Kanbun Uechi
上地完文
Okinawan founder of Uechi-ryu, who studied for 13 years in Fuzhou under Zhou Zihe and from 1926 taught publicly in Wakayama.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Kanbun Uechi was born on 5 May 1877 in Motobu on Okinawa. He is the founder of the style Uechi-ryu.
In 1897, at the age of 19, he left for Fuzhou in Fujian province to escape Japanese military service. He first briefly studied Kojo-ryu under Matsuda Tokusaburo, then for 13 years under the teacher Zhou Zihe, known in Japanese as Shu Shiwa. In 1904 he obtained a teaching licence from him, and in 1906 he opened a dojo in Nanking. However, research by the Uechi clan and the Fuzhou wushu federation from 1984 states that his real teacher may have been Zheng Xianji of the Huquan lineage, with Zhou Zihe merely an assistant; the traditional lineage disputes this.
He returned to Okinawa in 1909, but initially refused to teach after his Chinese student killed a neighbour with an open-palm strike during a land dispute. In 1924, at the age of 47, he moved to Wakayama. He began teaching publicly in 1926, when Ryuyu Tomoyose found him 30 paying students; Japanese sources place the founding of his institute in Wakayama as early as 1925. In 1932 he opened the Pangai-nun karate academy school in Tebiru. In 1934 he was visited by Kenwa Mabuni, who proposed renaming the style to Uechi-ryu, which happened in 1940.
From Fuzhou he brought back the kata Sanchin, Seisan and Sanseiryu; the five bridging kata were added by students after his death, and the names of the kata Kanshiwa, Kanshu and Kanchin are associated with his name. In November 1946 he handed the school in Wakayama over to Ryuyu Tomoyose and returned to Okinawa. He died on 25 November 1948 on the island of Iejima at the age of 71. The school's leadership was continued by his son Kanei Uechi, whom he himself taught; other students included Saburo Uehara, Seiko Toyama and Seiryo Shinjo.