Nunchaku, a weapon of Ryukyu Kobudo

[Gi]

I liked the Kata, you do it very well have you been doing it a while.

[Waxahachie]

By the way, why Nunchaku is illegal in your country, though there is less gun control?

Excellent question.  Seems pretty silly to me.  BTW, Howard was right, nunchaku are illegal in California where I live but not all through the country.  They are illegal throughout Canada, though.

[Sanzinsoo]

Thanks for your kind words, Waxahachie. If you have the fundamental of Ryukyu Kobudo, Nunchaku is not so hard to get control. By the way, why Nunchaku is illegal in your country, though there is less gun control?

Thanks for posting that, Sanzinsoo.  It's quite beautiful.  Those look like real nunchaku (?)  In this country they are illegal so you mostly see foam ones used in training.

I have almost never seen people use nunchaku without braining themselves.    Was it hard to get control of the weapon at first?

Howard, do you remember the guy who posted on the old board about his school using glow-in-the-dark nunchaku?  He had an absurd looking video that showed how supposedly cool this looked.  You could not see the kata, or the people wielding the weapons, at all.  It looked like a bunch of kids swinging glow bracelets at a concert. 

[Sanzinsoo]

Hi, Blucrab. Yeah, you are right. Our nunchaku is a part of Ryukyu Kobudo or Okinawan classical weapon arts, so it is different from Bruce Lee's nunchaku. We assume the opponent use Bo or Roku-Shaku-Bo. So if you see it carefully, some thechniques are against attack by Bo.

Hello Sanzinsoo,

That's a nice kata. Thanks for posting it.

It's very refreshing to see the nunchaku used in the tratidional kobudo sense. Most of the stuff we see today done with nunchaku here in the US is some kind of XMA nonsense that has no connection to the traditional use of the weapon.

Thanks again.

[Bluecrab]

Oh yeah, perhaps I should have mentioned... nunchaku are illegal in certain states (New York and California, for example).

So be careful. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunchaku

[Bluecrab]

Thanks for posting that, Sanzinsoo.  It's quite beautiful.  Those look like real nunchaku (?)  In this country they are illegal so you mostly see foam ones used in training.

I have almost never seen people use nunchaku without braining themselves.    Was it hard to get control of the weapon at first?

Howard, do you remember the guy who posted on the old board about his school using glow-in-the-dark nunchaku?  He had an absurd looking video that showed how supposedly cool this looked.  You could not see the kata, or the people wielding the weapons, at all.  It looked like a bunch of kids swinging glow bracelets at a concert. 

Hey Wax,

I don't remember that particular video, but that's exactly the kind of stuff I had in mind.

I think the odd stuff we see with nunchaku can be traced back to Bruce Lee... he was very fond of them, and used them way more flamboyantly that they are used in Ryukyu Kobudo. The nonsense you can see today in XMA probably derives from his making the nunchaku popular.

As for actually using them... it's not really that difficult if you stick to the kobudo basics. The most important thing to remember when striking with them is that you must follow through, then catch the striking end somehow, often by catching the chain/piece of leather/whatever that joins the two ends.

The weapon itself is a very nice testament to the resourcefulness of the Okinawans. Its origin is interesting... some maintain that it comes from a type of flail that was used to separate the rice grains from the bran, others that it comes from a rudimentary bridle that was used on beasts of burden.

At any rate, it's a very powerful weapon, and the legitimate Okinawan kata for nunchaku are very nice to see done.

[Waxahachie]

Thanks for posting that, Sanzinsoo.  It's quite beautiful.  Those look like real nunchaku (?)  In this country they are illegal so you mostly see foam ones used in training.

I have almost never seen people use nunchaku without braining themselves.    Was it hard to get control of the weapon at first?

Howard, do you remember the guy who posted on the old board about his school using glow-in-the-dark nunchaku?  He had an absurd looking video that showed how supposedly cool this looked.  You could not see the kata, or the people wielding the weapons, at all.  It looked like a bunch of kids swinging glow bracelets at a concert. 

[Bluecrab]

Hello Sanzinsoo,

That's a nice kata. Thanks for posting it.

It's very refreshing to see the nunchaku used in the tratidional kobudo sense. Most of the stuff we see today done with nunchaku here in the US is some kind of XMA nonsense that has no connection to the traditional use of the weapon.

Thanks again.

[Sanzinsoo]

This is the Kata of Nunchaku that I learned from Fukumoto Sensei. Actually I performed the same Kata of Nunchaku in 1984 when Seiko Higa�fs 50th dojo anniversary demonstration was held in Naha, Okinawa. More than 24 years have passed since then, but I still practice the same Kata even today.

I think most Kata of Ryukyu Kobudo were created on the assumption that the opponent fights with a Bo (= a staff), and this Nunchaku Kata is not an exception. Visit my blog and enjoy my video clip. I myself performed the Kata in the video.

http://yamada-san.blogspot.com/2008/11/nunchaku.html