Tokumine-no-kun 徳嶺の棍

     This kata was passed down from Kyan to Shimabuku. Kyan is said to have learned the kata from a direct student of Tokumine Peichin. According to the story, Tokumine Peichin was said to have been a teacher of Motobu Choki. Tokumine loved to drink liquor, and one day got into a drunken brawl in which he injured 20 to 30 constables to the point where they could not even stand up. For this he was exiled to Yaeyama Island. Kyan, wishing to learn the cudgel tradition of Tokumine, traveled to Yaeyama to seek out his instruction. Upon arriving, Kyan learned that Tokumine had already passed away, but had taught his kata to the old man who acted as the landlord of the place where Tokumine had lived. It was from the landlord that Kyan had actually learned this form. (Jahana, 1978)

Uezu Angi stated that Shimabuku studied this kata from Kyan, but later relearned it from Taira (Uezu, 1997). This author, however, has found no evidence to date that Taira ever taught or even knew this kata. It is one possibility that Shimabuku studied Tokumine no Kon under Kyan, but later when re-modifying the kata to fit his vision of kobudo, may have been influenced by Taira's method of utilizing the bo.

*from The Kobudo of Shimabuku Tatsuo by Joe Swift, 1998