I find it odd that the Inoue Motokatsu’s Ryukyu Kobujutsu group do not use the kata developed by Taira Shinken for suruchin and nunchaku. Indeed, Inoue’s nunchaku and suruchin kata do bear Taira’s name (ie. “Maezato no …”). To the best of my knowledge Inoue stated that all his kata came from Taira and there is no reason to doubt him. That said, it could be that these kata for suruchin and nunchaku were works in progress. All one has to do is look at Taira’s Japanese language book “Ryukyu Kobudo Taikan” for a prototype nunchaku kata that he seems to have been abandoned). Therefore, if I was to guess, Inoue was exposed to these prototype kata and perhaps to the final kata versions through his visits to Okinawa, but ultimately rejected them.
One thing that I respect about Inoue’s curriculum is its structure. Early on he included a specific set of basics for each weapon. To the best of my knowledge, no other students of Taira really pursued this with the possible exception of the bo basics developed by Akamine, but beyond that there is really nothing. (Although subsequent generations on Okinawa have created their own sets of basics for each weapon).
When I started learning Kobudo from Minowa sensei and Yoshimura sensei, I simply practiced kata. The instruction was excellent and very detailed but I think this method works only for small groups. I noticed this when I came back to Canada and started teaching, my Canadian students needed and wanted a more structured approach. So, with the permission of Yoshimura sensei, I ended up adopting a modified version of the 10 bo basics from Akamine, and creating basics for several others. When Yoshimura sensei came to Canada for the first time in 2005 he thought that the first five bo basics were more than enough and he didn’t care much for the rest.
Okinawa Karatedo & Ryukyu Kobudo 