Kenwa Mabuni The Founder of Shotokan?

 

 

 

Kenwa

Mabuni

 

The Founder

of Shotokan?

 

Founder of Shito Ryu

 

By Damian Chambers

Everyone knows the founder of

Shotokan karate is Gichen Funakoshi

(1868-1957) but Kenwa Mabuni

(1893-1952) is often not given credit

for the many contributions he made to

modern karate and the Shotokan style.

In fact, Mabuni sensei brought many of

Okinawa’s unique kata to Japan that

were later added to the Shotokan system.

There is no question that he made

a substantial contribution to the

Shotokan style.

 

Karate Comes to Japan

 

In 1917, Gichin Funakoshi traveled

to Kyoto, Japan and demonstrated the

art of Okinawan Karate at the

Butokuden for the Dai Nippon

Butokukai, The Greater Japan Martial

Virtues Association. This was the first

time karate had been demonstrated in

Japan. This was done in order to stimulate

interest in the art in mainland

Japan. In 1922, he made a second trip,

this time to Tokyo, at the request of

Japanese officials and formally introduced

karate to the Japanese mainland.

Therefore, he is credited as being the

father of Japanese karate.

Karate was not accepted at first in

Japan. Funakoshi Sensei and others

spent a decade promoting the art before

it became popular. Perhaps this initial

resistance was due the fact that a plebeian

art such as karate was perceived to

be less effective than the martial arts of

the samurai, i.e. jujitsu and kenjutsu.

Realize too that in Japan, Okinawa was

thought of as the “country” and

Okinawan farmers and fishermen were

thought of as little more than hillbillies.

However, eventually karate caught on at

various Japanese universities and began

to spread all over Japan and karate grew

in popularity. Eventually, Funakoshi

Sensei’s group became known as the

Shotokan style of karate and the Japan

Karate Association (JKA) was formed.

Funakoshi began learning karate as

a boy from Master Yasutsune Azato

(1827-1915) one of Okinawa’s leading

karate masters at the time. Azato had

been a student of the great Bushi or warrior

Matsumura of whom many legends

are told in Okinawa. Azato encouraged

Funakoshi to study under other karate

masters and learn all he could. On

Azato’s introduction Funakoshi trained

with Anko Itosu (1830-1915) and others

of the Shuri-Te style and Kanryo

Higashionna of the Naha-Te style.

Funakoshi originally brought fifteen

kata to Japan with him. In addition

to his kata syllabus, he formalized techniques

and nomenclature and added a

spiritual essence to the art. However,

Funakoshi would send his senior

instructors to Mabuni Sensei and he

would teach them kata that were not

included in Funakoshi’s syllabus. These

kata were rohai (meikyo), wankan,

chinte, unsu, sochin, nijushiho

(niseishi), gojushiho, jiin and bassai sho.

They would then take these kata and

Shotokan-ize them!

Mabuni began training in karate as

a young boy in Okinawa. He was the

seventeenth generation descendant of

the famous Okinawan samurai family

named Onigusikuni. Mabuni was very

proud of his samurai heritage. He began

studying Shuri-Te at age thirteen from

Itosu. He first learned the naihanchi

kata from Itosu. Itosu was over seventy

years old at the time. Mabuni was weak

as a boy but Itosu encouraged him to

keep training. Mabuni trained very hard

and learned “twenty three swift fists” or

kata from Itosu. Mabuni ultimately

became very adept at karate. An interesting

story handed down is that when

 

Itosu died; Mabuni was so grief stricken

that he stayed by Itosu’s grave for one

year. He practiced the kata that Itosu

had taught him every day at the

gravesite. Mabuni did this to show his

devotion to his master.

Mabuni also studied kempo from a

Chinese man named Gokenki who was

living in Okinawa. Gokenki was a tea

merchant from Fukien Province,

China. Mabuni learned a form of

Shaolin white crane (hakutsuru) from

Gokenki. This form is preserved in the

Shito ryu style today and is known as

hakucho. Gokenki also taught Mabuni

the kata nipai (nipaipo) and paipuren.

Mabuni then studied Naha-Te with

Kanryo Higashionna and Arakaki

Seisho. He perfected the sanchin kata

under Higashionna and Arakaki taught

him unshu, sochin, and niseishi kata.

All these kata were eventually brought

into the Shotokan system as taught by

Mabuni. Mabuni later combined the

teachings of Itosu and Higashionna and

called his system of karate Shito Ryu.

Around this time it was thought that it

was necessary to name each style in

order to differentiate one master’s teachings

from another’s. The word Shito is a

combination of two characters. The first

character (shi) represents ito from

Itosu's name and the second character

(to) represents higa from Higashionna’s

name. He spent a great deal of time

studying and teaching in Okinawa

before he came to Japan. Mabuni

taught the Okinawan police departments.

