You're welcome everyone. I'll have to settle down soon and read something scholarly (like Bobby Campbell's book when it comes out) but for now I'm happy trolling from the net and sharing what I find.
wiki:
Fuzhou; Chinese: 福州; pinyin: Fúzhōu; Wade-Giles: Fu-chou; BUC: Hók-ciŭ; EFEO: Fou-Tcheou; also seen as Foochow or Fuchow) is the provincial seat and the largest prefecture-level city of Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It is also referred to as Rongcheng 榕城 which means "city of banyon trees."
Banyon Trees:
http://p2.www.britannica.com/ebc/article-71268
During the Six Dynasties period (AD 220–589) the region remained in the Chinese domain, but true Sinicization did not come about until the T'ang dynasty (618–907), when intermarriage between the T'ang settlers from the north and the local people became common.
After the fall of the T'ang, the territory of Fukien reemerged as the kingdom of Min, with its capital in Fu-chou. In the mid-10th century it was subdivided into the state of Yin, controlling the Min-pei, and the state of Min, controlling southern Fukien from Chang-chou. The province grew rapidly in importance as the economic hinterland of the Nan (Southern) Sung capital, Lin-an (modern Hang-chou). The province became a key supplier of rice to the region following the introduction of a fast-ripening variety called Champa rice from Southeast Asia. It also became the major producer of sugar, fruit, and tea. Because of the importance of trade to the Nan Sung, the province also was important as a shipbuilding and commercial centre for both overseas and coastal trade. The port of Ch'üan-chou, known to Marco Polo as Zaitun, was one of the world's great ports in this period, with more than 100,000 Arab traders living in the area.
The province's decline began with the Ming dynasty ban on maritime commerce in 1433 and was reinforced by the Ch'ing dynasty's policy of isolation, which particularly affected the province in the late 17th century, when Ming dynasty loyalists occupied Taiwan and the islands off Fukien. There was some revival of the economy in the mid-19th century with the opening of Fu-chou and Amoy as treaty port cities, but the modern shipbuilding industry established at Ma-wei by the Ch'ing was destroyed by a French fleet during the Sino-French War of 1883–85.
In the aftermath of the revolution of 1911–12, Fukien was a pawn in local warlord struggles and was divided into political and military fiefdoms.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0819930.html
Fuzhou consists of an old walled city, which lies c.2 mi (3 km) from the river, and a modern riverside town. A bridge crosses to Nantai island, the former foreign settlement and business center. Large vessels dock 15 mi (24 km) downstream to transship their goods. In 1984 it was designated as one of 14 open port cities. The old city of Fuzhou dates from the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618–906). Marco Polo, who called it Fugiu, visited the city on his return journey. After the Opium War (1839–42) Fuzhou was established as a treaty port. By 1850 it was the principal Chinese port and the world's largest tea-exporting center. Its importance declined when the demand for tea decreased and when harbor silting barred large vessels.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0836734.html
Opium Wars
Opium Wars, 1839–42 and 1856–60, two wars between China and Western countries. The first was between Great Britain and China. Early in the 19th cent., British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. In 1839, China enforced its prohibitions on the importation of opium by destroying at Guangzhou (Canton) a large quantity of opium confiscated from British merchants. Great Britain, which had been looking to end China's restrictions on foreign trade, responded by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China, unable to withstand modern arms, was defeated and forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (1843). These provided that the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai should be open to British trade and residence; in addition Hong Kong was ceded to the British. Within a few years other Western powers signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and residential privileges, and the Western domination of China's treaty ports began. In 1856 a second war broke out following an allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British-registered ship, the Arrow, in Guangzhou. British and French troops took Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin (1858), to which France, Russia, and the United States were also party. China agreed to open 11 more ports, permit foreign legations in Beijing, sanction Christian missionary activity, and legalize the import of opium. China's subsequent attempt to block the entry of diplomats into Beijing as well as Britain's determination to enforce the new treaty terms led to a renewal of the war in 1859. This time the British and French occupied Beijing and burned the imperial summer palace (Yuan ming yuan). The Beijing conventions of 1860, by which China was forced to reaffirm the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin and make additional concessions, concluded the hostilities.
See A. Waley, The Opium War through Chinese Eyes (1958, repr. 1968); H.-P. Chang, Commissioner Lin and the Opium War (1964); P. W. Fay, The Opium War, 1840–1842 (1975).
In 1879 the Japanese government annexed the Ryukyuan kingdom to become the prefeture of Okinawa. In 1897, Kanbun Uechi sailed to Fuzhou - an incredibly bustling, cosmopolitan, modern, international port of trade. And he was able to go to the "Ryukyukan"
http://www.karate.org.nz/gojuryu/history
{In} 1372 when King Satto of the Ryukyu Dynasty sent his brother Taiki as an envoy to China with tributes for the Chinese Emperor Chu Yuen Cheang of the Ming Dynasty. It was at this point that a cultural exchange began. In that same year the Ryukyu Dynasty was formally invested by the Chinese Emperor as a tributary state of China. The Emperor in turn sent envoys every other year to Okinawa in order to promote a cultural exchange. This exchange was welcomed by the Okinawans and certain aspects of Chinese culture became integrated into Okinawan culture. (These delegations continued regularly up until 1866).
Among the delegates sent were many masters of Chinese kempo and during their stay at Shuri and Naha, taught their art to members of the nobility and others of their class.
Simultaneously, the Okinawans sent delegations of nobleman to mainland China until 1874. Some of these nobles remained in China while others returned home after extended stays. Eventually a Ryukyuan settlement was formed in the Fukien province known as "ryukyukan".
http://www.womenskaratetour.org
[Kanbun, embarking quietly from Kadena, paid ten yen to join a group of young Okinawans boarding a ship bound west to China...and a new life. Two others who were with him were Tokusaburo Matsuda (1877 - 1931) and Aragaki-Makade Undo. It was a ten day sea voyage. They made landfall on the portion of coastal China just west of the northern tip of Taiwan -- the city of Foochow, in the Fukien province.[24] It was the end of March when he arrived in Foochow. The small band spent the first few months together. They were able to stay at the RyuKyu Kan (Okinawan Fellowship Hall), the permanent Okinawan community established in the 1400's by King Satto. The RyuKyu Kan was a center for common interests and personal contacts around which the migrant Okinawans formed their community. Halls, cemeteries, shrines, and tablets were maintained to provide a social stability for all newcomers. So, it was from here that Kanbun was able to begin his new life in China. [/quote]
By legend and by history he spent some time in the ryukyukan - but soon struck out on his own. Eventually finding an ally, a teacher, and quite possibly a friend.
On November 8, 1911, revolutionaries staged an uprising in Fuzhou
Perhaps the Kanbun who left Okinawa to avoid conscription into the Japanese military left Fuzhou to avoid a possible war.