Koppojutsu is the art of breaking bones with strikes whereas koshijutsu is the art of attacking muscles and nerves.
First and second rule.
It doesn't just apply to the strikes of kempo but also the locks - a kote gaeshi or nikkyo on the wrist can be second rule pain or a first rule break
Tameshiwari is the art of breaking wood - it means "trial by wood" - as pine is the same density as human bone the practice was to break pine boards to simulate the strength to break bone.
Tameshiwari is part of karate while koppojutsu is from the older ryuha.
Kyukushinkai, out of all the karate schools, makes most use of tameshiwari.
It is to Karate what Battojutsu is to Kendo or kenjutsu
Battojutsu is the art of cutting with a sword for real - traditionally bamboo wrapped in straw to represent bone covered in flesh
I actually did away with tameshiwari a long time ago, mainly because it is outdated and unrealistic
My first karate style was kyukushin so I practiced, taught and graded using tameshi for a long time
I my original Karate, before it became Shiro Tora, I would test black belt students with both fudoken closed fist and shuto sword hand on tameshi.
It used to be said that if you can break 3 boards with a blow you had mastered that blow. In my original Karate school I would test black belts for one board 1st dan, two boards second dan ,and 3 boards 3rd dan for both fudoken and shuto.
After training at a higher level in Shotokan, Goju and then Kempo I came to realise true Karate does not need Tameshiwari
Later in studying the old ryuha, and understanding the true nature of koshijutsu and koppojutsu, I now know there is no need for tameshi at all and never was.
There is a difference between hand conditioning and giving yourself a permanent injury.
Also the study of JKD exposed me to a lot of the teachings of Bruce Lee including the now famous "boards don't hit back"
ultimate translation being that any meathead can learn to break a board (and probably his own hand) with practice, but doing it in a real fight is another matter.
Some of the koppojutsu ryuha, specifically Shiden Fudo Ryu, would indeed train outdoors in nature and had all kinds of conditioning using plants and trees, but that is a different matter. Bringing a dead board inside the dojo to break never really achieved anything.
Boxing training is far better - wear wraps and gloves and hit pads so you don't injure your hands in training
Yes Thai pads are thicker and yes, in Thailand, you kick banana trees, but that is a lot different from kicking pine, or punching pine.
So, good question, and good scientific thinking, Cypher - and you have the answer I wish someone had given me early in my karate career!
This thread is from the Karate board posted back in 2009:
shirotoratiger.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=kk&action=display&thread=186
It is from when we first set up STMA here and when I was simply cutting and pasting copy from early versions of the blogs and forums of my earlier schools
As I said, we never adopted the practice of STMA into "modern" Shiro Tora, and it has never been done at our classes