Initially, Mabuni made several trips

to Japan from Okinawa. Then he spent

about a year in the Tokyo area. At this

time he taught the senior members of

Funakoshi’s group including Nakayama

and Obata the advanced Shito Ryu

forms. This was during 1927 and 1928.

He also taught Yasuhiro Konishi and

helped him establish his style known as

Ryobukai. Then in 1929, Mabuni

moved to Osaka and began teaching at

various universities and police departments.

He taught at Kansai University,

Doshisha University and Kansai

Gakuin University. He established a

dojo in Osaka called the Japan Karatedo

Kai that attracted a large following in

that area of Japan.

When Funakoshi introduced karate

to mainland Japan in 1922 he taught

the following kata: pinan 1-5, naihanchi

1-3, passai, wanshu, chinto, seisan,

jutte, jion, and kusanku. These kata

became the basis of Shotokan and

Japanese karate. Later, the following

kata were added to the Shotokan system:

rohai (meikyo), wankan, chinte,

unsu, sochin, nijushiho and gojushiho,

jiin and bassai sho. Although in the literature

of the Shotokan system they

never say where these kata came from!

In 1927 and 1928 Mabuni taught these

kata to the senior members of the

Shotokan group [it wasn’t called

Shotokan until 1936] in Tokyo when

Funakoshi, Konishi and Mabuni were

training altogether and sharing ideas.

Around this time there was an impetus

to organize an All Japan generic style of

karate under one organizational banner.

Kanken Toyama who had organized the

All Japan Karate Do Federation fostered

this. However, the establishment and

formalization of this group failed.

Typically, as is often the case with

Japanese karate organizations, each

group went their separate ways deciding

that they would each maintain their

own unique stylistic and organizational

integrity, no doubt motivated by an elitist

attitude within their respective

groups.

Mabuni’s kata repertoire of his

Shito Ryu style combined Shuri-Te,

Tomari-Te and Naha-Te lineage kata

into a set that used kata from all three

sources. Mabuni taught an amazing

 

number of kata. All in all there were

over sixty kata in his seito or orthodox

Shito Ryu style. Some authorities say

this is too many kata and is more than

necessary to be an accomplished fighter

and teacher of a combative martial discipline.

However, Mabuni saw himself

as a preserver of these forms. He was

certainly one of the most prolific kata

practitioners of all time. He gave a

glimpse of his kata system in his book

that he published in the 1930s.

However, Funakoshi on the other hand

felt that only fifteen kata were enough

to provide an overall training methodology

and were a sufficient number to

comprise as a complete training regime.

This is exemplified by Funakoshi’s book

Karate Do Kyohan that contained the

orthodox kata of the system that included

only fifteen as opposed to sixty plus

kata in Mabuni’s system. Although,

Funakoshi along with his son Gigo

(Yoshitaka) were to make their own

changes to karate. They lengthened the

stances, added the sidekick, and made

changes in certain kata movements.

Funakoshi changed the names of the

kata. He modified the original kata of

the Okinawan art to adapt it to the

Japanese culture. One way he did this

was by changing the older Okinawan

names of the kata to names with a clearer

meaning to the Japanese. He also

changed the meaning of karate from

Chinese hand to empty hand in 1936.

The change served to disassociate the art

from its Chinese origins and influence.

Japan was at war with China by 1937

and this change was politically necessary.

Although Funakoshi and Mabuni

had some of the same teachers, Mabuni

also had teachers that Funakoshi did

not. They were different ages and studied

under the same masters but because

of age differences they

studied at different times.

This accounts for the difference

in knowledge level

of kata and bunkai. Some

critics of Shotokan say the

level of understanding of

bunkai or practical application

in the Shotokan

style was lacking. In other

words, they had no deep or

advanced understanding of

the practical techniques

and meaning of the kata

movements beyond a cursory

level.

Some authorities say

Mabuni moved to Osaka

in 1929 out of respect for

Funakoshi. Since the affiliation

of Funakoshi’s and

Mabuni’s karate groups

[and others] didn’t work

under the auspices of the All Japan

Karate Do Federation. In addition,

some members of Funakoshi’s group

ostracized Mabuni. However,

Funakoshi himself never showed any

disrespect or ill will towards Mabuni.

Ultimately, Mabuni was not given the

recognition he deserved as a substantial

contributor to the development of the

Shotokan system of karate. Certainly

the literature of the JKA (S) does not

mention him. Although not the

founder of Shotokan karate as the title

of this article intimates, he was the

founder of the highly technical and

comprehensive style of Shito Ryu

Karate. Finally, Mabuni sensei was a

conduit and preserver of many of

Okinawa’s unique karate kata that today

form the basis of Shotokan’s advanced

repertoire of kata.

 

 

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