Matsumura Seito Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do Lineage
TODE SAKUGAWA 佐久川 寛賀 (1733-1815) became a prominent figure in Okinawan Martial Arts. In fact, he is considered to be the first true teacher of Okinawan Karate. Sakugawa's martial art was a mixture of Shuri-Te and Chinese Kenpo. In 1756, Sakugawa became a student of the Chinese military envoy Kusanku (also Kushanku). Kusanku was a highly skilled Kenpo master and famous for his fighting ability. Kusanku did many things which influenced Shuri-Te's and ultimately Shorin-Ryu's development. He taught many native Okinawans including Chatan Yara and Shionja of Shuri. He brought some of his students from China to Okinawa and they spread the Chinese style on Okinawa. In addition, it is reported that Kusanku introduced a maneuver whereby the closed fist was held in a chambered or ready position along the side of the torso (hikite)and then from this position a punch was thrown, corkscrewing it in karate fashion, toward the intended target. Kusanku is also credited with the introduction of a type of kumite or sparring to Okinawan karate. This kumite was referred to as Kumiai Jutsu or fighting technique.
After his training with Kusanku, Sakugawa became known as an expert in the Chinese style of fighting called Tode. This is the basis for his nickname Tode (Chinese hand) Sakugawa. He is credited with being the first Okinawan Karate teacher. The reasoning behind this is that Sakugawa is said to have combined the techniques of Chinese style Kenpo (Tode) with the native Okinawan techniques of Shuri-Te and thereby formed the basis of a truly Okinawan Karate. He has three students who distinguished themselves as excellent martial artists. They were Bushi Ukuda, Macabe Chokun and Bushi Matsumoto of Urazoe. However his last and most famous student was Bushi Matsumura.
BUSHI MATSUMURA 松村 宗棍, (1797-1889) studied under Sakugawa for four years. He rapidly developed into a warrior. He was recruited into the service of the Sho family and was given the title Satunuky, later rising to Chikutoshi. At some time during his career, Bushi Matsumura was sent to China to train in the famous Shorinji (Shaolin Temple). He is alleged to have remained in China for many years. Upon his return to Okinawa, Matsumura established the Shuri-te or Suidi ("Shuri Hand") that later became known as Shorin-ryu. He brought the White Crane (Hakutsuru) concept to Okinawa. He passed on his menkyo kaiden (certificate of full proficiency) to his grandson, Nabe Matsumura.
Shorin-ryu is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters pronounced "Shaolin" in Mandarin-Chinese. Shorin/Shaolin means "small forest"; "ryu" simply means "methods handed own," "methods of learning" such as those of a school, or "tradition."
NABE MATSUMURA brought the old Shorin-ryu secrets into the modern age. His name does not appear in many karate lineage charts According to Hohan Soken (1889-1982), the purest teaching of Matsumura's Shorin Ryu was carried on by Matsumura Nabi(c.1860-1930). He received training in the family style of Matsumura Shorin Ryu which also included the secret techniques of the white crane. The white crane system was reputed to be a secret family style that was only taught to immediate family members. In his later years, Nabe Matsumura was referred to as Nabe Tanme or "old man" Nabe. He was known to be a stern and disciplined teacher. He had only one student, Hohan Soken. It is said he was one of the top karate men of his time. He passed on his menkyo kaiden to his nephew, SOKEN HOHAN.
SOKEN HOHAN The next successor in the lineage of Matsumura Shorin Ryu was Hohan Soken(1889-1982). He began training at age thirteen under his uncle, Nabe Matsumura. Soken had to work in the fields as a youth in spite of his Samurai heritage. This was due to a political reorganization in the Ryukyu Islands and all of Japan as a result of the Meiji restoration. After ten years of basic training under Nabe Matsumura, Soken began learning the techniques of the white crane or Hakutsuru. This was in 1912 when he was twenty-three years old. According to Soken, this was a secret technique or training methodology which was confined to the Matsumura family. Bushi Matsumura had learned the white crane system in China. Soken's instruction in the white crane technique emphasized balance training. One training method that he practiced was to perform the Hakutsuru kata on a board floating in a pond. The board was just large enough to support his weight. The Hakutsuru kata, which was erroneously referred to as the "White Swan" technique in a 1967 magazine article is the advanced level of Matsumura Shorin Ryu. The Hakutsuru technique is the main part of the style. It manifests the Chinese concept of the soft (defensive) fist and balance training while imitating the delicate movements of the white crane. In fact, this concept is inherent and woven throughout all the kata of Matsumura Shorin Ryu. For example, Chinto uses the one legged stance of the crane extensively, Gojushiho uses the movements of the neck and beak of the crane in its technique and Hakutsuru uses the wing (hane) of the crane. Master Soken also trained for a while with Kenwa Mabuni (1889-1953) and Gokenki, a Chinese tea merchant living in Okinawa. Gokenki, Soken, Mabuni and several other Okinawans all trained together as a group. Gokenki's style was Hakutsuru Kenpo (white crane fist style) and he was from the Fukien coast of China.
