Choyu motobu biography
- Motobu Chōyū was an Okinawan martial artist and the 11th sōke of Motobu Udundī.
- Motobu Choyu Sensei was born in 1865, the eldest son of Motobu Aji Choshin.
- Choyu was one of the most senior and well respected members at the time and did most of the teaching along with Miyagi Choyun (Goju Ryu founder), Mabuni Kenwa .
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Motobu's street fighting served him well (to the detriment of many). He formulated his own formidable style of kumite and began to get much attention in Okinawa and in Japan on his trips to the islands. One day while in Kyoto he witnessed a contest where people were asked to match skills with a foreign boxer. A friend coaxed Motobu to give it a try.
The boxer was arrogant and goaded Motobu constantly. For two rounds Motobu just avoided the boxer's attacks. In the third round he had enough. He used a practiced technique and promptly knocked the boxer out. The crowd was quite taken aback. They had never seen this kind of fighting. Motobu had simply struck his opponent with a fore knuckle in the temple; a basic technique. Needless to say, Motobu quickly gained a reputation as a master and many curious people came to learn this mysterious new art. Soon, Motobu became a full time teacher.
During this time, Motobu gained great respect for his fighting ability. He was hailed as the greatest fighter in Japan. Many sensei advised their students to go and train with Motobu and le
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Around the 12th or 13th year of the Taisho Period (1923-1924), Choyu sensei established the Okinawa Karate Kenkyu (Research) Club (also known as “Club Gwaa”) east of the Naminoue Shrine at the base of a hill known as Nanminmou.1 Sensei such as Kyan Chotoku, Teruya Kamesuke, Mabuni Kenwa, Miyagi Chojun, and Gusukuma Shinpan came and received instruction directly from Choyu sensei. Uehara sensei, the youngest member of the club, was officially charged with serving tea. As president of the club and the most senior member of the world of Okinawan karate, Choyu sensei gave instruction in everything from karate theory to practical skills. For example, he would instruct Miyagi sensei in kata bunkai and Mabuni sensei in hojō-jutsu, or rope binding.
Because of Choyu sensei’s noble blood, he was not addressed by name. Instead, people like Kyan sensei and Miyagi sensei would address him as “aji ganashi-mē", or "Your Highness, Aji" an honorific from the time of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Because Okinawans maintained a sense of independence into the middle of the Meiji Period, even in
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THE MOTOBU FAMILY AND THE PASSAI KATA
Article by Manuel Vignola
For some time, both in various articles published on the internet but also in books, we read that the kata Passai Gwa (sometimes written Guwa) taught by Zenpo Shimabukuro (1943) of the Seibukan school would be the kata Passai learned by Choki Motobu (1870-1944) during his studies with Kosaku Matsumora (1829-1898); this form, "extremely rare", was transmitted by Motobu only to two of his students, Chozo Nakama (1899-1982), who in turn taught it to Zenpo, to whose family he was very attached, and Katsuya Miyahira (1918- 2010) of the Shidokan school, which handed it down under the name of Koryu Passai.
Nevertheless, however suggestive this attribution may be, this does not correspond to the truth, as directly stated by Zenpo Shimabukuro. Passai Gwa is simply the Okinawan dialect translation of the kata Passai Sho (Sho = Gwa), the creation of which is traditionally attributed to Anko Itosu (1831-1915), and is equivalent to the Bassai Sho kata of Japanese schools such as Shito-ryu, Shudokan and Sh
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