What good is a broom handle against an enemy? Plenty. You might be saying some smart assed thing right now like: "What are you going to do? Poke them to death?" to which I will answer with confidence: "Yes". The weapons in my style of karate started out as humble farming tools. Sticks. Scythes. Even horse bits. Why so freaking primitive? Asian swords are some of the finest in the world... so why were they were using sticks and boat oars?!
Back in the day (don't ask me for dates. Do I LOOK like a history book to you?!) the samurai decided to ban all weapons in Japan and Okinawa. As a result, people couldn't own swords anymore. They had to get creative. To arm themselves against the often corrupt samurai, ordinary people took some ordinary objects and made something extraordinary. Namely: karate. Not only did they find new functions for everyday objects, they adopted an effective fighting style when weapons weren't available. In karate, anything can be a weapon. Is it sharp? Can it bash? Even a hard cover book has sharp corners. The better to blind you with. The Okinawans were the Macgyvers of the Asian world. They made a lot out of very little.
This is the tip of a very huge karate iceberg, and I only know about Shorin Ryu really... but don't you feel at least a little more educated? Yes. Go forth and be enlightened. Also, please don't start beating people with sticks... unless they're dressed up like a samurai. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment