Sensei Kenwa Mabuni was born in Shuri City, Okinawa, on November 14, 1889. The origin of the Mabuni family comes from the name lord of the ancient Ryukyu Kingodom in Okinawa. There was a warlord called “0ni- Ohgushiku” in the old times. Sensei Kenwa Mabuni is one of his descendants, presumably the 17th generation grandson of this name warlord. Kenwa was a weak boy in his early childhood. Strangely he started feeling that he should be much stronger with sound and muscled body. Then he was allowed to enter the school of training when he was around 13 years old. He became one of the students of Master Anko Itosu who was living and teaching the martial art in Shuri City, Okinawa.
Graduating from his junior high school and the school of fisheries, he started teaching as an assistant teacher at Naha Elementary School for a while. He got acquainted with Sensei Chojun Miyagi, master of martial art and this acquaintance led him to Master Kanryo Higaonna who was versed in “Naha-Te” (Naha Karate).
After finishing his military service in 1914, he was recruited by the Naha Police Department and worked at the detective section for about 10 years. He had many opportunities of visiting local areas on job. It is how he met with the opportunities of learning Karate of “Arakaki” style, “boh-jutsu” (art of fighting with a cudgel), and “sai-jutsu” (art of fighting with metal truncheons) of “Tawata” style. They are parts of the old martial arts in Okinawa.
In May 1918, Kenwa Mabuni founded his “Karate Learning Group” and many trained practitioners of Karate gathered under him. In April 1921 he had the honor of demonstrating his art of Karate to the members for the Imperial Family of Japan when Princes (Kuni-nomiya and Kacho-no-miya) visited Okinawa. In 1924, he was asked to work as the teacher of Karate at Prefectural School of Fisheries and the training school for policemen. In the same year, he had another honor of demonstrating his art of Karate for the members of the Imperial Family of Japan when Princes (Chichibu-no-miya and Takamatsu-no-miya) visited Okinawa.
In April 1925, he established his Dojo at his house and founded the “Karate Learning Club”. Many leaders of Karate were there. You can name Chojun Miyagi, Juhatsu Kyoda, Choyu Motobu, Chomo Hanashiro, Chosho Ohgusuku, Choshin Chibana, and Go Kenki (Wu Xian Gui). In October 1926, Kenwa Mabuni had an extraordinary opportunity of meeting with Jigoro Kano, founder of modern Judo when he visited Okinawa. This founder of “Kodokan” Judo came and visited Okinawa for official speeches and for establishing the organization of Danholders of Judo in Okinawa. Sensei Mabuni and Sensei iyagi had the luxury of demonstrating and explaining about their art of Karate to this founder of Judo.
In 1929, Kenwa Mabuni moved to Osaka in the mainland Japan and he tried to popularize Karate (or Karatedo) among many universities in the western district of Japan. In 1931, he had the opportunity of demonstrating the art of Karate in the precinct of Sumiyoshi Shrine. In 1934, he established the “Yoshukan Karate Dojo”.
By then, many people knew and accepted the depth and the breadth of the knowledge and skills of Kenwa Mabuni. He was amazingly enthusiastic about accepting good elements of skills and techniques of Karate and studying the whole of its art by taking every new finding as part of good nourishment of his Karate style. In 1939, the “Shitoryu Karatedo” was founded. Kenwa Mabuni combined the features of Shuri Karate of Master Itosu and Naha Karate of Master Higaon-na. The name “Shito-ryu” (now Shitoryu) was formed from the first hieroglyphs of these Masters names (“ito” is “shi” and “higashi” is “to” in old Chinese hieroglyphs). In the same year, Kenwa Mabuni was awarded the honor of “Renshi” (the highest rank) of Karatedo from Dai Nippon Butoku- Kai.
Founder Kenwa Mabuni inherited the spirit of the Itosu style of Karate as its mainstream and tried to develop and popularize his “Shitoryu Karatedo” throughout his life.
He left his “tanka” (traditional Japanese poem) facing his death. It goes as follows:
“I have forgotten everything. It has been so pleasant to row a boat straight all along heading for the island of martial art”
He passed away at his own house on May 23, 1952 at the age of 62. His posthumous Buddhist name is “Yoshuin-Ken-Oh-Dogi-Kyoshi”.
