Okinawan performance sport

South Vancouver-raised instructor says kobudo is rare and expensive

“Ichi! Block with the rochin,” Sensei William Chung yelled, as his students alternated thrusting forward with their short spears and their tortoise shaped shields.

“Ni! Step forward and block with the tinbe!”

Chung teaches Okinawan kobudo, a rare martial art that uses weapons, to a group of dedicated students at Dunbar Community Centre.

When asked about the sport, Chung agreed that the reason kobudo is still so rare is because of its biggest strength, the weapons.

The sport, practised by few, requires unusually staunch commitment from the toughest of students — from buying incredibly expensive equipment, lugging it to practise, tiring repetitious training exercises and hearing your sensei critique the tiniest of muscle movements.

Sensei Krister Naab, from North Vancouver’s Hinode Karate & Kobudo, said a lot of the weapons people aren’t even familiar with because they’re so old and tradi tional.

Chung’s kobudo students use a long staff called a “bo,” a small dagger with three-prongs called a “sai,” a wooden baton called a “tonfa,” a nunchuck or as it’s correctly spelled “nunchaku,” a small brass knuckle looking weapon called a “tekko,” and the “tinbe-rochin,” a shield shaped like a tortoise’s shell and a small spear.

He said having students practise with these large, expensive weapons means smaller, more expensive classes and fewer instructors to open new classes.

Even for Chung, who grew up in South Vancouver and went to Langara, began studying kobudo in the 80s. He said it was difficult to find someone qualified to teach him.

“I was taking karate at the time. There was an exchange student from Japan who knew a little about the weapons,” Chung said. “That was the first [kobudo teacher he] got exposure to.”

Most kobudo students have extensive experience in other martial arts because of the added difficulty in wielding weapons. Chung is no exception. He was on the Canadian National Kung Fu team in 1986 that competed in Tianjin, China. He came fifth in the competition.

Chung said he now enjoys teach ing kobudo to his group of commit ted students every weekend, and has no plans to stop any time soon.

“Every time they learn something new, I see it in their face. I see it in their personality and that’s reward ing to me,” Chung said.

Bob Mooney, one of Chung’s kobudo students said, learning kobudo is about having a physical connection with the weapon and learning how to connect that [weap on’s movement] to the floor.

Mooney first started learning taekwondo and transitioned into studied wado ryu karate under sensei Norma Foster in 2000.

Today, Mooney teaches karate at Simon Fraser University and is also a head instructor at Guseikai Karate in Burnaby.

“When you have one [martial art, you think] ‘how could I augment this?’”

ABOVE: William Chung's students preparing for their warmup.

TOP RIGHT: A kobudo weapon with purple handles called the sai.

CENTRE-RIGHT: William Chung practising with his students using the tekko.

BOTTOM RIGHT: A close up of kama, it is a tool used by farmers in Okinawa. Photos by Steven Chang.