4. Wakayama Dojo (C)

[emattson]

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By Graham Noble

Kanbum Uechi was actually one of the early pioneers of karate in Japan along with such figures as Gichin Funakoshi and Kenwa Mabuni, but the practice of his style remained pretty much limited to Wakayama and the two satellite dojos of Kanei Uechi and Saburo Uehara. Unlike the styles of Funakoshi and Mabuni, Uechi’s style did not spread beyond that, to the universities for example. Maybe that had something to do with his quiet, rather reclusive personality, but in any case, after the Second World War Uechi Ryu took a different historical trajectory from the other early Japanese styles as most of the seniors of the style returned to Okinawa and the centre of Uechi Ryu teaching moved with them. The Wakayama dojo was left in the hands of Ryuyu Tomoyose, who only taught family members and close friends until 1948 and the loosening of the Occupation restrictions on martial arts practice. The dojo was moved to a new location on Kokutae dori in 1957. After (or maybe somewhat before) Ryuyu Tomoyose’s death, the dojo was taken over by his son Ryuwa (Takayoshi) and then after he died in 1994 it was run by another of Ryuyu’s sons, Takahiro Tomoyose. In the 1977 Uechi Ryu directory Wakayama had a short, half-page entry as the Ryuseikan dojo (the “Ryu” being the first character of Ryuyu Tomoyose’s name) but overall, in the post war development of Uechi Ryu the Wakayama dojo seemed to have been left on the sidelines. In a way, it slipped from history, but there is a lovely old film taken in 1965 during a visit to the dojo by Ryuyu’s son, Ryuku Tomoyose, accompanied by George Mattson and Charles Earle. It is almost like a look into the past: rather than karategis, the students wear shorts, as in the old style, and there are demonstrations of Sanchin and Seisan kata, arm pounding drills, and some free fighting. The students do the kata individually in front of the sensei: interestingly, no group practice of the forms is shown.

Compared to modern Uechi Ryu kata the Wakayama technique looks much rougher round the edges: less developed, less polished, and generally more primitive. In Sanchin the posture is kept very tight with the arms kept close, the shoulders slightly hunched over and the back more rounded, not so much standing up straight as seen today. Generally, the movements in both kata are more compact, and the circular movements such as the middle-level blocks (wa-uke) and mawashi-uke much tighter and quicker than the modern style. The teaching also seems to have been a little more informal in respect of the exact order of techniques, at least in Sanchin, as some students do the kata in the current sequence – that is, starting with a right Sanchin stance and a left arm thrust – while others start off with a left Sanchin stance and a right thrust. I guess the idea was that this was a matter of individual choice as long as the fundamental principles remained unchanged.

The kata are done fast, even Sanchin, and especially Seisan, where the movements are almost rushed through. There are noticeable differences to the modern versions of the kata too. There are no opening spearhand thrusts in Seisan, for example: the kata goes straight into the double hand movement bringing the hands together in front of the face before doing the triple open hand thrusting sequence. Following this, rather than the knee kick counter after the double open hand block there is a front kick, and the two hands are also pulled back almost to the hip as the kick is delivered, (similar to the Goju Ryu Seisan, actually). In the sequence where the two hands (held in the koken finger-strike formation) are swung in opposite directions, the movements are not followed by wa-uke as they are today, or if they are, the technique is so abbreviated as to be non-existent. Next, when the double spearhand thrust is performed, the thrusting motion is downwards and the body leans forward for the thrust. In the following techniques, where the middle-level blocks are followed by spearhand counterattacks, the blocking movements are much smaller and tighter than in today’s kata. And when the 180-degree turn is made into a block and left front kick, the block seems to be performed with the left hand only, rather than the two handed block of the modern style, and with the feet together rather than in a Sanchin stance. In general, not as much attention is paid to form or fine points of technique as in today’s Uechi style; rather the emphasis in the kata seems to be on speed, and fighting attitude.

Arm conditioning drills are also shown on the film and a pair of students do some free fighting. This is carried out at quite a short range and both adopt a kind of crouching posture (not a Sanchin stance, a little like a shallow shiko dachi maybe), the shoulders a little forward with the open hands held in front in a tight defensive position; covering the centre line you might now say. The parries are quick and done with the open hand. There is not much foot movement and the attacking technique is quite limited by today’s standards: punches with the front hand and a few rather tentative front kicks. The fighters don’t stop after scoring a “point” but quickly recover their defensive position. By today’s standards this jyu kumite lacks movement, penetration, and the range of modern attacking techniques, but it’s an interesting old form of sparring.

