Higa Peechin

Higa Peechin  (1790–1870), often called Machuu Hijaa  is a semi-legendary martial artist in Okinawan history who was a direct influence on the development of karate and kobudo, especially with respect to bōjutsu. Pechin is social class of Ryūkyū Kingdom. A resident of the island of Hama Higa, he was perhaps a student of the Chinese emissaries Zhang Xue Li and later Wanshu, who would have taught him techniques of chu'an fa.

Okinawan history relied mainly on oral tradition prior to the 20th century, so it is difficult to separate fact and fiction (or embellishment). It is said that Matsu Higa had forearms like tree trunks and that he could crush a coconut in his bare hands, though he stood only 5 feet 2 inches (157 cm) tall and weighed about 140 pounds (64 kg). Legends state that Matsu Higa with his bo stood up to the head-hunters of Formosa and to Japanese pirates from the north and never lost a battle.

What is known, however, is that Matsu Higa was the teacher of Takahara Peechin, who in turn taught Sakugawa Kanga. Matsu Higa was one of the first to codify a system of kata and techniques. His contributions live on in several weapons katas, especially for tonfa, sai, and bo.

Kusanku

Kūsankū, also known as Kwang Shang Fu, was a Chinese martial artist who lived during the 18th century. He is credited as having an influence on virtually all karate-derived martial arts.

Kūsankū learned the art of Ch'uan Fa in China from a Shaolin monk. He was thought to have resided (and possibly studied martial arts) in the Fukien province for much of his life. Around 1756, Kūsankū was sent to Okinawa as an ambassador of the Qing Dynasty. He resided in the village of Kanemura, near Naha City. During his stay in Okinawa, Kūsankū instructed Kanga Sakukawa.

Sakugawa trained under Kūsankū for six years. After Kūsankū's death (around 1762), Sakugawa developed and named the Kusanku kata in honor of his teacher.

Anko Asato

Anko Asato was an Okinawan master of karate. He and Ankō Itosu were the two main karate masters who taught Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shōtōkan-ryū karate. Funakoshi appears to be the source of most of the information available on Asato. Many articles contain information about Asato, but the relevant parts are clearly based on Funakoshi's descriptions of him.

Funakoshi first met Asato when he was a schoolmate of Asato's son; he called Asato "one of Okinawa's greatest experts in the art of karate." According to Funakoshi, Asato's family belonged to the Tonochi class (hereditary town and village chiefs), and held authority in the village of Asato, halfway between Shuri and Naha, and he was not only a master of karate, but also skilled at riding horses, Jigen-ryū kendō (swordsmanship), archery, and an exceptional scholar.

In a 1934 article, Funakoshi noted that Asato and Itosu had studied karate together under Sōkon Matsumura. He also related how Asato and Itosu once overcame a group of 20–30 attackers,and how Asato set a trap for troublemakers in his home village. In his 1956 autobiography, Funakoshi recounted several stories about Asato, including: Asato's political astuteness in following the government order to cut off the traditional men's topknot (pp. 13–14); Asato's defeat of Yōrin Kanna, in which the unarmed Asato prevailed despite Kanna being armed with an unblunted blade (pp. 14–15); Asato's demonstration of a single-point punch (ippon-ken; p. 15); and Asato and Itosu's friendly arm-wrestling matches (p. 16).

Shigeru Egami

Shigeru Egami
Born	December 7, 1912 Ōmuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
Died	January 8, 1981 (aged 68) Tokyo, Japan Illness
Style	Shotokan and Shōtōkai Karate
Teacher(s)	Gichin Funakoshi, Gigō Funakoshi, Takeshi Shimoda
Notable students	Mitsusuke Harada, Keinosuke Kinoshita, Tetsuji Murakami

Shigeru Egami was a pioneering Japanese master of Shotokan karate who founded the Shōtōkai style. He was a student of Gichin Funakoshi, who is widely recognized as the founder of modern karate.

Early life

Egami was born on December 7, 1912, in Ōmuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. He was one of Gichin Funakoshi's earliest students. Egami met Funakoshi when he began studying at Waseda University. Egami helped to establish the university's karate club. Before that occasion he had already trained in judo, kendo, and aikido.

Karate career

With Funakoshi, his son Gigō Funakoshi, and Takeshi Shimoda, Egami traveled around Japan staging exhibitions to promote karate as a Japanese martial art. He was elected a Member of the Evaluation Committee by Gichin Funakoshi, the youngest instructor to receive that honor. He taught karate at the Gakushuin, Toho and Chūō Universities. On May 27, 1949, he helped establish the Japan Karate Association under Funakoshi.

