A Tale of Two Motobus

Now, obviously I wouldn’t be practicing karate, or making any of these videos, if I thought that it was completely useless, but I have to admit there’s been a loss of proficiency and technique, especially among dojos whose main focus is WKF style point sparring. The one thing I wish I had clarified in that video was that when I said 95% of karate is useless in combat sports and fighting, I’m referring to the fact that a large number of dojos, especially those that practice some of the more popular styles like Shotokan, Uechi-Ryu, and yes even Goju, have discarded their combat effectiveness as part of the sportisation process.

If your goal is to learn karate for physical education, or for the sport aspect, then there is absolutely no problem with that. My only real problem comes when these dojos promote their style as effective in self-defense without actually being able to back that up in fights with actual contact. But the overrepresentation of sport karate, especially in the styles that have had the most luck in spreading the the US, Britain, Canada, and other ‘Western’ countries, has led to karate’s combat effectiveness being devalued among other martial artists.

And, like a lot of karateka who want to be effective in fighting, that means that I want to find that 5% that teaches effective techniques, and make it more well known, more famous, and more widespread. So back to What Happened to Good Karate, I noticed a few comments and, more importantly, suggested videos where all those extra viewers came from, that talk about people who have found a style that still teaches effective karate! Goju-Ryu, my style, has a few remaining strains of effective practice, but a lot of it has been subsumed by the sportification process, so making it effective requires going back in time and digging up old methodologies like an archaeologist.

But this style, Motobu-ryu, never lost its mojo, and remains one of the most effective styles of karate out there! Or at least, so goes the claim. In fact, it would seem that Motobu-Ryu, and its famous founder Motobu Choki, are somewhat trending in karate YouTube right about now. Jesse Enkamp and karate dojo waKu, both channels that I absolutely admire and love, made videos about him, calling him the “Greatest Karate Fighter”, and most of my views came from a video by kenfuTV, which is about Motobu Choki’s thoughts on karate for self-defense, and seems to have experienced a jump in viewership around the same time.

I may be a bit late in covering Motobu, but I figured that I would look into Motobu-ryu, and see what all the fuss is about. I myself have used him as an example in a few videos, most recently in the pair of videos comparing Judo to karate that should’ve come out right before this one. So let’s take a little bit of a look into the “Greatest Karate Fighter” and his style. Let’s just open up Google, and search “Motobu-ryu”, then skip the Wikipedia page, and this Karate-do Preschool page, which seems interesting but probably isn’t what I’m looking for.

Ah this next search result is Motobu-ryu. org that looks promising, let’s just click on that and… huh. This isn’t Motobu Choki. Did I find the wrong style? No, it looks like this is the Motobu-Ryu everyone is talking about, there’s a picture of him there and everything. So then, who’s this other guy? That was, of course, a dramatic recreation. Even since before everyone started making Motobu Choki videos, I’d heard of his older brother Motobu Choyu, and his martial art of Udundi.

The Motobu family were members of the shizoku aristocracy in the Ryukyu kingdoms, and their family had long passed down a royal style of martial arts, Udundi, literally meaning “the ‘te’ of the palace”. However, this art was only passed down to the eldest son of the Motobu family, which is why his younger brother Choki had to get his education primarily in toudi, the Chinese derived fighting arts more popular with the lower ranked aristocrats and wealthier merchant families, which of course we nowadays know as karate.

The current successor to Motobu Choki is his son, Motobu Chosei and, through a twist of fate, he has also become the inheritor of his uncle’s Udundi. So Motobu-ryu, at least nowadays, doesn’t just refer to Motobu Choki’s no nonsense style, but also to that of Motobu Choyu, both passed down but never mixed together by the same man. And while Choki may have been the “Greatest Karate Fighter”, when he matched his style against his brother’s Udundi, he was thrown around like a ragdoll.

So this is the Tale of Two Motobus, how their two styles managed to make it into that hands of the same person, and which of these pioneers really is the Greatest Karate Fighter ever! Let’s get into it! To explain the history of the Motobu family and their martial arts, first I have to make a brief foray into the aristocracy of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Before being officially annexed into Japan in 1879, the Ryukyu Kingdoms, governed from the largest island Okinawa, had a system of aristocrats that served the governmental and security functions of the kingdom.

