Customer Reviews

Black Belt Magazine: Tonfa - Karate Weapon of Self Defense

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I participated in a series of kobudo seminars in which Fumio Demura taught his Kobudo Kihon Kata. Readers will need a little context to understand what is going on here.

Master Demura decided that kobudo was not being taught intelligently, with too much emphasis on learning just one weapon and only two or three kata for the black belt. He also thought the Okinawan kobudo kata were too long for the common purposes of testing and competition. He said he can judge your performance in the first five seconds, so why wait three minutes for a 200-step kata to finish?

For these reasons he created six "Kihon Kata" for kobudo. They are beginner kata, exactly like the Heians (Pinans). The six kata cover the basic moves of bo, tonfa, nunchaku, sai, kama and ekubo. Each kata is about 20 moves long. Short and sweet. Perfect for beginners; perfect for contests and testing.

Add these katas to your Shotokan curriculum, one per kyu rank parallel to the Heians. Your students will be greatly enriched.

It is a pity that Demura marketed the Kihon Kata as six separate videos. Their special utility cannot be appreciated until you see the entire curriculum. The set of six kata is a milestone in kobudo teaching, but presented one-by-one the kata naturally disappoint kobudo experts. This is a set for beginners, and for people who teach beginners. In that light, these six kata are absolutely outstanding.

I think that this book is both well written, and instructive in it's information. I find it to be a good instructional reference.

The tonfa is my karate weapon of choice. The idea in training is that the weapon is an extension of the arm, and you use many of the same techniques with weapons that you would use in open-handed karate. This disk helps one to understand those facts. Almost everything is covered in the DVD from the history of this Okinawan kubudo weapon, its selection, and its use. I especially liked the inclusion of an intermediate level tonfa kata among the material.

In the past year, I have won two trophies for my tonfa kata in a karate tournament, so this DVD was an excellent purchase for me. It has permitted me to go to a higher level of understanding of the weapon and offers me the promise of a more advanced level of performance with this weapon in competition.

I have pre-registered to attend a karate workshop taught by Grand Master Fumio Demura next year, and I look forward to this as another element to "fine tune" my skills.