Sueyoshi no Kon, Soeishi no Kon and Shiishi no Kon

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There are a lot of interesting things about the group of Bo kata called Sueyoshi no Kon and Soeishi no Kon. Often thought to be different kata, but also often thought to come from the same lineage and also regularly confused when it comes to the name.
As Andreas Quast wrote in his article '
Sueyoshi no Kon (Bojutsu Kata Series)' (https://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=4733), Sueyoshi (Shīshi) and Soeishi (Shīishi) have almost the same pronunciation in Okinawan dialect. It is also possible that they mixed up over time without being noticed. As you can read in the third article 'Sueyoshi no Kon III – Après moi le déluge !! (Bojutsu Kata Series)' (https://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=6289) even Shinken Taira mixed up the names of the kata in his Ryūkyū Kobudō Taikan” (Encyclopedia of Ancient Ryūkyūan Martial Arts with Weaponry). And not only the names of Sueyoshi no Kon and Soeishi no Kon, also of other kata.

In the 1964 original version, he mentions (amongst others) the following kata:
Vol. 1 – Kan no maki

2. Urasoe no Kon

Vol. 2 – Gen no maki

1. Sueyoshi no Kon (Shō)

3. Sesoko no Kon

Vol. 3 – Kō no maki

  1. Sueyoshi no Kon (Dai)


In the 1964 corrected version, the names of the same kata are:

Vol. 1 – Kan no maki
2. 
Sesoko no Kon (Instead of: Urasoe no Kon)


Vol. 2 – Gen no maki

1. Sueyoshi no Kon (Shō)

3. Urasoe no Kon (instead of Sesoko no Kon)

Vol. 3 – Kō no maki

  1. Sueyoshi no Kon (Dai)

 

And in the 1997 corrected version, the names of the same kata are:

Vol. 1 – Kan no maki
2. 
 Sueyoshi no Kon (Instead of: 1. Urasoe no Kon 2. Sesoko no Kon)


Vol. 2 – Gen no maki

1. Soeishi no Kon (Instead of: Sueyoshi no Kon (Shō))

3. Sesoko no Kon (So: from Sesoko no Kon to Urasoe no Kon back to Sesoko no Kon)

Vol. 3 – Kō no maki

  1. Soeishi no Kon (Dai) (Instead of: Sueyoshi no Kon (Dai))

 

In one row:

1964 Urasoe

1964 Sesoko

1997 Sueyoshi

 

1964 Sueyoshi Sho

1964 Sueyoshi Sho

1997 Soeshi Sho

 

1964 Sesoko

1964 Urasoe

1997 Sesoko

 

1964 Sueyoshi Dai

1964 Sueyoshi Dai

1997 Soeshi Dai

Yes, I had to read the article and names several times before I got it. And if even Shinken Taira found it difficult to keep them apart, it is not that strange they got mixed up over time. But which kata is which? Let's find out.

Soeishi no Kon Sho (Motokatsu Inoue lineage) by Maarten van Bloois


Soeishi no Kon Dai (Motokatsu Inoue lineage) by Maarten van Bloois Sensei


Sueyoshi no Kon Dai by Murakami Katsumi Sensei


Sueyoshi no Kon by Maarten van Bloois Sensei