Chatan Yara no Sai

Quick Facts

About the kata

Chatan Yara no Sai is an Okinawan kobudo kata for the sai, named after Chatan Yara, a warrior from the village of Chatan, to whom the English Wikipedia attributes it. Its source there is only an interview with a representative of the American branch of the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai, so we treat the authorship as tradition, not documented fact. The Japanese Wikipedia lists it among the sai kata of the Taira Shinken lineage, and the Okinawan association for traditional karate (odks.jp) includes it among traditional Okinawan kobudo kata. The dojo Bushukan, which studies this lineage, notes many shared passages with Tsuken Shitahaku no Sai and Tawada no Sai, and that it is thrust mostly with a reverse grip, thumb against the shaft, handle forward. Tatsuo Shimabuku brought it into Isshin-ryu from his training under Taira. Of this version, the English Wikipedia writes that most attacking movements are whipping strikes, developing whipping motion of the whole body. On the official WUKF kobudo kata list it appears in the Sai column as Chatanyara no Sai. We have not been able to document the number of movements in the sources.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

The name has three parts: Chatan (北谷), a village in Okinawa; Yara (屋良), the warrior who, per the English Wikipedia, came from it; and sai (釵), the weapon. odks.jp gives the Okinawan reading チャタンヤラヌサイ, where nu replaces the Japanese no. The dojo Ryuseikai explains that sai kata carry the name of the warrior who created them and of his home region.

Creator and history

The English Wikipedia states that Chatan Yara lived 1668–1756 and that at twelve his parents sent him to China, where he learned the bo staff and the sai from a teacher named Wong Chung-Yoh. Besides this kata, it also credits him with Chatan Yara no Kon and Chatan Yara Kusanku, and his son, Yara Guwa, with Yara Guwa no Tonfa. It bases this on an interview with Devorah Dometrich, president of the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai USA; we found no independent source confirming it. Per the Japanese Wikipedia, Taira Shinken studied kobudo under Yabiku Moden and founded an association for its preservation in 1940. The English Wikipedia places the founding of the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai only after the Second World War.

Differences between styles

The Japanese Wikipedia lists Chatan Yara no Sai among the eight sai kata of the Taira Shinken lineage, alongside Tsuken Shitahaku no Sai, Hamahiga no Sai, and Tawada no Sai. In Isshin-ryu it is the second sai kata; the first is Kusanku Sai, composed by Shimabuku himself per the English Wikipedia. Among the sai kata of Matayoshi Kobudo — Nicho Sai, Sancho Sai, and Shinbaru no Sai — the English Wikipedia does not list it. The official WUKF kobudo list carries, besides Chatanyara no Sai, a separate Toyei (Chatanyara Sho) no Sai; we did not find how the two differ. Bushukan further notes that two of Taira's students, Inoue Motokatsu and Sakagami Ryusho, recorded the same kata with rather different movements in their books.

Bunkai – applications

The American dojo Dynamic Martial Arts in Sioux Falls, teaching kobudo alongside Shorin-ryu karate, describes in a text by Hanshi George Alexander an unusual application: near the kata's end, the practitioner feigns retreat or flight, turns, blocks, and answers with a double strike. The same text mentions a hidden move where a third sai is drawn from the belt and thrown into the opponent's leg to pin it down. This is one dojo's account; we found no other source confirming it, nor a detailed breakdown of applications from Okinawan teachers of the Taira lineage.

Competition status

• WUKF (World Union of Karate-Do Federations) – Okinawan Kobudo — Official kata list ↗