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Master Shimabukuro Yukinobu, 9th duan of Uechiryu performing the kata Seisan (十三手）
Uechiryu karate: Chinese roots
Kongzi (Confucius) once said, in response to a
question from one of his students: 名不正则言不
顺, 言不顺则事不成 – «if the names are not correct, the speech is chaotic, if the speech is
chaotic, the achievements are poor...». Later this
saying of his (正名 – «correct the names») became a motto for generations of Chinese politicians and officials: undeniably, there is a need to
establish right connotations and references in
every single domain of human culture.
Starting from the second part of the XXth century,
there have been a lot of attempts to classify the
many existing styles of Japanese and Okinawan
karate. This has arisen because of the growing
public interest for these martial arts and martial
arts culture in general. In the majority of cases,
the authors of many books dedicated to this subject have been mostly referring to Japanese
sources and some books in English, such as the
studies of Marc Bishop, Patrick McCarthy and
later on, of George Mattson and Alan Dollar. The
Okinawan period of karate’s history is relatively
clear, however there would appear to be a basic
flaw in the facts related to the starting point.
When the authors came down to the origins of
how karate was originally introduced and its
sources from Chinese roots the research remains
quite ambiguous. This is understandable due to
the absence of any reliable written English
sources about this subject. All the stories, which
were continuously reproduced in the books were
in fact based on vague speculations about mythical masters called Ryuryuko, Sushiwa or socalled »Chinese” wushu styles like «kingai»,
«pangainoon», «shorin» etc. Sometimes you can
find amazing «pearls» in the works of certain »researchers” of Uechiryu’s history! Here is a quote
from one such research: «Uechi's teacher, Zhou
Zhi He ...was a student of Li Zhao Bei and Ke Xi
Di and was a master in a variety of boxing styles.
According to other sources Zhou learned from
Chou Pei and Ko Hsi Ti ». Actually, put aside the
incorrect transliteration of the name Zhou Zihe
(周 子 和 – zhōu zi hé) I challenge the findings
based on what I see as an unreliable approach to
the process of the research itself. Would the author have had a basic knowledge of the Chinese
language, he would immediately see that the
»other sources” are talking about the same two
people: Ke Xidi (柯细弟 – kē xì dì) and Li Zhaobei
A shocking photo of chinese wushu masters – members of Yihequan beheaded by japanese officers during «Boxers uprising».
What would you imagine the general feeling towards the japanese
there would be by that time in China?
(李昭北 – lǐ zhāo běi). In the first case the names
were transcribed using the most common pinyin
(拼音 – pīnyīn) system, and in the second case
– using an obsolete Wade-Giles system with the
name of Li Zhaobei cut to Zhaobei (Chou Pei in
Wade’s)...
Unfortunately, the example given here is very
often a general mistake of western researchers
of Martial Arts, which has led to a lot of confusion...
If you add to the confusing «versions» of karate’s
evolution the fact that the history of a school on
Okinawa was passed down from master to
teacher in a way, which in China is called 口傳
(kǒuchuán) – «oral transmission», you could understand the general level of credibility of such
«history». As very few authors tried to make further research in this field, the situation remains
quite confusing – hence, the need to «correct the
names» as suggested by Kongzi!
The first question to answer is why the Okinawan
students have never brought home written
sources about the styles of wushu they had learnt
in China (mostly in Fujian)? Such sources, known
as 拳譜 (quán pǔ), are a part of the legacy of
every traditional wushu school in China, cherished by generations of practitioners and kept as
a core secret of mastery. So why have the Okinawan students, supposedly accepted as regular
students in Chinese wushu schools, never been
given such records. The answer is quite simple:
because although accepted in a school (most
often to a minor position), they were still considered to be 外 人 – (wai ren) – «outsiders,
strangers», and, in addition, Okinawans were assimilated to become part of the Japanese Empire.
