Hamahiga no Tonfa

Quick Facts

About the kata

Hamahiga no Tonfa is a kata for a pair of tonfa, short batons with a perpendicular handle. In Taira Shinken's line, the Japanese Wikipedia lists it as one of two tonfa kata, alongside Yara Gua no Tonfa. The Okinawan traditional karate body ODKS records it under the Okinawan reading Hamahija nu Tonfa. A kata from the same island also bears the name Hamahiga no Sai; it is a different form for a different weapon, and the WUKF's official kobudo kata list places each under its own weapon column. According to the German dojo site kcdw.de, which follows Inoue Motokatsu's count, the kata has 142 techniques; we found no other count. The same source calls it a representative sample of Hamahiga island's techniques and notes its present-day form carries traits of Shorei-ryu from the Naha-te circle, which may point to that style's influence. Because the kata is on the official WUKF list, it can be performed at that federation's kobudo competitions. The Ryuseikai dojo in Urayasu, teaching Uechi-ryu and Ryukyu kobudo, lists only Hamahiga no Tonfa on its tonfa kata page and reserves tonfa instruction for dan holders.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

The name refers to Hamahiga island (浜比嘉島, in Okinawan Bamahija-shima) in the Yokatsu archipelago off the Katsuren peninsula, run by the city of Uruma today. Per the English Wikipedia, it holds two villages, Hama in the north and Higa in the south. The German Wikipedia also uses the name Hama Higa (浜比嘉) for a man from this island, to whom it attributes the kata.

Creator and history

The German Wikipedia, drawing on Richard Kim's books, attributes the kata to Hama Higa (1663–1738) together with a kon, sai and kama of the same name. The kcdw.de site instead holds that today's kata of the island grew out of an older system of Matsu Higa tied to local traditions. We have not been able to resolve this discrepancy. Taira Shinken carried the kata into the 20th century. From 1929 he studied kobudo under Yabiku Moden, from whom, per kcdw.de, he also learned the tonfa, and in 1955 founded the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai. Per Victor Smith, it preserves film footage of Taira performing the kata.

Differences between styles

Shimabuku Tatsuo learned the kata from Taira. According to Andy Sloan, whose commentary was published by Victor Smith, he created his own shortened version of it for Isshin-ryu: he kept the characteristic movements, reversed the order in some sequences, and dropped what he considered unnecessary. It was the style's only tonfa kata, so he simply called it tuifa. The name Chiefa, used at the Wright's Karate dojo as Chei fa, arose, according to Sloan, from a misspelling on the labels of a 1966 film. That film also shows the shortened form, and Smith's school Bushi no Te Isshinryu practises it under the name Chia Fa. We have not found a link to Matayoshi Kobudo in the sources: the English Wikipedia lists only Matayoshi no Tunkuwa Dai Ichi and Dai Ni for that school's tonfa.

Competition status

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