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 cor-

rect, the speech is chaotic, if the speech is

chaotic, the achievements are poor...». Later this

saying of his (正名 – «correct the names») be-

came a motto for generations of Chinese politi-

cians 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 sub-

ject 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 myth-

ical masters called Ryuryuko, Sushiwa or so-

called »Chinese” wushu styles like «kingai»,

«pangainoon», «shorin» etc. Sometimes you can

find amazing «pearls» in the works of certain »re-

searchers” 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 au-

thor 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

Master Shimabukuro Yukinobu, 9th duan of Uechiryu performing the kata Seisan (十三手）

(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 confu-

sion...

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 un-

derstand the general level of credibility of such

«history». As very few authors tried to make fur-

ther 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, cher-

ished by generations of practitioners and kept as

a core secret of mastery. So why have the Oki-

nawan 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 consid-

ered to be 外 人 – (wai ren) – «outsiders,

A shocking photo of chinese wushu masters – members of Yihe-quan beheaded by japanese officers during «Boxers uprising».What would you imagine the general feeling towards the japanesethere would be by that time in China?

strangers», and, in addition, Okinawans were as-

similated 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 penin-

sula. 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 fa-

mous «Boxers uprising». Under those circum-

stances 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 fun-

damentals of the style. More senior students

might expect more direct interaction with the mas-

ter but traditionally the full explanations of the

master’s style would only be passed to a dedi-

cated 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 re-

ceive the final instruction and have the true mean-

ing 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 writ-

ten a manuscript expressly for Kanbun. In this

document were recorded the history of Pangai-

noon, 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

personal belief that this famous manuscript, sup-

posedly written expressly for Kanbun Uechi, sim-

ply never existed. The story might have been told

by Kanei Uechi to his students to hide the evi-

dence 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 refer-

ring 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 al-

tered 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 neverUechi Kanei sensei. Son of the founder and the second generationmaster of the Uechiryu karate. (courtesy of Feodor Tamarsky©)

saw the original text himself. It is therefore rea-

sonable to surmise that this is the reason why

Kanbun Uechi did not bring home the original ver-

sions of the Chinese styles and what he did bring

home was restricted to only 3 basic forms. In ad-

dition to that, he never disclosed to anyone the

original names of those kata/taolu, giving to those

forms the names reflecting the number of techni-

cal 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 em-

phasize 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 Oki-

nawan dialect 沖縄方言 – Okinawa hōgen). How-

ever, as I have already mentioned, in the

absence of any written evidence those stories

have more a look of a legend than truth.

The modified calligraphy of a quote from 虎尊总决(hǔzūn zǒngjué – «main verses of huzun» by Kanei Uechi. In the original chi-

nese text the characters are different: 眼真手速 (yǎn zhēn shǒu

sù).

space in the history of this school and help its

practitioners to rediscover their more or less au-

thentic roots...

The Tiger

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) – «wor-

shiping 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 mid-

dle 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» box-

ing) 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.

In the Chinese martial tradition the most impor-

tant 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 line-

age even led to some fake attributes to the line-

age of famous masters and schools in order to

get more credibility.

One might ask a question why this Chinese tra-

dition would be of such an importance on Oki-

nawa? 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 practition-

ers 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, al-

though 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 water buffalo of Fujian (福建水牛）

The founder of Huzun, native of Yongfu Fukoucun Li Yuanzhu

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 fight-

ing 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 com-

bining 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 men-

tioned, that among other wushu styles of Yongfu

county, the water buffalo techniques were the

oldest and the most popular. Li Yuanzhu was in-

spired by those methods of fighting and was said

to compile the first routine (taolu) of Huzun based

on niufa and jishanquan, but imitating the char-

acter and the spirit of a fighting tiger. This routine

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 con-

sidered to be lost. Li Zhaobei opened a school in

Fuzhou and had many students. Later on, be-

cause 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 offi-

cer). 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 stu-

dents, 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

The calligraphy by Master Zhou Zihe

Master Zhou Zihe – »The taoist from mount Xun». (Courtesy of Feodor Tamarsky©)

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 be-

came 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

Master Zhang Jinzhong (張金忠) performing

Shihequan sanzhan (食鹤拳三战)

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 fa-

ther 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 pre-

viously 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 ded-

icated 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 skil-

ful. His other nickname was »Unmatched Gen-

eral” (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 Kan-

bun 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 stu-

dent 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 perfect-

ing 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

The roots of the Dragon in Uechiryu are the most

difficult part of the research because of the ab-

Master Shimabukuro Yukinobu, 9th duan of Uechiryu perform-

ing the kata Seisan (十三手). (Courtesy of Feodor Tamarsky©)

sence of any reliable written source even in Chi-

nese 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 fight-

ing methods (一路主刚 – yī lù zhǔ gāng), the sec-

ond – 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 rou-

tines 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

«soft dragon boxing» directly from him.

The Crane

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) mas-

ter 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 Oki-

nawan 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 Shi-

hequan (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 noth-

ing 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) – «se-

crets of mastery of the 36 steps of the feeding

crane». Knowing this fact we can make an as-

sumption 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 ex-

plain 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 im-

plemented 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 alter-

ing 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

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 conclu-

sion 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 – di-

alect 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 intro-

duced to at least 3 southern wushu styles in the

following order: Huzun (虎尊 – hǔzūn) – «wor-

shiping the tiger», Longzun (龍尊 – lóng zūn –

«worshiping the dragon» (2nd «soft» set)), Shi-

hequan (食鹤拳 – shí hè quán) – the «feeding

crane boxing».

3. Zhou Zihe was the «root teacher» of Kanbun

but he was probably also introduced by Zhou to

several other masters. This, supposedly, could

Zhou Zihe house in Minhou district, Fuzhou

Personal weapons of Zhou Zihe

have made it possible for Kanbun to learn from

them directly. There is at least one piece of evi-

dence 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 stu-

dent 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 differ-

ent 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.

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 per-

forming 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 be-

come «Uechiryu» would be that the name «half-

hard, 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 Ok-

inawan 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 develop-

ment 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

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 prin-

ciples of the tiger boxing, which one should be-

long to the manner of dragon boxing and which

one should reflect the principles of the crane box-

ing. 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

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 prin-

ciples define how to generate the accurate force

in a given situation of the actual combat. For ex-

ample in Wingchun (咏 春 拳– yongchunquán),

which is the form of boxing mostly used in close-

range fighting, the main principles are: «use soft-

ness to control hardness» (以柔制刚 – yǐ róu zhì

gāng), «one-inch application of force in close-

range 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 – chi shou) 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 stu-

dent 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 princi-

ples, 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 san-

cunjin – «three-inch force application» (middle-

range fighting following the principle «use

softness to control hardness» (以柔制刚 – yǐ róu

zhì gāng) taken from the «soft set of dragon box-

ing»). Sanseiryu was probably teaching the com-

bination 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 gen-

eralized after founder’s death to constitute

today’s Uechiryu.

Does that mean that this Okinawan art with Chi-

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 ef-

fective 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 Chi-

nese sources as we have today, he certainly

would restore the original version of the Art his fa-

ther 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 gen-

uine techniques, rhythm and pace they were per-

formed 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.

Baoquanli – traditional «palm and fist» salute used in Wulincommunity. © Feodor Tamarky

Master Shimabukuro Yukinobu, 9th duan of Uechiryu perform-

ing the kata Sanseiru (三十六).