During this period Japan was the enemy of the
Qing Empire because of the Sino-Japanese war,
which China lost and in 1895 was forced to sign
the humiliating «Shimonseki treaty», allowing
Japan to occupy Taiwan and the Liaodong peninsula. During this very difficult period of Chinese
history, all foreigners were considered to be 洋鬼
– «yangguizi» (foreign devils) and the popular
motto was 扶清灭洋 «Revive the Qing (Dynasty)
and destroy the foreigners». The groups called 义
和拳 (yihequan – «Fists United in Righteousness»
were beginning to appear as a prelude to the famous «Boxers uprising». Under those circumstances It would seem inconceivable for any
Chinese wushu school to accept a Japanese as
a 家人 (jia ren) – «member of clan».
To further understand this we must appreciate the
teaching philosophy and acceptance of different
levels of students. A basic student would learn
under the master, but not necessarily directly from
the master. They would learn the basics, the fundamentals of the style. More senior students
might expect more direct interaction with the master but traditionally the full explanations of the
master’s style would only be passed to a dedicated group of students, who the master deemed
«acceptable». These are frequently referred to as
«disciples» and would be taught directly by the
master. Even then in most situations where a
larger number of disciples existed there would be
an «inner chamber» of disciples, who would receive the final instruction and have the true meaning and explanations given to them, the so called
«secrets» of the style. These were the students
that inherited the tradition of the style.
There is a very popular story about Kanei Uechi
concerning his father Kanbun Uechi (the founder
of Uechiryu who studied in China). Supposedly,
Kanbun’s [Chinese] teacher Zhou Zihe had written a manuscript expressly for Kanbun. In this
document were recorded the history of Pangainoon, the names of many past masters, their
philosophies and a study of Chinese medicine.
The story tells that Kanbun Uechi planned to give
this manuscript to Kanei at the time of his death,
but, soon after it happened, the manuscript was
destroyed, and thus, Kanei was not able to study
the contents of this manuscript.
This story seems to be quite incredible. It is my
The modified calligraphy of a quote from 虎尊总决(hǔzūn zǒng
jué – «main verses of huzun» by Kanei Uechi. In the original chinese text the characters are different: 眼真手速 (yǎn zhēn shǒu
sù).
personal belief that this famous manuscript, supposedly written expressly for Kanbun Uechi, simply never existed. The story might have been told
by Kanei Uechi to his students to hide the evidence that the Chinese teacher of Kanbun never
gave him any record on the style he had taught
him. The obvious reasons for that were explained
above...
Kanbun Uechi still explained to his son some
basic principles of the southern wushu styles he
learnt in Fujian. We can clearly see this by referring to the calligraphy of master Kanei Uechi 眼
精手快 (yǎn jīng shǒu kuài – «sharp gaze, quick
hands»). In fact, in the 虎尊总决 – (hǔzūn zǒng
jué – «Main verses of worshiping the tiger») – a
reference text from 虎尊拳谱 – (hǔzūn quán pǔ –
«the annals of huzun») we can find this principle,
but formulated with different characters 眼真手速
脚要灵 (yǎn zhēn shǒu sù jiǎo yào líng «clear
view, quick hands, agile footwork»). The fact that
the citation from the original Chinese text was altered so much means that either Kanbun had a
restricted access to the written Chinese text or
he simply remembered the meaning of what his
teacher was explaining to him orally and never
saw the original text himself. It is therefore reasonable to surmise that this is the reason why
Kanbun Uechi did not bring home the original versions of the Chinese styles and what he did bring
home was restricted to only 3 basic forms. In addition to that, he never disclosed to anyone the
original names of those kata/taolu, giving to those
forms the names reflecting the number of technical actions they contained. That’s why all
Uechiryu practitioners call those forms «sanchin»
(三战), «seisan» (十三) and «sanseiru» (三十六).
