Vintage Nunchaku

Midnight Ninja: There Were No Cherokee Tribes...

There are no official documents or records, except that of the white man who came later and based his accounts upon his interpretations and preconceived ideas.

There are no artifacts that can be definitively attributed to the Cherokee specifically and there is no way to prove that a group known as the Cherokee did anything in a distinctly unique way or even if they existed at all, only oral traditions, legends and folklore.

There are of course people we called Cherokee, but we defined them according to our understanding and honestly they could have been any number of unrelated indigenous people who self identified based upon nothing more than common territory and common beliefs, certainly nothing that would qualify as a ryuha.

So with such scant evidence for the existence of various tribes in America, that we accept based almost solely on the accounts of people who barely understood them, why are some so quick to reject the existence of a group that was even harder to understand and document?

Certainly various 20th century ideas of ninja and ninjutsu have little or no historical validity, and the more we learn the more we accept that many modern conventions and assumptions may have to be discarded in whole or in part, and we may have to accept that we may never be able to form a complete and accurate picture of secretive groups who lived detached from society and engaged in various acts of espionage in a clandestine manner.

But just was one cannot disprove a negative, lack of evidence is not evidence that something doesn't or didn't exist. We just need to be honest about what we know, don't know and what we think is most likely.

Photo of the Day: Got Shuriken...? Part II

Some more examples of my vintage shuriken collection from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. More examples of those wonderful 8 pointers with round centers (second and third rows from the bottom), the now almost impossible to find large 8 pointers with the square centers and some more of those delightful 2 5/8" minis that most of us started with then promptly lost, traded or sold.

I'll be glad when I finally have my garage finished with a dedicated four foot by four foot target, no more chasing shuriken through the grass for me after that.

Photo of the Day: Got Shuriken...?

Part of my vintage collection of shuriken (early 1970s to early 1980s), most of them made in Japan. Most of these are right out of the AWMA catalog, although there were a few unique to Dolan's Sports. For example I have one Dolan's "Pro Shuriken" but several AWMA "Pro Dragon" examples.

Have a couple Dolan's "Ninja Stars" in there as well as some other interesting designs. Finding and buying these is pretty difficult because like nunchaku egay and most other sites prohibit their sale due to companies like egay and PP being based in California where weapon laws make such things illegal.

Hard to believe there was once a time when you could buy high quality stainless steel "Made in Japan" shuriken for a couple bucks (or $6 today factoring for inflation). Sadly 90% of everything in martial arts catalogs is cast pot metal crap.

Thankfully my Cold Steel shuriken are still holding up well, probably the best buy as far as modern shuriken.

Midnight Ninja: The Secret Scrolls of the Ninja - Ninja Magazine

Yes, they had one. And it was the periodical "bible" for early 80s practitioners of the Iga and Koga arts. Plenty of articles from the likes of Stephen Hayes, Robert Bussey, Harunaka Hashino, Ronald Duncan and Bud Malmstrom.

It all began in 1983 as a special of Warriors magazine, now a very coveted item. For young teenage shinobi warriors it may have been the greatest thing since getting a pair of genuine tabi. Articles on the "real deal" stuff like Kuji In (just what was that stuff at the beginning of "Enter the Ninja"?), spider crawls, poisons and of course the whole four elements ninja thing. There was even a ninja themed centerfold.

And best of all not a peep about Ashida Kim except for the advertisements by BUTOKUKAI which sold his laughably absurd book. Thankfully there were also ads from Larry Beaver for genuine authentic ninja equipment like the Com Bow Sling, which amounted to a wrist rocket slingshot that fired absurd mini arrows.

But while it had it's questionable content, it was still far more authentic than most of the movies being pumped out of Hollywood and there was even some reliable content here and there.

Photo of the Day: Where it all began...

Plantation FL circa 1979, my Dolan's 14" Rosewood octagon nylon cord model nunchaku and some ratty Kung Fu shoes. My love for nunchaku and all things martial arts has continued ever since.

TEST POST 2: If you can see this post, please reply.

TEST POST: Can Anyone See This?

FB isn't showing any of the posts on my new page.

Happiness is a box of Dolan's...

After months and months and months of coming up empty on various searches, I finally scored a nice one.

14" Rosewood octagon corded nunchaku
14" Rosewood round BB swivel nunchaku
21" Stainless steel sai
Black Rock Maple Tonfa
Stephen Hayes signature k**a
(3) Stephen Hayes senban shurikens

Also have 2 period nunchaku cases and a sai case. Everything in excellent condition.

The State of the Nunchaku Collection

Welcome to the backup page for Vintage Nunchaku, it was created because my original page which was created 9 years ago might be deleted by FB because I never created a personal profile page.

Here is my current Dolan's reference collection. I created original page (same name) as a collection of reference material related to older nunchaku from the 1970s and 1980s on September 10, 2013.

