Predecessor to sai?

Posted by: Ed_Morris

Predecessor to sai? - 10/31/06 02:15 PM

http://www.wle.com/products/VHG32D.html

Quote:

Gen are the predecessor to the popular Okinawan Sai. These heavy metal rods were also China’s ancient police batons. Despite their illustrious history, few people still practice Gen. Now you can be one of the few who master this rare weapon. This video shows you the method behind this significant martial arts weapon, overlooked by many practitioners today. Preserve the legacy!

can anyone verify that?

Posted by: Reiki

Re: Predecessor to sai? - 10/31/06 07:27 PM

I heard something similar on a recent doco on Kung Fu but haven't done any research on it myself.

Posted by: Joss

Re: Predecessor to sai? - 11/01/06 08:22 AM

I've never heard this... which, of course, means absolutely nothing. In our Ryu sai are "roughly" attributed to non specific Chinese or Indian weapons, or possibly to an antique Okinawan police source. It's purely conjectural.

I did try to find Gen on that website but could not, just to compare shapes. The video was not clear enough for me, but they looked ot be the same as sai. Looks like they have the video, but not the weapons for sale.

Posted by: Ed_Morris

Re: Predecessor to sai? - 11/01/06 10:52 AM

Quote:

Looks like they have the video, but not the weapons for sale.

exactly. thats a key observation. If the actual weapons themselves haven't survived and aren't at least in a museum somewhere, then how would the Art have survived?

personally, I think it's bunk, but I've been wrong so I asked.

nobody has known for sure when/where the origins of the sai came from. It's reasonable to assume from India/China, but no hard link has ever been made.

suddenly we have a video put out by someone claiming to know not only it's origin, but it's purpose and Artform.

shortly after the video gets released, we hear of a new style/theory (with book and DVD) which claims okinawan kata itself was originally intended for Sai.

put those two together and you get a nice new marketable myth that doesn't require any new skills of the person selling it. take your existing forms, add sai and ...poof, new Art - new product. It's not particularly creative is it.