Many of today’s uechiryu practitioners consider
the names of the kata as unimportant except for
their historical value. For me, this point of view
looks like a spiritual harakiri, as by adopting such
a position they cut the roots and any references
to the original Chinese styles. On the other hand,
the practitioners of Uechiryu are very keen to emphasize their «Chinese legacy» talking about the
style called Pangai-noon (半硬软 – bàn yìng ruǎn
– «half soft, half hard» or «half-hard softness»),
supposedly taught to Kanbun Uechi by a Chinese
master 周 子 和 (Zhou Zihe, «Sushiwa» in Okinawan dialect 沖縄方言 – Okinawa hōgen). However, as I have already mentioned, in the
absence of any written evidence those stories
have more a look of a legend than truth.
Uechi Kanei sensei. Son of the founder and the second generation
master of the Uechiryu karate. (courtesy of Feodor Tamarsky©)
space in the history of this school and help its
practitioners to rediscover their more or less authentic roots...
The Tiger
The founder of Huzun, native of Yongfu Fukoucun Li Yuanzhu
In the Chinese martial tradition the most important thing was always to have a direct lineage to
the founder of any school, to the authentic style,
as the only way to be credible and recognized by
the martial arts community (武 林 /江 湖 –
wǔlín/jiānghú). The importance of this direct lineage even led to some fake attributes to the lineage of famous masters and schools in order to
get more credibility.
One might ask a question why this Chinese tradition would be of such an importance on Okinawa? The reason is simple: the name of
Okinawan karate (till the beginning of World War
II) was written with Chinese characters Tang
shou (唐手 – táng shǒu «hand of Tang Dynasty»
(the character 唐 (Tang) meaning in this case
«Chinese»). So the Okinawan karate practitioners historically considered themselves to be a
part of the Chinese martial tradition.
In the case of Uechiryu karate, the absence of a
written traceable source forced the followers of
Kanbun Uechi to call the style they have learned
from him after his family name: Uechiryu, although still talking about the «Chinese roots».
Maybe the «Japanese modifications» to karate in
view of the Second World War also played a role
in this change of name...
Today, we have got the possibility to fill the empty
The true story of Uechiryu karate begins in Fujian
province in the south of China and has its roots
in three styles of Chinese wushu.
The style called Huzun (虎尊 – hǔzūn) – «worshiping the tiger» originated in Yongfu (永福 –
yǒngfú) county (today’s Yongtai (永泰 – yǒngtài).
The full name of the style is Yongfu Huzun (永福
虎尊 – yǒngfú hǔzūn). It was created in the middle of the 17th century by a native of Fukoucun (
洑口村 – fú kǒu cūn) village Li Yuanzhu (李元珠
– lǐ yuán zhū), after combining the strong points
of wushu forms imitating the movements of the
fighting lion and water buffalo (水 牛 拳 –
shuǐniúquán). I do not believe in the story of the
Shaolin monk Lin Tiezhu (林铁珠 – lín tiě zhū –
the presumed teacher of the founder of Longzun
(龍尊 – lóngzūn – «worshipping the dragon» boxing) Zhu Shan (朱山 – zhū shān), who escaped
the Songshan Shaolin temple to settle in
Quanzhou and become the teacher of Li
Yuanzhu because of the following reasons:
1) There are no written sources about this fact –
this is most probably a xiangchuan (相 传 –
xiāngchuán – «according to the legend»), a story
very common in Wulin circles to create a link to
Shaolin;
2) If the fugitive monk really did hide in Fukoucun,
he would never have disclosed either his identity
nor his knowledge of martial arts for reasons of
his own safety;
3) Technically, both Huzun and Longzun are
pretty far away from any known Songshan
Shaolinquan form.
The water buffalo of Fujian (福建水牛）
So we had better put aside the «Shaolin» story
and try to find the truth about the Huzun creation.
