Motobu-ryu Karate
本部流The name covers two different arts: the karate of Motobu Choki, built on the Naihanchi kata, and the palace art Motobu Udundi, which is not karate at all.
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About Motobu-ryu Karate
Two different things hide behind the name Motobu-ryu, and they need to be told apart. The first is the karate of Motobu Choki, who lived from 1870 to 1944 and was among the best-known Okinawan fighters of his day. Motobu did not become famous for forms but for actual fighting. His approach rests on the kata Naihanchi, from which he derived stance, footwork and strikes, and on paired practice; he regarded forms as a means and not an end. Typical of it are the natural upright stance, the short strike from close range, and the so-called meotode, work with both hands at once, in which one hand covers while the other lands at the same instant. Motobu's reputation in Japan was settled by a bout against a foreign boxer in Kyoto in the early 1920s, which he won. The magazine that reported it printed a likeness of Gichin Funakoshi, that is of a different master, which is one of the best-known mix-ups in the history of karate. The second thing is Motobu Udundi, literally the hand of the Motobu palace, the art of the Motobu royal house. It was transmitted by Motobu Choyu, who lived from 1865 to 1928 and was Choki's elder brother, and his student was Uehara Seikichi, who lived from 1904 to 2004. Udundi is not karate in the ordinary sense: it contains grips, throws, weapons work and a way of moving that resembles karate only from a distance. The catalogue entry naming Motobu Choki as founder refers to the first of the two lines.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.