After spending more than 70 years in martial arts, I had the opportunity to teach Chinte again. The reason for this is quite simple: a few of my students were in positions to become black belt candidates. One of the mandatory requirements for the Black Belt candidate test (two black stripes) is to perform Chinte. More than half a century ago, when I still was a member of Shotokan Karate in Vietnam, a Black Belt instructor named (thay Ho-Hoang-Khanh, a fifth-degree Black Belt from Karate Do-Okinawa Dojo) told me that Chinte is one of the forms that is practiced only by the Black Belt or above levels. However, later on, perhaps due to the much smaller number of moves in the form compared to the others, the adopted martial arts style decided to rank Chinte as a form that was required under the Black Belt level.
As has been done historically, before learning a form in martial arts, students should first learn the philosophy of the form. They should be educated in such information as the meanings of the form, the roots of the form, the unique principles of the form, the main purposes of the form, the applications of the form (See P. #7), etc. Since learning philosophical concepts from my instructors, I have always followed this valuable leadership and seriously applied it when teaching a new form to my newer students. Once it has been learned, Chinte can be performed from beginning to end in a little more than one minute. The techniques in the form are 90% focused on the hands. All of Chinte has only one front kick, and the unique, remarkable, and unusual nature of the form can be seen in the three bunny hops at the end. Some suggest that these three unusual bunny hops were created to entertain in the style of the traditional folk dance of Okinawa islanders (See P. #1), while others argue that the purpose of these hops is to allow the performer to return to the beginning location. To test this myth I, along with 2 black belt students, each performed the form. Upon completion of the form, we all ended up approximately one foot from the marked starting point, which compared to the other martial arts forms is very reasonable. However, based on my findings, I could not find any clear evidence to support the idea that the three bunny hops were used to return you to your original position. As of this point, I believe this theory to be debunked. After practicing martial arts for more than 70 years, as well as performing at the master’s level, I have a different analysis of the purposes of these three hops (See P. #2). I have carefully developed my idea for the applications, applying them along with my students, and am sharing this concept with my other students and viewers of the following website. Please go to: bamboodojoflorida.wixsite.com/bamboodojo. However, we might not truly know the exact purpose of the three hops, and only the creator of the form may know that answer. As such, my ideas are one of the many interpretations of this move in the form and interpretations can differ depending on the source.
Another debate centers around the meaning of the name of the Chinte form. The meaning of Chinte is varied by many different sources. As the author of this article, I can easily name at least 10 different meanings of Chinte. While some considered the meaning of Chinte as “Unusual Hand”, “Weird Hands”, “Amazing Hands”, “Exceptional Hands”, or “Strange Hands”, others referred to Chinte as “Chinese Hands”, “Beautiful hands”, “Incredible Hands”, or “Rare Hand". However, not only the meaning of the name, but the root of Chinte itself is also another unsure history. At first, traditional martial arts scholars were led to believe that Chinte was brought to the island of Okinawa in the early 1930s by Chinese merchants who loved practicing martial arts and frequently traveled to the aforementioned location during their business trips. There, they encouraged the local islanders to practice their favorite sport: martial arts. This circumstance was described similarly to the way the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma traveled from India to China to lecture on Buddhism. While in China, monk Bodhidharma taught and shared his martial arts skills with local aspiring martial artists. Sources indicate that this was how martial arts was spread from India to China. Regarding how the martial arts were brought to Okinawa from China by Chinese merchants, sources mention that at that time, the Okinawans were under the control of the Japanese government. Seeing the Okinawans seriously practicing martial arts from those Chinese merchants was something that the Japanese government was not too happy about. They were suspicious and accused the Okinawans of intending to use their new skills to form a powerful military force and overthrow the government. The Japanese government was so fearful of an Okinawan rebellion that they had previously outlawed all weapons, even small knives. To prevent an uprising, the Japanese government ordered the islanders to stop practicing martial arts. This made the Okinawans angry. They continued practicing martial arts and told the government: “Oh No! We are not practicing martial arts. We are just performing the Chinese hands (Chin = Chinese, te = hands).” The meaning later changed from “Chinese hands” to “Beautiful hands” in order to alleviate any confusion regarding the original name of this unique Chinte form.
Stories about the other sources of Chinte mention a multitude of Chinese sailors living in the South China Sea region. These sailors often made their living as pirates. One of their ocean routes was between China and the islands near Japan, such as Okinawa. These accounts mention that one of the leaders of the pirate group was named Anna. One day, Anna’s boat crashed on the Okinawan coast. All the people on the ship drowned except one. The last survivor’s name was Chinto. According to the same source, after the capsize of the ship, Chinto initially stole food from the local islanders to survive. After a while, he got caught stealing food from the local islanders; however, the Okinawans eventually grew to love him. They offered him a place to live, and in return, Chinto taught them martial arts. Chinte was one of the forms Chinto first shared with his rescuers, and the name Chinte was derived from the name of the stranded survivor.
