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Bō
bo - tapered.png
Bo - Bubba.png

Bō is a long staff weapon, typically 6 shaku (71.5819 inches) in length though obviously this can be adjusted to the bearer.  A child who trains in the arts should not be using a 6 shaku bō.

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Oyata originally made his own bō and sold them.  The standard ones he made were 6 shaku in length and tapered on the ends  These were Oak and fights would break out at camp when a handful showed up at the sales table as everyone wanted on.  Tony and I both have one.

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There is also 1, possibly 2, bō kata in this system that are 5 shaku (59.6516 inches) in length, and not tapered at all.  It is typically 1.5 inches thick.  It is affectionately called Bubba Bō.  Yamachino bō and possibly Uhugushiku no bō were to be used with this 5 shaku bō.

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The bō should be constantly shifted to keep the long end away from you, the majority of the time.  The first video shows a multi-colored bō used for training you to slide the bō.  This was a very important part of bo training with Taika and a major difference between Taika's arts and others (if you trained with him long enough to see it.)

Bō Kata

  • ​Kihon

  • Kihon w/Timing

  • Kihon Nidan

  • Sakugawa no Kun (Sho)

  • Sakugawa Nidan saku

  • Tsuji no Kun (Suji)

  • Tsukumi no kun

  • Yamachino bo 5'

  • Yamachi no bo 

Bō kihon foundational version with multi-color bō to stress moving the hands or sliding the bō to different quadrants.  

Taika in some videos kept the bō fairly centered to not give away the secret of 'tactical advantage' of having the long end towards the opponent.

Bō kihon with 'Technical Timing'.  People sometimes called this advanced but Taika referred to it as an advanced timing for a while, then didn't like that and moved on to technical timing.  There are additional moves but the framework is the same as Bō kihon.

Bō kihon nidan - I really believe this kata was a demo kata out of Texas and at some point became Bō kihon nidan.  It appears to have motions from Bō kihon and Tsuji no kun within it.  I have not been able to unravel this mystery but nobody in Kansas City even knew of the kata until well after Taika passed away.

Tsuji no kun or Suji no kun was usually the second kata taught by many instructors.  This was incorrectly spelled SUGI in all versions of Tasshi Jim Logue's book.  It has a lot of sneaky moves and upper cuts.  The figure eight motion of the upper cut makes the opponent believe the bo is coming up on one side and it actually comes up on the other side.  Please note, due to the low ceiling at this film location I was forced to lean forward a little.  Please attempt to keep your back straighter than I do in this video.

5 Shaku Bo - No Taper

Yamachi no bō shown at left was originally taught to everyone with the 6 shaku tapered bō.  Near the end of his life, Taika was talking with several of us in class as several of us had been working on this kata.  He stated that this kata should be performed with a 5 shaku, non-tapered 'bubba' bō.  Several senior students were confused at this and as the discussion continued, Taika stated that the reason he taught it with a 6 shaku bō originally was because that is what everyone had.  When a few people challenged that perception Taika got quite upset that they didn't believe him, after all he had taught the kata initially to one of the people in this specific discussion.  He was absolutely adamant that it should be done with the 5 shaku non-tapered bō.

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