Up until the 1950's Master Soken referred to his martial art as Matsumura Shuri-Te, then he began calling his style Matsumura Seito(orthodox) Shorin Ryu. The empty hand kata of the style included those passed on by Bushi Matsumura (as previously noted). However, Master Soken later added to his system's Rohai . Rohai means vision of a crane and was originally a Tomari-Te kata dating back to the 1600's.
MASTER FUSEI KISE was born on May 4, 1935. He began his study of Karate in 1947 from his Uncle Master Makabe. In 1955 Master Kise became a student of Master Nobutake Shingake and recieve his SHO DAN. In 1958 Master Kise began studying under Grand Master Hohan Soken, the third successor of Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito Karate-Do. In 1960 he was a student of Grand Master Shigeru Nakamura, Okinawan Kenpo Karate-Do Federation and qualified for his 7th Degree Black Belt. After five years of training, Master Kise became a shihan or Master on January 1, 1965 when he passed the 7th Dan examination under Grand Master Shigeru Nakamura. At that time Master Kise taught and practice Shorinji Ryu Karate-Do. Also during this time he was studying Shorin Ryu under Grand Master Hohan Soken. On January 1, 1967 Master Kise
switched completely over to the Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito (Orthodox Karate- Do). On January 3, 1972 Master Kise qualified for the Hanshi title by passing the 8th Dan examination held by Grand Master Hohan Soken and Master Makabe. Sept. 1st 1976 Master Kise qualified for his 9th Dan by Grand Master Hohan Soken. In 1977 Master Kise founded the Shorin Ryu Karate Kenshin Kan Karate and Kobudo Federation. On Oct 25 1987 Master Kise was promoted to 10th Dan by Master Shigaru Tamaiya.
Matsumura Chikudun Pechin "Bushi" Sokon
Matsumura Sokon, later known as "bushi", was born
into a well known family in Shuri, Okinawa and named
Kyo Sokon. When he was appointed chief boydgaurd to
King Sho Ko he was allowed to change his name as was
the custom at the time. At this point he became
Matsumura Sokon. A later Okinawan king, Sho Tai,
gave hum the affectionate title "Bushi".1
The exact period of Matsumura's life is difficult
to pin down. We can reach some conclusions based on
the writings of his students and associates. Shoshin
Nagamine puts Matsumura's 88th birthday taking place
in 1897 so we can conclude that he was born in 1809.
Katsuya Miyahara places his death at 92 which make
the year ofhis death as 1901.
"Bushi" Matsumura is the great-grandfather of the
karate movement that grew up around Shuri and enjoys
a reputation as Okinawa's Miyamoto Musashi. As a
child he learned the principles of the indigenous
Okinawan self-defense system, ti, like most
local children. While working as a bodyguard for
three Okinawan kings (Sho Ko, Sho Iku and Sho Tai)
he had the opportunity to travel twice to Fuchou
where he studied Chinese boxing styles and studied
with the gongfu master Iwah. Finally,
Matsumura is known to have traveled to Japan where
he studied kobudo with the Satsuma clan and
received his menkyo (teaching certificate) in
Jigen Ryu ken jutsu, (the martial style of
the Satsuma Samurai, from Ijuin Yashichiro.
Matsumura synthesized the traditional Okinawan
self-defense system, Chinese gongfu and
boxing systems and Jigen Ryu into what, in 1927,
would become known as Shuri-te.
After retiring from service to the Okinawan royal
family Matsumura set up his own school in Sakiyama
village, Shuri. His principal students included
Itosu Anko, Yabu Kentsu, Hanashiro Chomo, Kyan
Chotoku, Funakoshi Gichin and Matsumura Nabe.
Matsumura's wife enjoyed a reputation as fearsome
as her husband's. She was a well known fan of sumo,
arm wrestling and weight lifting contests. Prior to
meeting her future husband she regularly challenged
would be suitors to physical contests. An apocryphal
story related to author Mark Bishop had her lifting
a 130 pound bag of rice with one hand just so she
could sweep under it.
References
Bishop, Mark.
Okinawan
Karate: Teachers, Styles and Secret Techniques
McCarthy, Patrick. Bubishi: The Bible of Karate.
Matsumura Nabe
Biographies of Matsumura Nabe, grandson of
Matsumura Sokon, are a challenge to write.
Definitive works like McCarthy's translation of the
Bubishi and Bishop's
Okinawan Karate only mention him in passing. We
know that he was a student of his grandfater,
Matsumura Sokon, and was a strict traditionalist. In
particular, he held to the old belief that the
martial arts should be kept within the family. This
stringent principle left him with only one student,
his sister's son,
Soken Hohan. According to Soken-san,
Matsumura Sokon was Matsumura Nabe's only instructor
which left him with the purest form of his
grandfather's style.
Matsumura Nabe was the successor of Matsumura
Sokon's family style, Uchinan Sui-de better
known as Shuri-Te. Before his death,
Matsumura Nabe gave his menkyo kaiden1
to Soken-san, making him the third-generation
inheritor of his great-grandfather's style.
