Lynne
Master of Arts
Master Mitchell (Vice-Ppresident of the AmericanTang Soo Do Association and highest ranking female martial artist in the world) recently taught a fan seminar at our school. It was great fun and well-attended.
Fans have been used as weapons in China and Japan. They were often used by the middle and upper classes as a defense against swords. One could place razorblades on the outer edges of the fan or even place daggers between the fan ribs. You could flip your fan open and send out a spray of daggers at your oponent. Fans were often made of silk, but could also be made of leather or metal.
The fan is not a "girly" art and was actually employed by more men than women.
We learned Buchu Hyung, which is a Japanese Samurai form. I'm glad I was orange belt as I already knew the stances and kicks - front stance, fighting stance, horse stance, and back stance. I'm just saying it would have been overwhelming at white or yellow belt. We also used the front kick, the side kick and the back kick. In addition, we jabbed and stabbed in between flipping the fan open and flipping it closed (flipping the fan open and closed is an art to itself, lol). We also tossed the fan in the air to reverse it so that the bottom end would be facing out to stab with. We did blocks and spins with the fan. Master Mitchell knew we would have the most trouble with the spins, so we learned some basic spins first. Indeed, they were tricky.
Master Mitchell did two demos for us at the end of the clinic. She performed the Buchu Hyung she'd taught us. Then she performed a fan hyung with two fans. Awesome. It takes a lot of balance and control to use one fan. I can't imagine using two.
Not being a black belt, I didn't pick up the entire Buchu Hyung, but someone recorded it so that we can make a copy. I'd love to perform Buchu Hyung in a weapons competition.
Fans have been used as weapons in China and Japan. They were often used by the middle and upper classes as a defense against swords. One could place razorblades on the outer edges of the fan or even place daggers between the fan ribs. You could flip your fan open and send out a spray of daggers at your oponent. Fans were often made of silk, but could also be made of leather or metal.
The fan is not a "girly" art and was actually employed by more men than women.
We learned Buchu Hyung, which is a Japanese Samurai form. I'm glad I was orange belt as I already knew the stances and kicks - front stance, fighting stance, horse stance, and back stance. I'm just saying it would have been overwhelming at white or yellow belt. We also used the front kick, the side kick and the back kick. In addition, we jabbed and stabbed in between flipping the fan open and flipping it closed (flipping the fan open and closed is an art to itself, lol). We also tossed the fan in the air to reverse it so that the bottom end would be facing out to stab with. We did blocks and spins with the fan. Master Mitchell knew we would have the most trouble with the spins, so we learned some basic spins first. Indeed, they were tricky.
Master Mitchell did two demos for us at the end of the clinic. She performed the Buchu Hyung she'd taught us. Then she performed a fan hyung with two fans. Awesome. It takes a lot of balance and control to use one fan. I can't imagine using two.
Not being a black belt, I didn't pick up the entire Buchu Hyung, but someone recorded it so that we can make a copy. I'd love to perform Buchu Hyung in a weapons competition.