the kihon of the bo
TRANSCRIPT
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Soke told me long ago that in order to become good in a particular
weapon you have to understand the Taijutsu of that weapon. Each
weapon has its on Taijutsu that we must understand and conform to
if we are to master the weapon. In the beginning, most of us try toconform the weapon to our own limited abilities. We pick up the
weapon, imitate a kamae and do techniques, usually badly. If we
do this long enough without good correction we develop very bad
habits/form that can be much more difficult to overcome the more
senior we get in the Bujinkan. I saw examples of this over and over
again during my years of living in Japan. Gaijin Shihan from around
the world would be visiting Hombu for training. Soke would showsomething at a very high level using a weapon. We would all
practice it for a few minutes and then Soke would say, okay Phiyo,
10 men please. I would call out 10 of the visiting gaijin Shihan to
demonstrate one of the techniques that Soke had shown us that
day. Some would be fine and have the usual confusion that comes
with trying to replicate what Soke had just shown. However, a large
number of them would be at a total loss of what to do. When tryingto demonstrate the technique, they would look awkward holding the
weapon, show something that had no characteristics of what Soke
was showing or they would completely revert to a technique of their
own creation. (Forget weapons, that happened a number of times
when Soke asked gaijin Shihan to demonstrate the Kihon Happo!!) It
became obvious to those of us living in Japan that these gaijin had a
very little base of knowledge of the weapon to draw from, thatnegatively affected their ability to demonstrate an advanced
technique. They had little understanding of the Taijutsu of the
weapon. In order to master a weapon you must conform yourself to
the weapon, not the other way around. To do this you must develop
a foundational base of knowledge by practice the Kihon Happo of
that weapon for many, many years.
To quote Mark Lithgow, Kihon Happo is the base of all of our
training, not necessarily the basic. In other words, Kihon Happo not
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something we only practice as a white or green belt and then put it
away when we advance in rank. Rather the Kihon Happo is our base
or structure from which all of our future movement comes from. We
must spend many, many years developing a broad base set ofskills/knowledge before we can ever approaching moving like Soke
or one of the Japanese Shihan. I would suggest we must do the
Kihon Happo for as long as we do martial arts, no matter what rank
we may get to.
Keeping the concept that the Kihon Happo is our base, lets look at
what the Kihon Happo of the Bo might be.
The Bo is a prevalent weapon in most of the ryu that make up theBujinkan, so first I picked the Bo, Jo and Hanbo of both the
Kukishinden Ryu and Shinden Fudo Ryu to study. I then did a quick
search of all of the reference videos, books and notes that I have in
my library for this ryu and then sorted these again for specific
references to Bo, Jo and Hanbo. I settled on several of Sokes
DKMYS videos from the mid-late 90s that focused on Kukishinden
Ryu Bo and Jo. I also went to ourTakaSeigi website and pulled outNoguchi Senseis videos demonstrating Kukishinden Ryu Ryu
Shoden level Bo vs Sword waza. I got out Sokes Advanced Stick
Fighting book and his Stick Fighting book (with Quentin Chambers)
and some of my personal training notes that i took in Japan in the
mid-late 90s, plus our BTSD Gedan instructor manual.
I decided on the 9 kamae that are illustrated in Sokes Advanced
Stick Fighting Book and then added in a couple more kamae fromother resources. These are:
1. Jodan no kamae- Bo overhead and in front of the body creating a
diagonal line pointing forward. Bo should be between your eyes or
slightly off-set to the left or right side of your eyes.
2. Chudan- Bo under armpit, held horizontal to the ground with tip
pointed forward.
3. Ichimonji- Held at waist level, bo pointed forward.
4. Seigan- Held at waist level, bo pointed up toward opponents
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eyes.
5. Gedan- Bo held low and to the side/behind the body. A Gyokko
Ryu henka is to hold bo forward (like Ichimonji), but pointing low.
6. Hira Ichimonji- Bo held across thighs, arms extended down.Facing forward (bo is pointed to sides) or turning to put either foot
forward and bo is pointed forward. A Gyokko Ryu henka (called Oto
Nashi) is to hold the bo in Hira like position behind the back.
7. Munen Muso- A Gyokko Ryu kamae. The bo is held vertical in
either hand. One end of the bo is touching the ground.
8. Tenchi- Bo is held vertical on left or right side. Bo is not touching
the ground.9. Heito- Hold bo as in Hira Ichimonji, then step back with either leg
and twist arms around to side/back. Most of the bo should be held
behind you.
10. Ihen- Transition posture. Bo is held sort of like in Jodan, but out
to the side of the body and not quite as high. This kamae can
change slightly depending on the situation.
11. Seiza- Kneeling with the bo on your right side laying on theground pointed forward.
I practice getting into each of these kamae, usually starting with
kneeling, then standing up and going from high to low stances and
then vice versa. I do all of the kamae (that are appropriate) on the
right and left side with either leg forward. I also change the grips
many times to underhanded or overhanded or both. Next I spin the
bo to reverse which end is pointed forward. I progress from this todo a few strikes with the bo as I transition between each kamae.
You can take this a lot further by combining the 9 directional strikes
with each stance. In other words, starting with Jodan no kamae, do
each of the 9 strikes in a row or do one of the 9, get back into Jodan
and do the next one, back into Jodan for the 3rd, and so on. Practice
all of the kamae and all of the strikes, with either foot forward and in
multiple hand positions, and either end of the bo. This gives you a
very, very large number of repetitions to practice as you are building
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your base. I also like to combine striking with stance work because
you are developing a physical skill to be able to strike from any
position. You learn the strengths and limitations of each stance
relative to being able to strike out from them. Some stances give youonly a limited number of ways or directions that you can strike from
and this is very important information to know to fully understand the
Taijutsu of the Bo.
Next I practice Bo Furi. Spinning the Bo. I have an analogy for how
to position your hands when spinning the bo that seems to work
pretty well for new people learning the spin. Its called motorcycle,
motorcycle, baseball, golf. Start spinning the bo while standing inplace. Then walk around the room while spinning. Then stop in mid
spin to do strikes and then continue spinning. Back up to a wall and
spin, knee and spin, walk up stairs and spin, leap while spinning,
walk on a balance been while spinning, etc. etc. Try all kinds of
ways to restrict the space you have to spin the bo in and also strike.
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This calligraphy can be found on page 162 of Sokes Advanced Stick Fighting book. I
believe it is a linear depiction of the Bo being held in the 9 kamae referenced in the
book, plus the 10th line depicting Bo Furi (spinning). The title of this calligraphy is Hi
Ryu or Flying Dragon.
Find a solid object such as a heavy duty heavy bag or a padded
support beam or padded tree. Practice 9 directional striking with
strength, using good balance and deep stances. Then practice
leaping and striking, focusing on the form and precision of thestrikes. Then paint a small circle on your target or tape a quarter to
the bag and practice Tsuki strikes to put the tip of the bo on the
quarter. Do this while standing, then moving toward the target, then
leaping, then see how close you can come with your eyes closed.
Once youve built up a strong base knowledge of the bo and
developed strong skill sets in moving and striking you are then able
to practice actual bo techniques and make some sense of them.
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This is the Kihon Happo that I have used for many years to develop
my base of knowledge of the Bo. Studying the bo in this fashion and
you too will understand the Taijutsu of the Bo that Soke talks about.
We will be putting up new training video of the Kihon Happo of theBo soon on TakaSeigi.com.