As it was said above, Li took the manner of fighting of the lion and the water buffalo to create
Huzun. Why did Yuanzhu turn his attention at
those animals? The reason is, because earlier in
the Jiaqing period of the Ming Dynasty (明嘉靖
年间), another native of Fukoucun Cai Jishan (蔡
积山 – cài jī shān) created a form of boxing combining the strong points of fighting abilities of the
water buffalo, lion, monkey and dog (牛法狮法猴
法地术犬法). In respect to him, the boxing was
named jishanquan and was passed down from
generation to generation. In addition, Li Yuanzhu
received the direct tradition of Shuiniufa (水牛法
– shuǐniúfǎ – another name for Water buffalo
boxing) from Zhang Jingzhong (张景忠 – zhāng
jǐng zhōng) – the descendant of its creator Zhang
Ciguan (张慈观 zhāng cíguàn). It should be mentioned, that among other wushu styles of Yongfu
county, the water buffalo techniques were the
oldest and the most popular. Li Yuanzhu was inspired by those methods of fighting and was said
to compile the first routine (taolu) of Huzun based
on niufa and jishanquan, but imitating the character and the spirit of a fighting tiger. This routine
Master Zhou Zihe – »The taoist from mount Xun».
(Courtesy of Feodor Tamarsky©)
The calligraphy by Master Zhou Zihe
was named Huzun muquan (虎尊母拳– hǔzūn
mǔ quán – «basic routine of worshiping the
tiger»). Hence the name Huzun (虎尊 – hǔzūn) –
«worshiping the tiger».
Li passed the tradition to his two best students:
Zheng Dengguang (郑登光 – zhèng dēng guāng)
and Li Zhaobei (李昭北 – lǐ zhāo běi). The first
was reputed for his kicking skills and the second
for his mastery in fist fighting. Even today in
Yongtai county to describe a real mastery local
people say »Kicks of Dengguang, hands of
Zhaobei” (登光腿昭北手 – dēng guāng tuǐ zhāo
běi shǒu).
Zheng Dengguang was living in a small village in
Yongfu and passed down his tradition only to his
family members, that’s why his tradition is considered to be lost. Li Zhaobei opened a school in
Fuzhou and had many students. Later on, because of his extraordinary wushu skills he was
serving as chief of local troops having a grade of
Bazong (把总 (bǎzǒng – low-level officer), and
then of Qianzong (千总 – qiānzǒng – senior officer). According to «The historical records of the
Yongtai County Chronicles of Healers» (永泰县
志。方技传 – yǒngtài xiànzhì fāngjì zhuàn), he
was dismissed from this post after refusing to
take part in the punitive expedition against the
troops of the Taipings (太平天國 – tàipíng tiānguó
– «Taiping heavenly Kingdom»). After retiring Li
Zhaobei lived in the small town of Zhangchen (樟
城 – zhāng chéng) near mount Yong and he had
many students. One of the best Zhaobei’s students, who inherited the tradition of Huzun from
him was also a native of Fukoucun village (the
birthplace of Huzun founder Li Yuanzhu) Zheng
Xianji (郑仙纪 – zhèng xiānjì) also called Bugong
(步恭 – bù gōng), second name You Du (友度 –
yǒu dù) (the second name is given upon reaching
adult age) nicknamed Yongfu Si (永福四 – yǒngfú
sì – «the forth from Yongfu») who later moved to
Songkou village (嵩口－sōngkǒu) on the boarder
of a the small river called Dazhang, 15 miles from
Fukoucun. Zheng Bugong – the third generation
master of Huzun tradition was reputed to master
every aspect of the art and even compiled a new
routine, which became quite popular among
Huzun practitioners – the Riyue lianhuan tui (日
月连环腿 – rìyuè liánhuán tuǐ – «the continuous
kicking routine of sun and moon»). The Songkou
area of Yongfu County was reputed for its martial
traditions, and it was a custom to send young
men from rich families to learn wushu there. This
was the case for Zhou Zihe (1874–1926), second
name (given upon reaching adult age) –
Yongkuan (永 宽 ) later nicknamed Xunshan
