Taira Shinken
平信賢
Okinawan kobudo master, founder of the Taira-ha Ryukyu Kobudo style and the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai organization, who catalogued over 40 weapons kata.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Taira Shinken was born in 1897 on Kume Island in the Ryukyu archipelago, the second son in a family of three sons and one daughter. His birth name was Shinken Maezato; he took the name Taira after being adopted. He is the founder of the Taira-ha Ryukyu Kobudo style. As a young man he worked in sulfur mines on Minamijima Island, where a shaft collapse permanently injured his leg.
In 1922 he went to Tokyo, met Gichin Funakoshi and studied karate under him. From 1929 he studied kobudo under Moden Yabiku, and from 1934 he was also a student of Kenwa Mabuni. He opened his first dojo in 1932 in Ikaho, Gunma Prefecture, and in 1940 a dojo dedicated to kobudo in Naha, Okinawa.
In 1955 he founded the Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon Shinkokai organization. He catalogued over 40 traditional weapons kata. He himself created Maezato no Nunchaku and Maezato no Tekko, and passed on, among others, Sakugawa no Kon, Shushi no Kon, Hamahiga no Tonfa and Chatan Yara no Sai, and compiled the kata Kanegawa no Nicho Kama. On 1 July 1964 the Japan Kobudo Federation awarded him the title of hanshi.
He died in September 1970, shortly after becoming the first president of the Ryukyu Kobudo Preservation and Promotion Society. His students and successors included Eisuke Akamine in Okinawa, Inoue Motokatsu in mainland Japan, and Tatsuo Shimabuku.
Teachers, students and family
Associated Martial Arts
Kata and forms
Organisations
- Ryukyu Kobudo Hozon ShinkokaiFounder · 1955
- Ryukyu Kobudo Preservation and Promotion SocietyPresident · 1970
Ranks and titles
- HanshiTaira-ha Ryukyu Kobudo · 1964