Weapons in Aunkai – Tambo

Not the most common weapon/tool used but still quite interesting when used by pair in partner training. Once again, keep in mind that Aunkai focuses on properly conditioning the body for Bujutsu and that exercises with or without weapons are primarily focusing on this. A Tambo is a short stick, usually 30-50cm long, but mine are relatively thin dough rollers I found in a 100-Yen shop in Tokyo.

Akuzawa sensei showed IMG_3191me exercises using these sticks for the first time a year and a half ago during a private class, on the “wave” exercise (with a partner, each having one knee on the ground). Both partners hold the Tambo instead of holding each other and the Tambo simply transmit the forces from one body to the other. As with the Rokushakubo, this exercise avoids a common mistake: bracing on the point of contact, and teaches how to transmit and receive forces without being able to cheat.

Based on this original exercise, it is obviously possible to adapt exercises such as Kuzushi in a standing position using the Tambo to link the partners.

To conclude this series of articles on the use of weapons in Aunkai as tools to condition the body, I would say that Aunkai is an extremely rich and complex art, in which the concepts of empty-handed or armed techniques lose their meaning to be replaced by a subtle work on the body in which everything is interconnected.