daozhe (号郇山道者 – xúnshān dàozhě – «taoist
from Mount Xun»). He was born in the village of
Zhitiancun (芝 田 村 – zhītiáncūn) in the
Nanyuzhen district (南屿镇 – nányǔzhèn) of the
Minhouxian (闽侯县 – mǐnhóu xiàn) county near
Fuzhou – the capital of Fujian province. Zhou became a student of Zheng Bugong and started to
learn Huzun. He managed to learn the «iron
palm» skill (铁砂掌 – tiěshā zhǎng) and was so
proficient in it, that once, when asked by some
jealous local wushu masters to show his skills, he
instantly grasped a thick bamboo pole and
crushed it with his fingers. Sometime later his father invited another famous wushu master Ke
Xidi (柯细弟 – kē xì dì) from Pulincun (蒲领 –
púlǐngcūn) village of the Songkou area to teach
him at home. Some authors suggest that Ke Xidi
was coming from Shandong province, but as previously noted, there are no written sources to
support this assumption. A training room was
arranged at home and Zhou Zihe learnt from Ke
the 18 traditional weapons, and quanshu (boxing)
routines imitating the fish, duck, buffalo, dog,
monkey, crane (鱼鸭牛犬猴鹤). However he dedicated most of his time to Huzun practice under
Zheng Bugong and perfected his skills over 8
years of hard training. Local people called him
the «the First of 3 He of Fuzhou» (福州三和之一
– «Fúzhōu sān hé zhī yi»), meaning that among
the three most reputed wushu masters of
Fuzhou: Zhou Zihe, Cha Tinghe and Qing Puhe
(周子和、茶亭和、青圃和) he was the most skilful. His other nickname was »Unmatched General” (无敌大将军– wúdí dàjiàngjūn). His nephew
Zhou Zhenqun (周振群 – zhōuzhènqún) received
the complete Huzun tradition from him. During his
life, Zhou Zhenqun built a school in the Fuzhou
area and was teaching Huzun to many students.
Zhou Zihe was the first teacher of the young Kanbun Uechi (上地完文 – shàngdì wánwén), who
was allowed to live in his house. Initially Kanbun
only did the dirty jobs of cleaning the house and
toilets, later on he was admitted as a regular student and lived in Zhou’s house for 10 years. Zhou
taught him the first basic routine of Huzun –
Sanzhan (三战 – sān zhàn), which (according to
his son Kanei) Kanbun had spent 3 years perfecting before being taught the next taolu. It is highly
probable that Zhou did introduce his Okinawan
student to his teacher Zheng Bugong, because
in «The historical records of the Yongtai County
Chronicles of the Healers», there is a mention of
another student of Zheng Bugong – a Japanese
Shangdi Wanwen (上地完文 – shàngdì wánwén
– Uechi Kanbun).
The Dragon
Master Zhang Jinzhong (張金忠) performing
Shihequan sanzhan (食鹤拳三战)
The roots of the Dragon in Uechiryu are the most
difficult part of the research because of the ab-
«soft dragon boxing» directly from him.
The Crane
Master Shimabukuro Yukinobu, 9th duan of Uechiryu performing the kata Seisan (十三手). (Courtesy of Feodor Tamarsky©)
sence of any reliable written source even in Chinese language. Therefore all that we can do is to
try to make more or less credible assumptions.
Those can be made only based on the existing
written materials on Longzun (龍尊 – lóng zūn –
«worshiping the dragon») and the biography of
Zhou Zihe.
The first thing we need to do is establish what
branch of the dragon boxing Zhou possibly could
have learnt and later passed on to Kanbun Uechi.
There are two sets of routines in Longzun, the
first set – Yilu was intended to cultivate hard fighting methods (一路主刚 – yī lù zhǔ gāng), the second – Erlu – to cultivate soft (flexible) fighting
methods (二路偏柔 – èr lù piān róu).
The »soft” set of routines was passed by the
founder of the style Yu Rangda (余让达 – yú ràng
dá (second name Qixian (祈贤 – qíxián) to the
natives of Minhouxian (Minhou county) Cui Da
nian (催达年 – cuī dá nián).
