Kenwa Mabuni

Quick Facts

Date of Birth11/14/1889

Date of Death5/23/1952

Country of OriginJapan

Biography

Kenwa Mabuni was an Okinawan karate master and the founder of the Shito-ryu style. He was born on 14 November 1889 in Shuri on Okinawa and died at home on 23 May 1952 at the age of 62. Sources give both Tokyo and Osaka as the place of death. According to Wikipedia, he was a seventeenth-generation descendant of the warrior Uni Ufugusuku Kenyu.

According to Shito-kai, he came to Anko Itosu around the age of thirteen, while another source gives the age of fifteen and the year 1903. Through Chojun Miyagi he met Kanryo Higaonna and studied under him as well. He also studied with Seisho Aragaki, Tawada Shimboku, Sueyoshi Jin and Wu Xianhui (Go-Kenki).

According to Shito-kai, he first called the style Goju-ryu, and some sources give Hanko-ryu or Mabuni-ryu. According to the ryukyu-bugei website, he first used the name Shito-ryu, composed of the first characters of the names of the teachers Itosu and Higaonna, in 1934 when he opened the Yoshukan dojo in Osaka. In 1939 he received the title of renshi from the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai. He was among the first karateka to teach karate on the Japanese mainland, and he founded a number of dojo in Osaka and the Kansai region. He created the katas Aoyagi (Seiryu) and Meijo, and he passed on, among others, the katas Nijushiho, Sochin, Seiyunchin, Suparinpei, Happoren, Hakutsuru and Rohai. His students included Hironori Otsuka, Yasuhiro Konishi and Masaru Sawayama.

After his death the school was led by his sons Kenei and Kenzo. Kenzo died on 26 June 2005 and Kenei on 19 December 2015.

Early life

Kenwa Mabuni was born on 14 November 1889 in Shuri on Okinawa. Shito-kai cautiously states that he was apparently the seventeenth descendant of an ancient warrior, while Wikipedia names him as Uni Ufugusuku Kenyu. According to the ryukyu-bugei website he was a weak child, and stories about this ancestor from the Mabuni family led him to train.

According to Shito-kai he met Anko Itosu around 1902, at about thirteen years of age, on the recommendation of a friend in Shuri. The ryukyu-bugei website places the start of his training around 1903 and his age at fifteen.

Training and teachers

Around the age of twenty, about 1909, he began to train also with Kanryo Higaonna on the recommendation of Chojun Miyagi, according to Shito-kai, while the ryukyu-bugei website gives the year 1908. After military service he worked from 1914 for about ten years as a police detective in Naha, and at that time he studied karate and stick fighting with Seisho Aragaki and sai fighting with Tawada. Wikipedia lists among his other teachers Sueyoshi Jin and Wu Xianhui, known as Go Kenki.

After moving to Osaka he studied, according to ryukyu-bugei, Nihon-den Kenpo Shinden Fudo-ryu with Yata Noriyuki and Tenshin-ryu with Ueno Takashi.

Contribution and innovations

In May 1918 he founded at home the karate study society Karate Kenkyukai, which in 1925 became the Okinawa Karate Kenkyu Kurabu, with Motobu Choyu as chairman and Chojun Miyagi as chief instructor. In 1924 he began teaching at the prefectural fisheries school and police school. Around 1927 he demonstrated karate together with Miyagi during the visit of Kano Jigoro to Okinawa, and according to ryukyu-bugei Kano recommended spreading karate throughout Japan.

In 1929 he moved to Osaka and taught at universities in western Japan, including Kansai University. In 1934 he opened the Yoshukan dojo in Osaka, named after his middle school, and published the books Kobo Jizai Goshinjutsu Karate Kenpo and Seipai no Kenkyu. In 1935 and 1938 the book Karate-do Nyumon, which he wrote with Genwo Nakasone, came out in two editions. In 1938 he published a list of 33 katas divided by lineage, and in 1939 he founded the Dai Nippon Karatedo Kai. For the self-defense of women he created the katas Aoyagi and Meijo.

Philosophy and principles

Mabuni emphasized kata. According to his son Kenzo Mabuni, he recommended devoting three quarters of training to kata and one quarter to kumite, and Kenzo passed this principle on as a family tradition. The official Seito Shito-ryu website sums up his approach with the sentence that kata is karate. In the book Seipai no Kenkyu, according to the English interpretation, he stressed that the movements of kata are intended for a real clash.

Legends and documented facts

The origin of the name Shito-ryu differs among sources. Wikipedia and some overviews state that he first called the style Hanko-ryu and renamed it around 1929 to 1931. Shito-kai gives the first name as Goju-ryu, and the ryukyu-bugei website gives the name Mabuni-ryu in 1931 and the first use of the name Shito-ryu only in 1934. The year 1939 is often linked with the registration of the school with the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, but Shito-kai writes about the award of the title renshi.

The place of death also differs: Wikipedia gives Tokyo, ryukyu-bugei Osaka, and Shito-kai says only that he died at home. According to a commentary on the book Karate-do Nyumon, the notion that Mabuni rejected free sparring has no support, because the book describes free sparring as approved training. However, we have not verified this interpretation in the original text.

Legacy

Mabuni died on 23 May 1952 at the age of 62. The school was continued by his sons Kenei and Kenzo. After two years of retirement Kenzo took over the leadership and preserved the outline of his father under the name Seito Shito-ryu, and he died on 26 June 2005. Kenei died on 19 December 2015.

In 1960 the eastern and western headquarters of the style were formed, in 1964 the All Japan Karatedo Federation Shito-kai, and on 17 March 1993 the World Shitoryu Karatedo Federation. His students included Hironori Otsuka, the founder of Wado-ryu, Yasuhiro Konishi and Masaru Sawayama of Kansai University.

Teachers, students and family

Associated Martial Arts

Kata and forms

Quotes