2. Uechi Return to Okinawa

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By Graham Noble

The histories say that Uechi returned to Okinawa early in 1910. If that is true, and he left Okinawa in 1897, then he would have lived in China for thirteen years.

He returned to Okinawa quietly. The story is that he was dressed in Chinese fashion and still wore his hair in a queue. He worked as a farmer, married and started a family, though he seems to have found it hard to make a living. He kept to himself, and though he continued to practise his kata he didn’t attempt to teach anyone. He was aware of the action taken against draft evaders, and his friend Tokusaburo Matsuda, who had went with him to China all those years before, had been arrested when he had returned to Okinawa in 1902 and had been imprisoned for a year.

He may have mentioned his training in China sometimes, or perhaps others did. He was occasionally asked to teach but always refused. He never showed his skill, although there is an old story that he was crossing a narrow foot bridge on Okinawa when a big youth, one of a group of karate students, blocked his way. When the youth challenged Uechi and threw a punch at him, the blow was parried and he was thrown off the bridge by a double arm thrusting technique.

There is also the well-known story of a demonstration at the Motobu police headquarters where there were displays of judo, kendo and karate. According to Ryukyu Tomoyose, (“Classical Fighting Arts” No. 42) this was on the headquarters’ 20th anniversary and after the judo and kendo displays some of the locals prevailed upon Kanbum to demonstrate his kempo. He was reluctant but eventually stepped on to the platform to do a fast and powerful Seisan kata - after which he stepped down off the stage and went home. The spectators had been impressed and following this Uechi was asked many times to teach his art: but he continued to refuse all the requests. His style effectively remained dormant in the years following his return from China.

If things had continued that way we might never have heard of Uechi Ryu karate and the technique would have been lost forever, but things changed when Uechi moved again, this time to Wakayama City in Japan. The reason for the move seems to have been purely economic because there was an economic recession and Okinawa was particularly affected. Many Okinawans moved to the industrialised Kansai region of Japan to find work in the factories there. According to Alan Dollar, Uechi first went to Osaka, but he soon moved to Wakayama City, where he found employment in a large textile mill run by the Hinomaru Sangyo Corporation. That was in 1925 and Uechi would have been in in his late forties.

He lived in tenement housing with other Okinawans and he soon became friendly with an Okinawan called Ryuyu Tomoyose. Tomoyose had worked the land until 1921 when he had come to Wakayama. He had been at the Hinomaru Sangyo Corporation for four years when Kanbum Uechi came to work for the same company.

Tomoyose was twenty eight years old in 1925, twenty years younger than Uechi and full of energy. He seems to have been something of a fiery person who would often get into fights with the local Japanese youths: his son Ryusen said that Ryuyu would challenge ten men, though he didn’t always win his fights. Tomoyose noticed how, when he would describe his fights to Kanbum Uechi, Uechi would become animated, standing up and showing how he should have defended against the attacks. George Mattson, (“Uechi Ryu Karate Do”, 1974) wrote that Tomoyose began making up stories of fights just to see how Uechi would react with explanations of defences and counters to use. Tomoyose surmised straightaway that Uechi was a karate expert and asked him to teach, saying that if he continued to keep the art to himself it would be lost to future generations. Another more prosaic account is that Tomoyose asked Uechi to teach him after seeing him practising his forms. Of course, Uechi may also have talked to Tomoyose about his time in China and training in kempo. In any case, Uechi began teaching Ryuyu Tomoyose in private, beginning with the basic kata, Sanchin.

After Tomoyose had gained some expertise he approached Kanbum and asked him to interview other potential students for training and shortly after that he asked Uechi to start a school. Another account is that Uechi was also asked to start a dojo by the local Okinawan Citizens’ Association and important figures like Bungoro Nakamura: “At first he refused, but they persisted in appealing to his sense of social responsibility and community spirit.” A small dojo was therefore opened in 1926 (or 1925, depending on the source) using a room in the company compound. This was the Shataku (Company) dojo. Tomoyose was the senior student and Uechi’s right hand man, and the four senior students in this early period were Genmei Uezato, Saburo Uehara, Kata Yamashiro, and Yoshitada Matakichi. At this early stage there was limited enrolment: prospective students were vetted and had to be introduced by one of the five seniors, who in turn acted as guarantors for their behaviour. The old Okinawan habit of secrecy also seemed to have lingered on: practice was carried out behind closed doors, and if a visitor knocked on the door training would be stopped. Students were forbidden to show their techniques outside of the dojo. According to Alan Dollar this first dojo was only small, about eight tatami in size, (a tatami measures about 3 foot by 6 foot) and only a few students could train inside. “Much of the training was conducted outside in the packed dirt practice area, hidden from view behind the dojo. That space measured about twenty tatami. When it rained, no one showed up. When it was cold, the students, dressed only in shorts, moved around constantly to stay warm.“ Shigeru Takamiyagi, in his history of Uechi Ryu, wrote that “the Shataku dojo was talked about as a place of mystery.”

In 1932 Kanbum moved his dojo to a larger space in the Tebira area of Wakayama City. This was open to the public and Uechi was able to leave the spinning mill, supporting himself from the dojo, where he taught in the evenings and sometimes during the day, and a small miscellany shop he had opened. He taught three kata – Sanchin, Seisan and Sanseiru – and conditioning methods. The dojo was called the Pangainoon Karate Jutsu Kenkyujo, the Pangainoon Karate Method Research Group. Pangainoon.was the name Uechi gave to the style he was teaching.

The Uechi Ryu histories state that Kanbum Uechi decided to teach for the good of the Okinawan community in Wakayama, and no doubt that is true. But there was probably another basic reason –he needed the money; and that is easy to understand because Uechi seemed to have had a struggle to make a living for pretty much all of his life up to then. Teaching his art meant that there was the possibility of having a better life doing what he loved. The Okinawan Karate Encyclopedia entry on Ryuyu Tomoyose, in emphasising his importance in the early history of Uechi Ryu, states that “Tomoyose was influential in that he began approaching young people from Iejima and other Okinawan people. He managed to attract about thirty people to study kempo, (with Uechi). He then had them pay 5 yen as a monthly fee. In total he collected 150 yen, a substantial amount at that time. According to “Okinawa Katahajime, Society History”, the initial monthly salary of a teacher then was 35 yen and the salary for a principal was 165 yen. With this large sum of money Tomoyose visited Uechi and asked for instruction. However Uechi refused saying he could not live on the dojo monthly tuition fees. Then Tomoyose took out the entire 150 yen from his pocket and put it on the table and said ‘Sensei, this isn’t enough?’ Uechi was shocked to see that amount of money put in front of him. He asked if he would receive that much every month and Tomoyose said ‘Yes, we pre-pay the monthly fee.’ Uechi said, ‘Alright, I’ll put you in charge of that.’ The opening of the dojo soon followed.”

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