I will love to see your completed research on this. I was assuming that Kanbun taught unarmed fighting techniques because Karate, what he taught, is translated into "empty hand". According to Toyama Sensei, Kanbun Sensei defined the term "karate" as meaning "sky hand",...

Also, there is no justification at all in suddenly tracing Kanryo Higaonna’s Naha-te back to the South Shaolin temple, which probably never existed anyway, except in the legendary histories of the Triads and the pages of late Ching Dynasty romantic martial arts novels. Once we start tracing karate ...

Another question (OK, a set of related questions...): Does anyone remember when weapons were taught in the Futenma Dojo (other than using them in attacks for bunkai)? From (year) to (year)? Or learned some weapons form while training there? From whom -- Kanei Sensei himself? And why Kanei Sensei sto...

I would like to make a slight clarification, please. "It was decided at this meeting that in future, the standardized form of the word karate would be written using the combination of Chinese characters that read, “empty hand.” This was how it was currently being used by ... Kanbun Uechi ... in...

Erik,

PM for you...

Seizan

Actually, much of my post was extracted from the rough draft of Vol. 4, section titled "Uechi Kanbun’s Farming Environment in his Youth". Included since I posted are extracts from government papers and archeological digs on Okinawa that indicate wheat and other grains have been grown here ...

Okinawa has grown barley, rice, and soybeans for probably hundreds of years. One reference to rice fields and paddies sets the beginnings of such agriculture around pre-1200 (Mid Shell-Mound Era). The northern part of Okinawa is mountainous but there are many flat open areas where rice paddies exist...

Glenn,

Hello from Okinawa, good to hear from you.

PM in your inbox...

Seizan

Hi Glenn,

As per my response regarding the establishment of the Uechi Domicile in Nago, I do not use any information found in the Kyohon or the "Untold Story" books.

Glenn, Good morning on Okinawa, good to hear from you! I have a few comments. To begin, I do not use any information found in the 1977 Kyohon (the original, not the popular translation), or in Mr. Fujimoto's book (I have in Japanese and English). I will say however that Mr. Garone's translation is e...

By the way, as another example -- Nago is not on the southern part of Okinawa (Naha is). Nago is on the west coast of north-central Okinawa, tucked under the south border of Motobu. Izumi (the area where Kanbun lived through his youth) is the center area of Motobu. The geographical mistake was not i...

Thanks, Erik. I saw that, and have the source material on which Mr. Noble's history of UechiRyu is so expertly written. I admit is a good read. (The following is a Zankai point of view only, and does not imply invitation to debate...) The entirety is a lenghty version of the popular history of Uechi...

Hi Folks. Another annoying question for which the answer must be easily found ... somewhere. When Kanbun Sensei escaped Okinawa, his home was at Motobu Village (Izumi area) No. 1549 (this is recorded in a Japanese Military 1911 search notice for missing and/or dead conscription evaders). However, it...

According to interviews with people who knew him directly, Kanbun Sensei could neither read not write, didn't speak Japanese well if at all, and was not fluent in any Chinese language or dialect. It is possible that his use of badly-pronounced and half-forgotten terms in Chinese (Mandarin, maybe), c...

Erik, Tskasa Higa's translation of Takamiyagi Sensei's "Footprints of Kanbun Uechi" article states: "The founder of Uechi Ryu karate was born on 1 May I877, the first son of a Samurai clan in Izumi, Motobu Township, Kunigami Gun, Okinawa." This is the only reference I found regar...