Uechiryu karate: Chinese roots

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2 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

3 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

4 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 )

5 space in the history of this school and help its practitioners to rediscover their more or less authentic 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) «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 The founder of Huzun, native of Yongfu Fukoucun Li Yuanzhu ( 龍尊 lóngzūn «worshipping the dragon» boxing) Zhu Shan ( 朱山 zhū shān), who escaped In the Chinese martial tradition the most important thing was always to have a direct lineage to the Songshan Shaolin temple to settle in the founder of any school, to the authentic style, Quanzhou and become the teacher of Li as the only way to be credible and recognized by Yuanzhu because of the following reasons: the martial arts community ( 武林 / 江湖 1) There are no written sources about this fact wǔlín/jiānghú). The importance of this direct lineage even led to some fake attributes to the line- xiāngchuán «according to the legend»), a story this is most probably a xiangchuan ( 相传 age of famous masters and schools in order to very common in Wulin circles to create a link to get more credibility. Shaolin; One might ask a question why this Chinese tradition would be of such an importance on Oki- he would never have disclosed either his identity 2) If the fugitive monk really did hide in Fukoucun, nawa? The reason is simple: the name of nor his knowledge of martial arts for reasons of Okinawan karate (till the beginning of World War his own safety; II) was written with Chinese characters Tang 3) Technically, both Huzun and Longzun are shou ( 唐手 táng shǒu «hand of Tang Dynasty» pretty far away from any known Songshan (the character 唐 (Tang) meaning in this case Shaolinquan form. «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 water buffalo of Fujian ( 福建水牛 )

6 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

7 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 ( ), 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-

8 «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

9 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 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... Zhou Zihe house in Minhou district, Fuzhou 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

10 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. 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 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 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 yo ngchu nquán), 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 chi shoǔ) 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-

11 Baoquanli traditional «palm and fist» salute used in Wulin community. Feodor Tamarky 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 Chinese 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. Master Shimabukuro Yukinobu, 9th duan of Uechiryu performing the kata Sanseiru ( 三十六 ). Gleb Muzrukov 2016 Most sincere thanks for Raymond Smith and Byron Jacobs for their help and to Feodor Tamarsky for artwork.