Asato Dojo Winter Seminar

Seminar Information

Seminar Contents

This year we focus on two very traditional styles of Okinawan martial arts – Tomari-te and Kishimoto-Di. Both arts were developed by the Shuri Bushi (the samurai of old Ryukyu/Okinawa) in order to keep law and order and protect the king’s domain.

Tomari-te (the fighting technique of Tomari area) was handed down by Bushi responsible for the old port area of the capital city in Okinawa. It includes many very effective techniques to disable, take down and pacify opponents. In fact Tomari-te was praised by such significant figures as Itosu Anko, the father of modern karate and Nagamine Shoshin who created the Matsubayashi school, and forms much of the base of popular karate systems such as Shotokan and Shito-ryu. However where these modern schools watered down the old techniques to used in the school education system, the original kata retain the original brutally effective techniques developed before 1900. In this seminar we will examine kata such as Wankan, Wanshu, Rohai, Tomari Chinto and Tomari Passai to draw out core skills and fighting strategies such as Muchimi-di, Maki-di, Kuzushi-di and more. This 2 day course will be taught by James Pankiewicz sensei.

Kishimoto-di – a family style handed down through the Tachimura and Kishimoto Bushi families in service of the Ryukyu King. These Bushi held important roles as guards at Shuri castle and tax collectors for the king requiring them to have exceptionally functional and well tested martial arts ability. Fortunately this family style was transmitted down through family dojo in Shuri and is taught today by Ulf Karlsson sensei, the only non-Okinawan practitioner licenced to teach these arts. Kishimoto-di is built around a handful of core principles and only 4 unique intepretations of kata – Naihanchi, Nidanbu, Passai and Kusanku. In this seminar you will practice a range of 2 person drills based on those kata practices to learn effective skills such as combining defense and attack as one, slipping in through the defensive stance to break the balance and hitting with full body coordination.