The style that almost wasn't...

Many tales speaking of the beginnings of things are fraught with myth and madness as often as it is bespeckled with truth. I have found this ever more true of the martial arts where honor and one's reputation rested on sometimes tenuous connections with previous masters or famous teachers, specialized training, and of course secrets. As skill alone was not always all that one needs to be respected by others people made connections or disavowed them for reasons we might not ever fully piece together.

What is true in Martial Arts is the importance of the path we walk today not any anecdote's validity and every story should be accepted for the value of what we can learn if for no other reason than entertainment the knowledge gleaned from those that have walked the path of the warrior before us gives us knowledge. Knowledge equates to power this is the wisdom of our sensei in other words those that are 'born before' us. So gather around the campfire, I want to relate a story of the beginning of the martial art style that I have spent most of my life in very deep study.

That is all this is, a story, handed down from many many sources, validity is not important to me as much as we can gather more about what we have been taught through the kernels of truth that are woven into this narrative. What follows is a quick glimpse into a story of a beginning of a style as I have pieced this particular mosaic together on scraps I could find whether math, myth, or magic that I leave up to you… enjoy...and of course learn…

Kanbun Uechi, at the fine age 18 or maybe 20 or something like that depending on who you talk to, left for Mainland China in or around 1897 in search of a way to escape mandatory draft of the young men of the Okinawan island by the occupying Japanese all for Sino-Japanese War effort maintaining their conquered territories. One story passed around is finding him hiding on a boat and being ship wrecked and trained by local villagers. However more historical references find him joining a local school after paying for passage to Foochow.

This school has a teacher that takes a dislike to Kanbun and makes fun of him so he goes in search of another teacher finding a 'temple' where apparently he was to locate Sushiwa. Who also kicks him out at first. That branch of the story has him returning in a few years to make that teacher eat crow and apologize for his ridicule. Of Kanbun's time in China little is really known beyond highlights, in fact it is said that the manual that supposedly had the lineage information for his instructor Sushiwa (or Chou Tzu Ho) and many details of his training in China was victim of a fire shortly after Kanbun's death becoming lost altogether.

Kanbun always told Kanei Uechi his son that he would be able to refer to the book later and refused to speak much about that time in his life. Sushiwa also seems to be an interesting character that is a medicine hawker, a possible monk on the run from a burned temple, a secret trainer for the underground boxing movement, are just a few of the rumors of the man. This is all debated and what we know that he was an artist, we know that he practiced some medicine but the entrance of Master Uechi appears to have been him curing Master Sushiwa of a terrible headache.

Master Sushiwa (1874-1926), who was born in the town of Nanyu just south of Foochow City, was known to have studied several styles but especially under two martial artists of the day. One, Chou Pei was a practitioner of Southern Shaolin Fist. Sushiwa's other teacher was named K'o Hsi-ti but we do not know the particular style, which he taught. (I wonder if the connection to Pangai-noon is here)With time, Sushiwa came to be proficient in a number of martial arts, especially Hu Hsing Ch'uan that is known as Tiger Form Boxing.

Another source says that he was born in Nanko-chin Shibata village in Zhitian. Born Sosei Osho and when the temple he was at burned he moved and changed his name. Becoming a training master under Shizen Osho in Fukien. He was also known as Yong Kuan, (eternal vastness), Xunshan Doazhe (The Xun Mountain Taoist), Yeikan, the samurai name of Azan-do-sha. I really think that monk or not at this point in his life he was a rebel training in the underground movements to restore the ming.

This reference suggests that when he was with Chou Bei he also started wit hHe Xi Di in Iron hand training. As well as eventually learning from a famous artist known as Ko Sai Tei. Becoming proficient in Tiger fist, one of the five fists of Fujian.

So one source mentions Sanchin Kata going through one Ching Fa Shih in southern shaolin systems who passed this knowledge to the brothers Li Tsun Yi and Li Tsun San. Yi's student Chang Shi Pai ran a school with a lot of local and foreign supporters. According to this source Chang Shi Pai was the teacher of Cho Tzu Ho. It also discusses that the it was a hsing training and that their were air earth orientation and a fire water orientation to the original sanchin. And the major differences we see today are from the differences in the original elemental orientation. The style he dedicated his study to be referred to in the local dialect as Pangai-noon. Many believe this was in part a style referred to as Ngo Cho Kun in Taiwan or Five Ancestor Fist Style one of many styles taught in underground schools in southern China by secret societies wishing to restore the previous Ming Imperial regime. And it is argued by some that Sushiwa was instructing out of a 'temple' known to house one of the boxer training centers. Pangai-noon which translates, as hard/soft appears to be a style that influences the foundation of many of the other styles in Okinawa and through them much of what we see in the martial arts world. One such system is Goju-Ryu or the "school of hard/soft " as it would translate from the Okinawan dialect and is most obviously a sister style of Uechi-ryu due to even the most casual observance of tactics and techniques.

Pangai-Noon is the name used by Kanbun Uechi and this continues to be used until his death when it is renamed by Kanei Uechi, Kanbun's son, as the 'Uechi-ryu Karate Do' or the way of Uechi Family empty hand fighting school. Uechi if translated also means Half hard However, it is interesting to note that the Chinese symbols for Pangai-noon meaning "half-hard, or half-soft," or "Heaven-and-Earth" style from some translations, and the present Japanese symbols for Uechi-Ryu Karate, mean the same.

A Chinese pronouncing the Japanese symbols for Uechi-Ryu would say "Shang-te Liu," and would explain that this meant "way of the hard soft fist"! Is it possible that Kanbun saw the calligraphy for Sushiwa's system of fighting, and noting the similarity of the ideograms to those of his own name decided fate had intervened? Things that make you go hmmm?

Another side note of importance to me is that the boxer rebellion put tremendous stock in its 'Iron Skin' boxers going through 'golden bell', 'iron body', or 'iron fist' training. Many references are made to ritual 'magic' rituals believed to protect these boxers from even bullets. I know that if I was from Europe and saw any of the Iron skin practices I use that I would label them as primitive and barbaric rituals. Their belief in these boxers 'power' is surmised to a part of their downfall as the 1900-01 Chinese government escalated the conflict by finding a way to side with their previous enemy these self same boxers against the foreigners.

They called themselves I-ho ch'uan, or 'Righteous and Harmonious Fists.' They were part of an underground movement left over from the Ming Regime that was intent to overthrow the Ching dynasty and bring back Ming (Which happens to translate as Sun/Moon) I have to wonder if in all these different dialects and 250 years underground if Sun/moon can be looked at as Half-hard, half-soft, or maybe Hung(tiger) gar(crane) two of the animal systems known to be incorporated into the Uechi system with the addition of Dragon of course.

Hung gar happens to be one of the many southern kung fu systems that is known to use the Ming hand salute that recognized people in the movement with each other. The same salute you see in the closed gate position at the end of the first kata Sanchin in fact. Hmmm? Well, back to the main story. Rule 1: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Europeans are coming in to slice up China like a melon. China's forces consolidate strength by bonding what little imperial strength was left and through maneuvering from the dowager Empress the full strength of the boxer's against the real threat of the foreigners on their soil.

Boxer's start attacking foreigners in coordinated efforts to remove them from China. Threat to foreigners brought a military force of 8 separate nations with some of that assistance being US troops armed with several Gatling guns. The 'Iron Skin' boxers rightfully feared by previous generations of melee battles with simple bladed weapons spearheaded a suicidal action against the foreign powers firepower. Uechi-ryu continues to maintain an insistence on dynamic-body tension in movement and special body conditioning as well as special Dragon breathing exercises that all are hand-me-downs from that same “Iron Skin” training. Well it is should be said that he went on to study in the early ways of how the style was taught in China and also in the medicinal arts not just the martial system.

The boxer's defeat left a large sum of martial arts experts hunted down or executed I think that this sets a good stage for why Kanbun an Okinawan but an oriental foreigner is allowed to open a school inside of China by 1908. No small feat for someone who the Chinese would see as a foreigner to their land. He appeared to be fairly successful until a student of his in a land dispute with another killed his neighbor. Of course there are a few who tell the story a bit differently and it was Kanbun himself that struck the fatal blow. But confirmation is not available.The blame fell to Kanbun Uechi and he packed up and left for home in 1910 married and started a +farm outside of Naha.

The same year 1908 there is considerable instability in the empire as the Qing Empress Dowager Tzu-hsi dies and selects a 3-year-old heir Pu-yi to the throne of China poisoning the current emperor Guangxu that she had been keeping imprisoned.

Uechi swore we would not teach again. He really did not want to teach but one of his previous peers a tea hawker happen to travel as a part of his job and would travel through Okinawa and received a challenge from a respected instructor after defeating him the dominos started to fall.

So began challenges all over Okinawa by this simple tea merchant and when asked to teach he would refer them all to this great Sensei Kanbun. Who would tell them that Gokenkein (the tea merchant) was obviously sipping more wine than tea, refusing to demonstrate at all. Suposition suggests that a Japanese were still out to punish any Okinawan’s who dodged the mandatory military service they imposed on the islanders.

There is evidence that one of the friends he traveled with to China suffered that fate 8 years before. So he was not willing to demonstrate evidence of a stay in China for fear of repercussions. He even disguised himself as a Chinese merchant to get back through the borders of the Japan controlled Okinawa. His reputation grew because of his dedicated friend the tea merchant and many many potential students and instructors sought to find out more about Kanbun.

