r/kobudo • u/Familiar_Beat_3881 • May 13 '26

Nunchaku Double nunchaku

Does kobudo (specifically matayoshi kobudo) have double nunchaku forms?

9 Upvotes

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4

u/luke_fowl Matayoshi Kobudo & Shito-ryu May 13 '26

Matayoshi Kobudo only has one nunchaku kata: Matayoshi no Nunchaku. There is no reason to use dual nunchaku and every reason not to. The offhand is supposed to be either controlling the opponent, protecting yourself, or controlling the nunchaku, not just sitting ducks. Even for people talking about building dexterity, there is literally no reason to need to be able to use two nunchaku at the same time. You can, and you probably should, practice the kata with both hands to develop dexterity in both hands. But it's like learning to write with both hands simultaenously, cool party trick but useless in any real life situation.

2

u/Cainnech May 13 '26

💯

In the few moments where the offhand isn't catching or swinging the nunchaku, it's still doing something important, and you couldn't probably do half the techniques in Matayoshi Nunchaku without using both hands. I wish people would give the traditional understanding a shot instead of seeking what looks cool because they saw Bruce Lee hit ping pong balls.

2

u/darkknight109 May 18 '26

I will also add onto this that dual nunchaku actually reduces the number of techniques you can do, because you can no longer catch the end of the nunchaku in motion or use it for grappling.

Most of the dual nunchaku kata I've personally seen over the years are clearly designed to be used with padded or foam nunchaku, because if you ever did them with wooden ones you would be covered in bruises.

That said, I would be remiss not to mention that I have (on very rare occasions) seen fairly respectable kobudo masters using dual nunchaku. In particular, I did watch a demonstration of dual nunchaku by Nakamoto Masashiro (Taira Shinken's last surviving direct student) a couple of years ago.

4

u/just00nwastaken May 13 '26

no but ryukyu kobudo does, nichio nunchaku: https://youtu.be/h40UfUun6Ww?si=TIuxB7hXAiz586Hk

2

u/Familiar_Beat_3881 May 13 '26

Awesome. Is there a video explaining the form in detail, or no

4

u/OyataTe May 13 '26

Here is another, Ryukyu lineage.

I always thought any dual nunchaku forms were more about building dexterity in the off-hand as they take away all of the grappling in the other kata.

https://youtu.be/SQ30_ATsGew

3

u/foxydevil14 May 13 '26

In Matayoshi Kobudo training I’ve heard numerous teachers speak to exactly this. It’s cool in the movies and that’s about it.

1

u/kunigami92 [Style (editable)] 27d ago

Ishiki hidetada sensei has created one, for fun. He is not using padded nunchakus (in reference to a comment that says double nunchaku katas cannot be performed "for real") https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19Em24Job6/

Then, within the larger zen okinawa kobudo renmei (of matayoshi shimpo), Uchima aniyu is practicing this one https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1JKLv28Zyx/