Surujin no Kata

Quick Facts

About the kata

Surujin no Kata is a kata with the surujin weapon, which Matayoshi Kobudo lists in its curriculum under the name Suruchin no Kata. The Oshukai federation, which follows the Shorin-ryu style, lists it under the same name in its section on Okinawan kobudo. Whether both schools mean the same sequence, we have not been able to establish from the available sources. According to the English Wikipedia, the surujin originally consisted of a rope two to three metres long with a weight at each end; at the turn of the twentieth century a variant appeared made of a light chain, with a weight at one end and a metal point at the other. The weight is thrown at the opponent or used to catch their weapon, and a pull unbalances the opponent or binds them, similar to hojojutsu. The Bushukan dojo considers the most practical length to be one hiro, the span of the arms, roughly the practitioner's height; older texts, it says, give five, six, or even nine shaku. Bushukan places the surujin at the end of weapons training, practised only by masters holding the shihan rank. The official WUKF kobudo kata list contains no kata with the surujin. We have not been able to find the number of movements, kiai shouts, or the shape of the embusen in the sources.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

The kata's name consists of the weapon's name and the Japanese suffix no kata. The English Wikipedia gives both forms, surujin and suruchin. According to the site of the Uechi-ryu dojo and Ryukyu kobudo in Urayasu (ryukyukobudo.net), the syllable suru comes from the Okinawan name of the shuro palm (棕櫚), from whose fibres the rope was woven. The same source describes the weapon's oldest form as two fist-sized stones joined by such a rope, and adds that, like the nunchaku, it could be carried concealed and may originally have been a hunting tool.

Creator and history

According to the English Wikipedia, Matayoshi Shinko learned the suruchin in China, along with the sansetsukon, tinbei, and nunti. His entry says that from 1911 to 1915 he lived in Manchuria, studying Chinese martial arts, then travelled to Shanghai; Milos Stanic (milos.io) places the suruchin training in Shanghai. His life dates differ: the Matayoshi Kobudo article gives 1888–1947, his entry gives 1945 as the year of death. The system passed to his son Matayoshi Shinpo (1921–1997), who, per Wikipedia, practised the suruchin and founded the Kodokan dojo in his father's memory – per his entry in the nineteen-sixties, per the style article in the nineteen-seventies. In 1972 the Zen Okinawa Kobudo Renmei federation was founded. We believe the kata reached Matayoshi Kobudo through this line, but found no direct evidence of its author in the sources.