Tegumi (Okinawan Wrestling)
手組Okinawan wrestling whose experience, according to Wikipedia, prepared early karate students. Today Okinawans compete in Okinawan sumo, called shima.
Quick Facts
JapanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Tegumi (Okinawan Wrestling)
About Tegumi (Okinawan Wrestling)
Tegumi is Okinawan wrestling. Green mentions it as a wrestling system from the island of Okinawa. English Wikipedia says it was called tegumi in Naha and muto in Tomari and Shuri, that it remained a popular pastime until the Taisho period, and that the winner was decided by levers, chokes or pinning the opponent. Wikipedia, according to the autobiography of Funakoshi Gichin, states that childhood experience with tegumi gave early karate students the basics of fighting. According to Shoshin Nagamine, as Wikipedia quotes him, there is no precise evidence of the origin of the wrestling on Okinawa. Today, Okinawan sumo, called shima or uchinajima, is wrestled competitively on Okinawa. English Wikipedia links it with tegumi and says it has roots in earlier rural wrestling. The Japanese encyclopedia kotobank and the daily Ryukyu Shimpo describe Okinawan sumo under its own name and do not mention a relation to tegumi.
History
English Wikipedia cites Nagamine and others, who say tegumi probably arose from a native form of self-defense and, after adopting strikes and kicks from China, became the predecessor of te, the basis of karate. Ryukyu Shimpo wrote in 2022 that Okinawan sumo dates from the Ryukyu Kingdom. A 1978 advertisement of the prefectural Okinawan sumo association, according to the paper, dates its beginning to the 1470s, its adoption into bushi martial culture to the 17th century and its peak to 1816.
How it differs
The Heibonsha encyclopedia on kotobank states that Okinawan sumo has no dohyo ring and begins in a firm grip, and is therefore closer to Korean shirum than to the grand sumo of mainland Japan. According to it, a hand or knee on the ground does not mean a loss. Ryukyu Shimpo writes that Okinawan sumo differed from mainland sumo.
Technique
English Wikipedia describes tegumi as rough wrestling in which the winner was decided by a lever, choke or pinning. In Okinawan sumo, according to the Kyodo news agency on kotobank, wrestlers fight in a judo gi, start in the right yotsu grip and hold the opponent's belt. The one who puts the opponent on the ground on his back wins, and the match is three rounds, of which the winner must win two. Ryukyu Shimpo states that Okinawan sumo has no ring limit and the match begins at the referee's signal, when both firmly hold the opponent's belt.
Today
Ryukyu Shimpo states that Okinawan sumo was included in physical education at secondary schools in 1980. In 2019 the 75th Okitsuru tournament was held in the Tsurumi district of Yokohama, attended by 32 people from the Kanto area, from South American communities of Okinawan immigrants and from Okinawa, and women demonstrated wrestling for the first time in 75 years. In November 2024 the first island-wide tournament in the unrestricted and light categories took place on Kouri island, and children wrestled too.
Did you know
Ryukyu Shimpo wrote in 2015 that six Okinawan sumo wrestlers were invited as representatives of Japan to the 5th World Shirum Championship in Myanmar. According to the paper, the Okinawan side had an exchange with Korean shirum wrestlers every two years for 40 years.
Frequently asked questions
Is tegumi the same as Okinawan sumo?
English Wikipedia links them and writes that Okinawan sumo has roots in earlier rural wrestling. The Japanese encyclopedia kotobank and the daily Ryukyu Shimpo describe Okinawan sumo under the name shima and do not mention a relation to tegumi.
What is the relationship between tegumi and karate?
Wikipedia, citing Funakoshi, says tegumi experience gave early karate students the basics of fighting. According to Nagamine and others, tegumi became the predecessor of te after adopting strikes and kicks from China.
How do you win in Okinawan sumo?
According to the Kyodo agency on kotobank, whoever puts the opponent on his back wins. It is wrestled in three rounds, won by taking two.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.