Uechi-Ryu Karate - SanSeiRyu Bunkai Demonstration

[Brian R. VanCise]

Here is a video that a friend of mine had on their site and I thought I would pass it along:

 

[K-man]

Just to put the bunkai into context, here is the complete Uechi Ryu Ryu kata Sanseru.

It is a lot different from some other forms of Sanseru such as what you see in Goju, so people familiar with their kata might not see the significance of this Bunkai.

Edit ... Sorry it didn't appear earlier.

 

[Danny T]

Here is a video that a friend of mine had on their site and I thought I would pass it along:

nice, even noted a bit of grappling hand fighting and grabbing, ankle picking, and off-balancing throws in there. Interesting indeed.

 

[Hanzou]

I find their sparring very interesting;

Lots of open handed technique, allowing grabs and palm striking.

Is that due to Uechi Ryu's CMA heritage?

 

[clfsean]

Uechi Ryu is awesome.

From my CMA eyes, it's Fujianese something (White Crane, Tiger, etc... something short hand) that moved to Okinawa pretty unchanged.

 

[K-man]

Of all the CMA that was taken to Okinawa, Uechi Ryu would probably have maintained more of its heritage than those that blended the Kung Fu with the local grappling. Even so it has a lot in common wth Okinawan Goju.

 

[Probs92]

I find their sparring very interesting;

Lots of open handed technique, allowing grabs and palm striking.

Is that due to Uechi Ryu's CMA heritage?

I think it is definitely interesting. We used to practice free-style sparring at my Goju dojo, but we always used kicks and would not move in that close (which is not that common for Goju karateka). The fact of the matter was that many of us trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and if we got too close we knew the less advanced BJJ student would invariable taste the hardwood flooring haha.

 

[hussaf]

My goju school did a few Uechi kata and some of their basic movement sets - even some of their body hardening drills

 

[hoshin1600]

Uechi Ryu is awesome.

From my CMA eyes, it's Fujianese something (White Crane, Tiger, etc... something short hand) that moved to Okinawa pretty unchanged.

Yes, you have good eyes. Kanbun Uechi studied in Fukian province. it is very interesting from a historical perspective because his time there as a student and later as a teacher (he was the only non Chinese teaching at the time that we know of) was during the boxer rebellion. you can see the emphasis on body hardening. also the teaching he received and passed on was not flowery and very direct in contrast to the way many CMA systems have evolved. When on a trip to China to find the roots of Uechi ryu, George mattson who brought the style to America was told by the Chinese practitioners there, that it was "like a time capsule". the original Chinese name for the style was Pangainoon which is a Hakka language term.

As to the similarity to Goju ryu, i would have to agree. Morio Higaonna (no relation) said that the sanchin kata that Kanryu Higaonna had learnt in China from RuRyuko was open handed with quick fast strikes with breaths to match and there were turns in the kata, later Miyagi Chojun closed the fists and took out the turns and also changed the breathing and the amount of dynamic tension. this certainly sound like the version of sanchin that Uechi also studied. if you have good eyes to see, you can make a comparison on Seisan kata as well and i would conclude that at one time in the distant past they were the same.

As for the video clips Shinyu Gushi was a great practitioner and of great historical value. he has past on and i am saddened that i will not be able to work with him again. the bunkai shown is more of a standard for organizational testing and demonstrations rather than a strict single interpretation of the kata.

 

[qianfeng]

Uechi Ryu is awesome.

From my CMA eyes, it's Fujianese something (White Crane, Tiger, etc... something short hand) that moved to Okinawa pretty unchanged.

Yes, you have good eyes. Kanbun Uechi studied in Fukian province. it is very interesting from a historical perspective because his time there as a student and later as a teacher (he was the only non Chinese teaching at the time that we know of) was during the boxer rebellion. you can see the emphasis on body hardening. also the teaching he received and passed on was not flowery and very direct in contrast to the way many CMA systems have evolved. When on a trip to China to find the roots of Uechi ryu, George mattson who brought the style to America was told by the Chinese practitioners there, that it was "like a time capsule". the original Chinese name for the style was Pangainoon which is a Hakka language term.

As to the similarity to Goju ryu, i would have to agree. Morio Higaonna (no relation) said that the sanchin kata that Kanryu Higaonna had learnt in China from RuRyuko was open handed with quick fast strikes with breaths to match and there were turns in the kata, later Miyagi Chojun closed the fists and took out the turns and also changed the breathing and the amount of dynamic tension. this certainly sound like the version of sanchin that Uechi also studied. if you have good eyes to see, you can make a comparison on Seisan kata as well and i would conclude that at one time in the distant past they were the same.

As for the video clips Shinyu Gushi was a great practitioner and of great historical value. he has past on and i am saddened that i will not be able to work with him again. the bunkai shown is more of a standard for organizational testing and demonstrations rather than a strict single interpretation of the kata.

I dont know why they people always say uechi ryu is based of something called pangainoon (half soft hard) as this style doesnt exist. The man Kanbun Uechi studied under was a master of a style called 虎尊拳 reverent tiger fist. This is fairly common knowledge in China i dont know why it's not known any where else.

 

[TimoS]

I dont know why they people always say uechi ryu is based of something called pangainoon (half soft hard) as this style doesnt exist. The man Kanbun Uechi studied under was a master of a style called 虎尊拳 reverent tiger fist. This is fairly common knowledge in China i dont know why it's not known any where else.

The way I remember things is that nobody knows who Kanbun Uechi's teacher really was. I think there's been lots of speculation, but nothing definite.

