Hello from Okinawa

Seizan

Orange Belt
Joined
Mar 14, 2007
Messages
68
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23
Location
Nagahama, Yomitan Okinawa
Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve visited the forums, so I thought I’d reintroduce myself. My name is Gordi Breyette, aka Seizan (not “Seisan” – I am not a kata…). The name was given to me by my teacher Toyama Seiko Sensei, and is comprised of kanji from his own name. I am a UechiRyu practitioner and teacher on Okinawa. I began UechiRyu training in 1974; I came to Okinawa with the USAF in 1979 and stayed here for most of the time since, studying and teaching. I retired from the USAF in 1992 and remained to continue my training, and to teach dojo on most of the military installations here on Okinawa.

In 1998 I met my final teacher Toyama Seiko Sensei, the last active student of UechiRyu Founder, Uechi Kanbun Sensei. My wife and I became his students, and we built our home and dojo in 2000 in Nagahama Yomitan (west central Okinawa) on a hill overlooking the East China Sea. I closed the smaller branches to focus on retraining to an older form of UechiRyu, and since then teaching only the Nagahama Dojo and a few small branches off Okinawa.

Though Toyama Sensei passed away in 2009, he left a legacy and a wealth of guidance and training assignments that seem endless. Sometimes it feels like he is still with us – directing, refining, and encouraging us to go on. We are quite happily carrying on with our training and will continue for many years to come.

The Okinawa KarateDo UechiRyu Zankyokai preserves Uechi Kanbun Sensei’s original performance style and philosophies of karate.

More material and contact information can be found on the website at

www.uechi-ryu.ws

It is shortly to be updated but not significantly (just page-tweaking); most of the information will remain the same.

Though I may not post regularly, I will be happy to answer questions about UechiRyu if I can.

Thanks and good training to all,

Seizan
 
Welcome back to the pages after your time away, Seizan.
 
I studied Uechi for a couple of years in New England. i couldn't continue after my move but I liked it a lot. Well-thought-out material.
 
Hello again,

Thanks for the welcome back. Are there any other UechiRyu folks out there…?

As mentioned, I probably won’t post often as I don’t really spend much time on forums. However, I will peek into the Karate section of “Japanese Martial Arts Talk” a bit more often than in the past few years. Rather than debate, I prefer to provide information (if asked, and if I can) and let readers decide if it’s useful and believable, or not.

Otherwise, I can be contacted privately and more easily anytime; my contact info is on my website.

Looking forward to some interesting reading, and possibly adding to the information pool…

Good training to all,

Seizan
 
Welcome back. Look forward to seeing your posts in the future.
 
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