Ryuyu Tomoyose would have been in his late sixties at the time of that footage and although he isn’t taking the class he comes in part way through and takes a seat to watch the training. He is short and stocky. At one point he stands up to have a discussion with his son Ryuko about the technique in Seisan. There seems to be some kind of disagreement here, although it all looks amicable enough. Ryuyu shows a couple of the moves in Seisan, making the turn into the tetsui strike into the palm, and his technique looks compact and neat. It’s too bad that we don’t have more than that couple of seconds of footage of him. Ryuko, in everyday clothes, also runs through the whole kata in a nice performance, and although it’s post-war Okinawan style and a lot cleaner than the Wakyama students’ kata, it too is fairly compact.

By today’s standards the karate of the Wakayama students on this film looks poor, often sloppy and rather primitive, but the obvious differences in technique and manner of performing the kata, slight though they sometimes may be, can’t help but raise questions about the modern development of Uechi Ryu. The film is generally available from George Mattson’s Uechi Ryu website, and it has generated some discussion on internet forums because of the differences from the modern style, which is usually assumed to be the authentic transmission from Kanbum Uechi.

George Mattson referred back to this Wakayama visit in several places. In an interview published in “Traditional Karate” magazine of June 1993 he told Simon Lailey: “In 1967 (sic) I visited mainland Japan with my teacher Ryuko Tomoyose Sensei. We trained at the dojo of my sensei’s father and there I saw a great difference between Okinawan Uechi and Japanese Uechi. Both the kata and free fighting appeared somewhat sub-standard compared to the level which I knew from my training in Okinawa. Here, then, my sensei (Ryuko Tomoyose) suggested that as a youth his father had been more interested in the fighting aspect of training and so this now reflected in his teachings, and of course, his students.”

When Simon Lailey then suggested “It sounds as if Japanese Uechi is closer to the original Chinese way of Master Kanbum Uechi than the Okinawan system,” Mattson agreed that “It does sound as if this might be the case. Both Ryuko Tomoyose Sensei and his father Ryuyu Tomoyose were students of Kanbum Uechi . . . Ryuyu Tomoyose, I would suggest, studied the longest under Master Kanbum, although he only learned two forms, Sanchin and Seisan. For some reason he did not bother with Sanseiru, or many of the additional practices which were introduced by Kanbum (Kanei?) Uechi.”

Mattson returned to the Wakayama trip in a 1997 article for “Bugeisha” magazine: “. . . During the visit I was privileged to meet Ryuyu Tomoyose, Kanbum’s first student in Japan, and watch a demonstration of Uechi ryu as practiced by members of the original dojo. During the demonstration, Ryuko Tomoyose, Ryuyu’s eldest son and my teacher who was living on Okinawa, had a few lively conversations with his father and brother concerning the kata and conditioning drills – both sides demonstrating their own version and explanation of the movements. In the end everyone remained steadfast as to which interpretation was correct. Both showed bunkai (applications) to justify his way while demonstrating subtle reasons why the other version might not be correct. Back on Okinawa I asked Ryuko Tomoyose about what we witnessed in Wakayama, especially the discrepancies in the kata and conditioning drills. Tomoyose was unable to explain why his father taught the system so differently than Kanei Uechi.

“Overall the Wakayama style looked more like Wing Chun than Okinawan Uechi ryu, from the stances to the hand positions. Blocks were closer to what Ryuko Tomoyose taught me – catlike and abbreviated – unlike the more precise and stylised Futenma (Kanei Uechi) version. Even on Okinawa each teacher had his own personalized way of doing the style. The Wakayama kotekitae (arm conditioning) accomplished the same thing as what I was taught, but with different emphasis: more abbreviated, to the point, and closer to the Chinese Crane exercises I’d seen during the Taiwan demonstrations witnessed earlier, than to the Futenma style.”

In the interview with Simon Lailey Mattson said that the Wakayama style he had seen was probably closer to the original style that Kanbum Uechi had learned. However, in a 2006 (?) post on Uechi-ryu.com replying to someone who had seen the Wakayama footage, he suggested that it was Kanei Uechi’s technique which was probably closer to his father’s style: “Ryuyu Tomoyose, who was Kanbum’s first and most famous student, argued with his son that what he learned and was teaching was the way Kanbum had taught him.

“Of course, people’s recall of past events tends to change as do physical movements. Kanei Uechi, who according to Ryuko Tomoyose, spent more time with his father, working on the basics, is thought to have preserved this style, at least in the way the basics were taught, more closely to the way Kanbum taught.”

Among other posts on this thread was one from Uechi Ryu teacher Bill Glasheen, who wrote that “Ryuko Tomoyose was present when the ‘Wakayama dojo film’ was made. He was there with George. Want to know what he thought about what was going on at that dojo? To be gentle . . . He basically said that their karate wasn’t very good. They were a first school of Kanbum and he didn’t teach there very long. He left, and they sort of held something together for a while. By the time George and Ryuko made it back there, what they were doing was basically demonstrating what happens when a bunch of average people try to maintain ‘something’ with little help from a knowledgeable person or organisation.