The information was mostly a collection of posts from a forum devoted to nunchaku called The Freestyle Forum which was mostly populated by spinners rather than actual martial artists but there was among both groups a devotion to the old Dolan's swivel chain design and nigh quality nunchaku which had ceased to be available sometime in 1989.

I was also greatly inspired by another FB page called Vintage Ninja which convinced me an audience did exist for this kind of thing and I expanded the focus of my page to include martial history, details on other weapons and to profile those who made a notable or significant contribution to the martial arts or development of the martial arts in the 20th century.

The page was never about me, I've made a point to never even mention my name, and there are only a handful of photos of me on the page, mostly from the beginning back in the olden days when I was still a work in progress.

It is my goal in the next year to upload even more detailed photos of every nunchaku model in my collection with pertinent information related to each one.

As you can see from the photos, I have more than a few original Dolan's but I am also still missing some key models.

Vintage Nunchaku updated their business hours.

The "koryu" black belt, 1960s style.

When the first martial arts boom started in the US in the early 1950s as a result of the end of WWII, Pacific theater veterans returning with martial arts instruction and the adoption of Judo styles by Strategic Air Command there was an effort at structure and organization similar to what existed in Japan.

As a result, certificates of rank and even belts were strictly regulated by the parent associations of the first established schools. To obtain a black belt, you had to present recognized proof of certification at that rank and then your organization would permit you to purchase one. Well that is the way it was supposed to work.

The problem is Americans aren't quite as conformist as our Japanese or Okinawan instructors were. First problem is, many returning Marines didn't feel the need to join a parenting body that would oversee standards and practices, certify rank and provide documents in exchange for paid memberships. Guys who spent 3-4 year in Okinawa and received yudansha grades in Goju or Shorin Ryu realized they could simply start teaching classes in their garage, the local YMCA or rented space under their own authority and there was little the institutions in Okinawa or Japan could do about it except "not recognize" the teacher, school or ranks.

But at the end of the day, you can either do Naihanchi and Sanchin or you cannot do Naihanchi and Sanchin, and if you can the opinion of those parent organizations meant little to American teachers with small karate clubs.

And of course by the early 1960s Martial Arts Supply Co. was willing to sell you any belt you wished. But in the meantime another method was found that may or may not have it's origins in Okinawa. I have been told by reputable teachers that it was done in Okinawan (and even Japan) and I have had others who were also there who claimed they never saw it at all. Of course the reality is even if it was done, it wasn't necessary because you would have been in an affiliated school who could provide credentials and rank belts.

So what are we talking about, well the "one belt" method of ranking students. New students buy a new gi that comes with a white belt ("obi" for you guys who love to hear people use the nihongo). In the 1950s and 1960s Okinawan styles often had 3 to 5 colored belts.

This could be a matter of white belt, three levels of green belt, two levels of brown belt and then finally a black belt. Sometimes it was white belt, yellow belt, green belt, brown belt and then black belt. The one thing they had in common was clothing dyes (usually RIT) was used to change the color of the same belt all the way through training. So in systems that had a yellow belt, blue dye was actually added to create a green belt.

In my case, it was a very old Shorin Ryu club (Kobayashi I believe) and we took our white belts and dyed them green upon promotion to green belt. You had to really follow the instructions so that you didn't end up with permanent green stains on your gi after a sweat soaked workout.

Then upon promotion to brown belt you dyed your green belt brown. If you had two grades of brown belt, as we did, you wrapped a black piece of electrical tape from the hardware store around one or both ends of your belt a few inches up from the end. For new martial artists, I'm seriously not making this part up. Colored electrical tape could mean a LOT in the early 80s in terms or representative rank. This was before we all finally got fancy custom embroidered belts with dan stripes.

After second brown was completed, you removed the black tape and dyed your belt black. Problem is, it never was really black. Because of the greens and browns which were pretty permanent, you ended up with a dark, dark grey that seemed to have hints of purple, especially as it aged.

But for a time, especially around the mid 1960s, THIS was the belt that showed you earned your way and simply didn't order colored belts and buy certification from a less than scrupulous instructor. Hand dyed belts carried with them a respect factor that was only matched by a set of huge makiwara produced knuckles or a hand kanji certificate of rank from a notable instructor.

I earned my "old style" shodan back in 1982 (began training in 1978) from a hold out Shorin Ryu instructor that hadn't changed the way he did things for 20 years. This meant he ran a club rather than a school. It was an interesting business model, you take the cost of the rented space and divide it among the number of students and that is what you paid per month. The teacher paid nothing and ended up with a paid for dojo to practice in and teach. Students often paid as little as $8 to $10 a month for nightly classes which was a pretty good deal in 1978.

The only problem was when summer came along, so many went on vacations that sometimes the club temporarily shut down for a month or two. But sometimes some of the senior students (our sempai) if they had decent jobs would sponsor the club during the summer so that practice could continue.

