Board Breaking

[Kendoguy9]

And the fact that Sakugawa, Matsumura and Azato were all trained in Jigen-ryu would have reinforced this understanding.

Very good point. They certainly would have known better than to try something as dumb and crazy as punching through armor while having swords swung at you.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of watching Shinkage-ryu's empi no kata (as I mentioned above, also found in Jigen-ryu) with odachi and naginata at a kagami biraki celebration. The kata was broken down for everyone watching to show where the various targets were and the different counters etc. What is interesting about the kata with large weapons is that it assumes the swordsmen are wearing armor (of course real armor is expensive so they weren't wearing any for the embu). All of the attacks are to places with gaps in the armor, like under the wrist, knees or hips. I would imagine if a karteka would be crazy enough to try to attack a swordsman in full armor he would NOT attack the plates of the armor but would try for the gaps between the armor just like a swordsman would. After all the goal would be to get the soft nougat center not the hard candy shell

[Richard Scardina]

I even read that people people that breaking boards, is a demonstration of power. Anything can be explained through dectuctive or sensible reasoning. Even science, per physics can help. The main course of this is people who hold onto such myth or legend, desire so because they are either intriqued or wabt others to be intriqued. These persons become so infacuated by such, they will not accept any type of explanation or reasoning.

[R_Garrelts]

Off the top of my head, I do not recall the sources, but I do recall seeing stories about folks in SE Asia doing board breaking as far back as the 16th century, and have seen photos of Chinese street acts, probably in Vancouver or Victoria BC (definitely North American West Coast), that were taken ca. 1895.

Start by looking for the acts staged by Muslim fakir (faqir) and their Hindu equivalents in South and Southeast Asia during the Mughal era (sixteenth to nineteenth centuries). Originally, these acts were done to show the power of faith (spirit/ki/prana, what have you; examples include walking on hot coals, lifting heavy weights with one's penis, that sort of thing), and after awhile, of course some bright lad said, "Hmm, he sure makes a lot of money with that spiel."

Indian (as in British India) magicians became quite the rage in Europe in the early nineteenth century. Chinese circus acts were traveling Europe and the USA by the 1850s, and Japanese circus acts were touring Europe and the USA by the late 1860s. Barnum and Bailey, folks like that, all had their jujitsu shows.

Here, I do have some examples close to hand.

Barnum and Bailey’s circus visited Atlanta, Georgia in October 1913. Said the Atlanta Constitution: "The mikado’s jiu jitsu experts will show how even a frail woman trained in the art of Japanese scientific defense may easily overcome an assailant and slap-bang wrestling combats will be indulged in by the bulky wrestlers (shuma [sumo] men) who compose a part of the troupe." Before that, Sorakichi Matsuda wrestled Lulu, "the pine and pork fed female Samson from Georgia" (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1884).

For Indian magicians, see, for example, Sarah Dadswell. 2007. “Jugglers, Fakirs, and Jaduwallahs: Indian Magicians and the British State,” New Theatre Quarterly 23(1) 3-24, DOI 10.1017/S0266464X06000595, via Cambridge University Press January 16, 2007.

For stories of old-time strongmen, try David P. Willoughby. 1970. The Super Athletes: A Record of the Limits of Human Strength, Speed, and Stamina. South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes.

Thanks for the references. I actually had Willoughby's book in mind when I mentioned Maxick. No other tameshiwari-type stuff in that book that I can recall, though (unless you count driving nails into boards/metal plates by hand).

Please let me know if you happen to recall the source for the Dempsey tidbit--web search hasn't turned up anything.

Thanks again. Have a good weekend.

[Joseph Svinth]

Well, it's not Jack Dempsey, but here are some stories from the newspapers.

Poverty Bay Herald, 26 Feb 1906, page 3, http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi...H19060226.2.28

"Herr Josef Hajek, the well-known Austrian strong man, died in Sydney last week, from cancer in the stomach. The dead athlete was once connected with Fitzgerald Bros.' Circus, and in his day wrestled a number of matches... When Hajek was showing at the circus, part of his performance was to have an anvil placed upon his stomach, and to allow three men to strike at it with heavy sledge-hammers."