Most of these officials were called ‘Yukatchu’ 良人, which literally means “good people”, although other terms like the loan word ‘samuree’ were sometimes used to describe this class. Above these ranks, naturally, were the king, from the Sho dynasty, and royal advisors and councilors, who were above the caste system, and had the ability to raise or lower yukatchu according to the quality of their service, even occasionally elevating commoners into service.

However, above even the councilors, there was a rank reserved for branch families of the Sho Dynasty of Ryukyuan Kings, the families descended from the second or third sons of kings, who served a vital role in the court, known as Aji. And the Motobu family, descended from the tenth king of the Second Sho Dynasty, was one such Aji family. The title “Udun”, referring to the palace where the royal family resided, signified the Motobu family’s blood relation to the King, and several generations of Motobu served important roles in the court at Shuri, with the fourth head of the family being granted the title of Oji or Prince for his service to the court, as was the seventh.

Several members of the family were renowned for their martial arts, and the family style of Udundi was believed to have been passed down since the family split off from the royal line in 1666. However, like the succession of the family and their rank as Aji, this technique was passed primarily from father to eldest son. As a unique style of fighting that included both weapons and weaponless techniques, its secrets were closely guarded, even from other Aji families.

Several members of the Motobu family served as the personal instructors in martial arts to the royal family, joining other giants of karate’s prehistory such as “Toudi” Sakugawa and Matsumura Sokon, the latter of whom was also an instructor to both of the Motobus whose styles have been passed down to us. This access to the most accomplished martial arts in all of Ryukyu, including those that traveled from China, the Satsuma Domain in Japan, and of course those cultivated by ten generations of royalty, explain why the Motobu family, as well as some of its branches, have such a large influence on Okinawan martial arts.

It’s important to note that while udundi was only transmitted to the future heads of the family, many of the other members of the Motobu clan studied other martial arts. The Kyan family, known for Kyan Chotoku and his monumental impact on karate, were originally known as the Motonaga, which had branched off of the Motobu line from its sixth head Motobu Aji Chokyu. After ten generations the Motobu family would welcome three new sons into their lineage: the eldest Choyu born in 1857, and the youngest Choki born in 1870.

Though they would grow up in the same household, and learn from many of the same teachers, these two brothers would take incredibly different paths with their martial arts, one carrying the torch of the family style, the other setting out on his own path and changing the world of karate forever. Both brothers studied with Matsumura Sokon and Matsumora Kosaku, along with their friend Yabu Kentsu. However, because of Choyu’s head start and his training in the family style, Choki, not wanting to be outdone, went and sought out other toudi masters to supplement his training and help to bridge that gap.

This is also when he famously went to the “Red Light District” in Tsuji-Machi, and got involved in kakedameshi, street fights where he would test out his ideas about the fighting principles he and Yabu were learning. Even after the abolition of the Ryukyuan monarchy, for a member of an Aji family to be seen in the Red Light District, where the common trade was prost1tution, was already shocking enough to the social order. And getting into public street fights was an even greater affront.

The only thing that would’ve made the situation worse for Choki would have been if he had lost one of these fights. But as we all know, he never lost a fight. Choyu, on the other hand, held up the expectations of his royal lineage, even after the monarchy no longer existed. Motobu Choyu continued to wear his hair long, in the style of the Ryukyuan aristocracy, and with a gold hairpin signifying his status, throughout his life. He also continued to cultivate himself in the types of literary and artistic pursuits that were the sole domain of the upper classes in the pre-Meiji structure, such as Ryukyuan dance and poetry.

He also continued the traditions of horse riding that was one of the peculiarities of royal armed martial arts, stemming from influence from the Japanese tradition of cavalry serving an important combative role. Motobu Choki eventually moved to Osaka, hoping to make a living in the mainland of Japan. At the same time, however, his brother had begun to take on students, the most notable of which was Uehara Seikichi, a young boy from a more common family whose soy and miso manufacturing business was stable but not prosperous enough to earn him the chance that other Okinawans like Miyagi Chojun would have to receive martial arts education.

