Villabrille-Largusa Kali
Hawaiian lineage of Filipino kali after Floro Villabrille, organized into a coherent system by his student Ben Largusa.
Quick Facts
PhilippinesCharacter & 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 Villabrille-Largusa Kali
About Villabrille-Largusa Kali
Villabrille-Largusa Kali is a Hawaiian lineage of Filipino stick fighting shaped by two names and two distinct roles. Floro Villabrille (born February 18, 1912, in Cebu; died 1992) began training at the age of fourteen, learning eskrima from his uncles and kung-fu from his grandfather. He named three teachers as the most important in his life: his uncle Leoncio Villagano, Master Pio of the Masbate Isles, and the blind Princess Josephina of Gandara, Samar, whom he was allowed to approach only after passing tests of loyalty. Villabrille became known for death matches he fought in the Philippines, Australia, and Hawaii. He fought his last Philippine match on July 4, 1933, against Elario Eran, a Moro Datu; a blow from a hardwood bahi stick struck his opponent's neck and killed him on the spot. That same year he left for Hawaii and settled on the island of Kauai, where he kept dueling until 1948, when death matches were outlawed. Villabrille himself taught more as a fighter than as a pedagogue. It was only his best student and named successor, Ben Largusa, who broke the system down, organized it, and turned it into something that could be taught step by step and systematically; only then did it receive the name Villabrille-Largusa Kali. For this reason the record gives no founding year — the system has no single date of origin, but two phases and two people.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.