Sunakake no Kon 砂掛けの棍

There is a valuable historical and technical material about a kata called Sunakake no Kon. Performed by Murakami Katsumi, the kata was only presented once, namely in an old first edition in 1974, which is out of print for decades. In the later edition, the kata was not included. The book in question is volume 3 of Inoue Motokatsu’s epic “Ryūkyū Kobudō” (1974).

This kata might be a link to the past. It is found in the first list of Okinawan bō kata, published by Miki Nisaburō and Takada Mizuho in “Kenpō Gaisetsu” (1930). There it is said that there were two versions of Sunakake no Kon already at the time. In “Karate-dō Taikan” (1938), Taira Shinken mentioned it as well. Therefore, Sunakake no Kon is the name of one of the original kata of Okinawan bōjutsu.

Murakami’s 1974 performance of Sunakake no Kon is the first description of its techniques and is accompanied by photos. Otherwise, the kata – or versions of it – appeared only in the 2010s, when Maeda Kiyomasa published it on YouTube. While it is not exactly the same kata, the number of similarities are overwhelming and there can be little doubt that both have a shared origin. The kata has also been preserved in the Ryobukai of Shindo Jinen-ryu, see this video on Facebook.

Sunakake no Kun

0. ► Bow (rei). ► Get ready (yōi). ► NOTE: Hold bō with both hands on the lower level in front of the body.

• 1. Press block (osae-uke) to direction left.
• 2. Sunakake.
• 3. Preparation posture of yoko-uchi.
• 4. Yoko-uchi.
• 5. Press block (osae-uke) to direction right.
• 6. Sunakake.
• 7. Preparation psture of yoko-uchi.
• 8. Yoko-uchi.
• 9. Low deflection (gedan-uke) towards direction rear.
• 10. Press block (osae-uke).
• 11. Sunakake.
• 12. Thrust in (tsukikomu).
• 13. Rotate counterclockwise and perform a low deflection (gedan-uke) to direction front.
• 14. Press block (osae-uke).
• 15. Sunakake.
• 16. Preparation posture of yoko-uchi.
• 17. Yoko-uchi.
• 18. Place the right foot forward, press block (osae-uke).
• 19. Sunakake.
• 20. Thrust in (tsukikomu).
• 21. Place the left foot forward (in kōsa-dachi) and thrust in.
• 22. Place the right foot forward again and thrust in.
• 23. Rotate counterclockwise towards direction rear, and perform low deflection (gedan-uke).
• 24. Press block (osae-uke).
• 25. Sunakake.
• 26. Preparation posture of yoko-uchi.
• 27. Yoko-uchi.
• 28. Place the right foot forward, press block (osae-uke).
• 29. Sunakake.
• 30. Thrust in (tsukikomu).
• 31. Place the left foot forward press block (osae-uke).
• 32. Sunakake.
• 33. Thrust in (tsukikomu).
• 34. Place the right foot forward, press block (osae-uke).
• 35. Sunakake.
• 36. Thrust in (tsukikomu).
• 37. With the right foot as the axis, rotate counterclockwise and assume the preparatory posture of yoko-uchi towards the front side.
• 38. Yoko-uchi.

• Return to position of attention (yōi).
• Bow (rei).

As a comparison, and to see how techniques of Sunakake no Kon can be performed, I added Karen Sensei’s performance of the kata as learned from Maeda Kiyomasa Sensei.

© 2023, Andreas Quast. All rights reserved.