A Little More on Tensho and Rokkishu
Kinjo Akio has argued that Tensho resembles a Chinese form called hachibucho (in Japanese) which represents about 80% of the hand techniques of Tensho. How he arrived at this number I do not know. IMHO I feel that Tensho only superficially resembles the hand positions from the Bubishi and that it more than likely originated from a Southern Crane derived style. Perhaps an incomplete form. There is a Five Ancestor Fist form with some similarity to Tensho, but then of course there is also the similarity between Tensho and the Wing Chun form Silumdao (another crane derived system).
Personally, I thought that it might have been Higaonna Kanryo who was the inspiration for Tensho but now I am not sure. Let me explain. When I first interviewed Murakami Katsumi, who reportedly studied under Kyoda Juhatsu of Tou'on-ryu, he stated that "Rokkishu" (as named in the Bubishi) was a form used in Tou'on-ryu that was similar but more complex than Goju-ryu's Tensho. Now at this point, I took him at face value for what he said and should have pushed him to demonstrate the form, but I didn't. My mistake.
Several months later I was able to talk to Kanzaki Shigekazu, the current head master of Tou'on-ryu in Oita Prefecture. When I asked him about Rokkishu as a kata, he told me I was way off base. Rokkishu was not a kata, but simply a very short series of techniques. Those being the rising crane head block / dropping shuto and the horizontal crane head block /palm heel strike. That's it. Nothing more.
So, if that is all that Higaonna taught in terms of the "Rokkishu", then it is unlikely that Tensho came from Higaonna or even the Bubishi for that matter. To confuse matters even more, modern Uechi-ryu practitioners use the same series of techniques of the rising crane head block / dropping shuto and horizontal crane head block / palm heel in their basic techniques. When I asked my Kobudo instructor about this, who was also a high ranking Uechi-ryu teacher (Minowa Katsuhiko), he said that these techniques were handed down from Uechi Kanbun. And yet they do not appear in any of the Uechi-ryu classical kata (san chin, seisan, sanseru). Nothing, zero, zip. Where did Kanbun get the techniques? Common knowledge in Fuzhou? Maybe? The Kojo dojo?
We know that Higaonna was there before Uechi and possibly learned the same series of techniques. Also, Kojo-ryu uses the same series of techniques as well! Yes, believe it or not in my original small home town of Lethbridge, Alberta, there was a Kojo-ryu dojo at one time. Run by a student of Hayashi Shingo (who teaches in Tottori-ken) named Okuyama Kenichi. He taught primarily the Chibana-ha Shorin kata found in Kojo-ryu but did teach quite a few of their fundamental techniques, and these "Rokkishu" techniques were included among them. Another possibility.
I believe on George Mattson's site it says that these techniques were rumored to have been the result of Uechi seeing these techniques in a kata he liked, but hadn't learned and therefore adopted them. So, maybe it is the Kojo dojo where these techniques originated and later adopted and adapted by many of karate's early pioneers.
Kinjo Akio has argued that Tensho resembles a Chinese form called hachibucho (in Japanese) which represents about 80% of the hand techniques of Tensho. How he arrived at this number I do not know. IMHO I feel that Tensho only superficially resembles the hand positions from the Bubishi and that it more than likely originated from a Southern Crane derived style. Perhaps an incomplete form. There is a Five Ancestor Fist form with some similarity to Tensho, but then of course there is also the similarity between Tensho and the Wing Chun form Silumdao (another crane derived system).
Personally, I thought that it might have been Higaonna Kanryo who was the inspiration for Tensho but now I am not sure. Let me explain. When I first interviewed Murakami Katsumi, who reportedly studied under Kyoda Juhatsu of Tou'on-ryu, he stated that "Rokkishu" (as named in the Bubishi) was a form used in Tou'on-ryu that was similar but more complex than Goju-ryu's Tensho. Now at this point, I took him at face value for what he said and should have pushed him to demonstrate the form, but I didn't. My mistake.
Several months later I was able to talk to Kanzaki Shigekazu, the current head master of Tou'on-ryu in Oita Prefecture. When I asked him about Rokkishu as a kata, he told me I was way off base. Rokkishu was not a kata, but simply a very short series of techniques. Those being the rising crane head block / dropping shuto and the horizontal crane head block /palm heel strike. That's it. Nothing more.
So, if that is all that Higaonna taught in terms of the "Rokkishu", then it is unlikely that Tensho came from Higaonna or even the Bubishi for that matter. To confuse matters even more, modern Uechi-ryu practitioners use the same series of techniques of the rising crane head block / dropping shuto and horizontal crane head block / palm heel in their basic techniques. When I asked my Kobudo instructor about this, who was also a high ranking Uechi-ryu teacher (Minowa Katsuhiko), he said that these techniques were handed down from Uechi Kanbun. And yet they do not appear in any of the Uechi-ryu classical kata (san chin, seisan, sanseru). Nothing, zero, zip. Where did Kanbun get the techniques? Common knowledge in Fuzhou? Maybe? The Kojo dojo?
We know that Higaonna was there before Uechi and possibly learned the same series of techniques. Also, Kojo-ryu uses the same series of techniques as well! Yes, believe it or not in my original small home town of Lethbridge, Alberta, there was a Kojo-ryu dojo at one time. Run by a student of Hayashi Shingo (who teaches in Tottori-ken) named Okuyama Kenichi. He taught primarily the Chibana-ha Shorin kata found in Kojo-ryu but did teach quite a few of their fundamental techniques, and these "Rokkishu" techniques were included among them. Another possibility.
I believe on George Mattson's site it says that these techniques were rumored to have been the result of Uechi seeing these techniques in a kata he liked, but hadn't learned and therefore adopted them. So, maybe it is the Kojo dojo where these techniques originated and later adopted and adapted by many of karate's early pioneers.
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