While there are, of course, others who have read this magazine article before, or who were training in karate at the time, it still isn’t information that is popularly known. Instead, the general consensus is that Master Gichin Funakoshi did not know any kobujutsu kata. However, the evidence otherwise is found in an interview with Master Shinkin (Makoto) Gima, published in Fighting Arts Magazine in the 1980s, and written in 1977, with the interviewers being Liam Keeley and Morio Higaonna. During the interview, Gima states that he learnt Tenryū no Kon, a bōjutsu kata, directly from Gichin Funakoshi. That is absolute proof that can perhaps go along with the photo of Gichin Funakoshi performing a bō technique on his own, which must have been from a bōjutsu kata.
Additionally, during the interview there is other interesting information such as Gima practising koryū gojūshiho as his favourite karate kata. He didn’t state that it was from Funakoshi, but he did also learn from Kanken Tōyama and, more so, Yabu Kentsū, who both practised koryū gojūshiho as their favourite kata.
Here is a link to the interview:
https://www.gimahaamericas.com/uploads/4/5/8/8/45887721/interview-with-gima-sensei.pdf
S. R. Marshall