Taking into consideration that Zhou Zihe was also
living in Minhou, the most probable hypothesis
would be that he received the second set of routines of «worshipping the dragon» tradition from
Cui Danian and then passed it on to Kanbun
Uechi. Another (less probable) assumption could
be that Zhou introduced Kanbun Uechi to Cui
Danian and Kanbun received the tradition of the
There are a lot of assumptions concerning the
presence of the Crane in Uechiryu. If in the case
of the tiger the roots are more or less clear and
traceable, everything related to the crane is
mostly rather vague assumptions. It is generally
agreed that Zhou Zihe had taught to Kanbun the
basics of the three styles: Huzun, Longzun and
Hequan (crane), but no one knows who was
Zhou’s teacher for Hequan, because neither
Zheng Bugong nor Li Zhaobei practiced this style
of boxing, yet the Crane is the most popular kind
of boxing in Fujian.
There is some speculations that Kanbun Uechi
might have been introduced by other Okinawan’s
to the famous Minghequan (鳴 鶴 拳
–
mínghèquán – the whooping crane boxing) master Xie Chongxiang (谢崇祥 – xièchóngxiáng –
the student of Pan Yuba (潘屿八 – pān yǔ ba)
who received the tradition from Lin Shixian (林世
咸 – lín shì xián) the most reputed Yongchun
Baihe (永春白 – yǒngchūnbáihè – White Crane
of Yongchun) master. In fact the name of Xie
Chongxiang has a certain appeal for the Okinawan karate researchers, as he is considered
by some authors to be the teacher of Higaonna
Kanryo and was known in Okinawa under the
name of Ryuryuko (如如哥 – rú rú gē – «Brother
Ruru» (lû lû gē in 闽 南 – mǐnnán – dialect of
southern Fujian)). One must be tempted to stick
to that hypothesis because of the fact that Xie
Chongxiang was living in Fuzhou as well as Zhou
Zihe and Kanbun Uechi, but the historical records
are telling us quite another story. According to
the above mentioned «Historical records of the
Yongtai County Chronicles of healers», Zhou
Zihe received the complete tradition of the Shihequan (食 鹤 拳 – shíhè quán) – the «feeding
crane boxing» from master Ye Shaotao (叶绍陶
– yè shào táo) who represented the lineage of it’s
founder Qing Jiapu (清嘉蒲 – qīng jiā pú). That
makes it clear that the «crane source» of
Uechiryu is Shihequan («feeding crane boxing»)
and Minghequan («whooping crane») has nothing to do with the story.
The most interesting thing however is that in the
records we find that Ye Shaotao passed to Zhou
Zihe the script called «Shihequan sanshiliu bu
jishou mijue» (食鹤拳三十六步技手秘诀) – «secrets of mastery of the 36 steps of the feeding
crane». Knowing this fact we can make an assumption that the third kata brought by Kanbun
– Sanseiru might have been the taolu of the
Crane boxing...
«Half hard – half soft»
The fact that Zhou Zihe could have received the
tradition of the «soft dragon boxing» could explain the name «pangainoon» (poàn ngē nńg –
闽南 – mǐnnán – dialect of southern Fujian) given
by Kanbun Uechi to his martial art. Actually, if one
looks at Huzun («tiger worship») taolu, it is very
difficult to understand where the «soft» (軟 –
ruǎn/nńg) part of Kanbun’s style comes from?
The main principle of Huzun is «to control force
by force» (以刚制刚 – yǐ gāng zhì gāng) and this
«hard» force is omnipresent during the execution
of the whole routine. Neither Kanbun Uechi, nor
his teacher would refer to Huzun as a «half-soft
half-hard» style. I think that the «hard» (刚 –
gāng) part of the art of Kanbun was coming from
«tiger boxing», and the soft one (軟 – ruǎn) was
represented by the «soft dragon boxing».
The question remains how was this principle implemented in the martial art of Kanbun Uechi?
