Zen Kobudo by Mark Bishop

Author:Mark Bishop
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0-8048-2027-9
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Development of Te

During the comparatively peaceful Tenson Era on Okinawa, we can conjecture that little change in the development of Te took place for about three hundred years, until the tenth century and the construction of the first rough stone or wooden fortifications. Then, in the late twelfth century, with the Minamoto influence from Japan and later the Taira refugees fleeing from their lost battles in the north, violent changes would have occurred, typified by the murderous coup instigated by Riyu in 1187. As Okinawa adjusted to this new, brutal age and expanded its control over the outer islands, Te became a weapon for bloodlust and war; a means of making and killing enemies, rather than coming to terms with and embracing them as Daruma and Shotoku had expounded.

The strongest effects of these harsh conditions were seen during the fragmentation of the island into the Three Kingdoms in the early fourteenth century and in the hatred that division expressed. However, after the reunification of the island under Sho Hashi in 1429 and increased international trade, there would have been some positive change in Te strategy and techniques, as the system was used more and more for keeping peace rather than for starting wars. In a way, Te and its mother, Okinawa, were coming out of their own dark age. Then, a further impetus was given to the momentum of change with Sho Shin's weapon edicts in the late fifteenth century. Gradually, with the centralization of the shizoku at Shuri and a better legal system, Te began to transform itself back into a personal fighting art by shedding its militaristic outer skin.

There is no evidence of Chinese influence on Te during this historical era, but, when the political firepower of guns from the West came into vogue, old ideas were blown apart and the changes accelerated enormously. Man-to-man combat on the battlefield was all but dead. The final blow to Te being used as a tool of the Okinawan militarists came with the Satsuma invasion of 1609, and the massacre of the ragtag Ryukyuan army that followed. With the removal to Japan of the remaining weapons held in storage, Ryukyu was laid bare and had little chance of ever regaining the past glory of her self-centered outward composure and any pretense of political independence. She was left naked and defenseless, leeched by the prevailing forces. The ever-present concern of the inhabitants that the tiny country was still legally claimed by China and the cold, hard facts of Satsuma's heavy taxation, control of all trade and foreign intercourse, restriction on the entry of foreigners, and reinforcement of the weapon edicts, furthered the development of diplomacy as a fine art among the Ryukyuan officials.

In this atmosphere of constant uncertainty, Te was placed at the hub of passive, non-violent intellectual protests by the Shuri upper classes. But it still offered protection to the unarmed individual against the armed metsuke informers planted by Satsuma. Personal bladed weapons, especially swords, were kept hidden behind closed doors as treasured family heirlooms and could not be used.

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