In 1897, a young Okinawan named Uechi Kanbun went to Fuzhou, Fukien China, and trained until 1910 in a Chinese kungfu system under the guidance of a teacher named Zhou Zihe. Kanbun Sensei then returned to Okinawa, later moving to Mainland Japan for work in 1924. He began teaching his Chinese defense system in Wakayama, Osaka vicinity, in 1926. My teacher (Toyama Seiko Sensei) was a student in the Wakayama Dojo from 1938 to 1946.
Kanbun Sensei died in his 70's on Ie Jima, an island off the northwest coast of Okinawa, after WW2. Toyama Sensei continued training with Kanbun Sensei’s son Kanei Sensei, who passed away in 1991. I became Toyama Sensei's student when my wife Sumako and I met him in 1998. Together, Toyama Sensei and I created the Okinawa KarateDo UechiRyu Zankai, starting with about 150 active students on Okinawa (mostly US Military members and their dependents).
My training in UechiRyu began in late 1974 under John Bassett Sensei in Plattsburgh New York while I was in the USAF and assigned to Plattsburgh AFB. In 1979 I was reassigned to Okinawa where I joined the Futenma Dojo under Uechi Kanei Sensei, then I signed in as a member of the Chatan Dojo in 1982 (student #18). I retired from the USAF on Okinawa in 1992, remaining to teach 7 dojo I had established on the various military installations over the years.
When Sumako and I met Toyama Sensei in 1998, I had been training and teaching Kanei Sensei’s 2nd-Generation style of UechiRyu for 24 years, while Sumako had begun her training with me only about 2 years prior. Being more artistically talented than I, Sumako made the change to the 1st-Generation style of Uechi Kanbun Sensei easily. For her, it was another challenging art form among the many in which she was already gifted. But for me, the change was difficult and required 3 to 5 hours of training 3 to 4 nights a week with Toyama Sensei for the rest of the year! I consolidated the students of 6 of my dojo into one, so I could train with Toyama Sensei more often during the week, and concentrate more deeply on making the transition. By the end of 1998, I had qualified to the point that Toyama Sensei granted me his personal teaching license. Sumako and I settled into a routine of about 3 hours training per night with Toyama Sensei 3 nights per week, while I taught my dojo on the remaining evenings.
In 2000, Sumako and I built our home and dojo in Nagahama, about 10 minutes away from the Zakimi Shubukan. By now, the Zankai was becoming an international organization.
In 2002 I phased out the Kadena Air Base Dojo, moving the students to the Nagahama Dojo.
Sadly, Toyama Sensei passed away in 2009. Sensei's daughter Naomi became the owner of the Zakimi Shubukan and association. At that time, the association was renamed from Zankai to Zankyokai.
The Zakimi Shubukan was destroyed by a typhoon in September 2018. I became association owner in October 2018 and reverted to the original name Zankai. The Nagahama Dojo is now the Honbu Dojo to my students and grandstudents.
Due to the slow nature of the training, our no-sports policy, and our non-aggression philosophies, the UechiRyu Zankai is a rather small association and will likely not grow much over the years. We do not compete for trophies and medals. There is no December tournament to get ready for, no public event to practice for, and no “tests” to “psych up” for. Tests are simply formal evaluations of the student’s daily performance on all levels (technical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, etc.). Our purposes for training are somewhat different from those of many other dojo. We are not so much concerned with popularity, numbers of students, or making money, as we are with training and preserving old-style UechiRyu and its lifestyle, and helping to develop and refine our students' characters and personalities.
The UechiRyu Zankai uses the three classical forms that Kanbun Sensei brought back from China, but with old-style techniques. We use the five added forms approved by Uechi Kanei Sensei for the concepts embedded in them, but with strictly old-style technique as the kata were originally created. Toyama Sensei created three more forms using techniques taught by Kanbun Sensei but not found in other existent kata. Toyama Sensei insisted that these are not actually “kata” but “drill forms” for the purpose of preserving techniques and teaching fighting skills. They are not required for testing purposes.
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