However, Choyu began instructing him, and by a relatively young age of around 18, Uehara was already advanced enough to assist in instructing Choyu’s son Chomo. When Choki moved to Osaka, he initially found great trouble with establishing his karate there. Back in Okinawa, however, Choyu was finding great success. Motobu Choyu founded the Okinawa Karate Research Club in around 1923, with Miyagi Chojun and Mabuni Kenwa as the instructors. Many of the famous Karateka passed through this club, including Choki some time later, and this club, known informally as Club Gwaa, represented the first collaboration effort between the various strains of karate that were being practiced during that time.

Motobu Choyu gave direct instruction to almost every one of the students and masters who passed through the club, and is probably the reason why the understanding of kumite, which had not existed in a systematic form outside of udundi, managed to exist at all. However, by this point, he was of advanced age. Choki was at this time trying to gain a foothold in Osaka. This was when he famously encountered an advertisement for a Judo vs. Boxing match being held in Kyoto.

After watching the bout, where he judged the boxer to be rather sluggish, he applied to challenge the boxer the next day, placing a bet on himself. This is all his own recounting of the story, so naturally it should be taken with a grain of salt, but he remembers having entered without gloves, all while being much smaller than his opponent, and was toyed with by the boxer for the first round. However, this was because, he asserts, he was feeling his opponent out for that first round.

During the second round, however, he felt that it would be a dishonor to karate and his family, not to mention Okinawa, and so he struck the boxer with his full power in the temple, knocking him out. This story quickly became famous, and helped immensely to spread karate in mainland Japan, but the newspaper reporting was quite infuriating to Choki for two reasons. The first was that, although he recalls having struck with a closed fist, reporters believed he had struck with an open hand.

And the second was that the newspaper’s illustrators had chosen to draw Funakoshi Gichin, who had been having more success popularizing karate in Japan, as the man who had taken down the foreign boxer. Choki and Funakoshi would quarrel for the rest of their days, with Funakoshi even sneering at Choki for being “illiterate”, a common misconception still held about him to this day. In truth, of course, Choki was simply very proud, and while he could read and write as expected of a member of an Aji family, and his refusal to assimilate into Japanese mainland society was largely in protest over Ryukyu’s annexation.

Soon after this incident, Choki published the first of his books, Compilations of Okinawan Kenpo Karate-Jutsu Kumite. Choyu was getting to be an advanced age when the Karate Research Club began, but he was still lively and active the entire time, taking part in several enbu, performances of his martial arts. However, he refused to perform any of the techniques of Udundi in public, performing only the techniques from karate that were already widely available.

His main student, Uehara Seikichi, was tasked to pass on what he had learned to Choyu’s son, but also frequently took part in these demonstrations with his teacher. In 1928, Choyu was returning from an enbu that he had given alongside Choki when he fell ill, eventually passing away. With Choyu’s passing, the Karate Research Club was disbanded, but the collaboration that he had helped to foster between various styles and practitioners would continue, in a number of different organizations and forms, for many decades afterwards.

Uehara Seikichi, having passed control of Motobu Udundi back to Motobu Chomo, moved to the Philippines, where he started a small dojo and continued to train. Choki, at this point, moved to Tokyo and began teaching karate at Toyo University, and founded his dojo, the Daidokan, at some unknown point before 1930. He published his most famous book “My Karate-Jutsu” in 1932, which as an historical document is an invaluable look at the names and styles of karate with which he had direct contact, providing a look into the forgotten history of karate and memorializing several people whose styles and lives have otherwise gone forgotten in the interim.

He continued to be involved in the development of karate for the next decade and a half, participating in the Karate Master Symposium, conducting research, and training many students, including his son Chosei. Very famously, he was one of the loudest voices criticizing the alteration of kata and the invention of a new form of Japanized kumite that has annoyed karate traditionalists and purists for almost 90 years now. When he was around 72, Choki would return to Okinawa, for what was originally meant to be a brief visit of his home.