As mentioned above, the alleged sources of the Chinte are many. Another such source of Chinte takes place in the mid-1800s in a similar fashion as Chinto’s story; there was a ship from Fuzhou, a small village that belonged to a larger town named Fujian. The ship traveled from there to Japan, but it was wrecked in Tomari and drifted into Okinawa Island. While the ship was in Okinawa for repair, the passengers often demonstrated the Fujian martial arts with the Okinawans. Chinte was taught to the islanders during this time by a group of Fujian Martial artists. This source also mentions that, although Chinte is under the Shotokan Karate system, the form has many open-handed strikes that are aimed at the vulnerable points of opponents, along with unique circle blocking (See P. #3 + #5) eye-poking techniques. Though Shotokan prefers any strike with forceful power, the principles of Shotokan emphasize straightforward attacks and linear movements, further adding a unique element to Chinte.
There is one more unusual martial arts-related issue that I would like to mention. That was an extreme similarity between the name Chinte in Japan and Wing Chung in China. Like the meaning of Chinte, Wing Chung has many different names. Some call Wing Chung Wing Chun, Wing Tsun, Ving Tsun, while others refer to Wing Chung as Wing Tyun, Weng Chun, Vinh Xuan, and Yong Chun. Although these terminologies all refer to the same style of Kung-Fu, the spelling and pronunciation can often be confused. Another similarity between Wing Chung and Chinte is that both are designed to fit the needs of female practitioners. The founder of Wing Chung found her inspiration after witnessing a battle between a stork and a large rodent where the stork was able to repel the rodent’s attacks by using its wings and legs to attack and defend simultaneously. The structures of Wing Chung were not based on imitation of the two fighting animals; Instead, its principles were natural, scientific laws, eliminating unnecessary movements to overcome opponents and generate force by the most economical methods. Some of the most important principles of Wing Chung are body structure and balance. By the same token, Chinte is described as having techniques that are more suitable for women. Indeed, Chinte appears to favor the female fighting style. Most techniques from the form seem to target vital areas such as the eyes and temples using double-finger strikes, or back-thumb strikes (See P. #4) to opponents’ rib cages. Perhaps that is the reason why some people suggest that Chinte is derived from an Okinawan folk dance due to all of the circulation hand moves and, most notably, the form’s singular kicking technique (See P. #8). Moreover, a series of three backward hops at the end of the form seems to confirm the ideas of the folk dance related to Chinte. However, some different sources argue that this series of backward hops was added to bring the kata performers back to the original starting place to facilitate competition results, and they are not related to the Okinawan folk dance.
Evidence also suggests that Grand Master Gichin Funakoshi attempted to rename Chinte to ‘Shoin’; however, for unknown reasons, the idea did not stick, and, in the end, the name of the form remained as Chinte. Regarding the number of moves from Chinte, an article written by Richard E Overill mentions that Chinte originated from China and consists of 32 moves. However, others insist that the total of the moves from Chinte is 36. For instance, the modifications from Cuong Nhu Oriental martial arts while adopting Chinte also increased the number from 32 to 36 moves.
Regardless of where the name of Chinte is derived from, what is the real meaning of Chinte? Why were some of the moves from Chinte circularly created instead of linearly as emphasized by the principles in Shotokan? Regardless of whether Chinte was based on the entertainment of the Okinawans’ folk dance, or instead came from the town named Fujian in China, martial artists still enjoy performing Chinte. Moreover, in martial arts tournaments, many competitors have chosen Chinte to be the form they wanted to compete with. In many cases, those martial arts competitors were placed with the highest prizes.
I, the author of this article, love to perform Chinte. Aside from all of its uniqueness and the contradictions of the circular movements contained in the form, Chinte’s performers will perhaps continue to enjoy the real meaning and purposes of the other myths such as the bunny hops, the two-fingers blocking (See P. #6), etc. Especially once people reach my age and my level as a martial arts master, performing a form that focuses on hand techniques is slightly easier than one that is heavy on leg techniques.
Master Vu-Trinh,
(Autumn, 2023)
A note from the author:
This article has been written based on the research, the author’s knowledge, and sometimes, the provided information from the internet. Please disregard any details that might be considered “disagreeable” to the readers. The purpose of this article is just humbly express the author’s concepts.
Sources:
- Vietnam KARATE-DO Federation (1971)
- Shotokan Karate Association
- Indian Monk Bodhidharma
- The Root of Kungfu
- Master Vu Trinh’s Martial Arts Library
- A martial Arts History research by Richard E Overill
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