After Egami turned 40, his health worsened. After 1956, he underwent two operations, and at one point was in cardiac arrest for just under 10 minutes. Following Funakoshi's death in 1957, Egami began trying to change karate's poor reputation as a 'deadly martial art,' something Funakoshi had tried to do all his life. Egami never compromised on one essential aspect of karate: to avoid all aspects of sport-oriented combat and karate. He considered that competitions modified the training and spirit of karate too much, and he emphasized that this would be perfectly clear once one had the insight that karate is much more than winning combats.

In 1973, Egami visited Los Angeles to teach, and in 1976 he toured Taiwan and five European countries on a similar mission. Egami wrote the book The Way of Karate: Beyond technique (1976). Revised editions were published posthumously as The Heart of Karate-Do in 1986 and 2000.

Later life

In his later years, Egami was troubled by many illnesses. A cerebral embolia saw him go three months without eating solid food, which tested his strength, and he eventually weighed only 37 kg. Egami died at 7:00 PM on January 8, 1981, in Tokyo.

Gigo Funakoshi

Early years

Gigo Funakoshi was born in Okinawa and diagnosed with tuberculosis at the age of seven. He was sickly as a child and began the formal study of karate-do at the age of twelve as a means to improve his health.   In the early years, Gichin Funakoshi often took Gigo with him to his trainings with Anko Azato and Yasutsune Itosu. Gigo moved from Okinawa to Tokyo with his father when he was 17, and later became a radiographer of the Section of Physical and Medical Consultation of the Ministry of Education.

 Career

When his father's Shihan (senior assistant instructor) Takeshi Shimoda died, Gigo assumed his position within the Shotokan organization teaching in various universities. Gichin Funakoshi transformed karate from a purely self-defense fighting technique to a philosophical martial Dō (way of life), or gendai budo, but his son Gigō began to develop a karate technique that definitively separated Japanese karate-do from the local Okinawan arts. Between 1936 and 1945, Gigo gave it a completely different and powerful Japanese flavor based on his study of modern kendo (the way of the japanese sword) under sensei Hakudo Nakayama. Gigo's work on Karate development was primarily assisted by Shigeru Egami and Genshin Hironishi.

Changes in style

Through his teaching position and understanding of Japanese martial arts, Gigō became the technical creator of modern shotokan karate. In 1946 the book Karate Do Nyumon by Gigo and Gichin Funakoshi was released. Gigo had written the technical part, whereas his father Gichin wrote the preamble and historical parts.

While the ancient arts of To-de and shuri-te emphasized the use and development of the upper body, open hand attacks, short distances, joint locks, basic grappling, pressure point striking and use of the front kick and variations of it, Gigō developed long distance striking techniques using the low stances found in kendo kata. Gigo developed higher kicks including mawashi geri (round kick), yoko geri kekomi (thrusting side kick), yoko geri keage (snap side kick), fumikiri (cutting side kick directed to soft targets), ura mawashi geri (quarter rotation front-round kick—though some credit Kase-sensei with the creation of this technique), ura mawashi geri (360 degrees turning round kick) and ushiro geri kekomi (thrusting back kick). Yoshitaka was especially known for his deep stances and kicking techniques, and he introduced fudo dachi (rooted stance/immovable stance), yoko geri (side kick), and mai geri (front kick) forms to the Shotokan style.  All these techniques became part of the already large arsenal brought from the ancient Okinawan styles.

Gigo's kicking techniques were performed with a much higher knee-lift than in previous styles, and the use of the hips was emphasized. Other technical developments included the turning of the torso to a half-facing position (hanmi) when blocking, and thrusting the rear leg and hips when performing the techniques. These adaptations allowed the delivery of a penetrating attack with the whole body through correct body alignment. Gigo also promoted free sparring.

Gigō's kumite (fighting) style was to strike hard and fast, using low stances and long attacks, chained techniques and foot sweeps. Integration of these changes into the Shotokan style immediately separated Shotokan from Okinawan karate. Gigo also emphasized the use of oi tsuki (lunge punch) and gyaku tsuki (reverse lunge punch). The training sessions in his dojo were exhausting, and during these, Gigo expected his students to give twice as much energy as they would put into a real confrontation. He expected this over-training would prepare them for an actual combat situation, should it arise.

Final years

The difficult living conditions of World War II weakened Gigo, but he continued training. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 39 on 24 November 1945, in Tokyo, Japan.