FUMIO DEMURA
OCT 25th & 26th '08 I attended an excellent course in Manchester, organised by Julian Mallileu, were Shihan Fumio Demura taught both Karate and Okinawan Kobudo. These are some of the interesting points, just randomly joited down. The differance ib source and aims between Japanese Kobudo , military and to maim or kill, and Okinawan Kobudo, clivilian and self-defence. The kata Suparinpei is classed as the top kata of Naha-te/Goju Ryu< & is used within Shito Ryu> Its name means 'the kata of 108 moves'. 108 is of great importance in oriental culture. All the other kata whose names are numbers, are all fractions of 108 ! I'll add some more later.-Andy

Hi Andy sounds like it was a good course thanks for sharing, did some students take kobudo weapons with them to the course or was Demura sensei just explaining about them? The differance ib source and aims between Japanese Kobudo , military and to maim or kill, and Okinawan Kobudo, clivilian and self-defence. That's interesting I normally think of Okinawan weaponry when thinking of kobudo, and view the Japanese weaponry mainly as koryu arts derived from the samurai, what did sensei say about this? The kata Suparinpei is classed as the top kata of Naha-te/Goju Ryu< & is used within Shito Ryu. Its name means 'the kata of 108 moves'. 108 is of great importance in oriental culture. All the other kata whose names are numbers, are all fractions of 108 ! Wow the kata davinchi code :lol: so Nijushiho: 24 techniques/steps, Gojushiho: 54 techniques/steps, Sanseru 36, Seipai 18, fit into the number 108... 24 x 4.5 = 108, 54 x 2 = 108, 36 x 3 = 108, 18 x 6 = 108, well I never, shame Nijushiho isn't a whole number fit :idea: Was there a big turn out for the course, what else was covered sounds very interesting thanks

Yes it was well attended, between 60 and 100 per class. 2 classes of karate and one kobudo. Some karate lads didn't stay for kobudo and some only came for that class. A good point I thought was that these classes were for adult size students, Shihan Demura did a short , kids only class at the start of day. So on-one got stuck trying to train with a 9 year old. Shihan Demura had serveral of his instructors there, so the main 5 Okinawan kobudo weapons were covered, with Demura flitting between groups. Thats if you'd brought them with you. If you had 'nt come 'tooled up' , there were a load of Bo to use. The cops would have had a fit if they'ed seen the stuff in my bag.-Andy

The cops would have had a fit if they'ed seen the stuff in my bag Good job you didn't get pulled over on the drive back :lol: Yeah I agree it's always better IMO when big classes are split up between juniors and seniors or grades etc. Sounds like it was a good course, good to hear he had several of his senior grade instructors with him too.