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Motobu-ha
Shito - ryu Kunibakai Karate - do
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Choki Motobu (1871-1944)
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Choki
Motobu was born in 1871 in Okinawa. Motobu did learn some
of the techniques of his family are fighting system. He
began to lift heavy rocks and punch the punching post or
Makiwara. After a while, he became so strong and tremendous
leaping ability and general agility. Master Motobu became
the student of Ankoh Itosu. He won most of his fights. The
defeat of a Russian boxer may have made him the most famous.
Kosaku Matsumura of Tomari he learned many Kata. Many senseis
advised their students to go and train with Motobu and learn
his Kumite techniques. He was also asked to teach at several
universities. In 1922, Master Motobu helped Master
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Funakoshi
start the teaching of Karate to the Japanese. In 1936, at the age
of 65, Motobu left Tokyo and went back to Okinawa. Shortly before
World War II, he returned to Okinawa from Tokyo and died in September
of 1944 of a stomach disease at the age of 73.
History of Kosei Kokuba
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The
founder of Seishin Kai, Kosei Kokuba, the youngest son of
a branch of the Okinawan Royal Family, was born in 1901;
in the Kokuba Village is now Naha City, Okinawa. As a young
boy he began training in the art of Karate with Founder
Choki Motobu. In 1924 he left his homeland of Okinawa for
the larger islands of Japan. In 1940 Sensei Kokuba began
formal teaching of the Okinawan Karate-Do of Founder Motobu.
On June 6, 1943, Sensei Kokuba founded the Seishin Kan Dojo.
The Seishin Kan Dojo became a famous meeting place for budo
men in Osaka Karate-Do as it is taught in the world today.
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Sensei Kokuba continued to teach in the style of Sensei Motobu and
when Motobu died in 1947, Sensei Kokuba became the second Soke or
"Family Head" of the Ryu-Kyu Motobu-Ha Karate-Do. He trained
his only son, Kosho, in the true samurai tradition. Sensei Kokuba
continued to train and teach until he became ill in 1956. After
his death in 1959, young Kosho became the third Soke of the Ryu-Kyu
Motobu-Ha Karate-Do.
SHOGO KUNIBA HISTORY
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Kosei
Kokuba was born in Naha City, Okinawa in 1901, the youngest
son of a samurai family. At the age of 14, he began karate
training in the dojo of Motobu Choki. In 1924 he moved to
Tokyo, Japan and in 1940 he settled in Osaka.
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On February 5, 1935, Kuniba's son Kosho was born. The son began
his karate training at the age of five in his father's dojo. At
the age of eight he was sent to study with Sensei Tomoyori Ryusei
of Kenyu Ryu. As a high school student, Kosho was president of his
karate club. At the age of seventeen, he began teaching karate at
Osaka Prefecture University and there is still a branch dojo of
Seishin Kai there today. In 1958 he was promoted to godan in Motobu-Ha
Karate-Do and Rokudan in Kobudo.
After the elder Kuniba's death in October 1959, Shihan Kosho was
elected by the Shihan board of Seishin Kai to the position of Soke
of Motobu-Ha Shito-Ryu Karate-Do. He is the third person to have
held this position. At the age of twenty-four, he became the youngest
karate Soke in Japan and took the karate name of Shogo which means
strong warrior. At the age of thirty-eight in 1973, he was promoted
to hachidan by the Rengo-Kai. At this same time, he gave a formal
name of Goshin-Do to his system of self defense which he developed
from his knowledge of Judo, Jui Jitsu, and Aikido and incorporated
this art into the structure of Seishin Kai. In 1983 he opened a
Hombu Dojo in the USA in Portsmouth, VA. where he lived until his
death in 1992.
Soke Kozo Kuniba
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Soke
Kozo Kuniba taken charge of Kai December, 1999 to continue
to his fathers teaching and the lineage with Motobu-Ha Shito
Ryu. I hope the Soke Kozo Kuniba will lead the Motobu-ha Shito-ryu
Kunibakai. |
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