Tsuken Akachu no Eku De

Quick Facts

About the kata

Tsuken Akachu no Eku De is a kata with the eku, the Okinawan oar that kobudo adopted as a weapon. Frederick Lohse, in an article on Matayoshi Kobudo (Meibukan Magazine, 2007), lists it as the school's only kata for the eku. He considers its hallmark to be the sand throw: the practitioner scoops sand with the blade of the oar and flings it into the opponent's eyes. According to Lohse, the Matayoshi family regards it as a fine showcase of the family's techniques. Matayoshi Shinchin is said to have excelled at it most, and the eku was his favourite weapon. His son Matayoshi Shinko, born in 1888 in Naha, learned it as a boy from his father and from his grandfather Shintoku; he later deepened his knowledge of the oar with his father's friend Agena Chokuba. Shinko's son Matayoshi Shinpo held it as his favourite form and performed it most often at demonstrations. The kata is also recorded on the official WUKF kobudo kata list, under the name Tsukenakachu no Ekubo. We have not been able to document the number of movements or kiai shouts in the sources.

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

Lohse interprets the name as the eku techniques of the red man of Tsuken. Tsuken is a small island, today part of the city of Uruma; in Okinawan reading, Chikin, hence the spelling Chikin Akachu no Eku Di used by the English Wikipedia. Why "red man", the sources disagree. According to Lohse, it was a fisherman named Azato, nicknamed Akachu because his face was burned by the sun. Christian Faurillon (karatehistorique), retelling the island legend after an illustrated book by Gima Hiroshi (2013), tells it differently: the young Asato claimed before the king that a red supernatural man had taught him staff fighting, so as not to reveal the real master, whom the king had once sentenced to death.

Creator and history

According to Lohse, Azato learned bo staff-fighting techniques from the exiled warrior Tsuken Oyakata Seisoku, and only from these did he derive the oar work. Faurillon places Tsuken Oyakata's departure for Tsuken island around 1625; he himself labels this date unverifiable. According to Lohse, the eku techniques reached Matayoshi Kobudo by two routes: family tradition, and through Agena Chokuba, also known as Gushikawa Tigaguwa, from whom Matayoshi Shinko also learned sai and kama.

Differences between styles

Another kata practised with the oar from Tsuken is Chikin Sunakake no Eku, whose name refers to throwing sand. The official WUKF list carries it as a separate entry (Chikin Sunakake, also Tsukensunakake no Ekkubo) alongside Tsukenakachu no Ekubo. The Brazilian group Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Yoshukan places it in the Yabiku Moden lineage, not with Matayoshi. Faurillon lists both forms among the eku techniques from Tsuken. Whether these are two versions of one kata or separate forms sharing a common root, we have not been able to document in the sources.

Competition status

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