However, Okinawa was one of the first targets hit by American retaliation to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and he was unable to return to Osaka due to the war situation. He would live out his final days in Okinawa, passing away before the worst part of the war, on the 15th of April 1944. He is said to have said of the war situation, shortly before his passing, that it was “almost impossible to win”, an assessment as no-nonsense as the man himself. What are the differences between Motobu Choki’s karate and Motobu Choyu’s Udundi? Well, in large part, the differences can be found in the prefixes to the character “te” or “di”.

Karate, of course, is the modern pronunciation for what in the Okinawan language would have been called ‘toudi’, a name composed of the character for the Tang dynasty of China, which represented the concept of China in a broad sense, and the character for hand. This is why Mario McKenna translated the title of Itoman Morinobu’s book as “The Study of China Hand Techniques”. While the extent of the cross pollination between ‘toudi’ and Chinese martial arts is up for debate, and there is certainly a large influence from indigenous Okinawan traditions, the techniques and training methodologies of toudi, and of karate, are largely Chinese.

Udundi, on the other hand, is the “hand techniques of the palace”, a set of techniques and training methods that were indigenous to the royal family of the Ryukyu Kingdoms. It would be reasonable to assume that their methods were in some ways influenced both by the Kingdom’s trade and political relationships with both Japan and China, but the unique blend of methodology seems to have been heavily insulated from outside influence. While the Motobu family did often invite toudi masters to teach them, and doubtless added some of their methodologies to their practice, this separation was strong enough to separate udundi from any of the karate styles we know today.

Motobu Udundi uses a relatively unique style of standing that it calls tachuu-gwaa, a straight legged stance with the heels slightly lifted and the weight on the ball of the foot. Motobu Kenpo, naturally, uses the naihanchi-dachi stance, this stance right here. Both styles use the front and rear hands and feet to strike, something that, according to the current Motobu-Ryu organization, was unique to their styles, pre-war. They both also make use of a kamaekata¸ or way of readying the hands, called me-oto-de¬, which literally means husband and wife hands.

In this kamae, the rear hand is held not in a hiki-te posture, but rather near the elbow of the lead hand, in a position much like old photos of boxers. Both styles also use the idea of defending and attacking simultaneously, only using “blocking” techniques that were meant to either be redirections or grabs, as well as be used for strikes. It’s been said that Motobu Choki only knew one kata, Naihanchi Shodan. This is almost certainly not the case, as he seems to have occasionally even taught Passai and Seisan, and he may have (and given his impressive array of teachers almost certainly did) know many more kata than even these.

However, he did base the entirety of his practice and teaching off of Naihanchi, which he believed to contain all the principles and techniques of his style. Choyu, on the other hand, is reputed to have known over 30 kata, but like his younger brother, his Udundi placed very little focus on fixed forms. Instead, he based his style on Motode, a conditioning exercise resembling Sanchin or Tensho, which, like those kata, was not originally a fixed form. Both styles place a large focus on free sparring, which is known as kumite in Motobu Kempo, and as sotai-dosa in Udundi.

Udundi also contains a number of techniques that are absent not only in Motobu Kenpo, but also in almost every other karate style. One of these techniques is tuiti, a joint-locking and throwing system that is said to be similar to aiki-jujutsu. These techniques are predominantly trained in the form of freeform sparring, and in dances performed only at court. It was also one of the only martial traditions to make extensive use of weapons, a right reserved for the royal family and its cadets, and in addition to the weapons that have been found in karate styles and their related kobudo styles, they were also permitted to train in kenjutsu, sojutsu, kyujutsu, and naginatajutsu, that is to say, swords spears bows and arrows and naginata.

Many of these weapons are treated similarly to how they are treated in Japanese Koryu martial arts, but designs of the weapons are often much more heavily influenced by Chinese designs, and of course, their use is often much different than their equivalents in Japan, owing to a number of reasons. Motobu Kenpo may be significantly different than many other karate styles, both in keeping its focus on sparring and almost entirely eliminating kata as well as its use of me-oto-de, but Motobu Udundi is even more foreign to karate.