Did he mix the movements of the «tiger» and
«dragon» to make a kata (adding some «crane»
for the flavour)? This seems to be impossible, as
the way Kanbun was taught was a very traditional
one – he certainly would never think about altering the smallest part of a kata (taolu) taught to
him by his teachers. The logical answer would be
that in the martial art of Kanbun Uechi the three
forms were representing three different styles of
Zhou Zihe house in Minhou district, Fuzhou
wushu. Sanchin is a form from Huzun, Seisan –
from the «soft dragon boxing» and Sanseiru is a
form from «feeding crane boxing». In this case it
would seem Sanchin is used to develop «hard»
force, Seisan – to master the «soft» or «flexible»
force and the 36 steps of the «feeding crane» –
to develop the speed and the agility of footwork.
Based on the above-mentioned historical records
more accurate assumptions can be deduced
making this hypothesis quite credible.
Summing up...
The following points can be made as a conclusion of this short analysis of the Chinese part of
Uechiryu’s history:
1. The style called Pangainoon (半硬软 – bàn
yìng ruǎn – «half soft, half hard» or «half-hard
softness», (poàn ngē nńg – 闽南 – mǐnnán – dialect of southern Fujian)) never existed in China.
This might have been a term used by Kanbun
Uechi to explain the essence of his teachings to
the Okinawan students who had no knowledge of
the Chinese language and became, thus, the
name of the first Kanbun’s dojo.
2. We can suppose that Kanbun Uechi was introduced to at least 3 southern wushu styles in the
following order: Huzun (虎尊 – hǔzūn) – «worshiping the tiger», Longzun (龍尊 – lóng zūn –
«worshiping the dragon» (2nd «soft» set)), Shihequan (食鹤拳 – shí hè quán) – the «feeding
crane boxing».
Personal weapons of Zhou Zihe
3. Zhou Zihe was the «root teacher» of Kanbun
but he was probably also introduced by Zhou to
several other masters. This, supposedly, could
have made it possible for Kanbun to learn from
them directly. There is at least one piece of evidence of this: the records of Kanbun as a student
of Zheng Xianji (郑 仙 纪 – zhèng xiānjì), alias
Zheng Bugong (郑步恭 – zhèng bù gōng) of the
Huzun tradition.
4. Kanbun Uechi never received any equivalent
of the «menkyo kaiden» diploma from Zhou Zihe
because there were no such tradition in China
(the tradition actually was to give to a chosen student the book with the secrets of the school
called «quanpu» (拳譜 – quán pǔ).
5. The 3 animals in Uechiryu are most probably
referring to the 3 taolu/kata of the style: Sanchin
– Huzun (Tiger), Seisan – Longzun (Dragon),
Sanseiru (Crane) (the relationship may be different though).
6. The manner of performing and the pace of
those three routines as initially taught by Kanbun,
were probably quite different, reflecting the basic
principles of the 3 above-mentioned styles.
styles. It must have been the personal creation
of either Kanbun or his son Kanei.
The main problem of Uechiryu is that as Kanbun
omitted the Chinese names of the kata/taolu,
after his death no one could identify which kata
refers to the tiger, which one to the dragon and
which one to the crane. However, as these 3 kata
might have been taken from 3 different styles one
can only guess, which kata is following the principles of the tiger boxing, which one should belong to the manner of dragon boxing and which
one should reflect the principles of the crane boxing. That’s why Kanei Uechi altered the kata so
much, executing them in a similar way with equal
force application and speed. Starting from this
point the principles (and many hand forms and
footwork) were generalized to form the «modern»
Uechiryu and definitely losing the spirit of the 3
root styles. The dragon, the tiger and the crane
remained only on the emblem of the school,
which was later renamed to become «Uechiryu
karate».
Conclusion
7. The changes in the manner of performing
those three routines were made by Kanbun’s son
Kanei and his students, making the way of performing look much more «Okinawan» than the
original Chinese taolu (routines).
