Matsuhiga no Tonfa

Quick Facts

About the kata

Matsuhiga no Tonfa is an Okinawan kobudo kata for a pair of tonfa. According to the German Budopedia, it carries the name of master Matsu Higa and, together with Hamahiga no Tonfa, is one of the most important tonfa forms. The official WUKF list of kobudo kata places it in the tonfa column alongside Matsuhiga no Sai and Matsuhiga no Kon Sho/Dai, so Matsu Higa's name is carried by kata for three different weapons. The German dojo kcdw.de and Budopedia tell the same legend: on Bokuto island near Formosa, Matsu Higa fought a Chinese tonfa master with his bo staff. His bo impressed the Chinese master so much that he taught the Okinawan his tonfa style, which both sources say survived precisely in this kata. Both therefore call it the starting point for the development of Okinawan tonfa styles. Butokukai Germany is more cautious: it says Matsu Higa brought at least one foreign tonfa style to Okinawa, but we do not know if it was the beginning of Okinawan tonfa as such. We have not been able to verify the number of movements, the kiai shouts, or the shape of the embusen in the sources, nor an analysis of the applications, so we do not state them.

Meaning of the name

The kata's name refers to its creator: Budopedia states explicitly that Matsuhiga no Tonfa is named after Matsu Higa, just as Hamahiga no Tonfa is named after Hama Higa. English Wikipedia gives the Okinawan form of his name, Machu Hijaa. According to kcdw.de, Richard Kim wrote that whoever masters one of Matsu Higa's kata can read other Okinawan kata like an alphabet.

Creator and history

Sources disagree on when Matsu Higa lived. English Wikipedia identifies him with Higa Peechin, also known as Machu Hijaa, places him in 1790–1870 and on Hamahiga Island. It also notes that Taira Shinken, in his work Ryukyu Kobudo Taikan (1964), mentions an older master from Hamahiga with a similar title, who lived from 1663 to 1738. German Wikipedia places Matsu Higa around the year 1700 and names him as the teacher of Takahara Peichin, under whom Sakugawa studied. English Wikipedia rejects this connection as chronologically impossible, since Takahara died in 1760, thirty years before Higa Peechin was born. Budopedia summarises all three datings; we have not been able to decide from the available sources which master the kata should be attributed to.

Differences between styles

Butokukai Germany lists two forms in Shorinji-ryu kobudo: Matsu Higa no Tonfa Sho and Matsu Higa no Tonfa Dai. In the list of Matayoshi Kobudo kata as given by English Wikipedia, this kata does not appear; tonfa there is represented only by Matayoshi no Tunkuwa Dai Ichi and Dai Ni. The pages of kcdw.de also assign Matayoshi-ryu other tonfa forms (Kihon kata ichi, Kobu no tonfa, Tonfa ichi and ni), and Matsu Higa no tonfa is not among them either. Nor does the kata list of the Okinawan association Okinawa Dento Karatedo Shinkokai include it; for tonfa it names only Hamahiga no Tonfa and Yaraguwa no Tonfa.

Competition status

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