So why is information on Matsumura-san so
hard to find? I believe the reason is the same as
the reason why information about the early history
of karate is difficult to confirm: No one wrote
anything down. The early history of karate was
largely oral. You hear statements like "I heard it
from my instructor who was told by his instructor
that . . .". So why does this pose a special
challenge for Matsumura Nabe? Where some masters had
many students to create an oral tradition around
them, Matsamura Nabe had only one, Soken Hohan, so
the information passed down about him is
correspondingly meager.
Soken Hohan
In 1889 Soken Hohan was born to a samurai
family in Gaja, Nishihara, Okinawa. By the time
Soken sensei was born the Japanese had
successfully invaded Okinawa and deposed the
Okinawan king. This created a great hardship for
many Okinawan shizoku1.
From a young age Soken sensei was forced to work
in the fields along with the rest of his family
despite their noble status. He also took
occasional employment pulling a rickshaw and
gaurding the Gaja fields against thieves and
bandits.
Soken sensei was introduced to karate at the age
of thirteen. His training was led by his maternal
uncle, Matsumura Nabe. Nabi Tanmei was
Matsumura Sokon's grandson so Soken sensei was
the great-grandson of the style's founder. By the
age of 23 Sokon sensei was said to have learned all
of the kata og his uncle's system including the rare
Hakutsuru (trans. White Crane) form. Nabe is
supposed to have learned all of these kata from his
grandfather but he once made a contradictory
statement that Matsumura Sokon taught the
Hakutsuru kata only to his son. This leaves open
the possibility that Sokon sensei picked up some
kata from sources other than his uncle.
In 1920 Soken sensei emigrated from Okinawa to
Argentina. He spent the World War II period there
working as a farm worker. His absence from Japan
allowed him to maintain the purity of his style at a
time when others were coming under the influence of
Japanese martial arts methods. In 1952 he returned
to Okinawa and began teaching his style of karate
calling it Matsumura Seito Shorin Ryu, writing
Shorin with the Chinese characters for Shaolin. It's
worth noting that Sokon sensei acknowledged that
there were other legitimate Shorin ryu styles.
According to him his great-grandfather had around a
dozen dedicated students each of whom modified and
expanded what they were taught. His claim to
seito or orthodox teaching, derived from the
fact that his uncle learned only from Bushi
Matsumura and taught only what he had learned,
leaving Sokon sensei with a pure version of the
original style.
Soken sensei's teachings included a variety of
traditional karate kata as well as a variety of
traditional weapons (specifically the sai, kama,
kusarigama, tonfa, suruchin and nunchaku) all
learned from his uncle. He was also known to teach
bo kata learned from Ushi Komesu Tanmei of
Nishihara. This was something of a rarity at the
time. When Soken sensei was young kobudo was
rarely taught. In Sokon sensei's opinion, much of
the kobudo taught today derived from what was
originally taught by Matsumura Sokon.
Sokon sensei died in 1983, survived by two sons
who, unfortunately, had little interest in karate.
References
Bishop, Mark.
Okinawan
Karate: Teachers, Styles and Secret Techniques
Interview with Soken Hohan published by Fighting
Arts and available on-line at
http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=426.
Lineage of the Shorin Styles
The Shorin Ryu style has its
origins in the mid 1700's when Tode
Sakagawa, an Okinawan, met Kusanku,
a Chinese diplomat. In the early
twentieth century the style split
into the four modern branches.
|
Matsumura Seito Shorin Ryu
Matsumura
Seito
Shorin-ryu
is one of
the major
modern
Okinawan
martial
arts. Said
to have been
founded by
Sokon
Matsumura
during the
1800s &
passed to
Nabe
Matsumura
then Hohan
Soken,
Matsumura
Seito
Shorin-ryu
combines
elements of
the
traditional
Okinawan
fighting
styles of
Shuri-te and
Tomari-te.
|
the "family" or "orthodox"
style |
|
Shobayashi Shorin Ryu
Shōbayashi Shōrin-ryu
(小林流)
(Shōrin-ryū,
小林流))
Founded by Eizo
Shimabukuro |
the "small forest" style |
|
Kobayashi Shorin Ryu
Kobayashi (小林)
Shōrin-ryū (小林流)
(Shōrin-ryū,
小林流))
Founded by Choshin
Chibana |
the "young forest" style |
|
Matsubayashi Shorin Ryu
Matsubayashi Ryu
(松林流,
Matsubayashi Ryu),
also known as
Matsubayashi Shorin-ryu,
is a school of Okinawan
Shorin-ryu karate founded by
Shoshin Nagamine (1907-1997)
in 1947. Its curriculum
includes 18 kata, 7 two-man
yakusoku kumite (prearranged
sparring) routines, and
kobudo (weapons) practice. |
the "pine forest" style |
The following lists give the primary line of descent for the four
Shorin Ryu styles. The founders or
first people to use the current name
are listed in bold.
Links below to other Master Hohan Soken Resoures
