Makiwara

Shinjinbukan Shorin-ryu

Shorin-ryu and Okinawa Ti, a living tradition.

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Machiwara

Makiwara, or machiwara as it is called in Hogen, is probably the most misunderstood and incorrectly used training equipment in the dojo today. So, perhaps it is a good thing that most modern Karate-ka don't train hitting one. The potential damage of misusing a Machiwara could be very long lasting if not permanent. On the other hand it is the primary tool for learning and polishing proper technique. Any one sincerely interested in learning Karate will need to spend countless hours in front of it; and as a result will learn to respect what it has to offer.

Pre WW II Karate-ka all trained with it, see below Motobu Choki and Funakoshi Gichin trained this way.

So why is it that few if any Shotokan dojo hit Makiwara today?

a-maki2.gif (112x209 -- 3220 bytes) If I had to guess I would suggest that few sports karate people see any benefit to their training from pounding their knuckles against a wooden post. And I guess I can't blame them. Unless you understand that Tenshin, Chinkuchi and Findi are, the building blocks of Machiwara training, I have to admit that the thought of just standing in front of it and pounding it for an hour or two doesn't have much appeal to it. And unfortunately, that is all that the few people I've seen hitting Makiwara are doing. Just building calluses on the hands.

Most students of Karate don't realize that the sounds of the Makiwara is important, or for that matter how to bow in front of a Makiwara or when to hit. The psychological or visualization exercises that many Olympic athletes use in their training regimens have been used for generations in front of the Makiwara in Okinawan Dojo by Tijigaya.

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Motobu, Choki Funakoshi Gichin Hironishi, Genshin

If all you are going to do is hit it until your knuckles get thrashed, there is little value to Makiwara. If on the other hand you are taught how and for what, the Makiwara is the next best thing to having your sensei in the dojo correcting you. Just like your sensei, when you make a mistake it will teach in short order that you've done something wrong.

Machiwara is not at all about the knuckles, it about the feet, the wrists and the shoulders.


Higa Yuchoku Sensei 10-Dan Kyudokan	Arakaki, 5-dan Shinjinbukan, was a Kyudokan student and later became the sempai when Onaga sensei opened his dojo (taken '90)	Onaga Michiko, 6-Dan Shinjinbukan (taken 2001)

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Revised: February 24, 2009