Uechi Ryu is one among the primary techniques of karate, which falls into the Okinawa group. Its founder Kanbun Uechi (pictured right) was born in 1877 and passed away in 1948 and lent his name to this form of karate. Izumi is the mountain village where Kanbun spent his childhood farming. Farming daikon radishes was his family’s traditional practice. After he was a little older, Kanbun learnt bojutsu with experts of Motobu. Towards the end of the 1800s, Japan started a program that was universally recognized and male conscription took place in Okinawa.
Uechi decided to flee to the Fukien province in China in 1897 so that he could avoid being conscripted and pursue his dreams of learning different kinds of martial arts with Chinese legends. After he went to China, Uechi first studied Kojo Ryu but he got offended when the dojo management mocked one of his speeches and hence Uechi decided to get training from a different source. Thereafter, Uechi decided to study herbalism and pangai noon, a renowned kung fu system. Shushiwa, a Chinese master, taught this art to him. In 1904, Kanbun was given a certificate of mastery in the same and later went on to establish his dojo in China itself.
In the year 1910, Kanbun came back to Okinawa but went on to live in a different place in the main land of Japan – Wakayama City. He established the system of pangainun ryu todi jutsu here in 1925 and got married as well. From here, the gradual development as an individual form of dojo began. Here he kept teaching students for about 25 years. The art he taught was later renamed to Uechi Ryu karate style in 1940 to honor the founder – Uechi himself. Uechi Ryu grew on to becoming one of the four major popular styles of Okinawan karate. Kanei, son of Uechi significantly modified this form. There are students and dojos of Uechi Ryu all around the world. The art seems to be very well known in the United States along with some of the other varieties such as Shohei Ryu.
Four children succeeded Uechi – Kanei his oldest, who decided to continue with his father’s innovation of martial arts, Kansai the younger son and two daughters Tsuru and Kamai. The name Uechi Ryu translates to ‘style of Uechi’ or even ‘school of Uechi’. After Uechi had tutored under Shuhiwa the art of pangai noon in China for ten years and then introduced his own school in Nanjing, he began teaching there. But soon he decided to come back to Japan to not teach ever again when one of his students in China killed a neighbor because of a dispute over land irrigation.
Next generation of Uechi and the Tomoyoses
A mate of his, by the name of Ryuyu Tomoyose, persuaded him to begin teaching again only after Uechi showed him the various ways in which one could defend himself from different kinds of attacks. This helped to revive confidence in Uechi and thereafter, with the help of Ryuyu, he moved to Japan, where he opened his own institution to teach pangainun ryu todi jutsu. Later when Kanei took over his father’s set up; one of Kanei’s students Ryuko Tomoyose taught the same art to an American man by the name of George Mattson. Mattson was so amused with the art form that he wrote several books about it and thus popularizing the form of Uechi Ryu extensively in the States.
This form of karate ensures the toughening of body, apt using of blows and kicks, applying the one knuckle punch accurately and other tactics such as spearhead, toe kick, etc. This medium emphasizes strictly on stability, simplicity and an amalgam of circular and linear movements. It is believed that Uechi Ryu is more practical and efficient than other forms of martial arts. Uechi Ryu is the form of karate that is derived from the movements of three animals, namely the crane, the tiger and the dragon.
After the death of Kanbun himself, the form experienced several splits and modifications. Some of the practitioners established their own systems and worked on modifying this form of which the most popular is Shohei ryu, Pangainoonm and Butokukai. The rift came about while some teachers insisted on teaching the classical form of Uechi Ryu, others insisted on teaching modified versions of the same. To most observers, the differences between these forms is so little that it is barely noticeable and it is believed that the split arose not due to difference in styles, but difference in personalities of the teachers.