Kanei Uechi


Kanei Uechi was the son of Kanbun Uechi, founder of Uechi-Ryū, one of the primary karate styles of Okinawa. Kanei was instrumental in the growth of Uechi-Ryū after his father's death.

Early life

For the early years of Kanei's life his father refused to speak of his martial arts training. However, his father had once again begun teaching Pangainoon and at the age of 16, and in ill-health, Kanei traveled to the Wakayama Prefecture and began training with his father.

Additions to Uechi-Ryū

Kanei understood early that students of the modern age would have trouble understanding the formal Pangainoon and its three kata. From 1931 through the rest of his life Kanei labored to develop new methods and forms to help students understand Uechi-Ryū. From this work came the addition of the warm-up and stretching exercises junbi undō, the standardized exercises that incorporate elements of all of the kata of the system as well as additional techniques, two prearranged "yakusoku kumite " exercises, and three new "bridging" kata between Sanchin and Seisan and two between Seisan and San Sei Rui:

Kata

  1. Kanshiwa: A combination of the first kanji in Kanbun's name, and the last two kanji written in Chinese order of his teacher Zhou Zihe's name in Japanese pronunciation: "Shu Shiwa." Originally known as "Kanshabu" based on earlier mistranslation of his name into Japanese as "Shu Shabu."
  2. Kanshu: A combination of the first kanji in Kanbun's name, and the kanji for Shu Shiwa's family name. Originally known as and sometimes still called Daini Seisan or "23rd."
  3. Seichin: Literally translated: "10 fights/conflicts," or a combination of the names of two of the original kata: Seisan and Sanchin.
  4. Seirui : Literally translated: "16."
  5. Kanchin: A combination of Kanbun's first kanji 完 and "fight" 戦.

    Family

Kanei Uechi is the son of Kanbun Uechi. He was the oldest son of four children. He had a brother, Kansei, and two sisters, Tsuru and Kamai. Kanei had a son, Kanmei Uechi who was the head of the Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do Association until he died in 2015.