Same paper, next item:

"Richard McGrevey, who recently died at Kuaotunu, was a well-known character throughout the North Island, being commonly known as 'Dick Hard-head.' He was an old man who wandered about from one district to another exhibiting the wonderful hardness of his head. Without the slightest compunction he would ram his head through the panel of a door, break bottles upon it, and he even has been known to break bricks upon his head without appearing to suffer therefrom."

During in the 1930s, US judoka Mas Tamura was breaking rocks as a method of developing ki. I don't know where Tamura got the idea, but he was very legit, and not much given to exaggeration.

Meanwhile, San Jose News, Nov 1, 1935, via Google News: Al Ritchie, the North Carolina Samson, was scheduled to amuse the news carriers at the local junior high school "by breaking boards, twisting steel pipes, ... driving spikes through boards with his bare hands..." etc.

LA Times, Jan 23, 1954. The Great Togo was scheduled to appear on Spade Cooley's KTLA TV show. While there, Togo was going to demonstrate karate, "the art of breaking things with the side of his hand."

Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel, Feb 9, 1956, via Google News: "The Great Togo and his brother Tosh, Japanese wrestlers who are making a splash in Northern California, hook up with Leo Nomellini and Enrique Torres in the feature tag team match at the Stockton Civic Auditorium tonight. .. The Togo's are also scheduled to put on a display of Karatae, a sport of breaking rocks, bricks, boards and other objects with bare hands and heads." Note: The Great Togo's "brothers" included Mas Oyama.

Miluwaukee Journal, April 22, 1956, via Google News. Kazuo Togo (this isn't Oyama, but one of the other Togos, probably Kazuo Okamura of Hood River, Oregon) "shows that he can break rocks with his [hands]." A nice series of photos accompanies the article.

Ottawa Citizen, Jun 23, 1956, said that compared to karate, judo and WWII combatives were "sissy stuff." (Via Google News)

Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, Jan 19, 1959, via Google News: Mun Yo Woo, a Korean graduate student at Lewis and Clark College, was giving karate demonstrations at the Portland YMCA. He had gone through the seven preliminary steps, and was now graded black belt, first step. According to the article, karate was "a practice so deadly that a proficient amateur is required, in Korea, to register with the police."

Miami News, Jul 3, 1960, via Google News: "Need any bricks broken in two?" The instructor here was Ralph J. Bove, of North Miami, a shodan in Isshan-do, with headquarters in Jersey City, NJ. Bove was a Marine, headed to Okinawa, who was looking forward to the trip so he could learn to speak Japanese. Said Bove, "I do not plan to teach women and karate would be very dangerous in the hands of children."

Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1963, has Ed Parker claiming that those proficient in shattering boards or bricks can disable or kill several opponents at a time. (ProQuest)

***

As for how this got started, and how far back the practice may go, well, here's a clue:

Near Dutse, Nigeria, in 2009, boys aged 4-6 years were employed to break big rocks into gravel, which was then used to make roads, using their bare hands as the primary tool. The reason was that it is much cheaper to have kids break rocks with their bare hands than it is to use mechanical crushing equipment. http://allafrica.com/stories/200904030129.html

[R_Garrelts]

Many thanks! I'm sorry to say, though, that I seem to have caused you more trouble than was necessary by not performing an adequate search myself; I had no idea that Google's news archives went back that far. My apologies. But HOORAY Google!

Thanks again for your help.

If anyone's curious, the May 29, 1898 edition of the Reading Eagle and the July 9, 1899 edition of the Bridgeport Herald both also contain references to breaking boards and are the earliest ones I could find (via Google).

[Joseph Svinth]

Old newspapers are starting to become available online all over the place. Many of the sites are pay-per-view (British Library, NewspaperArchive.com, ProQuest, Gale Groups' London Times, etc.), but compared to traveling all over and then going blind reading microfilm? This is much, much better.

Google Scholar and Google Books are also worthwhile. And, in the look but don't touch category, you can find all kinds of neat images at LIFE magazine archives, CORBIS, and Getty Images.

[Richard Scardina]

Wow...thanks to all...very informative responses