, but cut them up....I was amazed!

Fast forward several years later, I'm sitting in the Shimbukan dojo in Tomigusuku with Hiroshi Akamine sensei, and he begins to tell me a story about his famous father, the late Eisuke Akamine sensei, and how he would often go into the sugarcane fields that surrounded his home, in the dead of night, to practice cutting techniques with his Bo. My meeting with Itokazu sensei years earlier came flooding back...."Wow, someone else who could cut with a blunt length of wood."

My surprise at the time, of what is possible with the Bo, came as much from my respect for the skill some people have, as from my own ignorance of what I was looking at. I'd seen budoka use this weapon hundreds of times, but always assumed they were just hitting, striking, or prodding their opponent. It was a big lesson for me. I now understand that what we see is based firmly in what we know (or think we know), and that limitation alone, is more than enough to make us miss what we're looking at.