El karate y otras artes marciales de okinawa

Leyendo el libro "Karate do. My way of life" de Funakoshi, dónde menciona el tegumi, me surgió curiosidad por ver cómo es. Intenté buscar algún video en youtube... pero no logré encontrar mucho al respecto. Ni siquiera buscando con los caracteres japoneses, que al parecer son los mismos que el kumite, pero al revés (組手 -> 手組?). Por ahora lo único que sabía es que es otro arte marcial también típico de Okinawa, pero a diferencia del karate, el tegumi es más bien de estilo "lucha" (como el judo, lucha greco-romana etc.)...

pero... casualidades de la vida... ¡Hace un rato me he encontrado con un artículo que habla del karate y del tegumi!

"Practicado como deporte, el tegumi se convirtió en el Sumo de okinawa. Cuando se practicaba como defensa, con la adición de algunas técnicas chinas de golpeo (especialmente a puntos vitales y nervios: kyosho jutsu), bloqueos y patadas, el tegumi se convirtió en karate. [...] Antes de 1900, el karate enfatizaba mucho el tegumi o técnicas de lucha (grappling), que incluían proyecciones, barridos, zancadillas, luxaciones, extrangulamientos, inmovilizaciones..."

Vamos... que ahí tenemos una posible razón por la que sea tan dificil encontrar videos de tegumi... simplemente que ya no se llame así! (aunque según el libro de Funakoshi... parece que al menos a principios-mediados de los 1900, sí que se utilizaba ese nombre todavía... ) El kárate ya se cómo es... (más o menos... :P) a si que... veamos cómo es el sumo de okinawa! :-) (es lo mismo que el "shima"?)

Aunque ya había oido hablar sobre el sumo okinawense un par de veces... hasta hoy no me había animado a buscar un vídeo para verlo. La verdad que a pesar de las advertencias que hay por todas partes, de que no tiene casi nada que ver con el sumo japonés, supongo que en el fondo sí que lo asociaba con él y no me llamaba mucho... Ha sido toda una sorpresa abir el video... y ver que parece judo en playa! jaja (seguro que a la hora de la verdad tiene muchísimas diferencias, pero a primera vista... ! :P)

Éste es el artículo original (Copy-paste de Hawaii Karate Seinenkai):

The following article appeared in the Hawaii Pacific Press, October 1, 1999. Copyright © Charles C. Goodin. All rights reserved.

Karate and Okinawan Sumo
By Charles C. Goodin For almost two years now, I have been searching for information about the early Karate teachers and students in Hawaii. Since Karate was practiced almost exclusively in private -- very few people let it be known that they knew Karate and some were actually very secretive about the matter -- it is very difficult to find these Karate pioneers. Before World War Two, Karate was largely limited to the Okinawan community. Many isei learned the art in Okinawa before emigrating to Hawaii, and some continued practicing here.
Through the course of my research I have learned that Karate was part of the Okinawan culture: it was not studied in isolation from other cultural activities. Thus, many of the early Karate practitioners were also proficient in Okinawan music (particularly the sanshin), dance, calligraphy, poetry, and other martial arts such as kenjutsu or iaido, kobujutsu (various weapons arts using the bo, sai, tonfa, nunchanku, etc.), kendo, ju jutsu, judo and sumo. In fact, several of the Karate teachers I have located were also teachers of one or more of these other arts.
There is a particularly high correlation between the practice of Okinawan sumo and Karate. Many of those who were active in sumo also studied Karate, and vice versa. This was a very helpful discovery because while early Karate was a "hidden" art, Okinawan sumo was a public sport, practiced openly and with well-known champions. Okinawan sumo was covered by the Japanese language newspapers and even by the Advertiser, Star-Bulletin and neighbor island newspapers.

Seishin Uehara referees an Okinawan sumo match in Honolulu on October 17, 1948. Photo courtesy of his family.

Okinawan vs. Japanese Sumo. For many of us, the only images of sumo we have seen are of giants like Akebono, Musashimaru, and Konishiki on NGN. There are several differences, however, between Japanese and Okinawan sumo. Okinawan sumo arose from the grappling tradition known as tegumi (the same characters as in kumite, but in reverse order) or motou. In the forthcoming Tales of Okinawa's Great Masters, Shoshin Nagamine (hanshi, 10th dan, founder of the Matsubayashi-Ryu form of karate) writes:

"Because Okinawan sumo had never been promoted in the same spectacular way as its Japanese counterpart on Japan's mainland, islanders never bothered building permanent sumo rings or venues to host such local events or championships. To the Okinawans of yesteryear, sumo wrestling had been an exciting cultural recreation for everyone to enjoy. It was not a commodity to be exploited in such grandeur. That is simply not the Okinawan way. In the old days, any open space, field, or mountainside where people could freely gather and watch in their own comfort was sufficient. During that time there were no special rules or regulations about the size or configuration of the ring. The only condition was that the grappling surface had to be free of small stones or anything else that might be of danger to the grapplers. Usually, such bouts took place on a lawn, or surface covered by sand or sawdust to ensure safety for the athletes."

The participants in Okinawan sumo typically wore shorts with a thick cloth, or mawashi, tied around the waist. In Okinawa, participants sometimes wore a judo gi, with the mawashi.
The rules for Okinawan sumo also differ from the Japanese sport. Going outside of the ring or merely touching or falling on the ground does not end the match. Instead, the winner must cause his opponent's back to touch the ground while inside the ring. This requires a high degree of grappling ability, speed and dexterity, rather than mere size or brute strength. In this respect, Okinawan sumo may be compared to certain aspects of judo and ju jutsu.

Tegumi Lead to Karate.
When practiced as a sport, tegumi became Okinawan sumo. When practiced for self-defense, and with the addition of the Chinese techniques of striking (particularly vital point and nerve attacks known as kyosho jutsu), blocking and kicking, tegumi became karate. In fact, the characters for the old name "karate" or "tote," meant "China" (for the Chinese arts) and "Hand" (for "tegumi").
Before 1900, karate included a strong emphasis on tegumi, or grappling, which includes such techniques as throws, sweeps, trips, joint locks, chokes, holds, traps and parries. Older karate kata such as Wanshu, Wankan, Rohai, and Passai reflect these movements in certain seemingly elaborate open-handed techniques. In Passai, for example, there is sequence in which the opponent throws a left punch. Parrying the punch with his right hand, the defender catches the wrist with his left and applies a joint lock, which causes the attacker to twist in pain and go down on one knee. The defender next raises his right knee, breaking the attacker's arm in the process, and throws a right side kick to the left knee. Already in a vulnerable position, the attacker is completely disabled. This short sequence illustrates the integration of tegumi and striking/kicking techniques which was characteristic of traditional karate.
When karate was introduced to the public school system at the turn of the century, however, it underwent a process of simplification to make it safer for younger students. The emphasis in modern kata such as the five Pinan kata which were developed abound 1905, shifted to closed-handed punching and blocking techniques and open-handed (shuto) strikes. The grappling or tegumi element was minimized or removed completely, as were nerve attacks and vital point techniques. Tegumi remained an integral aspect of the art in the private classes conducted by karate sensei outside of the public schools. It is interesting to note that when karate was introduced to mainland Japan in the early 1920's, several students who were already experts at ju jutsu, immediately combined the two arts. This was not because karate in Okinawa lacked grappling techniques, but rather because this aspect was simply not being emphasized at the time by the early teachers on mainland Japan.

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Copyright © Charles C. Goodin. All rights reserved. Hawaii Karate Seinenkai