8. The most probable reason why the name of
Kanbun’s style of fighting was changed to become «Uechiryu» would be that the name «halfhard, half-soft» was too much «Chinese» and
taking into consideration the political situation in
the early 1940’s it would appear normal to take a
more «patriotic» name. The same occurred with
the change of the character 唐 «kara» (Chinese)
to its homophone 空 «kara» (empty) to avoid Okinawan karate being assimilated to the «Chinese
(Tang dynasty) hand». Without this change the
art of karate would never have been accepted to
be a part of Japanese martial arts by the «Dai
Nippon butoku kai» – the organisation set up by
the Japanese government to control the development of Martial Arts in Japan.
9. The
famous Uechiryu’s techniques:
«boshiken» and «tsumasaki (sokusen) geri» do
not exist in the above-mentioned Chinese root
Why it is so important to establish the root style
of each routine? The answer is quite simple. The
effectiveness of any wushu style depends on the
correct application of basic principles. Those principles define how to generate the accurate force
in a given situation of the actual combat. For example in Wingchun (咏 春 拳 – yǒngchūnquán),
which is the form of boxing mostly used in closerange fighting, the main principles are: «use softness to control hardness» (以柔制刚 – yǐ róu zhì
gāng), «one-inch application of force in closerange fighting» (寸劲短打 – cùnjìn duǎndǎ) and
«central line as a main principle» (中线为主 –
zhōngxiàn wéizhǔ). The understanding of those
main principles through the practice of «sticky
hands» (黐手 – chī shǒu) for the «use softness
to overcame hardness», wooden dummy (木人桩
– mùrénzhuāng) for «short application of force in
short-range fighting» and the 3 main routines for
«central line as a main principle» make the student acquire the basic «feeling» of what
Wingchun is and how to use it in an actual fight.
The main principles of the three kata of Uechiryu
must be quite different, as the practitioners claim
to have three different animals being the reflec-
tion of Uechiryu’s principles, thus, the style itself
having its roots in three different styles...
I think, that initially each kata/taolu’s purpose was
to teach the mastery of different skills and principles, developing quite different abilities for the
fighter. If my hypothesis is more or less reflecting
the actual story, sanchin might have been a tool
for developing physical strength, the «iron body»,
and cunjin – «one-inch force application» for
close range fighting following the principle «to
control force by force» (以刚制刚 – yǐ gāng zhì
gāng) while seisan would mostly deal with sancunjin – «three-inch force application» (middlerange fighting following the principle «use
softness to control hardness» (以柔制刚 – yǐ róu
zhì gāng) taken from the «soft set of dragon boxing»). Sanseiryu was probably teaching the combination of both ways, following the principle
«hard and soft completing each other»（刚柔相
济 – xiāng jì) teaching the flexible footwork and a
variety of techniques.
In this way, the original teachings of Kanbun
would be complementary and form a body of his
system – the fruit of ten years quest for the mas
tery of Chinese wushu...
Unfortunately, as I have mentioned before, those
meanings and principles were more or less generalized after founder’s death to constitute
today’s Uechiryu.
Does that mean that this Okinawan art with Chi-
Master Shimabukuro Yukinobu, 9th duan of Uechiryu performing the kata Sanseiru (三十六).
Baoquanli – traditional «palm and fist» salute used in Wulin
community. © Feodor Tamarky
nese roots is a useless from of martial art with
lost effectiveness?
Of course not. Although Kanei Uechi altered the
art of his father, his dedication and the amount of
training has made Uechiryu one of the most effective and interesting forms of Okinawan karate,
with its own distinctive features and flavour.
However, I’m pretty sure that if the late Master
Kanei Uechi had as much access to different Chinese sources as we have today, he certainly
would restore the original version of the Art his father had created, getting back to the roots.
It is up to Uechiryu practitioners, interested in
their art, to continue the research on the Chinese
period of the history of this style.
It would be very useful for instance, to make a
comparative study of the three kata of Uechiryu
and corresponding taolu of Fujian wushu styles.
This may be quite helpful to correct the way the
kata are performed today to rediscover the genuine techniques, rhythm and pace they were performed with by the founder Uechi Kanbun sensei.
© Gleb Muzrukov 2016
Most sincere thanks for Raymond Smith and Byron Jacobs
for their help and to Feodor Tamarsky for artwork.