VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Have you ever heard of kakedameshi, kake-kumite or kakidī?

These are historical concepts of Okinawan Karate and help us to understand original and little-known dynamics of our art. In this video I will explain a little about these concepts.

First of all, I couldn’t address in this video the various references I have on the subject and some related aspects. That’s why I wrote an article that explains everything in a much more complete way.

I invite you to read it and comment. The link will be in the description of this video.

The references I used to write are masters such as Kanken Toyama, Chōki Motobu, Gichin Funakoshi, Shōshin Nagamine, Kenwa Mabuni and Kenei Mabuni, among others, as well as researchers such as Andreas Quast, Naoki Motobu and Patrick McCarthy.

Well then. As I mentioned at the beginning of the video kakidī 掛手, kake-kumite 掛け組 and kakedameshi 掛け試し are terms related to a original Okinawan Karate going back to the time when the art was called Tōdī 唐手 and even before that.

Let’s start with kakidī. This is the pronunciation in the native language of Okinawa, uchināguchi. In Japanese it is kakete or kakede. It means “hanging hands” or “hooked hands”. This term actually has to do with a concept that refers to the martial arts of southern China, called bridge.

The bridge or kakete is basically the contact you make with your opponent, whether attacking or defending, to develop your applications. In other words, kakidī is a technical concept and related to close-range fighting, because it requires you to be in contact with the opponent.

Some people use kakidī as a synonym for the kumite with this concept, which isn’t necessarily a problem, but the concept I’m going to explain is more appropriate: It is the kake-kumite, which means the kumite or fight that is made from kake, from the kakidī. You may know that famous photo of the masters Chōjun Miyagi and Jūhatsu Kyoda very young, in a position with their arms crossed. This position is a kakidī and it is exactly the posture in which kake-kumite begins. Other references also prove this.

In Tō’on-ryū, which was created by Jūhatsu Kyoda, this practice still exists. One of Kyoda Sensei’s successors, Shigekazu Kanzaki, said the following about this:

“Instead of prearranged sparring [yakusoku-kumite], Juko Sensei and I practiced free sparring [jiyū-kumite]. This method involved placing your right wrist on the right wrist of your partner’s while both would assume a right forward stance. The left fist was held at the waist. Kyoda Sensei would stand between us and hold both of our fists down and we waited for our chance. (…) In other words, Tou’on-ryu is a style that favors close-in fighting and the use of techniques at an extremely close distances.”

So we have already defined two things: kakidī is a close-range concept and kake-kumite is the application of this concept to free kumite, in close-range.

What about kakedameshi? This is the challenge version of kake-kumite. Kakedameshi means test by kake. It’s basically a way of measuring strength and skill using the kakete dynamics.

Many masters of the past were involved with kakedameshi, which was popular in the red light district of Naha, but not only there. One of the most well-known was Chōki Motobu, but there are also stories involving Sōkon Matsumura, Kentsū Yabu, Chōtoku Kyan, Tsuyoshi Chitose and others.

Kenei Mabuni, son of Shitō-ryū creator Kenwa Mabuni, wrote the following in a book:

“Young people who practiced karate made real-fight exercises called kake tameshi. Students who wanted to check themselves in such a test fight had to apply for and to ask witnesses to attend. One of the witnesses would act as referee. Then they would meet at an appropriate place in the streets, surrounded by their fellows. At that time there were no street-lights. So, when the sun had set, the opponents had to fight in the light of the lanterns held by the bystanders. The referee stopped the fight according to the situation and gave advices like: ‘You should practice this and that a little more…’ Finally the technical abilities were discussed among the fellows. 

My father, too, was often invited to such test fights and asked to serve as a referee for his friends. But the kakedameshi were not competitions like today. It was serious, real fight and ‘everything was allowed’ but an opponent was never beaten up inexorably. Both opponents served each other to study their own weak and strong points. It was not “competing against each other” but ‘cooperating with each other’.”

There are also other references that confirm this description by Kenei Mabuni, that kakedameshi was a free but controlled challenge, in which people could test their techniques and see what could be improved.

Since Karate is an art created for self-defense and it needed to work, it made sense that they had ways to test and explore it in practice, didn’t it? That’s how Karate was refined over time, because what was practiced was tested and proven. Do we do that nowadays?

Japanese historian Kōzō Kaku says the following “The tradition of kakedamashi (match fighting to test/improve skill) is a vital part of karate handed down in Okinawa and helps to improve their practical fighting skills.”

As I said, all these concepts have to do with the Chinese arts, which greatly influenced the development of Karate. To get an idea, there are records of Chinese sparring practiced in Okinawa, or Ryūkyū Kingdom at the time, in the 18th century, 300 years ago.

So, naturally, all these concepts I mentioned about kakidī, kake kumite are also present in many Chinese styles. Some even start the sparring with exactly the same cross-arms position as in old-style Karate. Among these schools are Praying Mantis, Hung Gar, Taichi and styles derived from White Crane, which has a more direct connection with Karate and that it is even a style registered in the book Bubishi.

Another style that also presents these fighting concepts is Wing Chun, which develops this through exercises like Chi Sau, Lap Sau and Fon Sau.

As you can see, it’s a very different type of kumite than what we imagine nowadays when we think about Karate, which is something more long-range, without so many techniques of constant contact… What happened?

The answer is too complex to explore here, but it has to do with cultural, social and political factors linked to the modernization of Karate. The practice was lost because it was not taught to everyone. When Karate began to be taught in schools, the focus shifted to physical education rather than self-defense, so it was more focused on exercises like solo kata training and simple yakusoku-kumite drills.

It’s well documented that Funakoshi didn’t teach free sparring in the classes he taught at the Tokyo universities, so students ended up creating and perfecting their kumite within a context very different from that of decades ago.

If we add that to World War II, which decimated a third of Okinawa’s population and left the island in ruins, it becomes easier to understand why certain practices became rare or had to be rebuilt.

But there are still a few schools currently openly practicing this type of kumite. One of them is Tō’on-ryū that I’ve already mentioned and Motobu-ryū, the school of the teachings of Chōki Motobu. But even in Okinawan schools where kake-kumite or kakedameshi is not practiced in its entirety, the concepts still survive and are applied. Even a trace of this is the way in which some schools practice kakie, developing for a kind of fight. Kakie is also part of kakidī and has its origins in Chinese arts, although it is not exactly the same thing as kake-kumite.

There are also organizations in Japan and other countries that have reconstructed this kumite, either calling it kake-kumite or kakedameshi, and incorporated it into their training. In Brazil, for example, there is the Muidokan Karate Kenkyukai, which I am a part of. There are also people with a lot of content doing this, like Noah Legel and Daniel Marino both from USA.

Having had contact with kake-kumite and kakedameshi, it is clear to me that it was a great way to pressure test the techniques and study kata applications. It serves to research the bunkai, test techniques and develop. It is an excellent practice.

I wrote the article I mentioned at the beginning of the video in order to share with people records about kakidī, kake-kumite and kakedameshi and to help preserve a historical legacy of Karate.

Our art is much broader than we imagine. Nowadays Karate have several facets, such as sport, health cultivation and also self-defense. We must continue practicing and studying with an open mind, not thinking that we know everything, but sharing what we know and being open to little-known perspectives as well. So Karate only gets stronger.

So once again I invite you to read the article I wrote for more details. I will also appreciate receiving comments or even other information that I may not have. With this collaboration and open spirit, we are certainly going further.

Thanks for watching this video and see you next time.