This of course meant our sensei had a day job and another source of income because he actually made little or no money from teaching martial arts. He simply had a "paid for" dojo. I suppose if the student body got large enough there was some profit potential, but as we were very traditional and workouts were pretty arduous, we were lucky to keep a dozen or so reliable students long term.

And of course there were a lot of protocols (one of which I'm deliberately violating with this post - your belt never finds it's way to the floor - ever) but picture composition took precedence and I hope I will never do it again. The other big rule was you never, ever gave money directly to your teacher. This suggested that what you were being taught could actually be paid for with money and there were few ideas more offensive than that.

Your sempai would inform you what your share of the club rental fees were for the month (and some of us rounded them up for $8 to $10 or for $12 to $15 as the case may be) and you put the money or a check in an envelope with your name on it and you left it on the desk of your instructor when he was not there. That way you didn't embarrass him by handing him money in exchange for instruction. This is one practice that did go back to Okinawa.

Eventually our Shorin Ryu club faltered around 1982. People found it easier to just pay student fees in schools that seemed to cater to them more as a customer rather than simply provide a place to train and instruction when your sensei felt you were ready for something new, which wasn't always the case. The last of the original students tested for yudansha grades and those that were able continued as personal students at our teachers home.

Unfortunately for me I was still in high school, didn't drive and the teachers home was one hell of a bike ride from my house, about three times as far as the club that once existed. But it was time well spent, I learned a very orthodox version of Shorin Ryu and I have a genuine "dye belt" or as we called them a "one belt."

It used to be a thing, a big deal, now almost nobody knows what it is.

Photo of the Day: The Journey

The colored fabric I've collected over the years. Of the 40+ styles and systems I've practiced over the years many of them had colored belt grading systems. These are typically Okinawan, Japanese and American karate / kenpo styles.

Many of them had variations on the color order but in most cases I simply reused the same belt earned in previously studied systems. The order depicted is mostly representative of my core styles. The exception to that rule is the red belt, I'm not now and have never been a 10th (judan) degree black belt. But a few of the Korean systems I studied Tae Kwon Do, Tang Soo Do and a few others use a red belt directly before 1rst (shodan) black belt so it's in there.

A couple belts people might find interesting is the black belt directly to the right of the red belt. Yes, that is supposed to be a black belt. A now obscure tradition associated with a Shorin Ryu style I studied in the late 70s used the same belt and the color was changed with Rit Dye. They only had four colors (white, green, brown and black) so once you made green belt, you dyed your belt green, then dyed it brown and then finally black. The end result after many years is an odd brownish / greyish black belt.

I also have an official "red electrical tape" 3rd (sandan) degree black belt which was common in the mid 1980s when custom embroidery was still a rare and expensive option. It's kinda funny now the respect a few inches of tape warranted back then, but I guess it's always just been a symbol of ability / knowledge regardless of how it was manufactured. Anyone who has seen an actual black belt from the 1930s era of Japanese karate knows what I mean. They were a long way from the custom wide Tokaido belts available today.

The white belt at the far right end, with embroidery, is from a system that returns to white belt after black belt. The white belt at far left, with genuine "sharpie" kanji, is from yet another system that only uses white belt and has no colored belt grading system. The belt functions only to secure the jacket and white uniforms and belts are the only thing permitted.

I did study two styles that had orange belts after yellow, but in both cases I managed to test from yellow belt and skip a grade directly into blue belt or green belt (one style had blue before green and the other green before blue) skipping orange belt completely so I never actually bought one.

And then of course there is my favorite belt, the 1rst (shodan) black belt between the brown and red belt. That was the first one I ever got and it was worn for a long, long time. It was almost distressing when I went up a couple sizes and had to replace it.

I now have a custom embroidered 3rd dan which is the kind of thing I would have drooled over 30 years ago. Funny enough, now I only wear it on formal occasions or when otherwise required by protocol. Most of us don't wear rank at all when we train, and training sessions are largely informal workouts.

But it does make for a fun display to look at and chuckle over when I'm working at my desk. Lots of memories, each belt reminds me of a time when I was positive I simply couldn't do another 50 reps of seiken tsuki or I would die. Each belt reminds me of friends and dojomates, and that group would get smaller with each advancement in belt grade. Of the group who began with me with my first instructor, only 6 others made it to shodan.

It's almost karmic to think how much work and effort I put into attaining the next belt grade to have them essentially become a wall decoration. But as we were admonished by sensei, and Mr. Miyagi if you were paying attention to the movie, skill is not in the belt, it is in the demonstration of skill. Our sensei took an almost mischievous delight, when we completed testing and successfully promoted to the next grade, in reminding us that we are no better or no worse than we were yesterday...or last week and that only our clothes had changed.

He was correct all along of course. But part of me, if I had the luxury of time and discretionary income, would love to find somebody teaching martial arts of substance and put on a white belt again and start climbing a different mountain one more time. Of course it would have to be a larger white belt, I don't think my size 3 would still fit me.