History of Kobudo

Okinawa is an elongated, rugged and mountainous group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 600 km from Japan, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. Okinawa, which is roughly at the same geographical latitude as Egypt, has a total area of approximately 2,300 km2 (for comparison: the Rosenheim district has an area of approximately 1,400 km2) and had approximately 170,000 inhabitants in 1873 (for comparison: the Rosenheim district had approximately 260,000 inhabitants in 2020). The archipelago with its eventful history is considered a melting pot of various cultural influences, especially from China, Japan and, of course, the local population.

As far as is known, contact between Okinawa and China was established as early as the 6th century. In the 12th century, a wave of immigrants from Japan brought aspects of Japanese culture to Okinawa on a larger scale, including the Japanese martial arts of the time. Until the 14th century, however, it can be assumed that Okinawa was largely isolated from the outside world. In the 14th century, Okinawa became tributary to China and trade relations between China and Okinawa intensified.

Until the 15th century, Okinawa was mostly divided into several essentially independent kingdoms. It is assumed that Okinawa was first unified under a common king in 1429. In addition, Okinawa became a trading center during this time, with the result that various cultural influences and knowledge not only from China and Japan, but also from Malaysia, Thailand and the Arab region could mix and develop further in Okinawa.

For the emergence of Kobudo (History of Kobudo), two periods in Okinawa are considered particularly significant:

• At the beginning of the 16th century, a ban on weapons was imposed on the population out of fear of revolts. In order not to be completely at the mercy of robbers and the state, this first ban on weapons is said to have inspired the more rural population in particular to look for alternatives to conventional weapons.
  ● At the beginning of the 17th century, from 1609, Okinawa was conquered by the Japanese Satsuma clan – in the course of this conquest, a second ban on weapons was imposed. Again, in order to be able to defend themselves against outlaws and also against the occupiers, people improvised.
  Over time, sophisticated unarmed combat systems emerged with precursors of Karate and combat systems with the precursors of Kobudo, especially with unconventional objects as weapons. It is assumed that the development of these precursors, which are said to have been purely focused on combat application, mostly took place in secret, as the open practice was not welcomed by those in power.

Especially in the course of the 19th century, it can be assumed that the character of the precursors of Karate and Kobudo slowly changed from a purely martial orientation (Bugei) to a martial art (Budo). During this time, trainees of originally Japanese origin were also increasingly initiated into the emerging Karate and Kobudo.

Kobudo is not to be understood as a self-contained homogeneous unit, but rather as an umbrella term for a large collection and synthesis of various weapons and applications. Depending on the counting method, Kobudo is sometimes attributed to around 50 different weapons or weapon-like objects. However, historical Kobudo masters often only dealt very intensively with one or a few weapons. Kobudo thus rests on a multitude of shoulders of different masters who worked over a long period of time.

Until the 19th century, it is assumed that there were primarily two different main lines of development for Kobudo, which did not necessarily have to touch each other much:
● On the one hand, from the rural population; this applies in particular to the “classic” Kobudo weapons, such as Tonfa, Kama, Eku, Kuwa or Nunti-Bo.
● On the other hand, from the Okinawan nobility, especially teachers from the upper class of Okinawa, especially from the royal family and the palace guard. Influences from China and Japan are increasingly found in this line of development. Weapons that are more likely to be attributed to this line of development are, for example, Naginata, Yari, Jo, Jitte, Sai or also (Ni-) Tanbo.

Whether Kobudo was subject to strict secrecy in Okinawa until the 19th century and whether a strict ban on weapons actually applied to all natives is controversial – at least the upper class or palace guard should have been allowed to carry swords or the like. In addition, the relationship between the Japanese-born Satsuma occupiers and the natives seems to have been relatively good most of the time.

After the end of the Samurai rule in Japan in the 1860s, Okinawa went from an occupied country to a regular Japanese province. This and the associated possibly decreasing pressure on the population as well as, above all, the appearance of modern firearms probably led to Karate and Kobudo being able to become public – the practical relevance of Karate and Kobudo simply decreased. Thus, around 1900 there were the first documented public Karate and Kobudo demonstrations in Okinawa. Some time later, in the 1920s, Karate in particular was then spread in the Japanese motherland, became popular with the government and quickly thrived there as a discipline-bringing, useful physical exercise – also due to the militarism widespread in Japanese society at this time.

After Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, in which many original sources about Karate and Kobudo in Okinawa were irretrievably destroyed, Okinawa was occupied by the USA until the 1970s and Okinawa housed large US military bases. With the return of US soldiers from Okinawa to the USA from around the 1950s, Karate in particular reached the western hemisphere and spread from the USA to Europe (for example, starting from the Paris Karate School of Henry Plée). In contrast, Kobudo remained in the dark for longer and only became known to a wider audience in Europe as part of the 1972 Karate World Championships in Paris. Over large parts of the 20th century, it can be assumed that Kobudo was comparatively unknown even in Okinawa itself; in any case, Kobudo leads a shadowy existence compared to Karate.

In the 20th century, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, there was sometimes a heated debate about the originality of Karate and Kobudo – are Karate and Kobudo mainly “Okinawan” or not “Japanese” arts? Thus, there were masters who saw themselves as originally Japanese and also masters who saw themselves as originally Okinawan. Since Karate (and, to a lesser extent, also Kobudo) was predominantly systematized and disseminated not directly from Okinawa, but from the Japanese motherland (e.g. Funakoshi Gichin lived in the Japanese motherland from the 1920s and many Karate styles, such as Shotokan, began their journey around the world from there), Japanese influences are diverse and extensive. Very shortened and greatly simplified, the Okinawan rather simple, simple character of Kobudo (at least in relation to the main line of development carried by the rural population) was overlaid by the Japanese Samurai and elite thinking of the first half of the 20th century; to put it bluntly, the Okinawan fishing and farming combat techniques became in part a Japanese Samurai Kobudo.

