was the son of

Kanbun Uechi was the founder of Uechi-Ryū, one of the primary karate styles of Okinawa. Early life Kanbun was born in Deikusaku section but grew up in the Takintō section of the mountain farming village of Izumi on the Motobu Peninsula of Okinawa, Ue ...

, founder of Uechi-Ryū, one of the primary

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

styles of

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

. Kanei was instrumental and at the forefront of Uechi-Ryū's growth after his father's death.

Life

For the early years of Kanei's life his father,

refused to speak of his martial arts training. However, his father opened his first dojo in Japan in 1926 and began teaching Pangai-noon, at the age of 16, and in ill-health, Kanei traveled to the Wakayama Prefecture and began training with his father. After a decades worth of continuous training under Kanbun Uechi, in 1937 Kanei-

Sensei Sensei, Seonsaeng, Tiên sinh or Xiansheng, corresponding to Chinese characters , is an East Asian honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese; it is literally translated as "person born before another" or "one who comes ...

received his certificate of full proficiency in Pangai-noo
Toudi
Jutsu (Half Hard Soft Empty Hand Skills). And later, at 26 he would open up a new dojo in Osaka with approval from Kanbun-Sensei. Though, a new branch of Pangai-noon opened in Osaka, the dojo was not as successful as Kanei-Sensei hoped for. In 1940, Kanei relocated the dojo to Amagasaki in Hyogo Prefecture. He taught there for two years before returning to

in 1942. In April of 1949, with the assistance of Ryuko Tomoyose, Uechi Kanei established the Nodake and Kanzatobaru dojo. The two dojo were combined as one called Futenma dojo in 1957. A year later, Uechi-Ryū would open its doors to the public, including American G.I.'s, becoming one of the first styles to teach Karate to foreigners. When performing ''

Sanchin is a kata of apparent Southern Chinese (Fujianese) origin that is considered to be the core of several styles, the most well-known being the Okinawan Karate styles of Uechi-Ryū and Gōjū-Ryū, as well as the Chinese martial arts of Fujian Whi ...

'', Kanei Uechi appeared deceivingly soft and relaxed. Upon closer inspection, his body was rock-solid and extremely tough. In his youth, to condition his fingers, Kanei-Sensei would repeatedly thrust his hands into a banana tree using the nukite. His fighting stance was extremely strong for defense. Kanei-Sensei favored fast wrist blocks with his left arm. While his right arm was effective for parrying punches and kicks.

Additions to Uechi-Ryū

Kanei understood early that students of the modern age would have trouble understanding the formal Pangainoon and its three kata. From 1931 through the rest of his life Kanei labored to develop new methods and forms to help students understand Uechi-Ryū. Together with other senior Uechi Ryu instructors, came the addition of the warm-up and stretching exercises ''junbi undō'' (準備運動), the standardized exercises that incorporate elements of all of the ''kata'' of the system as well as additional techniques, two prearranged "''yakusoku

kumite Kumite ( ja, 組手, literally "grappling hands") is one of the three main sections of karate training, along with kata and kihon. Kumite is the part of karate in which a person trains against an adversary. Kumite can be used to develop a partic ...

'' (約束組み手)" exercises which are called Kyu Kumite for Kyu ranks and Dan Kumite for Dan ranks, and three new "bridging" ''

kata ''Kata'' is a Japanese word ( 型 or 形) meaning "form". It refers to a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements made to be practised alone. It can also be reviewed within groups and in unison when training. It is practised ...

'' between ''

'' and ''Seisan'' and two between ''Seisan'' and ''Sanseiryu'':

Kata

# : A combination of the first ''kanji'' in Kanbun's name, and the last two ''kanji'' written in Chinese order of his teacher Zhou Zihe's name in Japanese pronunciation: "Shu Shiwa." Originally known as "''Kanshabu''" based on earlier mistranslation of his name into Japanese as "Shu Shabu." This kata includes many of Kanbun Uechi's favorite techniques. # : A combination of the first ''kanji'' in Kanbun's name, and the ''kanji'' for Shu Shiwa's family name (Shu). Originally known as and sometimes still called or "''Secondary Seisan''" by Seiki Itokazu in 1956. # : Literally translated: "10 fights/conflicts," or a combination of the names of two of the original ''kata'': ''Seisan'' and ''Sanchin''. # Seirui (十六): Literally translated: "16." # : A combination of Kanbun's first ''kanji'' 完 and "fight" 戦.

Family

Kanei Uechi is the son of

. Like his father, Kanei Uechi's mannerism and speech was with gentleness. He was the oldest son of four children. He had a brother, Kansei, and two sisters, Tsuru and Kamai. Kanei had a son, Kanmei Uechi who was the head of the Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do Association until he died on Sunday 13th of September 2015.

References

External links