Kanga Sakugawa
佐久川寛賀
Okinawan nobleman and martial arts master from Shuri (c. 1786–1867), known as Tode Sakugawa, administrator on Yaeyama and by tradition teacher of Sokon Matsumura.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Kanga Sakugawa was an Okinawan nobleman and martial arts master from Shuri, whom Okinawan tradition nicknames Tode Sakugawa. The government portal Okinawa Karate gives his birth as 1782 or 1786 in Akata or Torihori in Shuri and considers 1867 the most likely year of death. The monument in Sakiyama Park in Shuri gives the dates 1786 to 1867.
He was born into the Teruya family with the rank of chikudun pechin and received the name Sakugawa only with his estate. As a child he learned Okinawan ti, and in Beijing, where he travelled repeatedly with Ryukyuan missions, Chinese martial arts. The portal does not give the names of his teachers, and Andreas Quast regards a personal relationship with Kushanku as conjecture. In 1835 he became administrator of the Yaeyama Islands, where he oversaw the judiciary and tax collection.
According to the portal, the term tode appears in Ryukyuan history precisely in his time. The portal counts Anko Asato and Sokon Matsumura among his students. The bojutsu kata Sakugawa no kon is still handed down, but Quast points out that no karate kata Sakugawa exists.
The tradition of his death in Beijing in 1837 is a legend, because in 1838 he is documented alive on Yaeyama. So is the story of the fight with pirates. We have not found a quotation with a documented origin.
Early life
The government portal Okinawa Karate gives his year of birth as 1782 or 1786 and the place as Akada, today Akata, or Torihori in Shuri. He was born into the Teruya family, that is, the landless rank-and-file nobility with the rank of chikudun pechin, and received the name Sakugawa only with his estate. Olaf Steinbrecher judges that the dates 1733 to 1815, given by some websites, belong to his father Kangi, while the dates 1786 to 1867 from the monument in Sakiyama Park belong to the son Kanga. Other websites give yet the years 1762 to 1843.
Training and teachers
The government portal does not give the names of his teachers and says only that as a child he learned Okinawan ti and in Beijing Chinese martial arts. According to Andreas Quast, he studied in China and travelled there repeatedly in the retinue of Ryukyuan missions. According to Quast, a personal relationship with Kushanku is only a conjecture based on the similarity of stances in the bojutsu kata Sakugawa and in the Kusanku katas. English Wikipedia, citing Mark Bishop, writes that it was rather his father Kangi who studied under the monk Takahara and under Kushanku, but the text is ambiguous.
Contribution and innovations
In 1835 he became administrator of the Yaeyama Islands, oversaw the judiciary and tax collection, and returned on 17 May 1838. According to the portal, the term tode appears in Ryukyuan history precisely in his time, and before that the art was called ti. The portal also credits him with introducing breathing exercises and qinna grappling techniques, but gives no further evidence. According to Quast, no karate kata Sakugawa exists, and only the bojutsu kata Sakugawa no kon has survived.
Legends and documented facts
The tradition of Sakugawa's death in Beijing in 1837 and burial in a foreigners' cemetery is, according to the portal and Quast, a legend, because in 1838 he is documented alive on Yaeyama. The story of the fight with pirates using a staff during a voyage is also a legend. English Wikipedia relates, without a source, an oral tradition of a meeting with Kushanku by a river, where Sakugawa pushed an old Chinese man and he gripped him in an iron hold. A booklet on strikes and falls, allegedly passed to Matsumura, survives only as a single leaf, and its authenticity was accepted only provisionally around 1995.
Legacy
The government portal names as his students Anko Asato, who wrote about the origin of the name karate, and, according to tradition, Sokon Matsumura. Quast accepts Matsumura as a student on the basis of the research of Hiroshi Kinjo. The portal gives Sakugawa the epithets originator of Okinawan karate and reviver of Ryukyuan kobudo. The Karate and Kobudo Monument in Sakiyama Park in Shuri gives him with the dates 1786 to 1867.