“But give them credit for the effort anyhow.

“Don’t make too much of Wakayama.”

And in another post “Seizan” wrote: “When Kanbum Sensei left Wakayama, he gave the dojo over to Ryuyu Sensei who moved a few years later to another location. (I am told it was just ‘further up the street and a bit larger.’) In 1957 Ryuyu moved it again to Kokusai Dori where that film was made, in the mid-60’s. Though it is told he taught there until his death in 1971, he had in fact retired from teaching shortly after moving the dojo in 1957 – he turned it over to his son Ryuwa who shows up in the film as the teacher. I believe Ryuyu Sensei’s name was used on legal papers and in the dojo as ‘dojo owner’ until his death, but in fact he had little to do with teaching or correcting at all. So, no further input.

“This supports your assessment of how the style had changed by that time. Same system, yes – and a wholly different style of performance.”

It seems like the old Wakayama film had to be explained away, and in order to do that the kata on the film were dismissed as: (a) a performance by students of a school which had only limited instruction from Kanbum Uechi – though in fact Kanbum had taught almost twenty years in the predecessor dojos of that 1960s school; (b) a performance by “a bunch of average people” who lacked guidance from a “knowledgeable person or persons” - even though the group included Kanbum Uechi’s student, Ryuyu Tomoyose himself, and his son Ryuwa; and (c) a performance by students of a dojo which at the time had almost nothing to do with Ryuyu Tomoyose.

On that last point, of course Ryuyu Tomoyose himself appears on the film, along with the dojo sensei, his son Ryuwa. Presumably Ryuyu must have thought that Ryuwa was a competent teacher of the style or he wouldn’t have put him in charge of the instruction, and as he sits at the side of the dojo watching the kata Ryuyu Tomoyose does not seem to express any disapproval of the technique, in fact his only technical disagreements seem to be with his other son Ryuku and his more modern, Okinawan versions of the kata.

Unfortunately there do not seem to be any photos of pre-war training at the old Wakayama dojo, but there is one interesting 1945 shot of a sixteen year old Seiyu Shinjo at Wakayama, and his posture looks similar to the students in the 1965 footage: shoulders rather hunched forward and arms held in tight. In later films of Shinjo in Okinawa, his posture, and the posture of his students is more upright, similar to the modern Uechi style.

It’s true that by today’s standards the kata on the 1965 film, notably Seisan, are technically rough and rather rushed and sloppy. We don’t know the grades of the students but most are young and perhaps relatively low grades and that may partly explain the lack of technical polish. But perhaps this footage does reflect the practice at the old, pre-war Wakayama dojos. For example, in modern Uechi Ryu the middle-level, wa-uke, blocks are done in a large circle with the blocking hand starting low, at thigh level. In effect, that makes the block a kind of universal parry, but the large circle also slows the movement down, and in that form a punch delivered at close quarters would arrive at the target well before the blocking hand could complete its defence. The much shorter, tighter Wakayama movements therefore make more sense from a combat perspective.

George Mattson seemed to address this point of the larger, modern wa-uke in his 1988 “Black Belt Test Guide.” He wrote: “Because of the incorrect way many students and teachers were performing it, Master (Kanei) Uechi created a teaching exercise which made the block very simple to learn. His primary goal in this exercise was to prevent the student from pulling the bock inwards towards his body, thereby pulling a kick or punch into his body during application. To counteract this bad habit, he had students begin the block by positioning their blocking arm in a lower quadrant, in what has become the standard beginning position for the block.

“While positioning the lead arm, the other arm is crossed over the body, the upturned hand resting on the lead arms elbow. This posture identifies the accurate starting position of the ‘wa-uke’ block. Over the years the training exercise has become part of the form for many instructors.”

The movement from a smaller to a larger blocking movement was therefore a natural progression of a teaching method and part of an ongoing post-war process of technical refinement and standardisation. The change to a bigger wa-uke, though, affected the tempo of the kata, which in the modern style are more paced and more polished than the forms shown in the Wakayama film. The smaller blocking movements in the Wakayama footage, though, made the kata performance much quicker, and the speed at which the Seisan were done may also reflect an old style of practice. Kanbum Uechi himself was said to do the kata very fast and according to Mattson Uechi had a saying “Min chin chu ryu”, which means “speed plus glare, the idea of moving very fast yet with the glare of spirit or strength.” And as Kanbum told Kenwa Mabuni back in the 1930s, the meaning of his style name was that “the kempo kata are done very fast.”

I don’t suppose it matters now. After the end of the war Uechi Ryu began a new stage in its development. That was centred on Okinawa, and Wakayama was left behind.

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