Nunchaku and Sai: Ancient Okinawan Martial Arts by Ryusho Sakagami

Nunchaku and Sai: Ancient Okinawan Martial Arts
by Ryusho Sakagami

Historical Background
By the words Ancient Okinawan Martial Way (Okinawa Kobudo) refer to those martial arts that, in contrast to karate, which is as its name implies performed with empty (kara) hands (te) employ various weapons. The ancient, armed, martial arts, a part of the larger Okinawan system to which karate too belongs, make use of a number of distinctive weapons of kinds unusual in the rest of the world. Some of them are the bo, the sai, the tonfa, the nunchaku, and the nicho gama. I shall discuss these in more detail later. 

As is true in the case of karate as well, there is little documentary evidence concerning the his tory of the older martial arts. It is certain, however, that the geographical location and other characteristics of Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands played an important role in their development, as in other aspects of the history of the Ryukyu people.
There are more than sixty large and small islands in the Ryukyu chain, which stretches along a belt of the Pacific ocean centering on the twenty-sixth parallel of north latitude.

Okinawa, the major island in the group, is 500 kilometers from Kyushu, the southernmost of the major Japanese islands; 600 kilometers from Taiwan; and 800 kilo- meters from Foochow on the Chinese mainland.

Since the islands are in the sub-tropical zone, the trees and other plants. retain their lush green foliage the year round.

From ancient times, Okinawa has been the artistic, cultural, and martial heart of the islands. All of the leading centers of the island are located in its southern part: Shuri, the ancient capital of the Ryukyu kingdom; Naha, the most important port for international trade; Tomari, the most important domestic transportation center and the location of a thriving salt-producing industry; and Kimemura, the location of
a settlement of immigrants from China.

This last village and the Chinese who lived there are intimately related to the development of both karate and the ancient Okinawan martial arts. Unfortunately, how- ever, it is impossible to explain the process of this development in detail because of the scarcity of documentary evidence. 

In all of the martial arts, there is a strong tendency to rely on word-of-mouth transmission for the passing of information from one generation to another; and in Okinawan martial arts this tendency is especially pronounced. The scarcity of such material was aggravated by the violent fighting and burning that took place on Okinawa in World War II. 

Nonetheless, using the small amount of written material that is available and relying heavily on the verbal teachings of older people, one can make some general statements about the history of the ancient Okinawan martial arts. Though the documents about them have been scattered and lost, the techniques themselves have been passed down intact.