 

[hoshin1600]

Would you care to share your knowledge and explain how you know the origins of uechi-ryu. From what I was told by some one fluid in Chinese and a high ranked practioner in the style, pangainoon does not mean half hard half soft. It is a Hakka language term meaning "get in and out quick and hit hard".
However this was only the term that Kanbun Uechi used for what he taught. It may not be the name of the style he studied and as someone on this sight posted a very good article on Chinese systems, many smaller local styles did not have names. Which may explain why both Uechi-ryu and Goju-ryu have had style name issues. Kanbun Uechi taught in China to Chinese. He taught using the Chinese language. We have to assume he would know what the name of his own style was if it had one.
We do in fact know who his teacher was , the problem has been that he was not a famous teacher so a prior history is hard to find facts on.
did he study a tiger fist form, yes uechi-ryu practitioners would agree on that. BUT there are also crane and dragon movements. If one looks at older crane styles uechi has far more in common and looks more related to those systems then a tiger system. But there are tiger movements. This is what causes the historical confusion. I would suggest that Kanbun had studied a mutiple system from his teacher, this could also explain why he used the term Pangainoon rather than a common name like whooping crane or white crane.

 

[hoshin1600]

If Kanbun Uechi did study and teach "reverent tiger fist" then our forms would be the same. Can you post some video footage of the Chinese version of the forms? I ,along with many others would be quite interested in this.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Would you care to share your knowledge and explain how you know the origins of uechi-ryu. From what I was told by some one fluid in Chinese and a high ranked practioner in the style, pangainoon does not mean half hard half soft. It is a Hakka language term meaning "get in and out quick and hit hard".

I don't know either Chinese or Uechi Ryu, but I suspect that Chinese is like Korean, in that many many things do not translate well. For example, some TKD schools use the rank of chodanbo as a transitional rank between the geup and Dan ranks. The literal translation of chodanbo is "half a black belt", but the concept is one of 'black belt candidate'. There are many other similar examples. The same thing may be happening here, with different occidental people arriving at different translations.

 

[qianfeng]

Pangai-Noon Pangai-noon - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
These sites translate it as 半硬軟 which means half hard half soft. I'm fluent in Chinese too just to let u know...
上地完文 Kanbun Uechi studied under Shu Shiwa/周子和 (this is either Fujin dialect or okinawan because it doesn't match the characters should be Zhou Zi He). ZHou was a master of Tiger fist of Fu Jian which is reverent tiger fist.

http:// baike.baidu.com/view/224107.htm Zhou Zi He, get rid of space between / and b

HUZUN QUAN Information on Hu Zun Quan

Uechi-ry - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Kanshiwa (完子和）This Uechi Ryu form is said to be named after Uechi Kanbun's master and the last words do match. 完子和 周子和. Kanshu (完周) So does this where the first character of his named is shown. 完周 周子和。



http:// v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUxMzUwMjk2.html Get rid of the space between / and v
The video title says master Hu demonstrates Fu Zhou (where Zhou Zi He lived) Tiger Fist


These two vids are the same style but from areas different to where Zhou Zi he lived

 

[qianfeng]

The video title says master Hu demonstrates Fu Zhou (where Zhou Zi He lived) Tiger Fist

 

[qianfeng]

What the heck i can't post links from youku

 

[qianfeng]

Apparently i cant post Chinese link

 

[hoshin1600]

this video is labeled as whooping crane but also as "tiger crane" and in the video it says white crane..so i am not sure of the style but it is the same form that you posted.

however whether they be tiger or crane they are not the same form as the uechi form

they are similar, but being similar is not being the same. ALL styles that come out of that area and time look the same. they all have the same basic components and feel.

i would not take my information from WIKI pedia.. but yes Shu shi wa is not Chinese but rather Okinawan.

Uechi-ry - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Kanshiwa (完子和）This Uechi Ryu form is said to be named after Uechi Kanbun's master and the last words do match. 完子和 周子和. Kanshu (完周) So does this where the first character of his named is shown. 完周 周子和。

i am not really sure what you are trying to point out. yes those forms where named using a combination of both Kanbun and Shu shi wa's names. it is common knowledge.

Kanbun Uechi taught in China. If his style was "reverent tiger fist" he would have called it by that name but he didn't, he called it Pangai noon. if he had learned reverent tiger fist the system he taught and that we practice today would have the same ...the exact same... forms and the rest of the entire curriculum. Kanbun only knew 3 forms Sanchin, Seisan, and sanseiryu. two of these forms are the same as other styles of Okinawan karate, Goju-ryu and Ryuei-ryu.

Both Goju ryu and Ryuei-ru founders learnt in China from a man they call Ru Ru Ko. again these styles have strong ties to a crane system just like Uechi ryu.

when looking at and trying to uncover martial art history it is not uncommon for one style to put "claims" on other styles. an unknown or new style might claim to be related to a better known famous style and an older style may make claims that a newer style that has more popularity is a branch of their system. Talk is cheep as they say. the proof is in the forms and the style curriculum. similar is not being the same. Uechi may have been influenced by Tiger fist but his forms and curriculum are not the same ,therefore it would be an inaccurate statement to say they are the same style. this history only happened 100 years ago. it is not that long ago. Kanbun Uechi's students in Okinawa and from China have tried to preserve the system they were taught without deviation. i could name maybe 100 Fuzhou styles that all look similar. Untill we find a Chinese style with the exact forms that are practiced in Uechi ryu all claims of relationship are nothing but conjecture.

 

[TimoS]

Getting a bit off-topic, but I am a bit curious about why Kanbun Uechi learnt only three kata. Not say that there isn't probably plenty to learn even in those, but it just seems curious.