Kobudo, the ancient Okinawan martial
art of farming and fishing tools for self-defense has been so effective, that
many law enforcement agencies around the globe adopted many of these tools for
their line of work. One notable tool was the tonfa, a side handle baton that replaced
the common ‘Billy club’ for a few decades until the expandable baton was
introduced. But even the expandable baton, known as a kibo and referred to as ASP, has a Japanese martial
arts association. For instance, the hanbo, a 3-foot baton, is used in
many styles of traditional jujutsu and ninjutsu and is even used in some styles of Shorin-Ryu Karate.
Other similar tools include nitanbo
and kobuton.
Other kobudo tools, or weapons,
include an unusual fork-like weapon known as sai. The sai is a classical kobudo
martial art weapon and one of the hardest to learn. Even so, members of Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai at
the Arizona Hombu in Mesa tested for
certification with this weapon. To certify, the group was required to
demonstrate four separate advanced kata (forms), bunkai (self-defense
applications) and ippon kumite (sparing). Six martial artists from the martial arts school successfully
passed exams and were awarded certification in this complicated weapon. The six
included Adam Bialek, Sensei Bill Borea, Amanda Nemec, Ryan Nemec, Alexis
Pillow and Sempai Patrick Scofield.
