Kanegawa no Tinbe

Quick Facts

About the kata

Kanegawa no Tinbe (鐘川のティンベー, read in Okinawan as Kaniga nu Tinbe) is a kata for the tinbe and rochin: a shield in one hand, a short spear in the other. Per the Japanese Wikipedia it was preserved by the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai and is still passed on today; its Shimizu branch and the Shimbukan dojo both write that no other tinbe kata survives in their lineage. The Ryuseikai dojo describes it as a dynamic form in which the practitioner defends with the shield, thrusts with the spear, and also evades the opponent with rolls on the ground; it is taught only to master-grade holders. The American Mankato Kobudo School, trained per Akamine Hiroshi of Shimbukan, likewise lists it among the black-belt kata. Per the Shimizu branch, the shield used to be made from a turtle shell or from woven vines covered in goatskin. On the official WUKF kobudo kata list, Kanegawa no Tinbe appears in the tinbe column beside Kuniyoshi no Tinbe, Daijo (Kama) no Tinbe, and Matayoshi no Tinbe.

Meaning of the name

The name joins Kanegawa (鐘川) with the word tinbe (ティンベー), which the Japanese Wikipedia explains as shield. The Shimizu branch of the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai gives the reading Kanigawa for 鐘川, while odks.jp, the Okinawan traditional karate society, gives the Okinawan reading Kaniga nu Tinbe. The same lineage's two-sickle kata, Kanegawa no Nichogama, carries the same name.

Creator and history

As a weapon, the tinbe, per the Japanese Wikipedia, already appears in Okinawan records from the Three Kingdoms period around 1400; the kata itself survived within the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai, founded per the English Wikipedia by Taira Shinken after the Second World War. Per kobudoindy.com, Taira as a boy learned tinbe and rochin from his grandfather Kanegawa Gibu (usadojo.com gives Kanegawa Gimu, 1862–1921); we could not establish from the sources that the kata is named precisely after him.

Differences between styles

Matayoshi Kobudo has its own shield kata, given by the English Wikipedia as Timbei no Kata, pairing the shield with the seiryuto; it is a different kata. The weapon in the right hand is also read differently: the Shimbukan dojo names the short seiryuto blade, while the Hozon Shinkokai branch in Shimizu and the Ryuseikai dojo name the short rochin spear.

Competition status

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