In the 1970s and also at the beginning of the 1980s, little to very little was known about Kobudo in Europe – however, there were some who were interested in Kobudo, including our style founder Jim van de Wielle (*1937).

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Jim van de Wielle was intensively involved in Jiu-Jitsu. In particular, Jim van de Wielle was in regular contact with the southern English Jiu-Jitsu schools around Robert Clark (1946-2012), James Blundell and John Steadman and trained regularly in Liverpool. There, Bo/Jo/Hanbo, Sai, Tonfa Kama and Nunchaku were practiced, which were part of the Jiu-Jitsu examination program from the 3rd Dan. Kobudo was therefore a relatively small part of this examination program, with a comparatively small scope per weapon and without an overarching system.

The origin of the Kobudo or Kobujutsu practiced by Robert Clark is not entirely clear. As far as is known, Robert Clark learned, among other things, from Jack Britten (ca. 1900-1978), who is said to have trained with Yukio Tani (1881-1950). According to tradition, Yukio Tani came to England as a young man from Japan and is mainly known for his Jiu-Jitsu and, according to tradition, was a student of Mataemon Tanabe (1869-1942) from the Fusen-Ryu, which in turn was founded by Motsugai Takeda (1795–1867), a Japanese monk, and includes unarmed and weapon-based defense techniques[2].

Based on what he learned in the environment of Robert Clark, Jim van de Wielle developed “his” Kobudo in the course of the 1980s, with the help of information from Okinawa and Japan that was not yet very extensive in Europe in the 1980s. The first “modern” Sôchin-Ryu-Kata, which are still practiced today, date back to around 1989. In the 1990s, what Jim van de Wielle had collected and developed up to that point was then systematically added to Sôchin-Ryu-Kobudo together with Patrick Hesbeens. The first elements of the Sôchin-Ryu were initially practiced loosely within the framework of Kun-Tai-Ko. The actual founding as an independent style with its own examination program finally took place in 1998.

[2] see also, as of July 2022, the English-language Wikipedia articles “Yukio Tani”, “Fusen-ryū” and “Mataemon Tanabe”

In contrast to other Kobudo styles, such as Matayoshi-Ryu, Sôchin-Ryu is relatively young and is not primarily a strict historical tradition. Sôchin-Ryu is not exactly oriented towards the often only blurred and imprecise historical model, but is largely a re- and new development by Jim van de Wielle and supported by Patrick Hesbeens, based on the sometimes only sparsely available knowledge about the original techniques. This means that Sôchin-Ryu, especially compared to other Kobudo styles with more pronounced historical roots, is more focused on the core techniques of the individual weapons. In addition, Sôchin-Ryu offers an insight into the diverse world of Kobudo weapons, so that weapons are also taught that are sometimes not even treated in other Kobudo styles.

Sôchin-Ryu is not a static, strictly historical concept, but is open to further development and advancement. Due to its beginnings also in Jiu-Jitsu, a focus of Sôchin-Ryu is also in the area of self-defense; this applies at least to the weapons that are still considered suitable for everyday use today, such as Jo, Tanbo or Yawara, or their modern equivalents such as a walking stick, rolled-up newspaper or umbrella. In Sôchin-Ryu, the spirit of the old Kobudo, to defend oneself in everyday life with improvised weapons, is carried into the present. History of Kobudo.

Kobudo translates to roughly “old martial way” or “old way of war”. Sôchin-Ryu means approximately “style of strength and calm” or “style of quiet power”; Sôchin can also be read as “Preserve peace”. The name Sôchin implies calm and powerful and dynamic techniques. Sôchin is also the name of a Karate Kata that originated in Okinawa.

The symbol for Sôchin-Ryu-Kobudo is formed from a red circle, divided into 16 sectors, on a white background. The three inscriptions running from top to bottom inside the circle read “Jim van de Wielle” on the left, “Sôchin-Ryu” in the middle and “Kobudo” on the right.

The red circle in front of a white background is reminiscent of the national flag of Japan, the Hi no Maru, in German approximately “sun circle” or “sun circle”. The version with the 16 sectors is reminiscent of a variant of the flag of Japan used from the 16th century to the end of the Second World War, the Kyokujitsuki, in German approximately “flag of the rising sun”, with the 16 sectors representing sun rays. The variant used in the Sôchin-Ryu symbol as a so-called Siemens star was used rather rarely and early. The Siemens star variant avoids the historically not entirely unproblematic variant with a central massive red circle from which the 16 rays emanate, which was used in particular in the Second World War.

In addition, the Siemens star variant was used in the 1970s and 1980s on certificates for higher Dan grades of the World Ju-Jitsu Federation, there in a slightly asymmetrical form. The World Ju-Jitsu Federation was founded in 1976 by Robert Clark. In this respect, the Sôchin-Ryu symbol is also reminiscent of its first beginnings in the environment of Robert Clark’s Jiu-Jitsu.

In addition, the red circle in front of a white background takes up the similar design of the logos of the World Kun-Tai-Ko Budo Association and at least some of its sub-associations, that the connection to Kun-Tai-Ko is symbolized.