Kanbun Uechi May 5, 1877 - November 25 1948

 

Uechi Kanbun was a brilliant Okinawan martial artist who trained in China for about ten years at the turn of the 20th century and was acknowledged as a Grandmaster in China – highly unusual for such a short training period, and for a non-Chinese.

Legends abound about Kanbun’s phenomenal martial abilities, which were balanced with his healing skill with herbal medicines.

Kanbun trained Tomoyose Ryuyu who trained his son Tomoyose Ryuko, who was George Mattson’s first teacher. Tomoyose Ryuko’s katas served as models for David Mott’s refinement of the Uechi Ryu Curriculum.

Kanbun’s students renamed the system Uechi Ryu Karate Do in his honour in 1940.

"Synchronizing mind and body is not a concept or a random technique someone thought up for self-improvement. Rather, it is a basic principle of how to be a human being and how to use your sense perceptions, your mind and your body together."

Chogyam Trungpa