Over time, some karate influences have been added, like the creation of training kata called Kasshin-di, but its still completely unlike anything you’ve seen before. But because of that, it almost didn’t survive! Uehara Seikichi, Motobu Choyu’s student, had passed the style back into the Motobu family, but during the war something terrible happened. In 1945, Choyu’s son Chomo, the 13th head of Motobu Udundi, was killed in the chaos of wartime. Uehara was actually drafted as a military auxiliary in the Philippines, where he had been living for more than a decade prior to the war, which would put him in some of the most brutal and humiliating wars fought by the Japanese Army, but his fortune was greater than that of his student, and suddenly, Motobu Udundi was without a successor.

After the war, in 1947, he returned to Okinawa, where he would establish a dojo in Ginowan in 1951. He taught at this dojo for many years, naming his style, as you should be aware by now, Motobu-Ryu, in honor of his teacher. Although he had been gone from Okinawa for more than 20 years, Uehara would eventually attract attention in the martial arts world, and would have a chance to teach and trade tips with karateka and other martial artists, including an infamous seminar with the Hakko-Ryu style of Jujutsu.

I say infamous, of course, because this seminar has caused several people to speculate that the tuiti techniques of Udundi really weren’t part of the original system, but were added from Hakko-Ryu. This is highly unlikely to be the case, but it reflected the karate community’s occasional animus towards Uehara and Udundi, viewing them as “not really karate”, which is technically true. Worrying that the Motobu family’s style would die out with him, Uehara Sensei eventually decided to open Udundi to the public, turning the secret martial art of kings into a public style which anyone could train.

However, he continued to search for a way to return the style to where he believed it rightfully ought to be: the Motobu family. He contributed very heavily to the research of Okinawan culture and traditional court dances, as well as the many organizations that succeeded the Karate Research Club in promoting cross-style communication between Okinawan Martial Artists. But it wasn’t until 1976, when he was 72 years old, that he was able to fulfill his goal, when he performed in Kobe and met his teacher’s nephew, Motobu Chosei.

Chosei, Motobu Choki’s second son and his only son to survive the war, had already inherited his father’s karate style, which he officially calls Nihon Denryu Heiho Motobu Kenpo, but when Uehara informed him of his desire to return Udundi to the Motobu family, he became a new student as well. Luckily, Uehara had many more years in him, continuing to train and perform and research almost until the very end. On the celebration of his 99th birthday, the 17th of August 2003, he officially designated Motobu Chosei as the head of Motobu Udundi.

He passed away in April of 2004, at 100 years old, having fulfilled his life’s dream. So nowadays, Motobu-Ryu, both the karate style and the Udundi, are headed by Motobu Chosei, who carries on the traditions of both, but keeps them separated from each other, preserving the history and uniqueness of each style. Chosei is getting to be nearly 100 himself, having been born in 1925, and his two sons Tomoyuki and Naoki are both accomplished martial artists, no doubt ready and willing to carry on the family legacy for years to come.

But of course, there’s one more thing that I need to mention before I wrap this up. Which is, of course, which of the Motobu brothers was really the Greatest Karate Fighter Ever? Well, obviously, it would be Motobu Choki! Why’s that? Because Choyu’s art was Udundi, not karate of course! In all seriousness, it’s likely that Choyu was the better fighter among the two of them, although we can’t know for certain unless someone builds a time machine. On one hand, Choyu threw his younger brother around whenever they would spar each other.

On the other hand, though, he had a thirteen year age gap on his younger brother, which probably tipped the scales in his favor a little. But if you’re looking for an answer as to which style is better, there’s no reason to compare them, since they’re both taught by the same organization! At this point, I would recommend going and finding a local dojo if you’re interested in the style, but unless you live in Japan, your options are hugely limited. If you’re in North America, like me, your options are both in Canada.

The first link in my sources is the official site of Motobu-Ryu, so go there if you want to see if there’s a sanctioned dojo near you, or learn more. Or, you could always send them an email and see if there’s anyone nearby you can study with. Thanks so much for watching this way too long, and way too overdue, video. I really just wanted to make sure more people paid attention to a really interesting style that almost always gets overlooked, as well as ride the trend a little bit.

If you enjoyed this video, you know what to do. Hit like, and leave a comment letting me know what styles you think don’t get enough coverage. If you enjoyed it enough to want to see more of my stuff, then you can subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so you see when new videos come out. I’ve been the Goju-Ryu Philosopher, but even so, practice Naifanchi. .