Motobu Police Department in Okinawa held an annual festival that would include much celebrating and demonstrations by all the respected local instructors. All of the other sensei, wanting to see Kanbun in action, decided to hatch a plot to expose him in a way he could not refuse. They asked the mayor to request Kanbun to perform making certain that he was close enough to the mayor that he would lose face if he refused. Being playfully pushed onto stage by the others it is said that he struck out into movement with eyes glaring. And so he began starting the kata Seisan and it is said that he was so powerful, so fast, and the moves were so beautifully executed that all sat stunned. He walked off the stage and headed immediately home. No other instructor felt that they could take the stage after this display fearing the loss of face of following such a display of skill.

Kanbun's secret was out. Pressure mounted from many of the top instructors of Okinawa. So he took off for Japan in 1924. He befriended a fellow Okinawan Ryuyu Tomoyose who after considerable effort got Kanbun to begin instructing him. He went on to talk Kanbun to opening the school in Wakiyama Prefecture in Japan with mostly displaced Okinawan islanders. Wanting defense against the Japanese youth gangs that harassed the Okinawan colony. Kanbun’s son begins training in 1930 and opens his own school in 1940 and then moves back to Okinawa and marries two years later.

Ryuko Tomoyose son of Ryuyu found out about him being back in Okinawa and with several other instructors built a dojo in Futema for Kanei to teach in. So began the first instruction of this Okinawan system derived of traditional Chinese boxing in Okinawa itself. In 1947 Kanbun moves to a small island off of Okinawa proper teaching a small group of students. Kanei was drafted in Japanese military service and placed in a Japanese garrison on a small island off the cost of Okinawa. So at age 33, Kanei, drafted into military service was assigned to the station of Ie-jima garrison (an island off the north coast of Okinawa).

Kanei's commanding officer, Lt. Jinbo knew that private Uechi was a "Shihan" of karate and made him perform in front of the soldiers. It was Jinbo who was to save Kanei's life and with it, secure the future of Uechi-ryu Karate Do. Early in March1945 Kanei Uechi was one of 40 soldiers from Ie-jima sent back to the main island as a supply squadron. By the middle of April the U.S. force took Ie-jima and the whole Japanese infantry division was wiped out. After the war ended, Kanei returned to Okinawa. Another branch of the story that may fall into more legend than in any relation to truth as the only sources I have are even more hearsay but apparently in November of 1948 Kanbun was instructing a group of students while suffering from an illness. But lets discuss first that he was a very superstitious man.

This is why so very few pictures of him were taken as he was concerned with the affects. He encountered an oracle once that told him that he would live to be 88 years old. It is said he was suffering from nephritis. As many Okinawans were after the US invaders took over Okinawa but US troops were unable to supply the population with enough food supplies to maintain healthy conditions. As the story goes he was not fond of modern medicine and technology. He practiced Chinese medicine and sought to heal himself believing that he could, as he knew that it was not his time to die. Apparently he suddenly stood struck a perfect Sanchin stance in full tension saying, "It isn't time, you can't have me!!" Then passed on.

Most of the rest of the story from this time on is common and available to many if you just do a little looking. I am not going to duplicate what is more readily and in many cases more eloquently recorded elsewhere. Truth or fiction this story and the connections related to the history of this art have been important backdrop for all my years of martial study and continues to be a fundamental cornerstone of influencing all my ideas and design of all I do in life.

Some can take it from a typical western view and believe we are lucky to have what we have of this early and effective martial arts system. But taking an eastern view myself I believe fate intervened to give a chance for this early to survive through the Uechi family for a reason. It is said that Sushiwa believed in training being intense and focused on quality of technique. The tactic taken by other instructors teaching this system to Okinawans believed in quantity of technique with less focus. I see this division in the training and continue to work my training very deep indeed.

Timeline Dates of Interest

May 5, 1877, Kanbun Uechi was born in Okinawa.

March 1987, Kanbun went to China to study the martial arts.

1908, Kanbun began teaching in China.

February 1910, Kanbun, following an incident where one of his students killed an opponent in an altercation, left China for Okinawa, vowing never to teach karate again.

June 26, 1911, Kanei Uechi was born.

1924, Kanbun moved from Okinawa to Wakayama, Japan and began teaching again.

1930, Kanei began study under his father.

1940, Kanei began to teach in Japan.

1942, Kanei returned to Okinawa.

1945,Kanei was urged to teach in Okinawa by Ryuko Tomoyose and others who build a dojo for him.

1947, Kanbun, taught a small group of students while living on Ishima Island off Okinawa.

November 25, 1948, Kanbun Uechi died in Okinawa.

1958, George Mattson introduced Uechi-Ryu to America.

February 1991, Kanei Uechi died.